by Geoffrey Ciani – Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward recently kicked off the first in a series of boxing clinics last Wednesday, July 21 in Atlanta, Georgia, at Sweet Science Fitness. These clinics are primarily intended to educate trainers and boxers (both amateur and professional) about the basic fundamentals of boxing. The clinics are also open to conditioning coaches, nutritionists, boxing fans, MMA enthusiasts, and anyone with a desire to acquire first-hand knowledge about the sport. Steward is looking to share the vast wealth of boxing knowledge he has accumulated during his involvement in the sport which has spanned almost sixty years. Steward will be conducting a second clinic at the Fight Factory in Tampa, Florida on August 4. I was recently afforded an opportunity to speak with Emanuel about his first clinic on this week’s episode of On the Ropes Boxing Radio . Here is a complete transcript from that segment of the interview:
Q: I know you had your first boxing clinic last week and I was wondering how that went and if you could tell the fans out there a little bit about that?
A: We had a very good jam-packed crowd and it was very interesting. Some of the questions that people had asked me in addition to the basic fundamentals about jabs and hooks and the fundamentals of balance, which everyone knows is one of my key points, but we also covered a lot of other areas. People were asking questions about behind the scenes with things that went on in the camps with Chavez, and De La Hoya, and training Evander Holyfield for the rematch with Bowe. We touched on some questions such as when do you quit having sex, and tricks to hand-wrapping which is not only just for the safety of the hands, but actually little tricks where you can improve the punching power. Also diets, the day before the fight, what you eat before the weigh in, and the day of the fight, and the types of food and whatnot. So it was very good. It was a lot of fun and everybody was laughing and joking and it was very interesting where we all got personal and everybody came up into the ring. After the clinic, we had everybody start doing boxing lessons. They were doing the footwork and punching and stuff. We had about three hours of a lot of good fun.
* numbers based on survey results from everyone attending the clinic
Q: Now you mentioned one of your main goals for holding these clinics, Emanuel, was to help create an environment at the teaching, training, and coaching level where it can be improved. Do you think you were able to succeed in this first clinic in helping share your knowledge in order to help improve the coaching in the sport?
A: I definitely do. We had a tremendous feedback and a lot of the people that attended have been communicating. I gave them an open line to call and we’ve been going over a lot of things with different types of equipment. Sometimes people even have excess equipment that they don’t need. Also you could check a lot of things on the on-line boxing forum, too, which we have on www.EmanuelStewardOnline.com . It was a very good clinic and people got to be very close and personal where we had a lot of questions and we didn’t have anything too sophisticated. It was just everyone at the gym speaking to each other and there were different things everyone had that were important to different people.
Q: Was there any one moment from this clinic that you would consider to be the most memorable moment for you?
A: Well I would say probably when I got the people up in the ring and we started working on the basic steps and whatever. It was amazing how some people did everything perfectly and some people were so uncoordinated that we laughed and made fun of it. I think the fact that most people accepted that you have to learn the basics and then the art of balance and a jab and showing that a short person can outbox a tall person. I showed them a few basic little tricks with hand positions and different angles you could jab at. I think that was what people seemed most impressed by—the idea that shorter guys can outbox taller people, and the tricks to improving punching power, and then the different techniques that you have to use for an amateur boxer and a professional. We covered everything. The equipment was an major thing, too—the different types, and people have these protective cups that come all the way around to the back, the trunks that are sometimes too baggy, between rounds how they pick up excessive weight with all the water, the proper way to set the stools this way you can get the most rest in between rounds without creating stress on the back of the fighter. So we covered all kinds of basic things and the best was when we asked the crowd to ask questions and there were some very interesting questions that the people asked.
Q: I know you have a second clinic scheduled for August 4th in Tampa, Florida. For all the listeners out there who might be interested in attending this clinic, is there still time for them to get out there and sign up to attend?
A: Yes, we’re expecting a bigger crowd in Tampa, Florida, especially after training Miguel Cotto there for his upset victory, to some degree, over Yuri Foreman. We had so many people coming in everyday watching even though a lot of them didn’t believe Miguel would be able to do it. That whole area down there, with Winky Wright and Andre Berto, it’s really a haven of boxing there. It was just a lot of interest all over that whole area there so I think that will be our biggest turnout there. Probably out of the next two or three, it might be one of our most successful.
Q: Now I know you’re planning to do a series of these. Do you have any officially scheduled beyond the one coming up on August 4?
A: I’m going to be going into training camp with Wladimir pretty soon for his fight that we just mentioned which is September 11. We’re doing one in September I think on the 18th in Houston, Texas. We got quite a few people there who called up asking about that. We’ll schedule our next ones I think in London, definitely one somewhere near New York, and maybe one in Germany.
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For more information about the Emanuel Steward Boxing Clinics, to request your city, and to register to attend the August 4 Clinic in Tampa, Florida, please visit EmanuelStewardOnline.com
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For those interested in listening to the Emanuel Steward interview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour and ten minutes into the program.
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http://www.ontheropesboxingradio.com
To contact Geoffrey Ciani or Jenna J:
ontheropes@boxing247.com
To read more by Ciani or Jenna please visit The Mushroom Mag:
http://www.eatthemushroom.com/mag