Sports science to develop boxing for Olympics

Boxers shown the ropes by sports scientists.

Willie Gonsalves, Randgate Boxing Club's head coach speaking to a representative of the High Performance Centre about the development of boxing for the coming Olympic Games.

The West Rand is slowly but surely becoming the home of world-class boxing again.

The High Performance Centre (HPC), the Gauteng Provincial Government and the University of Johannesburg recently established a West Rand Boxing Academy. The Randgate Boxing Club (RBC) will be its home.

The first step in getting the academy to run as a well-oiled machine was to test West Rand boxers to see what their weaknesses are, so that they can be worked on.

The potential academy boxers, aged between 12 and 18, were vigorously tested on 14 August, and were given their results on 24 August, at the RBC.

Before the HPC officials gave the results, they walked boxers, coaches and parents through how to read the results, what they mean and how to fix problem areas.

The results came with comments on boxer’s physical and physiological health as well as a training programme.

The HPC officials stated that the testing and training programmes will not immediately improve the candidates’ boxing. Instead, they will be part of the structure being put in place to prepare boxers for the 2020 Japan Olympics and the 2022 Durban Commonwealth Games. They explained that their interest is not in the short-term, but rather in the long run.

The programme tested boxers’ upper and lower body strength and power; their ability to take in oxygen to use as energy; the body’s capacity to run its systems without using oxygen (anaerobic capacity); their body fat percentage and their agility.

It was found that exercise recovery is poor for all five the clubs tested; anaerobic capacity was below par across the board; upper-body endurance needs attention, and leg power is lacking in most clubs.

These apparently dismal results are, however, not the end of the road for boxers – things can only improve from now on, the HPC explained.

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