PhD, Lead Researcher A.O. Akopyan¹
General Secretary of the Russian Boxing Federation U.N. Kremlev
Researcher L.A. Kulagina¹
Honored Master of Sports of Russia O.V. Domulajanova¹
¹Federal Science Center for Physical Culture and Sport, Moscow

Keywords: boxing, training, functionality training reserve, body conditioning, special physical training, specialized training, precompetitive training tools.

Training system design (‘planning’) and management (‘correction’) in any sport discipline is always based on the theoretical and practical athletic fitness control toolkits [1, 4]. The functional fitness tests and analyses in the modern elite boxing sport include the functionality training reserve tests that provide a basis for the timely functional fitness variability control (A.O. Akopyan, 2010). The functional fitness tests include the heart rate and blood pressure tests prior to and after standard workloads, with the test data processed by an application software to produce the functional tension, functional level and functionality training reserve test rates. The functionality test rates variation analyses versus the progress benchmarks make it possible to effectively control and manage the individual functionality as required by the training/ competitive progress needs.

The functionality training reserve variability tests and analyses under the study covered a 40-day centralized training service (2-stage) period for the boxing elite: see Table 1. It should be noted that training system was dominated by 3 trainings per day (31 days out of 40) with 109 trainings in total – that means that the physiological cost of the training workload in the centralized training period was high enough.

Table 1. Staged centralized training system

The body conditioning and special physical training tools dominated training program was designed to build the functional and physical fitness [3, 2], with the partial body conditioning / special physical training volumes estimated at 62.8% of the total training time. Note that the precompetitive training tools accounted for only 2.1% of the total training time: see Table 2.

Table 2. Classified training toolkit of the centralized training period

A special role in the body conditioning and special physical training toolkit was played by training/ rehabilitation running/ jogging practices. It was due to the efficient rehabilitation jogging practices that the precompetitive training tools amounted to only 2.1% of total training time. Given on Figure 1 is the analysis of the training toolkit used by the elite team in trainings for the first-stage Olympic qualifiers in England.

Figure 1. Pre-qualifier training toolkit analysis:

Walking Jogging Games Light warm-up Core warm-up Special physical training Stretching Sparring Stuffed ball practices Shadow boxing School Specialized training simulators Pad boxing plus apparatuses

Individual adaptations to the training workloads were rated mostly by the functionality training reserve variation rates. The boxers were tested prior to every training micro-cycle and after active rehab days to efficiently manage the individual centralized training programs. Given on Figure 2 are the average functionality training reserve rates of the elite boxing team prior to and after the basic training stage.

Figure 2. Average team functionality training reserve rates prior to and after the basic training stage (pre-first-stage and post-second-stage tests) 

The functionality training reserve progress analysis gives a physical fitness growth of 69.8% for the team on the whole. It should be emphasized that the high progress may be indicative of the drawbacks of the traditional home (decentralized) training systems – as apparently verified by the individual functionality training reserve progress (pre- versus post-centralized training) test rates: see Figure 3.

Figure 3. Individual functionality training reserve progress (pre- versus post-centralized training) charts of the elite boxers

High progress in the functional training reserve building domain may be interpreted as indicative, on the one hand, of the high efficiency of the centralized training service and, on the other hand, of the drawbacks of the home decentralized training systems that pay little if any attention to the functional trainings. This was the prime reason for the centralized training system designers to prioritize the body conditioning / special physical training at reasonable sacrifice for the technical-tactical and precompetitive training tools. The specialized training plus precompetitive training time was found to account for 37.2% of the total training time. Such training system design may be detrimental to the progress – in contrast to the centralized training service with the large number of highly skilled sparring partners to facilitate fast progresses in the technical and tactical skills.

References

1. Akopyan A.O. Rapid assessment of functional fitness reserve level in martial arts. Vestnik sportivnoy nauki. 2008. No. 4. pp. 4-6.
2. Akopyan A.O., Kartashova A.V., Pankov V.A. Training session design in centralized training environment. Vestnik sportivnoy nauki. 2016. No. 3. pp. 7-9.
3. Iordanskaya F.A., Yudintseva M.S. Health monitoring and functional fitness of elite athletes in educational process and competitive activity. M.: Sovetskiy sport publ.. 2006. 183 p.
4. Shamardin A.A., Solopov I.N. Functional aspects of athletic training. Fundamentalnye issledovaniya.2003. No. 10-13. pp. 2996-3000.

Corresponding author: асор1@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to develop a training program aimed to increase the levels of functional and physical fitness of top-class boxers.
Methods and structure of the study. The athletes' functional fitness level was rated by testing the functional reserve of training aimed to determine the level of functional fitness of top-class athletes engaged in combat sports. The testing was carried out at the beginning of each centralized training microcycle and enabled to assess the functional status of the boxers and correct their training process in a timely manner if necessary. A total of 20 athletes preparing for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in England were examined. They were subject to more than 80 tests designed to assess the athletes' level of adaptation to training loads.

Results and conclusions. The minimum rates of the functional reserve of training at the beginning of the training process (FRT≤20.0±8.2 c.u.) were obtained in the athletes of 4 weight categories. The training programs were adjusted for these athletes, namely, the training load intensity was reduced in the 1st training cycle. The number of overall conditioning tools was increased to 48.8% using running exercises that had a rehabilitative training effect. The training intensity was controlled by changing the strength of the blows when working with the training apparatus and sparring partners. The total number of special and competitive training tools amounted to 37.2% of the total amount of training work.

Such a distribution of the training tools enabled to increase the boxers' functional fitness level to 69.8%, on average.