NJ Olympic Hopefuls Training for Trials

[gladiatorcoach]

Team Gladiator of Forked River, NJ has two boxers training for the Olympic Trials this August. They are Bobby "The Bull" McCarthy and Rocco "The Rocket" Salimbene. They are both 17 yr old and just entering the men's division and trying to make it to Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. McCarthy is a sophmore at Lacey High School and Salimbene is a junior at Southern Regional High School.

USA Boxing has the trials one year before the actual 2012 London Olympics to be able to put the team together and train them for a year before the actual Olympic Games. They will have 4 opportunities to make it: the US Nationals, the National Golden Gloves, the East Coast qualifiers and West Coast qualifiers. (they both missed the first Olympic Trial qualifying tournament in October, the National PAL unfortunately) and they can not enter the other qualifier because its the US Armed Forces Championship.

They both had fantastic Junior Olympic careers as teens. Bobby,(6'2 255lb) winning the National Silver Gloves in February 2010 and getting the silver and bronze in two other national tournaments( he is also a 9x state champ and 4x regional champ).

Rocco also finished 7th in his only national appearance and was the Region 1 champion entering that tournament. Rocco(5'7 132lb) moved into the men's division last month with an impressive win in Newark(he is a 4x state champ and 1x regional champ). "They both have been sparring professional men for the last two years so the move to the men's division shouldn't be too much for them. They are both extremely strong, fast and experienced.I'm really looking forward to this year with them. It's very exciting.

It's my first guys trying to make it to the Olympic Trials" said their coach Shawn Darling. They both spend many hours each day at Gladiator Gym with conditioning drills, endurance training, speed training, agility drills and of course plenty of boxing training. There is more info on the following two sites about them: www.gladiatorboxing.net and Gladiator Gym on Facebook.

[JMac]

Sparring against pros may be good for confidence, it isn't good training for the amateur scoring system which rewards landing clear single hard punches. Combos may get you one point, jabs and body punches rarely get counted. Boxers that punch and move or counterpunch and move are the most successful.

[Dennis]

Good luck. They will have lots of competition for those spots unless their rights to compete in the Trials are taken away from them by the WSB, AIBA and USAB.

[gladiatorcoach]

i know there is no east and west coast qualifiers and i saw the top four at the us nationals make it to the trials. so this is the most important one. when and where do you think the last chance tournament will be

[Dennis]

I have no idea. It would be nice to know when the USA National Championships will be held too. When is NJ holding its LBC tourney?

[gladiatorcoach]

they start this saturday. hope my guys win and then they will go to lake placid for the regionals.

[EastLA]

Question for you, I see your fighter rocco is 4x state champion, has he ever fought Julian Rodriguez from NJ who is also 132? And if yes, who won?

[gladiatorcoach]

rock is older and usually heavier. but no not yet. julian and his dad alex are great guys

[taylorstar]

i heard rocco first open fight was inpressive he fought a very talented kid in the 132 opn division i heard it was a barn burner rocco was faster but tejada had hit him with some really big shots...rocco is an inpressive fighter he beat tejada and tejada is a very tough fighter to beat he won the diamond gloves finals in 132 novice

[boxfan08]

@Dennis - the USA Boxing Nationals are June 20-25. http://usaboxing.org/news/2011/02/08/co ... 5?ngb_id=9