Boxing Clever to Avoid Injury

by James Skitt - 24.01.12

As the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games get ever closer the importance of remaining injury free has never been more vital to athletes for whom years of preparation can be disrupted or wasted by an untimely injury or illness.

Whilst completely eradicating the chances of this happening are virtually impossible, the work done behind the scenes by practitioners at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) is helping to minimise the risk across a number of Olympic sports.

Speaking to The Times earlier this month, EIS Physiotherapist Ian Gatt, who has worked with the GB Boxing squad since 2009, explained how a simple approach led to a 15 per cent reduction in significant injuries – none of which occurred during training – in the six months to June last year.

“When I started with the team, there was a higher rate of ankle injuries than I would have expected” he said.

“One of the first things the coaches and I looked at was to make sure that the boxers were wearing proper boxing boots in the gym and running shoes for running as some were wearing the same footwear for both.”

As well as introducing circuit training specifically for hands and elbows, the biggest reduction in injuries was achieved through developing a new method of bandaging boxers hands.

Competition rules limit the amount of bandaging allowed and ban the use of tape, but in the squads training environment Gatt has introduced a new technique that includes wrapping foam around the knuckles and using tape to support the wrist and thumb, whilst insisting that athlete wear minimum 14oz gloves for gym work and sparring.

“A lot of boxers have smaller gloves for pads and bags because they like to feel that they’re hitting hard” he says. “But I consider them mittens rather than gloves. It’s an important year. The coaches now refuse them the pads and bags if they don’t have the proper gloves.”

The full article is available on The Time website (subscription required)

Find out more about how the EIS is aiding injury and illness prevention.