by Damien Trainor
I’ve often heard a phrase “The idea of fighting is to hit and not be hit back” now sometimes people can take this too literally by concentrating too much on not being caught at all during training, which isn’t a bad thing but you shouldn’t only work on evasion. Reason being at some stage you will get tagged and it’s going to come as a huge shock when it happens.
I’ve seen people go down off shots not because they were hit on the button, but because they weren’t used to being hit, the initial shock is what put them down. Usually you can tell from their eyes if they have been truly hurt.
Now I’m not saying you have to learn to take punishment Bovy style as not many people can do that and I certainly don’t enjoy being hit. Ronnie Green said to me many years ago “You must train on how you react when you get hit.”
I’ve seen people go down off shots not because they were hit on the button, but because they weren’t used to being hit, the initial shock is what put them down. Usually you can tell from their eyes if they have been truly hurt.
Now I’m not saying you have to learn to take punishment Bovy style as not many people can do that and I certainly don’t enjoy being hit. Ronnie Green said to me many years ago “You must train on how you react when you get hit.”