He taught footwork, balance, proper hand position and how to tighten up on the end of your punches. He would never overcomplicate things - teaching five and six punch combinations was not his style. He was also a great believer in teaching the fundamentals. He liked to understand who you were as a person so that he could communicate better with you as a fighter. He took time to learn what made you tick, where you were from, who in your life was important. As a trainer, Emanuel took great interest in his fighter’s background. I spent seven years living and training with Emanuel and learned a lot from him. Even after meeting him several times and moving to Detroit, I still had moments where I would catch myself and say “Hey that’s Emanuel Steward!” When I got a call in 2002 saying he was interested in training me, I couldn’t believe it. And with four Olympic medals from both Beijing and London, the efforts of the High Performance Unit are coming to fruition.Įmanuel Steward was a legend of the boxing world. There was success for Joe Ward, David Oliver Joyce and Eric Donovan in the World Series of Boxing. This week Donegal middleweight Jason Quigley won gold and Hughie Myers won silver at the European U23s. It’s been eight years since I was part of their team and since then there has been a conveyer belt of talent moulded into world-class boxers. I worked very closely with him and found a mentor I was always seeking to impress.īilly and Zaur work well together. When he first arrived, he had little or no English but built an understanding with us, based on his displays of perfect boxing technique. He is constantly thinking of boxing and how he can improve his charges. He doesn’t so much walk down the street as shadow box from A to B. He had seen it all and imposed a winning mentality. When Billy Walsh was appointed, he immediately had the boxers’ respect. But most lads welcomed it and took on board as much as possible. It met with resistance from people used to doing things their own way. With the High Performance Unit we were lifting weights, doing Olympic lifts and undergoing strength and conditioning training. We became aware of hydration, nutrition and psychology.įor years we were told boxers shouldn’t lift weights. We were training and preparing just as well, if not better, than the rest of the world’s boxers. We would go out at night to clubs and often drink. In the past, after you lost a fight and were out of the tournament, the trip turned into a holiday. One of the biggest things they changed was the attitude of the boxers. The country’s top amateur boxers trained full-time thanks to funding from the Irish Sports Council. Sometimes before a tournament you would go together to a training camp for a week or two before heading off to box the best fighters in the world. We would prepare for international tournaments individually in our own clubs, coming together on weekends to train with the appointed coach and spar with the other lads. In the past, Irish boxers were generalised for being strong, courageous, tough and having big hearts - but not for technical ability or skill. Gary Keegan had a vision to revolutionise Irish amateur boxing. To this day, I still practise some of the lessons I learned there. The influence of these three men and the philosophy of the High Performance Unit on the latter part of my amateur career was one of the main reasons I qualified for the 2004 Olympics. It was my first year in the senior squad and my dream then was to reach the 2004 Olympic games. It changed the way Irish amateur boxers lived and trained. In 2003, Billy Walsh and Zaur Antia were appointed head coach and technical coach to the Irish national boxing team by Director Gary Keegan as part of the new High Performance Unit. After that, the only man that can help you is your coach. When fight-time comes and you stand in the ring, just before you walk to the centre to hear the referee’s final instructions, your promoter, manager and the rest of your team touch you on the gloves, wish you luck and leave the ring.
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