I invite views regarding South African boxers against the world. My e-mail address has been added at the end this column.
I invite views regarding South African boxers against the world. My e-mail address has been added at the end this column.
I fully agree with my colleague David Isaacson when he says lack of trainers is one of the reasons that South Africa produces a pack of pugilistic powderpuffs.
I agree stingily with himon his second view that local boxers are mostly mediocre on the world stage.
How do you expect a Rolls Royce, or a Porsche for that matter, to win a motorrace when it is being driven by an ordinary driver?
Boxers do not need trainers because they are their own trainers. They do what their bodies allow them to do on the day and not what they are being told by someone standing or sitting on a chair.
Professional boxing in South Africa needs mentors who will hone boxers' skills - period. The so-called trainers should be referred to as physical and mental conditioners because the majority of them excel in this regard.
Do not forget that 99 percent of trainers currently are former boxers. Only five percent of them had talent (I am told by my seniors). This means that the majority did not make it yet they want us to believe that they can produce world class beaters.
That is impossible in my world. These gentlemen still behave and see themselves as boxers and most of them want to infuse their own style of fighting into their charges.
The poor boxers try hard not to disappoint but find themselves wanting during their fights. I've seen some of them turn their heads in the direction of their cornermen when the going got tough.
And the advice they get at that time is either mbambe - hold - or shaya i-right - throw the right. Boxers do not need to be told to hold because they can use their own discretion. These are human beings not robots.
You can see even when they hold that the art of doing that had not been practised. They just grab their opponents clumsily, turning boxing matches into wrestling.
I suggest that the so-called trainers must be introduced to a special mental institution where they will be taught that it is not about their egos but boxers' careers. Lets talk - magaselab@sowetan.co.za
Egotistical local trainers duly fail SA boxers
I invite views regarding South African boxers against the world. My e-mail address has been added at the end this column.
I invite views regarding South African boxers against the world. My e-mail address has been added at the end this column.
I fully agree with my colleague David Isaacson when he says lack of trainers is one of the reasons that South Africa produces a pack of pugilistic powderpuffs.
I agree stingily with himon his second view that local boxers are mostly mediocre on the world stage.
How do you expect a Rolls Royce, or a Porsche for that matter, to win a motorrace when it is being driven by an ordinary driver?
Boxers do not need trainers because they are their own trainers. They do what their bodies allow them to do on the day and not what they are being told by someone standing or sitting on a chair.
Professional boxing in South Africa needs mentors who will hone boxers' skills - period. The so-called trainers should be referred to as physical and mental conditioners because the majority of them excel in this regard.
Do not forget that 99 percent of trainers currently are former boxers. Only five percent of them had talent (I am told by my seniors). This means that the majority did not make it yet they want us to believe that they can produce world class beaters.
That is impossible in my world. These gentlemen still behave and see themselves as boxers and most of them want to infuse their own style of fighting into their charges.
The poor boxers try hard not to disappoint but find themselves wanting during their fights. I've seen some of them turn their heads in the direction of their cornermen when the going got tough.
And the advice they get at that time is either mbambe - hold - or shaya i-right - throw the right. Boxers do not need to be told to hold because they can use their own discretion. These are human beings not robots.
You can see even when they hold that the art of doing that had not been practised. They just grab their opponents clumsily, turning boxing matches into wrestling.
I suggest that the so-called trainers must be introduced to a special mental institution where they will be taught that it is not about their egos but boxers' careers. Lets talk - magaselab@sowetan.co.za
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