ROACH AND MACMILLAN: PACQUIAO IS FASTER AND MORE EXPLOSIVE
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 17 Nov 2013
GENERAL SANTOS CITY ? Expect a new, more explosive, stronger and faster Manny Pacquiao when he fights Brandon ?Bam Bam? Rios this coming Sunday (Saturday in the US) at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Resort Hotel In Macau.
This, chief trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Gavin
MacMillan projected on the eve of Team Pacquiao's departure to Macau.
?I?ve never seen Manny as happy while in training as in this camp,? Roach said. ?He is happy because Gavin has put basketball as part and parcel of Manny?s training regimen. Unlike before when he was not allowed to do things related to the sport he loves second only to boxing.?
?I?d say Gavin has transformed Manny to something he had never been before with his new approach Manny himself didn?t expect,? Roach said.
?Seeing Manny responds to the tough training regimen we prepared I can say that he?s really improved on what Manny already possessed but looked to have lost in several of his previous fights.?
?Actually, my methods weren?t really new,? MacMillan, for his part, said. ?It?s just that, I would say, Manny was surprised doing things I told him to do, which, he likes to do but was not allowed to.?
?Everybody knows Manny loves basketball, a sport I believe is second to his heart,? MacMillan explained. ?The first thing I did was let him do exercises used in preparing for a game of basketball.?
?Playing competitive basketball while in training for non-basketball sport is, indeed, bad. Trainers hate that,? Macmillan stressed. ?But playing to train as in boxing is not. We encourage that because basketball is a form of plyometrics.?
?I make him, for instance run in sprint, jump highest he can, dribble and shoot, which, naturally he loves doing,? he told this writer with a wide grin. ?And since he loves doing those stuff, he enjoys doing it and the next he knew, he was running faster, jumping higher, dribbling well and shooting well.?
?Did you know that in the two weeks or so that we?ve been working
together, he?s already made 300 jumps?? he disclosed. ?And he did that without feeling tired without feeling pain in his body.?
Reason why, according to the sports science expert, when his student gets into the gym, it follows that he also does well in, for example, doing the mitts, punching the bags, the balls and everything.
?Training a boxer, you see, doesn?t need making him run long distance and upside down. Yeah, I make boxers run on the hills for high altitude training, but in short distance, Not very long because what we are preparing for is a boxing fight not marathon.?
?In boxing, you don?t run like you?re racing in a marathon. So boxers don?t need to run long as a means of using it in a stamina building up program,? MacMillan said. ?In this sport, everything is short and fast. You improve on dynamics, explosiveness.?
?That is why fans will be seeing Manny as explosive and as exciting in this, his coming fight,? MacMillan quipped. ?he will be displaying a stramina that wouldn?t quit.?
He added though that, he does not intervene in Pacquiao?s food intake.
?He doesn?t need to lose weight in the first place. Manny loves Filipino foods. Somebody cooks for him,? he said. ?I just told him to refrain from food supplement. They?re not good for his body.?
Roach said the 10-week camp at the Pacman Wild Card Gym might not be the best in his and Pacquiao?s 12-year partnership, but added, this could be the happiest. "Because Manny is happy doing everything we want him to do, especially that stuff in basketball. Boxing is his life, yes. But basketball is his second life.?
Pacquiao and his party are set to fly to Macau at 3 p.m. Monday on board a 180-seat Philippine Airline chartered flight.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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