BoxRec

Some recent performances have got me wondering how many great technical boxing coaches there are. I'd be very interested to hear your observations / experiences.

A few recent fights have shown some elite fighters as inadequate in some of the fundamentals of boxing - Vitali K is very limited in his ability to throw combos (whilst Sam Peter was unable to do anything...), Margarito showed a woeful inability to avoid / block a right hand. These fighters have been successful despite such deficiencies but I can't think of other individual sports where you can win the top prizes with such glaring areas of weakness in basic skills. Granted, individuals will always have relative strengths and weaknesses, but I can't imagine a tennis player winning a grand slam, for example, with shots in their arsenal that are inept.

I understand that a fighter's strengths can allow them to get away with such weaknesses to a degree, but I would have thought a trainer should be sorting them out in the gym otherwise the fighter can never reach their full potential. Are there not enough trainers capable of developing a fighter with solid basics? Is there a culture of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' until the fighter loses?

I am often frustrated hearing trainers telling fighters in the corner to 'take control' or 'don't let him dominate' without offering any technical advice that the fighter can implement.

So, what do you think? Generally speaking does boxing have enough 'elite' technical coaches?

sometimes a fighters weakness show's up more against a fighter who is better at exposing that weakness (obvious I know) but as they say styles makes fights.

I also feel that the true superstars of boxing are natural athletes, you can take them to participate in other sports and they will have natural eye/hand co-ordination. Where as most fighters are manufactured, by this I mean generally that the braver/tougher/rougher kid gets into boxing where as there is probably people with more talent who do not consider it just because they dont want to get hit, which I know is a vital ingredient in boxing which is why they are not boxers, but the talented guys who dont mind getting hit go on to be superstars.

As for trainers they have their ideas, and some of them maybe talented but if the kid in the ring cannot carry out the instructions then the trainer will look bad. There is a certain trainer out there who I will not name, but I remember his fighter getting worked over and his advice was "get to him". Hence he got stopped shortly after. He is probably a very nice guy and obviously puts alot of time and effort into the sport, and without dedicated people like him we would have a severe shortage of cornermen.

I think Freddie Roach deserves a lot of credit for how he's transformed Pacquiao. Before Pac was a one dimensional slugger, now he's a world class operator who can utilise almost any gameplan. Yes, Pac is a natural athlete, but I think Roach deserves credit for his role all the same.

Do you know what, the more I look at boxing, and I've done it for over 30 years, I actually think trainers bring 10% persperation and 90% inspiration.
Controversial I know, but most elite fighters I've seen are blessed with immense natural ability and the odd flaw in their armoury is often supplemented by an ability to compensate for it in another way.
The best trainers are those that do the best corner work.
The ones that can make a fighter believe when everything seems lost.
The ones that motivate when a fighter thinks he's over the finish line with 9 minutes to go.
I think a lot of you will say I'm talking bollocks and you're probably right !

Agree about Roach. You can see the difference he has made and you can hear from the way that he analyses fights that he clearly knows what he's talking about. On Pacquiao - De La Hoya he was spot on about what would happen.

And very good point about the trainer's role in inspiring a fighter in the corner. Guess my next question would be what proportion of trainers excel in that department.

Unfortunatly all i usually see between rounds are crappy adverts.

Yeah, bugs the hell out of me too. 'How many soldiers can you see?'. For the 8th time in the last 10 minutes I don't care, I want to see the corner at work thank you very much.

'Aaave it...' Oh do f#*k off, please...