The weekend of 30&31 August 2014 saw another series of training sessions held in our Scottish High Performance Centre – Yet again these were extremely well subscribed and a summary can be found below:
Saturday 30 August 2014
First up was a grading session. After a running a series of open invitational sessions for both Male and Female groups, this was a natural progression in which each boxer was graded within their respective weight category. The main aim of the grading session was to select boxers at the appropriate level to go forward to the Boxing Scotland High Performance Programme assessments, scheduled to take place over consecutive weekend’s mid-September.
With the female grading session taking place in the morning, followed by the male group in the afternoon, all boxers were briefed on the concept and aim of the session upon arrival, before being split down into their respective weight categories.
The boxers were then continuously assessed over 3 separate stations, with each station running for 15 minutes with a 5 minute recovery turnaround between stations as the groups rotated in a round robin format.
Each boxer was graded using the following 4 specific criteria:
1) Individual Technical Skill (including footwork, punch/defence repertoire, mechanics of punching etc);
2) Tactical awareness (opponent specific, ringcraft, positive defence, phasing of attacks etc);
3) Receptiveness to instruction;
4) Personal qualities (effort, concentration, discipline etc).
The above criteria were tested over the 3 stations, which incorporated several aspects including technical / tactical partner work, themed equipment and various groundwork drills (technical / tactical shadow etc).
The session finale was the base endurance burpee test – all boxers continuously carrying out burpees on command of the whistle blast. The best effort test ended for each individual when they either retired themselves, or a coach signalled their finish due to incorrect form or missing the whistle blast. All boxers were then instructed to remain in the order they finished, thus providing a base endurance indicator to complete the grading session.
Details of the upcoming Performance Programme assessments will be published in due course. All those boxers nominated for assessments will be listed, along with assessment date / times etc.
The second session held saw ten of our Junior boxers attend a session with specific focus on preparation for the forthcoming European Junior Championships scheduled to take place in early November in Anapa, Russia.
The main theme of the session was technical and tactical sparring as our boxers were made to adapt against different styles (of other European countries) and opponents. 10 Boxers attended this session.
Sunday 31 August 2014
The Sunday session saw a mixture of selected Schoolboy/Girl and Juniors continuing their preparation for the up and coming duel matches they will compete in, the first of which is against Wales in October. A total of 28 boxers attended this session.
Once again, all our coaches would like to thank all boxers in attendance for their efforts and conduct during the grading, European Junior preparation and School/Junior invitational sessions
