Who is your Coach?

Who is your coach?
Is the dedication, application or aptitude that is required to be self taught what creates so much potential? There is something special about this quality that is unquestionable. Many of the greatest minds, artists, sports stars and business people are self taught. The brilliance of those self taught shapes modern history, search for Leonardo Davinci, Jimi Hendrix, Abraham Lincon, Benjamin Franklin ,Socrates, Ernest Hemmingway, Thomas Edison, Malcom X and Wilbur Wright just too name a few.

There is an old saying in boxing that goes 'a natural born killer will ALWAYS beat a trained killer' Boxers of yester year indeed trained, taught and innovated for themselves rather than rely on series of coaches and an amateur system. Jack Johnson introduced much of the art to modern boxing, Dempsey created the aggressive style or bobbing and weaving with his infamous 'Dempsey roll' and is believed, with his first million dollar gate with Tex Rickard, to have created the idolisation of the knockout with the public and sparked the dream of fortunes of future pugilists. Archie Moore created the style of cross arm blocking and crafted shoulder rolling, Ali popularised to future generations the dancing jabbing style originally employed  famously by pugilists such as Gene Tunney and Ray Robinson. These were glory days of boxing where famously the 'clever' fighters of the 40's and 50's met Kings, mingled with Presidents, caused waring nations stop and watch, as thousands and thousands of clubs coaches and fighters struggled for the one and only title in one of the traditional 8 divisions.

Now this does not mean re invent the wheel, but rather there is a wealth of resources available to any interested person these days accelerated by the Renaissance age of communication and multimedia that we find ourselves a part of. It is true that boxers of yester year lived in a time where the art of boxing shames the current scene in both public interest, participation and application to the sport, however we do have something that has developed since Jim Jacobs boxing archives that young Mike Tyson studiously watched for hours each evening. We can access thousands of fights and articles INSTANTLY via the Internet, there is a wealth of knowledge waiting to be observed.

Your coach is Cus D'amato, Jack Dempsey, Jack Blackburn, George Foreman, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Marvin Haggler, Larry Holmes, Ezzard Charles, Roger Mayweather Bernard Hopkins. The list is endless, you can hear with commentaries, interviews, instructional,  articles and corner work, hours and hours of advice and wisdom. It is simply up to you to discover who you find inspirational, who you want to emulate who you want to guide you, and applie it to where you are training. Then if any old chap tell you this and that is wrong, you can say ' well George Foreman doesn't think so, you should go take it up with him'