So Far, So Good

Coach Hand


Well, I am due the next article/post on here, but am feeling lazy and uncreative.  There, I admitted it. So, I am just going to recycle an e-mail Keen sent me from a couple weekends ago during GMAAC’s latest official competition showing at a state sports festival, and hope there's a lesson in it:

“…it was pretty ridiculous, because there was this little fighter south of 140 who had fast hands, but for some reason had this right to the body he liked to lead with, and kept landing, but every time he would throw it he would pull his glove back to like his hip, and then keep it down there for a few seconds. It was so bad I was standing up on my toes waiting for him to get KTFO each time he did it, but it just didn’t happen, and he won the fight easy and damn did his coach talk him up afterwards. No mention of that ridiculous hitch.

Then, there’s this big dude competing as a heavyweight armwrestler, and winning, but he is standing there with his feet right next to each other, directly under his hips. Had like the worst leverage setup ever. I saw a guy from a lighter class trying to talk to him about it, and he just shrugged him off.

So I am sitting around my brother’s house later watching “The Magnificent Seven” on TNT HD and it gets to the part with the little exchange where Steve McQueen tells the old dude with the stupid plan “Sounds like that fellow back home, that fell off a ten-story building… yeah, on the way down people on every floor heard him saying ‘So far, So good…’ “  Just sort of made me laugh at the time, and I thought of those two proud morons. “

So, what is the point of this? The point is made in the narrative. You CANNOT afford, as an athlete, to ignore fundamentals and then, just because you are sliding by, think you are 'all that.'

This is, in large part, our responsibility as coaches. The coach of the boxer, if his defense was really that atrocious, can’t help but have noticed, and needs to have said something. If I had to guess, he probably falls into the “well, that’s just his style, and it seems to work for him…” trap. If something is technically incorrect, and can get you hurt or cost a victory, it is not a matter of style. It is a matter of stupidity and laziness, and you need to do what it takes to succeed, regardless of what you think your ‘style’ is.

Along the same lines, while it is something coaches should be constantly vigilant for, it is ultimately the athlete’s responsibility. This is who will win or lose if the day comes that someone exposes the technical flaw.

So, study your sport and the proper mechanics thereof. Then, NEVER STOP evaluating your own technique, to include through video review, and asking others to spot-check you, at a minimum. You’ll enjoy a better winning percentage and greater longevity. Just be sure you don’t get caught in the trap of “So far, So good…”