WHY DO THEY DO THIS???

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Another thing that is indicative of how the USABoxing program is run is that a "Team Coach" is put in charge of the U.S. Olympic Team in the weeks leading up to the biggest competition of their lives. That is all well and good, especially because you cannot reasonably expect the USA Boxing Federation to have a team coach plus twelve individual coaches. That would get to be pretty expensive. BUT if a Coach could in fact get the time off and could make the training camp and the Olympic games then he should certainly be allowed to work the corner. OF COURSE HE SHOULD. But he isn't. So, say you have a kid you have trained since he was four years old. Brought him up in the gym from day one all the way until he is a twenty-two year old member of the U.S. Olympic team. You oversee all his sparring and you travel with him around the country to tournaments. You run with him. You work the corner for every single one of his 150 amateur fights. He makes the Olympic Team and goes to the Olympic games. You go too and buy a ticket to the bouts and sit in the audience while some other guy that the Amateur Federation in Colorado works your kids corner. The guy doesn't truly know your boxer and has never worked his corner before let alone been in the gym with him and if he has been in the gym with him it has been as a USA team coach where he spent the majority of the time pushing the kid on running and exercise drills. He doesn't know his tendencies and habits and mindset. Doesn't know what buttons to push.

Let's look at the perfect example.

Take Roy Jones, Jr. and his father, Roy Sr. Big Roy obviously trained little Roy from the time he first put on gloves as a young boy and literally raised him as a boxer. Brought him all over the south for fights when he was developing and worked his corner in the national tournaments all over the country. Taught him everything he knows about Boxing. Every mental and physical aspect that makes RJ a Great fighter was initially taught to him by his Father/Coach. When Roy was in the U.S. Nationals, the National Golden Gloves, The Eastern Olympic trials, the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Box-Off as well as the Pre-Olympic Trials training camp that Sugar Ray Leonard put on Big Roy was right there in Lil' Roy's corner. Roy made the U.S. team and the goal that he and his father planned for since Roy was a little kid was met. The 1988 Olympics arrived and when Roy Jones Jr. stepped into the ring for his first Olympic match do you know where his dad was?? Right next to him? NOPE. He was in the audience at the South Korean venue, 200 feet away from the ring, with the rest of the fans while coach Kenny Adams was standing next to Roy.

Now, this is NOT a knock on Coach Adams because I am sure he was a very qualified coach BUT is that really the best way to go about attempting to win a gold medal for the USA?? Wouldn't having the life long Coach of the boxer in his corner for the biggest fights of his life be the OBVIOUS way to go?? I mean, having him there worked well enough to GET HIM HERE in the first place, didn't it?? Maybe it was because I was with them in camp before the Olympic Trials, but seeing Big Roy in the STANDS for Roy's Olympic fights made me shake my head at the USA Boxing policy. Big Roy belonged with his son, his boxer. If anything, Big Roy should have been there in the ring and Coach Adams should have been his assistant. Even with the obvious reasons aside, it just seems to me that it is incredibly WRONG that a coach could spend his entire career traveling to bouts and paying his own way to tournaments, staying in the gym late night after night, etc. etc. all to get to the ultimate point in his boxers career only to have to sit in the audience with the other paying customers while some guy that never worked with your boxer before can be there in your spot.

[boxfan08]

Just a quick note on this. The cost isn't the only issue, the team is given a very limited amount of coaching credentials for the coach's to gain access to the floor. If you have 13 athletes and three coach's credentials. What do you suggest to determine who gets to coach the corner?

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Maybe give the pass to whoever is coaching at the moment, as they do for pro fights...if I am working a fight at Mohegan Sun for example, I can only go ringside when my boxer is boxing...the logistics can be worked out I AM SURE...

[boxfan08]

Olympic credentials are issued by name with a photo and there is a limit of three coaches per team period. It is not a situation where the credentials can be passed from one to another There is no wiggle room when it comes to the IOC.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

well, thats an issue then, I guess...

[locoxelbox]

I wonder if Roy´s dad was there when Roy Jr boxed in Russia at the Goodwill Games? Or was he there when he boxed at the World Juniors in Cuba? It´s almost impossible for a club coach to be at every single fight of an international boxer (if the boxer competes regularly at those events).
How many boxers have the same single coach for his entire career, amateur & pro? Not many, not even Roy I guess. As a coach you have to teach your boxer to think for himself. As a former boxer I was never worried about who was in my corner. The boxer knows his abilities. I´m not saying the coach isn´t important but as a National Team Coach it sound impossible he didn´t coach the boxer before the Olympics. Most boxers must have more than 30 international bouts when they box at the Olympics. Some have more than 100 international bouts.
The Olympics have been cut down to some 10.500 participants. Otherwise it would be too large to handle for a single event. At all AIBA competitions you can only have a certain number of coaches. For example at the 2010 World Youths a team of 1-4 boxers had a max of 2 coaches, 5-8 boxers max 3 coaches and 9-11 boxers 4 coaches. At the Olympics it´s similar or even less.
It´s simply unrealistic that every boxer would bring in his own club coach.