Swimming Training

Necessity

Boxing is a tough and gruelling sport, so naturally, the boxers who are in the best possible shape, will always most likely be the victorious ones come the end of a match. For this reason, it’s important to diversify your training regime in order to get ahead of your opponents and one way you can do this is by adding swimming to your training regime.

Adopted by Champions

High-profile boxing champions, such as the Klitschko brothers, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Anthony Joshua and Ken Buchanan (the list goes on) all added swimming to their training camps. It’s so useful in improving your fitness in a variety of ways. In fact, Juan Diaz, the fighter who fought Juan Manuel Marquez, reportedly never liked to run and just swam instead. If you’ve ever seen Juan Diaz fight then you’ll know that endurance-wise, he’s one of the fittest and most active fighters in the boxing ring.

Benefits

There’s so many benefits to aiding swimming to your boxing training. Swimming works a variety of muscles, burns calories and it is all in an intense manner. It’s a fully body workout, that improves the capacity of your lungs and heart. Research suggests that among all the sports, the top 3 most intense activities (in terms of the muscles being worked) are boxing, swimming and gymnastics, so one would be wise to utilise and take advantage of the benefits that swimming can bring.

Variety

Swimming can be perfect as it targets a variety of physical aims, making it a perfect alternative to running and other forms of cardio. For example, you can work aerobically by swimming long distances at a time. You can also work in an anaerobic manner, by sprint-swimming, meaning you will be interval training, which replicates the explosive nature of boxing.

Varying the strokes you do can target different muscles specifically all over the body, and at the same time still improve your lung capacity and cardiovascular fitness. Being more specific, let’s take a look at what you should do, in order to utilise swimming into your boxing training:

Diversifying Routines

On different days, you should mix it up and do different strokes, lengths and speeds. I would recommend going about 2 or 3 times a week if you can. One approach you could take, is for the first fifteen minutes work on interval/ sprint training. Sprint swim one or two lengths, or for 30secs to1 min, at a fast speed, then have a minute or two rest. How you initially start will depend on your personal endurance but the aim will be to build up to the point where you can swim quickly for at least two or three minutes at a time, with little rests in between, to make it as specific as possible to the rounds that you will be fighting in the ring. Then for the last fifteen minutes, slow down the pace and try to swim for around 3 minutes at a time,  gradually building up to 5 to 6 minutes.

Target

            The aim will be to build up to the point where you can swim for around 5 minutes without needing much rest at a time. Another approach would be to swim for about 4 minutes at a time at a slow speed. Then swim for two minutes, but quickening the pace a little. Then swim for about 45 seconds as fast as you can, and take about a minute or two break. Then you’re going to do the same thing, but in the reverse order. Swim fast for one 45 seconds again, then swim for two minutes, then after for four minutes.

Varying your stroke technique will have some influence on your own individual approach to what works best for you. One thing you may find, is that swimming with your head above the water can work your shoulders more, as they have to work harder, which may be one variation you can add to your regime.

Swimming underwater has a different impact than having your head above water

Low Resistance

Boxing training, including sparring, hitting the heavy bag, skipping, and running, can get you in terrific shape when you train hard, but the downside is it’s wear and tear on the body. Roadwork in particular can take its toll on your knees and this is certainly something you have to be aware of.

A trainer from the Wild Card gym once told me, whilst he was fighter he used to run eight miles a day and occasionally fifteen! However, he recommended against doing this because in the long term the knee injuries you suffer are terrible. Swimming can be a great alternative to roadwork, especially if you’re body is sore but you still want to go training. It’s low impact on the body, but it’s still incredibly tough as an exercise.

Mental Training

The swimming pool is also as great place for you to practice your mental training. Champions are the athletes in their sport that are able to remain cool in situations of high pressure, as a cool head is the type of mind that’s going to be effective in navigating you out of trouble. Being submersed in water can have an alarming effect on your body, because humans are not made to be in the water. This means that your mind is naturally going to react in a worrying manner when you’re in water, as opposed to the usual and normal settings of the road or the gym, making it the perfect time to practice developing a mind that remains calm under stress.

Mental Techniques

Relaxation: Make it harder for yourself, swim without goggles and have your head above the water as your neck downwards is below water level. This makes it mentally more alarming to your mind and so is more productive to the purpose we’re trying to achieve. Practice  relaxing your muscles no matter how tough or gruelling it feels while swimming, and keep a neutral poker face. Usually, you’ll notice how your facial expression matches one that is deep in struggle and you must refrain from doing this. If you can remain relaxed in water, it’ll make it much more easier to do so in the ring and also in training.

Breathing: When swimming, the window of opportunity you have to breathe is very short, and this actually makes it the perfect place to practice focused breathing, because if you can maintain a stable breathing pattern while swimming, you can certainly do so in the ring. Focused breathing is important if you plan to remain relaxed, keep tension at bay, and maximise the amount of oxygen that can get to your muscles and brain. This is essential to maintaining optimal performance in the ring so you have to practice this as much as you can. No matter how physically stressed you may get while you swim,  practice maintaining a regular/ stable breaking pattern, rather than a irregular, rushed one which is bad for oxygen intake.

Positive visualisation: It also is a perfect opportunity to practice visualisation because the swimming pool is a foreign environment, making you much more vulnerable to negative thought patterns. Along with the gruelling physical nature of swimming, the development of negative thoughts developing is possible, when you are in the deep part of the water and you have no choice but to make it to the edge, otherwise you’d risk drowning. When you feel yourself struggling, visualise yourself swimming with great form and comfortably making it to the end. This will aid your relaxed state and also help your focused breathing. Show your mind what you want it to achieve, and it’ll be much easier to succeed. Doing this, you’ll instantly notice a physical difference as a result of less tension in the muscles and an increased and steady oxygen flow pattern. So swimming not only is good for your body, it’s also good for your mind!

Final Note – Are They Doing It?

Always have in mind, a champion is always looking for more ways to get ahead of the game. Critics may argue that boxing training should be sports specific, which is certainly true. But what would be even better, is to be the guy who has done boxing training AND swimming (or other forms of training) as opposed to the guy who’s just done boxing- specific training. As long as the non-specific training does not get in the way of the sports-specific training, then great improvements to your endurance levels will be seen. It may seem like effort, but this only means that the other fighters are most likely not doing it, and this will give you the mental edge you need to be a champion.