Five tips for trainers: how to detect if the boxer is having weight problems?

By: Psychologist Diana Sosa, member of the World Boxing Council Medical Committee

It is an inescapable fact that weight management in boxing is a very delicate subject, as certain harmful behaviors still proliferate to excessively dehydrate a fighter before their fights.

Immediately weight loss, however, is not ideal due to the consequences in the short, medium and above all long term.

The most important thing during weight management is that the boxer and team seek advice from a Sports Nutrition specialist, so that the weight loss is the most appropriate and healthy.

Fighters spend most of their time in the gym and it is the coaches who often set the tone when something happens with their students and immediately detect if they have a problem (of any kind), if they are sick, distracted, unmotivated and even sometimes, if they come to the gym intoxicated.

The trainer-boxer closeness has always existed and reinforced over time, both get to know each other very well above and below the ring, so it is very important that the same trainer can detect or identify if his boxer is doing training practices with risk to lose weight (in secret or deliberately).

We present 5 signs that could deduce or indicate that the boxer requires professional support for weight management and that coaches must identify, monitor and therefore prevent and put a solution as a team, for better sports performance:

1) The fighter gets too tired during training or sparring
2)Avoid drinking water at all costs before, during and after training
3) His speech focuses on the concern he has “for shedding weight”
4) When eating, he does it in minimal amounts and omits some type of food, especially carbohydrates
5) His mood is irritable most of the time and he seems distracted. He makes a lot of mistakes in training and is very “beaten” in sparring.

All of the above could be a sign that the boxer is not well fed/properly nourished. These types of behavioral patterns could show that the body is missing the most important thing: the fuel provided by food and hydration and therefore, it is not performing properly and begins to be a constant concern, which affects their emotions.

Fortunately, new techniques based on scientific evidence and supported by Sports Nutrition are prevailing, so that weight does not mean a “headache and belly ache” for boxers and WBC always reiterates the commitment of the intervention of WBC University with Management Certification courses of Weight Management for the Boxer, within the reach of all the team that surrounds the boxer and that prevents risky behaviors.