Forward-thinking Northern Sporting Club are using cutting-edge sports science technology to maximise the title potential of rising boxing stars.
Spearheaded by renowned performance specialist/sports scientist Andrew Usher, the Aberdeen-based club are breaking new ground in boxing.
Usher’s knowledge of sports science, metabolic profiling, performance nutrition and strength and conditioning will be pivotal to the international title bids of undefeated stars Billy Stuart and Dean Sutherland later this month.
Both fighters will bid for the biggest titles of their careers to date at Hamilton Academical’s New Douglas Park on Saturday July 31.
Stuart (10-0) will bid for the IBF Youth Super-Bantamweight title, while Sutherland (10-0) will compete for the WBO Youth Welterweight title.
Helping the hottest young fighters in the country gain title glory is not the only focus for Usher as he wants to turn the gym into a hub of sport science excellence open to athletes from multiple sports and levels.
Usher said: “What we have is very cutting edge as I am the only person in Scotland doing this.
“We are using a lot of high-end tech.
“I have a lab where I do do all the blood work and use a metabolic device for measuring gas exchange.
“My job is to take all that super geeky stuff and make it easy for the athletes to understand.
“Once they understand they are happy with me slapping a sensor on their leg and saying we are going to measure this or that.
“My whole interest is the performance side of it.
“For example, take a boxer – you try to see what is stopping them attaining that next level.
“Is it technique? Sometimes it is.
“Or is it other factors such as bio-mechanics, such as maybe the way they are putting their hand is just slightly off.
“For us it is like a detective story as you are looking at the athlete and thinking: is it their cardio they need to work on?
“Is the way they breath an issue? Is it how they utilise energy, carbs and fat?
“Or is it just slight changes in their position that can change?”
Measuring the mechanics of a punch
Director at Evolved Performance, Usher can measure the speed, path and acceleration of punches by using sensors.
He can also measure vital data from sparring sessions which will help bring about further developments in boxers and give valuable pointers to how a fight will progress.
At elite athlete level, those small percentages in improvement can be the difference between victory – and defeat.
Usher’s work with Stuart and Sutherland will play a key role in their bid for international title glory later this week with both boxers facing highly-rated Mexicans.
Stuart will face Alejandro Jair Gonzalez, with Sutherland going up against Jose Antonio Delgado Velazquez.
Usher’s ground-breaking work can predict when boxers will tire in a fight and subsequently how to avoid that slump.
Usher said: “We have technology that measures the punches, but what it also does is measures the acceleration, path and overall speed.
“I take that data, such as the sensor from the leg data and the heart data and will chart that.
“I will know every single point at which position the hand is at, the speed of the hand.
“The great thing here is you get the time to sit with the boxers in a really relaxed atmosphere and, for example, tell them this is why their right hand cross is not coming through as quick as it should.
“Or why they are losing the power here.
“We have done it in sparring with the tech.
“From that we can say, for example: in round three you are fatiguing so we need you to back off a little bit.
“Then maybe in round five we need you to step it up.
“If you take the two opponents you can work out when they are going to fatigue.
“Off the first round, I can normally say to David (McAllister Jnr, Northern Sporting Club coach) they are going to fatigue in, say, round four.
“So we need to start working on a system to make them much more efficient in that fourth round.
“It prevents injury as it prevents them over-training.
“One of the big issues with boxers is they will train night and day.”
A centre of excellence for sports science
Usher believes boxing has been stuck in a rut of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” for far too long.
At Northern Sporting Club, he is determined to deliver fresh ways of working that can herald a new dawn for the sport – with Scotland the epicentre.
The years of doing stuff just for the sake of it is gone.
“Top boxers in Britain have sports scientists and the teams but they don’t have what we have.
“We have science way beyond what they have.
“The time is right to get this into boxing in Scotland and build it.”
Andrew Usher
Top British ring stars use sports science teams, but Usher believes it is not as cutting edge as Northern Sporting Club.
He said: “What we are doing is a real shift, because boxing is old school and people in the sport tend to do it certain ways because that is the way it was done 20 years ago.
“My approach is that doesn’t necessary hold true anymore and there are smarter ways of doing things.
“We track other things like sleep.
“It could be the data shows they are not performing great after a heavy training session.
“So why would you spar if you are not 100%, because the chance of a risk in head injuries is higher.
“When a boxer comes in to do a technical session, you want to make sure they have the right amount of energy in their system to get the best from their session.
“If they are coming in dehydrated and have consumed three litres of coffee before. they they are not going to get as much physiologically from that training session.
“It is the same with sparring. We want them coming in hydrated and with carbohydrates in their system, so they have the energy so they get a good spar.
“The years of doing stuff just for the sake of it is gone.
“Some top boxers in Britain have sports scientists and the teams, but they don’t have what we have.
“We have science way beyond what they have.
“The time is right to get this into boxing in Scotland and build it.
Just a couple of Mexican slayer’s🇲🇽🪓@Dennis_Hobson @fightzonetv @KynochBoxing @Northern_SC_Ltd @billystuart56 pic.twitter.com/sKMJFcGTQx
— Dean Sutherland (@Deano_Suth) July 13, 2021
“I have knocked back some pretty good jobs in America to be here.
“It’s not about the money – it’s about giving the next generation the right tools.
“We have already got a lot of interest from big boxers wanting me to come and do camps here.
“That would be great for Aberdeen.
“It would be great to make this a real centre of excellence.”
Ready for international title shots
Both Sutherland and Stuart have unblemished pro records with a 100% win rate.
They will put that on the line on July 31 live on Fightzone TV in their first fights since the coronavirus put boxing into cold storage in March last year.
Stuart has not fought since a points defeat of Brett Fidoe in November 2019 extended his record to 10 wins from 10 fights.
Sutherland, who has an identical pro return of 10 wins from 10, last fought in February 2020 when overcoming Basi Rasaq on points.
Despite more than 18 months of ring inactivity for both fighters, Usher and the training team have kept the boxers in top shape in preparation for any title shot.
Usher said: “When boxing came back after Covid, I thought there would be a massive influx of fights.
“I kept saying to Dean and Billy that there will be a lot of fighters not ready to step up – but they will be.
“We want everyone in here ready to step up because there will be a lot of big opportunities for fighters.
“Billy and Dean are coming into their career and we want to fast track them as much as we can.
“In the last year working with them I have seen massive changes.
“Their sessions have been very good and they are on fire.
“When they get back in the ring it will be so exciting and we are definitely going to be picking up a couple of titles soon.”
Too many boxers with careers cut short
Usher has spent the last decade dedicated to sports science and utilising cutting edge methods of maximising training methods for boxers and athletes.
Fundamental to his philosophy is not only giving the boxers the best opportunity to have a successful and longer career, but also the tools to ensure they remain healthy and continue to thrive after hanging up the gloves.
Usher, 48, said: “I was a boxer as a kid and did Muay Thai and kickboxing until I got a bad injury which meant I couldn’t get my licence, so I moved into coaching in my twenties.
“In my thirties, I realised all my coaches that taught me never studied sports science.
“I thought there must be a better way to coach people in a science way.
“To not only make them the best they can be, but to also make sure they are healthier, fitter, stronger and have a longer career.
“I have seen a lot of boxers have their career cut short really early by too much sparring, not enough nutrition, not enough science.
“For the last 10 years, I have invested everything into sport science and studying with people doing my Phd.
“I started with strength condition and nutrition and that snowballed until I found myself working with a lot of elite athletes all over the world, UFC and Bellator.
“When I met David (McAllister Jr), I was impressed with how focused on the fighter’s wellbeing.
“I have been to a lot of gyms, and corporate organisations in boxing, and David is the only person where it’s not about the money.
“It’s about bringing talent through.
“David asked if I wanted to come to a training session and when I did I immediately saw it had a great, family atmosphere and they also have a great pedigree.
“It felt like they are doing things the right way – and it felt like home.”
A sports science hub available to everyone
The good news for the north-east is that Usher’s specialist knowledge will not only be restricted to elite boxers set upon securing international and, ultimately, world titles.
Usher wants to make it available to everyone, be it amateur athletes, children or people looking to get fit and healthy.
It is an ethos which ties in with the Granite City ABC gym where the Northern Sporting Club boxers, also including undefeated rising stars Callum Stuart, Ben Bartlett and Andrew Castle, are based.
It would be a shame to confine it just to a few up and coming professional and amateur boxers.
“It would be better if we could make Northern Sporting Club and Granite City a hub for sports science in the north of Scotland.
“Get in people, maybe recreational athletes such as 10k or half marathon runners, and give them the benefit of years of proper sports science that sets people off on the right path early on.
“Sport science where you don’t have to go to a lab or a university to pay a fortune.”
Andrew Usher
Granite City has been a thriving hub at the heart of the community offering boxing and fitness training to all ages and abilities – as well as producing champions such as two weight WBU champion Lee McAllister, three-weight Scottish champion Darren Traynor and Commonwealth champion Kristen Fraser.
Usher said: “It would be a shame to confine it just to a few up and coming professional and amateur boxers.
“It would be better if we could make Northern Sporting Club and Granite City a hub for sports science in the north of Scotland.
“Get in people, maybe recreational athletes such as 10k or half marathon runners, and give them the benefit of years of proper sports science that sets people off on the right path early on.
“Sport science where you don’t have to go to a lab or a university to pay a fortune.
“Our ethos is to create blueprints for individual kids and athletes so that we can chart their progress to try to change habits and awareness.
“A lot of the stuff we do with the kids’ class is to teach them basic biology about aspects such as heart, muscles and respiration.
“As these kids get older, we want them to understand there are a lot of pitfalls in training that they want to avoid.
“And how they can get the best out of it and a better understanding of themselves to get a really good change in their lives.
“It doesn’t always need to be boxing, but boxing is a great avenue for adults and kids.”
A hidden gem in the boxing world
Undefeated welterweight Sutherland is set to fight for his first international title on Saturday July 31 and has been working closely with Usher.
Southpaw Sutherland, a former multiple-weight world champion in kickboxing, hailed Usher as a “wizard” in his field who will transform Scotland into one of the main hubs in the world for sport science.
Sutherland said: “Andy is the best qualified person in his field as his credentials are outstanding – but not everyone knows him.
“He is a hidden gem and the passion and commitment for boxing he has shown to myself and Billy (Stuart) is fantastic.
“Myself and Billy are happy to represent the work he is doing.
“Andy is an absolute wizard at what he does.
“He is 100% invested in this and has had some life-changing opportunities to work with some of the biggest fighters in boxing.
“However, working with people who are near enough the finished product doesn’t interest him.
“Myself and Billy are open minded and willing to experiment if he wants to try new things or pieces of equipment.
“Andy wants to turn Scotland into one of the main hubs in the world for sports science and after working with him I have no doubt he will achieve that.”
Northern Sporting Club coach and manager David McAllister Jr insists working with Usher is keeping his boxers “ahead of the curve” as they bid for title glory.
McAllister Jr said: “Sometimes you don’t realise how much you need something until you see it working.
“Andy has been massive for us and has brought so many different techniques, although I don’t want to give too much away as they are things that are keeping us ahead of the curve.
“His knowledge of sport science is unparalleled up here and we are lucky to have him as part of the team.”