Liam Smith using Phil Foden’s speed coach so he’s sharp vs Chris Eubank Jr
A boxer doing running training conjures up images of Rocky plodding along the roads.
While any talk of a fighter running in the ring brings up claims he’s cowering away on the back foot. But Liam Smith is working with a coach who is using running to make him faster, stronger and sharper for his clash with Chris Eubank Jr this weekend at Manchester Arena.
That man is Tony Clarke, who is also responsible for speeding up Manchester City ace Phil Foden and also coaches Everton defender Conor Coady among others. He’s worked with Olympic athletes and even snooker star and keen runner Ronnie O’Sullivan.
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But working with 34-year-old Smith has also developed his own coaching and opened his eyes to how boxers can benefit from the drills he uses with track athletes, football stars and more. “Boxers don’t just go out now and run for miles in big bags,” said Clarke, whose business is called Needforspeed100.
“There is a place for steady paced running and it is in the boxer’s plan but now it is more fartlek running.” Fartlek running is simply put as a sprint followed by a recovery jog and repeat over and over.
A sample session for Smith with Clarke is 10x3min rounds of constant running on a 400m track which include sprinting on the straights and jogging the bends. So how does that help a fighter in the ring?
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“His workrate in the ring is higher because he has more intensity because he is running fast and slow. He’s used to his heart rate going really high and then dropping from the track, which is mirrored in the ring.”
Clarke has been working alongside Smith’s boxing trainers Joe McNally and Declan O’Rourke. The team also includes strength and condition coach Johnny Reynolds. But it is the footwork drills and plyometrics which Clarke does with Smith which may have brought the most benefit and help inject new life into the former WBO light-middleweight champion.
It was actually keen amateur footballer Smith who came up with the idea of how using ladder drills. "Plyometrics for boxers is very important, it’s about developing the power from their foot strength and then through to their calves and straight the way up,” explained the Liverpool Harriers coach.
“If I can develop that spring better through plyometrics then it is going to be better for the boxer. The quick feet drills, footballers do shuffles and ladder drills and that is good for lateral moving and it’s about footwork. It’s footwork for boxers but more advanced.
“It was actually Liam who said the ladder drills could help his boxing and I was like, ‘Yeah?’ and it went from there.” The fruits of their labour can be seen in Smith’s performance last year against American Jessie Vargas in New York, when he stopped the former world champion in the 10th round.
“Joe Mac asked me to get his feet faster for that fight and if you read all the reports about it, everyone was writing about his feet,” said Clarke. The running coach’s business is now booming. He’s a long-time servant of Liverpool Harriers running club.
But it was working with Foden which brought about the idea to start a business and Clarke set up an Instagram account during the Covid lockdowns called @needforspeed100. The reaction was instant and his client list began to boom and it is now filled with talented athletes across various sports. He added: “This was just an idea from lockdown and here we are!”
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