IT depends on the type of pads you want to do. You’ve obviously got conditioning pads which is not so much about fault correction, it’s just basically workrate. You can do technical pads where you don’t really go to times. At GB we tend to a 15 minute session, it’s on the pads but you incorporate, possibly, the left hook to the head or a shot that you feel that boxer needs to work on, you’ll work on it in the mirror, shadow and on the pad.
There’s technical pads, conditioning pads, intermittent pads where you really are getting them going. You can use any type of pads with any type of boxer. It’s the nearest they come to competition, as such, apart from sparring. It’s a moving target, it’s under your control, you can work them hard or whatever you want to do with them. It’s better than hitting a bag. A bag is good for graft. Fault correction is good for pads because you can talk to them and work them through it. And they like doing it as well. Most boxers like doing pads.
Coming away from these tournaments, it’s interesting to look at other coaches and how they do the pads. Because everyone does it their own different way, a Cuban, a Russian and even amongst themselves different countries, different coaches do different pads.
The beauty of pads is you can do anything on them. You can teach the basics but you can also teach the elite top performers on the pads. That’s the one to one time that they enjoy as well.
