I posted this on the ESB training thread a while back. Thought I'd also post it here:
I thought I'd start a thread for mind games, particularly for amateurs getting started. I'll share a couple of stories and invite others to do the same. I may think of something else along the way.
1) As most of you probably know, in most amateur competitions the boxers are out in the open in the arena warming up and milling around -- unlike in the pros, where the boxers are in dressing rooms.
So one time when I was coaching amateurs I had a novice getting ready for a Golden Gloves fight. It was time for my guy to start shadowboxing and doing some light mitt work as we were soon to head to the ring for his fight.
I look over my guy's shoulder and see our opponent and his coach. These are novices so we hadn't seen him fight and he hadn't seen my guy, so they are watching us. I decided to have some fun with them and told my kid to shadowbox southpaw -- he's a right-hander and had never done it before, but he knew enough to know it was opposite of what he usually did. He did this for a few minutes, and then he hit the mits lefty-style for a minute or two. I could see the coach of our opponent start going over what to do against a southpaw with his boxer, literally giving him a demonstration right there.
We went around the corner and did a couple more minutes of warming up orthodox.
When the fight starts and my fighter comes out right-handed, you can tell the other guy is really confused and hesitant. We won that round and the next and by the third the other guy got into his groove and clearly won it -- but we got the decision, probably because the mindgame trick gave us the early edge.
2) Long, long ago, my brother went to have his first amateur fight, along with another guy from the gym. This other guy was pretty crazy, a very funny fellow but with a screw or two loose named McKay.
Well, as my brother tells it, everyone weighs in as they show up and of course everyone is sizing each other up to see if they can figure out who they are fighting. McKay's a first-fight light heavy, and from eyeballing all the fighters there is only one other guy around his size and is, thus, his likely opponent -- and as it turns out, it will be his first fight, too.
So they line up to get checked out by the doctor, and the other light heavy kind of strolls over, looking pretty nervous, and casually asks McKay, "What weight division are you?"
McKay looks at him, says nothing for an uncomfortable few seconds, then gets this crazy look in his eyes and leans right in the other guy's face and screams: "DOES IT ****ING MATTER???!!!!"
The guy takes two or three steps back and doesn't say anything and turns around and kind of sulks to the back of the line.
Sure enough, they fight, and the other guy acts like a scared rabbit. McKay wins an easy decision.
3) This is something I learned from the pros. When Sugar Ray Leonard fought Tommy Hearns, he later told the story that at every press conference Tommy would show up in a really baggy shirt and sometimes a baggy pullover jacket. He always slumped his shoulders and mostly looked at his feet and talked really meekly -- Manny Steward did most of the talking for him.
Ray got the idea, he said, that Tommy wasn't really as big as he looked on TV. He just looked like a lanky guy who was a couple of inches taller but not much of a physical specimen.
Then at the weigh-in, Tommy comes in and pulls off his T-shirt and flexes his shoulders back and suddenly he looks HUGE, every muscle on his frame completely defined, and now he looks like a middleweight or super middle. Ray said it completely freaked him out and was very intimidating.
Of course, Ray won the fight, but this story made a huge impression on me. When I was training amateurs and had someone with an impressive physique, I often had them wear really baggy clothing to the weigh-in and during warmups, and then sprung the surprise when we stepped into the ring.
Anyone else have any tips like this, or good stories?
I thought I'd start a thread for mind games, particularly for amateurs getting started. I'll share a couple of stories and invite others to do the same. I may think of something else along the way.
1) As most of you probably know, in most amateur competitions the boxers are out in the open in the arena warming up and milling around -- unlike in the pros, where the boxers are in dressing rooms.
So one time when I was coaching amateurs I had a novice getting ready for a Golden Gloves fight. It was time for my guy to start shadowboxing and doing some light mitt work as we were soon to head to the ring for his fight.
I look over my guy's shoulder and see our opponent and his coach. These are novices so we hadn't seen him fight and he hadn't seen my guy, so they are watching us. I decided to have some fun with them and told my kid to shadowbox southpaw -- he's a right-hander and had never done it before, but he knew enough to know it was opposite of what he usually did. He did this for a few minutes, and then he hit the mits lefty-style for a minute or two. I could see the coach of our opponent start going over what to do against a southpaw with his boxer, literally giving him a demonstration right there.
We went around the corner and did a couple more minutes of warming up orthodox.
When the fight starts and my fighter comes out right-handed, you can tell the other guy is really confused and hesitant. We won that round and the next and by the third the other guy got into his groove and clearly won it -- but we got the decision, probably because the mindgame trick gave us the early edge.
2) Long, long ago, my brother went to have his first amateur fight, along with another guy from the gym. This other guy was pretty crazy, a very funny fellow but with a screw or two loose named McKay.
Well, as my brother tells it, everyone weighs in as they show up and of course everyone is sizing each other up to see if they can figure out who they are fighting. McKay's a first-fight light heavy, and from eyeballing all the fighters there is only one other guy around his size and is, thus, his likely opponent -- and as it turns out, it will be his first fight, too.
So they line up to get checked out by the doctor, and the other light heavy kind of strolls over, looking pretty nervous, and casually asks McKay, "What weight division are you?"
McKay looks at him, says nothing for an uncomfortable few seconds, then gets this crazy look in his eyes and leans right in the other guy's face and screams: "DOES IT ****ING MATTER???!!!!"
The guy takes two or three steps back and doesn't say anything and turns around and kind of sulks to the back of the line.
Sure enough, they fight, and the other guy acts like a scared rabbit. McKay wins an easy decision.
3) This is something I learned from the pros. When Sugar Ray Leonard fought Tommy Hearns, he later told the story that at every press conference Tommy would show up in a really baggy shirt and sometimes a baggy pullover jacket. He always slumped his shoulders and mostly looked at his feet and talked really meekly -- Manny Steward did most of the talking for him.
Ray got the idea, he said, that Tommy wasn't really as big as he looked on TV. He just looked like a lanky guy who was a couple of inches taller but not much of a physical specimen.
Then at the weigh-in, Tommy comes in and pulls off his T-shirt and flexes his shoulders back and suddenly he looks HUGE, every muscle on his frame completely defined, and now he looks like a middleweight or super middle. Ray said it completely freaked him out and was very intimidating.
Of course, Ray won the fight, but this story made a huge impression on me. When I was training amateurs and had someone with an impressive physique, I often had them wear really baggy clothing to the weigh-in and during warmups, and then sprung the surprise when we stepped into the ring.
Anyone else have any tips like this, or good stories?
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