What does it take to become a great trainer?

[ßringer]

You forgot step 5 : To have a stable of fighters who are intelligent enough to listen to your advice and patient enough to actually apply it.

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

You forgot step 5 : To have a stable of fighters who are intelligent enough to listen to your advice and patient enough to actually apply it.

Brother, there is no such thing....lol

That falls under the category of patience IMO. I can't tell you how many times I have gone over things with a kid, worked long hours in the gym and them when he has his first fight, it's like he got amnesia. It doesn't happen often but it does happen.

Just like every other sport, some kids shine under the lights, some melt away.

[NoLove]

rule 1: dont assume a guy is doing it wrong because he is doing it different. Let him do what makes him comfortable.

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

Besides the obvious talents and experiences needed to teach boxing and having the right demeanor to teach you need to know how to "evaluate"! You need to put a brand new kid in the ring and have him shadow box while you pay attention to him closely! You can learn alot from watching a young man or boy act out what he feels a HE IS as a boxer!
Does he circle does he move back does he move in that tells you how he feels about himself then you can see if he display balance etc etc etc. that will give you an indication of his physical attributes............because when you start to chance a kids natural instincts your really moving into teacher/student exchanges and that relationship needs to grow and trust is the first ingrediant needed. If theres no trust involved then its not going to happen! You need to be deversafied in Methods & Techniques your not going to teach Joe Frazier how to float like the butterfly! He'll get stung by the bee if you do!! HA!!
You can see these pro boxers today get into trouble in a fight and not listen to the corner and simply don't have the knowledge on how to adjust and 9 out of 10 of them don't trust their corner!
The first attribute to have as a good trainer has little to do with boxing it does have to do with being honest and setting an example to follow!
The young man needs to want to learn not just fight! Theres alot of reasons for a kid to show up at a boxing gym and you better listen to them all to figure out what this kid needs from you. More than any other sport trainers are truely "mentors" in this game and for the student to equal the mentor takes years, unless the trainer isn't that good with the other stuff...........you know actual boxing techniques!!! Hahahaha!!!

Authority; how is the boy doing? Ray Corso

I think something missing here is also "Honesty". You need to be honest with yourself about your shortcommings and be honest with your fighter as well. I've been an assistant coach for a MMA group. I was brought in to more or less be a second set of eyes and see things the head coach might be missing. (especially as the team size grew) In one particular instance I had to ask the head coach to re-evaluate some of the advice he was given one particular fighter. This kid was ready to turn down a very well paying job in order to pursue a professional MMA career. He was good, and had a lot of natural talent, but he wasn't anything amazing. The coach wasn't being honest with himself or the kids ability and was pushing him into an MMA career versus a job that started at $30.00 an hour with plenty of overtime paying $45 an hour... and that was just the starting wage. If the kid was a little younger and amazing, I'd have maybe considered it, but in this particular case, the Job and MMA as a hobby made way more sense than trying to turn pro and struggling through the ranks.

These two fall into the same category IMO and they are great points I missed, or rather assumed in not typing them down.

Talent evaluation is the first step of course.Unfortunately I have gotten to the point where I can't really waste my time with kids that don't have talent and potential. I still work with everyone, but if I'm going to invest my time in a kid, he has to have potential and talent.

Live in an area that NEEDS boxing!
Be able to open the doors from 9am to Noon/ 2pm to 5pm/ 7pm to 9pm.
Teach what "health insurance is"!
Have tremendous amounts of patience
learn how to evaluate talent so you "mutiple" training techniques can be applied.
Get ALL report cards from the teachers before the parents get them!
Learn how to solicate funds from the richest people in town!!
Find part time jobs for ALL your fighters so responsibility is taught!!
Understand ALL cultural differences so that you have a handle on beliefs.
Teach english.........................Learn spanish! HA!!!
Learn how to except the fact that the street will take a vast majority from you, thats the tuffest one!

The boxing stuff takes years to learn then you have to be a good teacher to teach it!! The rest is ofcourse luck and hard work.

promotor
matchmaker
hospital supplies
transportation
backup insurances lots to do, and lots to learn! Ray.

It's funny you mention this because we did have an issue about religion and culture in the gym one time. I made everyone have a group meeting and I told them skin color, race, religion, gender and even sexual orientation doesn't exist in my gym.

I told them we are a TEAM and boxing is a TEAM sport. I make them run together, and workout in almost a military style way where they are organized. I think that builds a team and when we go do shows, you can see how supportive they are to each other and how proud they are of wearing their colors and reppin the gym to fights.

[jas]

understand how your fighter thinks

identify his strengths and weaknesses

teach him how to use his strengths to be more effective