As he revs up for the fight of his life on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao has decided to try on plyometrics, an avant-garde training technique which his handlers believe will help him greatly in his much-awaited showdown with Oscar De La Hoya.
Pacquiao has been spending most his training time the past few days inside a secluded area of the Wild Card Boxing Club with conditioning coach Alex Ariza.
Chief trainer Freddie Roach said Ariza has done a tremendous job in supervising Pacquiao?s strength training.
Plyometrics is a type of exercise routine designed only for well-conditioned athletes and it features fast and powerful movements aimed at making certain athletes run faster, jump higher, throw farther and hit harder.
“Plyometrics is used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, often with the goal of increasing the height of a jump or the speed of a punch or throw,” according to wikipedia.
While it seems that plyometrics is a newcomer in boxing training, some of its routines ?like jumping off a box and rebounding off the floor ? is one form of exercise.
Tracing its origins in the former Soviet Union as early as the 1970s, it is done to enable a muscle to reach maximum strength in as short a time as possible, according to fitness coaches from around the world.
Pacquiao was compelled to undergo plyometrics training in the hopes of neutralizing De La Hoya?s huge advantage in height and weight come fight night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
On paper, it doesn?t look attractive that a 5-6 ? fellow like Pacquiao, who started out at the light-flyweight class of 108 lbs can take on a 5-10 guy like De La Hoya, who has won six world titles in as many weight classes and whose natural fighting weight is super-welter (154 lbs).
Pacquiao is not the only recognizable boxer who has included plyometrics to his training regimen.
Evander Holyfield also did that and so was Shane Mosley, the two-time conqueror of De La Hoya.
