As the National boxing camp resumed on Monday, following the coronavirus-induced break, high performance director Santiago Nieva said the boxers must adapt to the ‘little new ways’ of training.
Altogether 11 elite boxers, including six women, took part in two training sessions at NIS Patiala on the opening day. Amit Panghal, Gaurav Solanki, Mohammed Hussamuddin among men and Simranjit Kaur and Pooja Rani among the women were some of the prominent boxers who attended the camp. Three more are expected to complete their quarantine and join the training on Tuesday.
“We are planning to take 10 more boxers in August and another 10 in September to make the camp complete,” Nieva told The Hindu.
“I found the boxers to be in good spirits even after three weeks of quarantine. It has been a long time that most of them have been without proper conditioning. Now there is no need to look back.”
Nieva said the intensity of training would increase gradually. “This week it will not be too hard. We will increase the load little by little.”
According to Nieva, the boxers needed to get used to the new normal. “We have to adapt like anybody else. Right now, there cannot be much sparring anyway. We have to see when we are allowed to spar.
“Since we cannot do any contact work, we have to adapt to the little new ways of work like doing school boxing (the basics) and more bag work.”
In the one-year run-up to the Olympics, Nieva said some variations would be there in the training. “This is the first preparatory phase. We have to build up the boxers physically before concentrating on boxing.
“Preparation for the Olympics is a four-year cycle and you do different things in different years. So, in order to accommodate the fifth year we have to try out some new things, some variations, so that it does not become boring. But the core of the work will remain the same,” said Nieva.
