how come I am agreeing with you all of a sudden?
The gym where I started boxing many years ago had a recent world champ coaching. He was still a very competitive fighter. He was a natural athlete - light, very strong for his size, super fast, really talented guy. Watching this guy scrap was amazing - I have never in person seen anyone move as fast as him, and when you sparred him the little f**** would always pepper you with shots you just didn'ty see. He was quite brilliant, and also a complete asshole, and I mean that in every sense of the word.
Anyway, the fighters he produced were just terrible. He treated them all as if they had his gifts. So there was no defence, he never taught them footwork, he never developed a fight plan around that boxer's unique talents, for the simple reason that he knew one way to fight, which was the way he fought. As a result his coaching manual had one page.
In a way this was good for me and my coaching partner because guys would go and train with the ex world champ, they would get a series of hidings and then some of them (ok the ones we thought might make fighters) would come to us, train about six months...and start winning.
So I completely agree. Often successful athletes know one way to win - their way. They have never had to think too much about how there might be other paths to a particular goal.
BTW...I really do admire your posts.
kiwipat
per ardua ad astra
The gym where I started boxing many years ago had a recent world champ coaching. He was still a very competitive fighter. He was a natural athlete - light, very strong for his size, super fast, really talented guy. Watching this guy scrap was amazing - I have never in person seen anyone move as fast as him, and when you sparred him the little f**** would always pepper you with shots you just didn'ty see. He was quite brilliant, and also a complete asshole, and I mean that in every sense of the word.
Anyway, the fighters he produced were just terrible. He treated them all as if they had his gifts. So there was no defence, he never taught them footwork, he never developed a fight plan around that boxer's unique talents, for the simple reason that he knew one way to fight, which was the way he fought. As a result his coaching manual had one page.
In a way this was good for me and my coaching partner because guys would go and train with the ex world champ, they would get a series of hidings and then some of them (ok the ones we thought might make fighters) would come to us, train about six months...and start winning.
So I completely agree. Often successful athletes know one way to win - their way. They have never had to think too much about how there might be other paths to a particular goal.
BTW...I really do admire your posts.
kiwipat
per ardua ad astra