The relationship between upper and lower body power and strength and boxers’ number of completed bouts

Background: Competitive boxers from southern region of Sweden, performed three different strength and power tests in the upper and lower body - body weight-relative standing rotational power (RSRP), countermovement jump (CMJ) and handgrip strength (HGS) - to evaluate correlations between number of completed bouts and the tests. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to investigate the linear correlation between number of completed bouts and three different tests – RSRP, CMJ and HGS in 16 male senior boxers. Methods: Male boxers, (n=16; 23±5 years; 76±11 kg bodyweight; 177±5 cm tall) from three different boxing competitive levels (C≤5 contests, B= 6-14 contests and A ≥15 contests) in the senior ranks (age 17-40) volunteered from several boxing clubs in Sweden. Participants performed the tests RSRP, CMJ and HGS and a correlation was made between the tests results and number of completed. Results: There was a positive moderate correlation (rs=0.406) between CMJ and number of completed bouts and positive weak correlations (rs=0.268, rs=0.200) between RSRP and HGS and number of completed bouts. Conclusions: Weak and moderate correlations between the number of completed bouts in boxers and the strength and power tests in this study show that these tests do not necessary measure attributes needed in boxing. The three tests RSRP, CMJ and HGS can be relevant tests for evaluating upper and lower body strength and power, but their relevance should be reevaluated. There can be study designs with lower risk for bias as number of completed bouts does not seem to be the right variable for such correlation.