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An Old School & Scientific Case Against Shadowboxing, Part 1 by Mark Hatmaker

 


Anti-shadowboxing?

C’mon, Mark, shadowboxing is a hallowed part of old school training, you can’t be serious?”

I hear ya, but…allow me to double-down: Shadowboxing and all other non-contact work that is meant to simulate fighting [kata/hyung/forms etc.] fit into this category-warning as well.

I know, sounds blasphemous, so let’s jump in and build the case against and you can do your own evidentiary evaluation afterwards.

I will say, the deeper the archology took me, I gave up this protocol that has been a staple of my own training for literal decades.

First a Little History

Little mention is made of shadow work being a large part of a boxer’s stable-work prior the turn of the last century. Oh, there are mentions of it, and more than a few “made a flash of the hands” to impress “coves at ringside” but being a cornerstone of the training, little ado is made.

I’m with you, little mention in the record does not a convincing case make.

Stick with me…

Why the Possible Rise of Shadowboxing from the 1900s Forward?

Likely two possible answers here…

One-The Rise of the Open Gym

As boxing gained in popularity and become more than a fringe “scrum” of the “scurvy element of society” with the occasional dabbling by “gentlemen in exclusive clubs” that catered to the deep-pocketed, we see the advent of open gyms that could accommodate a larger cadre of fighters and wannabe fighters.

In the less well-equipped gyms frequented by the “unwashed masses” with no gentleman patrons to keep all spick and span and wonderfully geared, gyms became a bit of an assembly line.

With only so many bags to go around, only so many pad-feeders, only so many sparring partners or available room for sparring, a “Hey you, kid, go throw hands in the corner for a while till sumpin’ opens up” starts to become more common.

It is akin to the “You guys warm up and I’ll be with you in a few” offered by many a personal trainer who is really slacking clients on their billable hour

Prior to the turn of the last century, hitting and making contact with something was considered the touchstone of training—as one would wisely imagine.

Gentlemen Jim Corbett made more than a few remarks on this difference himself, recognizing that his own “power” was indeed different from the old-timers that had “something of the mighty oak” in what they swung.

Two-The Press Photographer

As photographic technology improved, and it became increasingly easy to allow for photographs to be printed in newspapers, publishers and readers became hungrier for visual content.

Early cameras were not the easily wielded “shoot infinity” images and cull to the best of 3,300 we have today. Shots had to be lucky, posed, or somewhat staged to get something that “goes over” with the public eye.

A press-photographer had no problem asking, “Hey, Duke, step out from behind that bag where I can see you, now throw some punches. Perfect!”

The photos of the air-fighter are then seen by many an aspiring pugilist and they assume, “Well, that’s part of it! I can punch the air, too!” and they go to work self-training and perpetuating what just may have been a “make-work” task for busy gyms, harried trainers and/or fake fodder for hungry media.

OK, Mark, neat speculation, but I’m still not convinced it’s a practice that needs to be dropped from the roster. I think you are making a bit much of some historical scraps.”

Good on you!

What is presented thus far is insufficient, woefully insufficient, but I purposefully weighted the least of the arguments to the fore.



Let’s proceed to Argument #2: Self-Injury

Recall that prior to the 1900s most strikers prepared for striking by actually striking something. [Many an early old-school trainer preserved this spirit through the early 40’s.]

Striking allows for full 100% skill-development with Positive Transfers for maximum training effect.

Shadowboxing, no matter how speedy cannot build the power component.

Yes, it can educate speed, but so does striking a bag, pad, partner and these impacts allow the co-education of skilling power and speed.

Shadowboxing only strives for the speed aspect.

Speed is good but speed and power is better, so, if we only have 45-minutes to train should we opt for a training mode that drills one aspect or both?

But, you may say, “Mark, I have unlimited time to train [lucky you] and I shadowbox and hit pads to maximize my development.”

That argument sure sounds good. With unlimited time at your disposal, why not throw all the chips in the pot?

For shadowboxing to be effective in the parameters we desire [speed] we have to throw with maximum intent and that maximum intent may have a price to be paid.

Punching full bore without contact means the deceleration and stabilizing forces of the negative aspect of the punch [any air-strike at all, we merely address punching here] must be handled by the rotator cuff.

For many long-term hard-chargers in boxing shoulder pain often manifests. It often is a low-grade pain that one does not pinpoint root causes.

Physiologists aware of the forces on the rotator cuff suspected tears. Upon examination, the suspicions proved negative but

The deceleration and stabilizing put overload stresses on the infraspinatus and teres major, these stresses wound up being the sources of the pain.

The athletes were instructed to drop shadowboxing from the regimen and these non-rotator tear injuries simply go away.

So, thus far we see a possible historical quirk as to why shadowboxing found a place for itself in the modern boxing training menu.

We also see that this no-impact practice can wind up having a negative impact on our progress if we are playing with the intent necessary for realistic combat training.

Is that all there is to the negative case?

Before I answer that, some will reason, “Well, I can still use shadowboxing at a lower intensity to groove proper form and this lower intensity will bypass injury.”

I repeat: Is that all there is to the negative case?

No, it is not all there is to the case and the offered solution of lower intensity and “grooving form” just might be the worst form of shadowing.

The in the-weeds-science on this was hinted at with two words already mentioned.

In Part Two, we’ll wade into those weeds and before we’re done, I wager more than a few of you will choose wiser practices with faster results.

[Part Two, will be available in two weeks but only to newsletter subscribers.

No worries—It’s free. Subscribe to hear the closing arguments and render your own verdict.]

Want more deep-in-the-weeds training hacks see our Unleaded Old School Conditioning Series.[Our Unleaded Conditioning Programs are chockful of such under-utilized in-the-old-school-weeds hacks.]

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