Adam Haniver:

What have you found a way to use sparring, not only to develop multiple tactical skills, replicate the pressures you may find in competition, but also use anywhere in a training cycle? Would you use this training tool? Today, I'm gonna talk about Shark Tank sparring and the pros and cons that it brings. My name is Adam Haniver, and this is The Box Gathering Podcast.


So what is Shark Tank sparring? So to give you a bit of a picture, boxer's in the middle, and they're all suited and booted ready to spar. And they may have, for example, two, three, maybe even more, but I like to use three different opponents in the ring. So those opponents are all in different corners kind of ready to go. And depending on the the length of the round, so let's say it's a three minute round, one boxer will come for a minute and then come out, and then another one for a minute, another for a minute. But that same boxer stays in the middle. So they're doing a three minute round. It may be a two minute round. So if it's a two minute round, then each boxer comes at you for forty seconds. So that's 40,80 and then two minutes, and, of course, any other denominations that you wanna do. So shark tanking is something that, is becoming quite a lot more common. I think the name shark tank almost sounds like it's kind of, set up to putting real pressure on a boxer. It may be, it may be quite dangerous. It may be that it's kind of like, what is it? The Floyd Mayweather Gym do. They're kind of, I can't remember what they call it, the dog something, when they're just staying in there until kinda last man drops. For me, it's not that at all. And I just wanna briefly talk about, some of the science behind shark tanking today, some of the learning science that's gonna go, into that. 

Okay. So we've got a guy in the middle, and it depends. So we could do this kind of covertly. So it might be that we don't know who the three people are. Nine times out of 10, we probably are because they're gonna be in our gym. But sometimes I've had boxers come over to our gym, and we've done shark tanking, and you don't know what style how that boxer boxes, so it's kinda covert. You don't really know what to expect. But then I think a lot of the times you do know. So you've got three boxers that they've all sparred with before, and they go into the corners. But, ultimately, what we're trying to do with Shark Tanking is we're trying to get our boxer to adapt to different styles, different capabilities of different boxers all the time. Because, ultimately, if you're an amateur boxer, most of the time when you get in the ring, you're not gonna really know much about your opponent. You know, you don't know Southpaw. You don't know Orthodox. You don't know how they box. So in some ways, actually preparing for that, the eventuality that you don't have much certainty, can be a very, very, positive way of going about your training. So let's just have a look a little bit more around the science. 

Okay. So there's something called interleaving. So with interleaving, what we do is we have, similar problems. So if you imagine a session, it could be that we do session on sort of trunk defences and something on foot defences, but there's always a theme kind of running out, between it. So rather than going, we're gonna block our session today just on slipping. And then next week, we're gonna do a block on foot defend a certain foot defence. That's block practice. If we do something called random practice, that's a little bit more different problems coming in all the time. Okay? You're kinda blending all these different problems. Interleaving is very similar to random practice, but it's a bit more like having sort of similar problems in a different way. And I kinda see shark tanking as more of an interleaving approach to learning. So every time someone new comes in, you've got a different problem to deal with for the boxer has to adapt accordingly. And I think because you're having lots of different repetitions of having to adapt to what you do, then the basic the science shows that every time that we are trying to adapt, then we have a certain element of memory recall. So we're thinking, okay. Boxer one is coming in, so I have to box this way. Boxer two is coming in, so now I have to adapt and box a different way. And every time we do that, we are recalling information, we're recalling strategy, and into some ways, that kind of fires and wires the brain together. OK? That's a very simplistic way of looking it. But, essentially, what we're looking to do is we're applying tactics and reshaping and reviewing tactics that we've used before. So we're kind of bringing that information back to the fore. So, therefore, it's kind of a a way of reinforcing learning that we're doing because we're getting repetitions of a different problem. 

Okay? And as we mentioned in The Box gGathering, pad work course recently, we talked a lot about repetition without repetition. So, actually, repeating different ways to solve a problem. So, ultimately, the same problems there. You're trying to hit and not get hit, but that problem is getting posed to you in different ways when boxer one comes in, but two comes in, and boxer three comes in. So we're trying to solve different problems in different ways because there's a lot more, variability. Right? So variability basically meaning, there's different information in that spar that you have to deal with, Southport, Orthodox styles, the different tempos that might they might box at, the different ranges they might they might box at. So the cadence is very, very different, and a boxer has to tune into those things. So the pros of that are over a long period of time, we do get a lot more sort of contextualised learning. We can start really tuning into all these different cues and information that the these different opponents are constantly presenting to us, and we adapt to those. The con to that initially is that early learning from that part is actually very slow. Then you're gonna have a lot more problems. You might have less success in terms of your offence and probably less success in terms of your defence as well. Excuse for the American terms there. Offence and defence. So there's gonna be different problems that are gonna be posed with there, and we have a little bit less success earlier on. In the long run, though, because everything is contextualised and we are kind of bringing back these memory recall, if you wanna call it that, I know it's not an ecological terms, a bit more of an information process and approach. But, essentially, we are still bringing information back to the fore that we are trying to refine and apply within that spar. Okay. So there is a lot less success very early on. But in the long term, if we take this approach, then we can get a lot more success, especially if it's we don't really know who we're training for. Now, of course, if we are boxing a certain person, so your coach says, right, you're boxing a southpaw, and they're tall, and they're on the back foot. Okay. Then actually blocking that practice where you only have tall southpaws who box on the back foot coming in to spar you, then that makes utter sense because the information, all that kind of action fidelity stuff that you're gonna see is gonna be replicated. It's gonna be there in the competition. So that makes absolute sense for us to have that. And, of course, a lot of top amateur coaches will do that when they know who they're boxing in certain competitions, like, you know, senior elite competitions or, you know, schoolboy finals and all this. When you kinda know who you're boxing, it makes sense to replicate that. It goes without saying. The same with professional boxers. So professional boxers will you know, they'll fly in top professional boxers will fly in certain sparring partners who box in a similar way. That makes absolute sense. 

But if we wanna develop in a long term, then actually having lots of different problems thrown at us and how we react to those problems becomes really important. So the repetition about repetition approach becomes much more important to us. How do I solve the problem in different ways and develop a larger skill set rather than just being good at one thing? Because we all know that certain boxers are very good against certain people, but they're not so good against other people. And certain and they say stars make fights, and I think that's true because certain people only beat certain people. But the person you just lost to, they might, go and lose to someone else that you beat comfortably. So it's a bit of a strange one. So I think, actually, training with a shark tank actually helps develop, over the longer term, a deeper skill set. So when can we use this? I think you can actually use shark tank in at any point. So you can prep for a tournament because in the tournament, again, you don't know who you're gonna, who you're gonna draw. So it could be, you know, like a box cup type thing at Haringey. You don't know who's gonna be drawn in there, and you could box anyone. So these kind of things, gives you that opportunity to be exposed against dealing with the unexpected, not knowing who's gonna step in. Okay? So that helps as well. There's also the element of replicating chaos and all the kind of variability that you're gonna see. So having lots of variability as we're supposed to as we're getting close to competition is really important too. But if we bring it further away from competition, let's say a training cycle, you know, you don't know when you're gonna box or at the start of the training cycle, it's also a great thing to start there as well. Because, again, you're you've got a lot of different variability. We're, we've got plenty of time to kind of, learn new skills, learn new tactics, sharpen those skills, and apply it in context. So I think that's quite an important thing that we're to look at as well. So the when, I think, can be done kind of any time of a training cycle. If we know who we're boxing against, as I mentioned, then we actually get the specific person and make it a little bit more relevant. But we're trying to get those memory recall reps in all the time. Right? So how do I deal with this? So I think that's sort of an important part that we have to do there. Okay. The other thing that we get as well is the more we start doing this, the more the boxer has the opportunity afforded to them to actually start planning. So they know, okay. So you're gonna do a shark tank tonight, and you're gonna be shark tanking against these same three boys or girls or whoever it might be, then you have that element of, okay, planning. What do I need to do? So against boxer one, I'm gonna be more successful if I box like this. And it can be quite open ended how you box. It doesn't have to be too specific, but we have an idea what we should be doing. Against boxer b, it's different. And against boxer c, it's very different as well. So we're getting that element, and we're getting that habit of planning what our tactics are gonna be like. What are, shall we say, techniques that we may use, but definitely what kind of skills that we need to use and adapt those skills adapt those techniques to become skills. So that becomes really important. But, also, I think what it also does is it gives us more opportunity, repetitions to reflect as well, because we know that we might do that, we might do that Shark Tank again next week or the end of this week. So I think it gives us an opportunity in terms of reflection to say, right. What did work tactically? How might I amend that? So now we've got high rich level of learning going on. We've got the planning part, we've got the do part, and we've got the reflection part, which then should always inform how we then spar against these people next time. So, essentially, we've got this ongoing learning cycle of plan, do, review, which can be kind of monitored by, one, the boxer, but, two, the coach to see that, these tactics that they've decided on and reflected upon can be used, and that is a better way of monitoring a level of learning as we move on as opposed to just throw them and see how they do. So we can kind of monitor that progression. And that's a great way of motivating the boxer, knowing that they have got that high level of competency because they're thinking about how they, what tactics to use and then employing those. Now it might not be brilliant next week. In fact, it might look worse. But I think kinda having belief in that process that we not stick to the tactics, but always have an a tactic which is flexible in mind and adjust accordingly within that. Now, also, with those reflections, you've got three boxers who have just sparred that one boxer. So why not, at the end, get a bit of a point of view, instant hot review from those boxers and say, right. As soon that spar's over, this is what I saw against you. I kept doing this against you, and you kept doing this. So we're constantly getting that feedback from the other boxers as to what they saw and why you were successful or unsuccessful, and then those reflections can be added into the plan for the next session as well. So I think that's something really, really positive, and it really does create a good culture of learning where all the boxers are sharing how to improve because they know that the other boxer then might be in the Shark Tank either in that session, or they'll have more of a focus on them in the next week. So we have that constant reflection that going on there with a mixture of hot and cold reviews. 

Cons really to this, you do need reps of this. Just throwing them in the Shark Tank, they might not have high levels of success initially, as I mentioned. So they do need this kind of repetition to this exposure to this problem often for this to have any kind of long term learning impact. So that initial improvement doesn't really arrive rise that quickly because in some ways, anytime you you do, like, a kind of random practice or interleave practice, it doesn't have a very fast initial impact. So I think we need to make sure that we are getting these reps in. So if we want something a little bit faster, then we can block practice it. You know, the same person, the same problem again and again, and that probably is something quite better in some respects nearer to competition. I did mention earlier that I think you can use shark tanking at any point. The only reason why I say you could use shark tanking towards the end of a training cycle is just to replicate the kind of pressures that you might get from competition. So more from a psychological standpoint as opposed to a skill acquisition standpoint towards the end. I think the initial confidence is learning may seem a little bit lower. So there's something like that to keep in mind. You if you're going, right, I'm gonna sell this as this is a great way for us to learn, but the boxers aren't being successful. It's important that you have a conversation with the boxers as to why you're doing shark tanking, so why this kind of in the lead approach works in the longer term for more deeper contextualised learning and the recall of these strategies all the time. So they understand that. They realise that at the start, this, you know, this is gonna be difficult, and there's gonna be a lot of frustration. But then reminding them that frustration is a is a symptom of learning and that it will it will happen later on, and you will get better if you persist with this type of approach. What else have we got? So reps for the other two or three boxers become less. So if you're not careful, it might be that for that this session, you're spending half an hour in that ring with you doing the these rounds, but the other boxers one, two, and three who are on the outside aren't getting that many repetitions in. So it's just something to be considered. They might feel like they are being sort of playing patsy really to the other person, and they're not the, the main person. So there's the kind of how many reps are they getting in is important as well. So you've gotta have a look at that. So another way to alleviate that could be as the boxer does their three sets of forty seconds or the three sets of one minute, then the other boxer then goes in and then they do theirs, and then the other boxer goes in and they do theirs. So there's a you kind of kind of equal that exposure to the amount of repetitions, that they're gonna get as well. So shark tanking, like I say, I think can be a very, very positive thing in done if done with learning in mind as opposed to this is just gonna make you tougher, make you tougher, more resilient, all that kind of thing. I think it does have that as a byproduct, but maybe not going into the shark tanking with that in mind as I need to toughen these buggers up. So I'm just gonna throw them literally throw them in the deep end with the sharks. It's about repetition of adaptation, of learning how to change their strategies, learning how to identify what they need to do whilst being under pressure in the moment. And that's boxing, isn't it? We need to be able to adapt that. So we're teaching adaptability whilst under pressure. And like any good coach, you can ramp up that pressure or bring it down to meet the challenge point of that individual. And I think that's something that a good coach can always do. 

Hey, guys. It's Adam. Just a little intermission here just to say thank you to all of the members that have sent me feedback around the coaches course and all the areas that have had impact already. I know a lot of people are starting to use some of the challenges and lessons in their pad work already, and I've had several people actually talk to me about certain penny dropping moments when I thought, you know what? That does make sense. I'm gonna give that a try, especially around the constraints based approach in the gamification area. Also, I had some good conversations with people around the whole one two three part about, static to punch and move, to punch on the move, and how that's kind of, made them have that. And maybe that might be an issue that I have, and maybe I need to try that. So, again, thanks to all the, the members. If if you're not a member yet and you wanna jump on board, it's www.theboxgathering.com to become a member and to access all four of our courses, all of our downloads, all of our instructional videos, all of our club communication information that you can send out to parents, you can send out to your boxers, and to other coaches as well to help develop and grow and and share as a community. And also remember, you can be part of our WhatsApp group community where we share ideas, thoughts, and challenge each other to be that bit better. Okay, guys. Back to the poddy.

So it doesn't have to be fully chaotic as well. We can you can really plan and and do a little bit of collaboration with the boxer in terms of, right, rather than just being this chaotic one, two, and three comes at me, and I've got to adapt, make sure you adapt. What we can do is actually plan, and bring down that level of chaos and variability by saying, right. Let's make sure boxer one is posing this type of problem, boxer two, a different type of problem, and three, a different problem, as opposed to just hoping they are they pose different problems. So this could be something we will go. So what do we struggle with a little bit? Well, I struggle with this type of boxer and this one and this one. Okay. So let's get them to play that role so we can be a little bit more structured in this approach. So that way, we can plan for that. So we have a little bit more element of control and confidence over the situation and probably a lot more likely to have a more buy in from the boxer who is, the focus point. So I think that's a that's a really great way to do it as well. So less of a covert, more of a structured approach, kinda knowing a bit more about what's coming. So you are developing that that confidence while still having a various level of variability and challenge posed to you. Less kind of, uncertainty. So, again, it's about meeting that challenge point of the boxer. We talk about that in The Box Gathering pad work course, talking about how we use challenge point theory to raise the pressure or the challenge point to each individual boxer, how you bring up variability, and you you play with something called representativeness, which is what are the problems that are gonna be posed in competition and how you bring that up and down. So we talk about that in the pad work course as well. So there's two different ways to that for me. A covert one, a more of a a planned one where we're actually catering for the individual needs of the boxer. You're bringing down that challenge a little bit more, but you have to meet the needs of that individual boxer. 

So Shark Tank can be chaotic, or it can be a lot more structured depending on who's in front of you. And, again, I think a good coach will plan that and make sure that there's a level of challenge in there without going over the top. And so you're hitting that challenge point for the boxer. There we have it. Shark tanks. Love to hear your thoughts on it. I love to hear what you already do and how you adapt shark tanking for the individuals. You know, what do you do? Do you change up who's boxing how? Are there time differences? Do you do you manipulate the, the time in terms of the rest period? Things like that. Love to hear how you guys do shark tanking and your general thoughts about how successful it's been in your gyms. Okay, guys. Thanks very much, and, look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. Cheers now. Bye bye.