THE TRANSFERENCE EFFECT OF SHORT-TERM OPTIMUM POWER LOAD TRAINING ON THE PUNCHING IMPACT OF ELITE BOXERS

This study examined the changes in bench press (BP), jump squat (JS), and half-squat (HS) power outputs induced by a short-term (one-week) training scheme based on the optimum power load (OPL) applied to National boxing athletes; and measured the transference effect coefficient (TEC) of these exercises on punching impact force. Eight elite boxing athletes from the Brazilian National team participated in this study. Athletes were tested pre and post three power-oriented training sessions performed at OPL. The physical assessments comprised punching impact measures (jab and cross techniques), at fixed and self-selected distances, and bar-power output in BP, HS, and JS exercises. Magnitude based differences were calculated to compare pre- and post-training sessions. TEC was calculated as the ratio between the result gain in the “untrained exercises” (punching impact in jabs and crosses) and “trained exercises” (HS, JS, and BP), for those variables presenting an effect size (ES) of at least 0.2. The OPL training elicited meaningful increases in the punching impact forces (~8%) and in both JS and HS power outputs (~12% and ~14%, respectively), but not in BP power output. There was an effective transference (TEC = ~0.80) of JS and HS power performance gains to punching impact force, suggesting that increases in lower limb power can be directly transferred to punching impact. These results provide strength and conditioning coaches with valuable information about how to rapidly and effectively increase the punching impact force of elite amateur boxers.