Tag Archives: Freddie Roach

The spirit is willing the but the body’s not!

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The spirit is willing the but the body’s not!

street_gymnasium_amateur_boxing_lessons

I had a bunch of things to do today (Saturday) — so I switched things around and trained yesterday (Friday), before going to work. The great thing was Len Blackmoore agreed to meet me early and after I warmed up with four rounds of shadowboxing, we hit the ring to spar.

Earlier in the week, I’d been at the gym working out on my own and quite frankly, was feeling pretty great: lots of rounds on the uppercut bag and four great rounds on the double-ended bag gave me a feeling of confidence that carried over as I readied to work out with Len.

Now I’m *not* saying that I was overly-confident or even mostly-confident, let’s just say, I felt as if I’d worked things out with my stance, with moving around in the ring and with slipping Len’s dreaded right hand.  Well as the saying goes, “the best laid plans …”

Right from the start I was able to throw punches, and even managed a few combinations, but nothing I seemed to be able to do defensively protected me from his punches. It’s not exactly as if I was frozen, not at all, but it became obvious that aside from deflecting jabs, no matter how I positioned myself, I was open to hooks and uppercuts.

It was only after my four rounds with Len when I observed him sparring with someone else–someone obviously more experienced in the ring–that I began to see how to work things through defensively by keeping my hands up higher and standing straighter in my stance. What I realized is that I was leaning forward, mistaking it for slipping a punch! Talk about an easy target–no wonder I was getting tagged at will from the right!

Thinking about it later I admit to feeling emotionally stung, as if all of the work I’ve been putting in has been wasted … but of course I know better.

I  just have to go back to basics.

Yep … its time to tweak the boxing stance.

So where to begin … again … grrrrr …. the MIRROR!

Women’s Boxing: Ana Julaton’s WBO Super Bantamweight title defense, tonight (9/30/11)!

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>>>>UPDATE>>>>

Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton handily defeated Jessica Villafranca to retain her WBO Super bantamweight title last night.  Julaton won a unanimous decision with the judges scoring the ten-round bout, 98-91, 96-93, and 97-20.  Julaton sustained a small cut to her forehead froms an accidental head butt.  The fight, however, was able to continue.  

Women’s Boxing: Ana Julaton’s WBO Super Bantamweight title defense, tonight (9/30/11)!

Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton (9-2-1, 1-KO) has been training her heart out at the UNLV Boxing Gym in Las Vegas, Nevada in preparation for her WBO Women’s Super Bantamweight title defense against the 18-year old Mexican fighter, Jessica Villafranca (12-3-0, 6 KOs).   The bout will be contested at the Polifuncional in Kanasin, Yucatan, Mexico.

As with Kaliesha West before her, Ana Julaton, is bringing her exciting lightening fast boxing style, honed by Freddie Roach to Mexico, in what appears to be a the beginnings of a trend for elite women fighters from the United States.

As Girlboxing has written before, Villafranca lost her last bout to Kaliesha West in a tough ten-round slug fest in August.  With Villafranca’s fight against Julaton, however, she will be fighting at her natural super bantamweight, so that may well mean that she will fight better and stronger.

Whatever the outcome, Julaton’s decision to take her game to Mexico will hopefully mean more opportunity and exposure as the fight will not only be televised on Mexico’s GMA-7, but on Philippine television as well — plus it will likely be easy to find on streaming video.

For some further insights into Ana Julaton’s life in and out of the ring, Chris Robinson has a terrific interview in the Las Vegas Examiner that is well worth the read.  The link is here.

Freddie Roach volunteers to help coach Team USA Men’s and Women’s Boxing Olympians!

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Freddie Roach volunteers to help coach Team USA Men’s and Women’s Boxing Olympians!


USA Boxing’s Men’s and Women’s Olympic hopefuls will be joined by volunteer coach, Freddie Roach who has opened up his heart and his gym, Wild Card Boxing Club, to the elite athletes who will comprise Team USA’s 2012 Boxing Olympians.

In a press release issued by USA Boxing, Freddie Roach is quoted as saying, “An Olympic medal is one of the greatest accomplishments in all of sport, and I promise to do all I can to ensure that these young men and women are fully prepared to go to London to proudly represent our country,” said Roach.

The 2012 Olympics will mark the first time women’s boxing will be recognized as an Olympic sport — so what better gift than Freddie Roach’s remarkable skills as a trainer for the women who will represent Team USA!

As United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun put it, “I’d like to thank Freddie and his team for their willingness to help our boxers achieve their highest potential.”  Blackmun further stated that he is “thrilled that we were able to make this happen and can’t wait to see the results.”

USA Boxing also noted that “the program … is designed to act as a resource for up to ten medal-potential athletes to attend multi-day training sessions at the Wild Card Gym with their personal coaches and USA Boxing’s National Coach Joe Zanders. These sessions will be established under the leadership of Freddie Roach and his staff and will be used to help provide feedback and strategy on the athletes’ preparation for the Olympic Games. The USOC will support this program as an add-on to the 2011-12 approved high performance plan with the intent of providing a unique and valuable resource for the designated athletes as a supplement to the existing coaching structure.”

Freddie Roach and his team will begin their participation with USA Boxing at an upcoming high performance retreat at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Co.

Girlboxing would like to send a shout out to Freddie for offering this great opportunity!

For further information click here and here.

And the winner is: Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton

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And the winner is:  Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton

Ana "The Hurricane" Julaton

Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton retained her WBO Super Bantamweight title last night in a main event extravaganza against challenger Franchesca “The Chosen One” Alcanter at the Craneway Pavilion in Riverside, California.  Broadcast live over Philippine television, the Filapina-American boxing superstar has captivated her home country at a time when Philippine boxing seems at an all time high after the “punch” delivered by Nonito Donaire in last weekend’s bout against Fernando Montiel.

With the exception perhaps of rounds 6 and 7, Julaton dominated the fight with her left jab and left-right-left combinations and managed to fend off Alcanter’s 10th round wake-up call to take the unanimous decision 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94.  Julaton improvee her record to 8-2-1, 1-KO, and as reported in the Bleacher Report may well look to stage her next title defense in the Philippines.

Women’s Boxing News Roundup – 2/20/21

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Women’s Boxing News Roundup – 2/20/11

Women’s IBF Bantamweight Championship

Suzie Q Ramadan, Women's IBF Bantamweight Champion, Photo: Alex Coppel, Herald Sun

Australia’s Susie Q Ramadan (20-0,KO-8) scored a decisive runaway victory last night to win the Women’s IBF Bantamweight Championship over America’s Terri Lynn Cruz (17-7-2, KO-8).  In commanding fashion, Ramadan scored 99-91 on all three judges scorecards as she routed Cruz in the fight on her home turf venue, the Reggio Calibria Club in Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.  Well publicized in her native Australia, Ramadan hopes to crack the American and European fight markets as well as to continue to bring honor to the sport of boxing for Australia. Article links here and here.

Laila Ali tapped as President of the Women’s Sports Foundation

Laila Ali, radiant in red and expecting her 2nd child in April, Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Former women’s boxing champion Laila Ali a board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation since 2007 has been chosen as the organization’s incoming President.  As quoted in a press release issued by the Women’s Sports Foundation, Ali said, “I’m thrilled to serve as president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, and help girls and women from all walks of life understand the important role of sports and getting active.”  Ali will also become a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation Board of Trustees during her two-year term as President of the foundation.  For more information about this important organization, click here.

Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton training with Freddie Roach!

Ana "The Hurricane" Julaton

Score another Philippine boxing champion for Freddie Roach’s corner as Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton (7-2-1) begins training with Freddie for her February 25th fight against Franchesca ”The Chosen One” Alcanter (18-9-1) in a fight night spectacle at Craneway Pavillion in Riverside, California.  Julaton who is the WBO & IBF Super Bantamweight champion had also recently indicated that she would drop her professional status to compete in the 2012 Olympics on the Philippine national team.  Meanwhile, her upcoming fight will be televised live on TV5, a singular honor for women’s boxing.

Getting back to basics: the boxing stance

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Getting back to basics: the boxing stance

I had a terrific morning yesterday working out with Lennox Blackmore.  We spent four rounds on the focus pads on such fundamentals as clean doubled-up jabs which brought us all the way back to the beginning — the stance.   Yep, by sitting lower in my stance with my body angled forward, my jabs were crisper, my slips more economical and rights in the pocket with a nice hard “thwack” sound every time it hit the pad.

Once on the double-ended bag for my second set of four-rounds, I worked more and more on keeping my stance low and thereby really pushed out punches from my core.  And that, I realized, is the entire point of the stance.  Sure, a proper stance provides a boxer with the right amount of balance, but more fundamentally it allows a boxer to use his or her core energy and strength to throw punches that are swift and sure with an economy of movement that saves energy and shaves milliseconds off the time needed to connect.

Talk about a wow.

And that’s the thing about boxing.  Many training sessions follow a rout pattern of warm-up, training steps such as shadow boxing, focus pads, sparring, slip rope, heavy bag, double-ended bag, speed-bag and so on in whatever combination is being worked on that day, however, every once in a while, it all connects and boom — it comes together again in some new more fundamental way.

A lot like life, no?  One wanders along doing the same thing day after day and suddenly a thunderbolt hits and the pathway seems clearer.  And while it might be nice if every day was greeted with an epiphany of the day, the fact is there’s something down right sweet about finding it buried deep within the work.  Leastways, I find it to be the case.

Making it count

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Making it count

 

Brown Belt

 

Having achieved her brown belt, my daughter’s Aikido Sensei gave her about half a minute to rest on her laurels before starting the push towards her next goal.

She is ranked at 2.5 and must reach a 0.5 level before she will be invited to test for her Shidon or first rank Black Belt under the rules of the the Aikido World Alliance, the parent organization for her Dojo.  That will take three to four years, and given her age she will then wait at her 0.5 rank for some time before the AWA confers their invitation.

Her Sensei figures that as she is on her road towards a Black Belt — she is now not only an apprentice trainee with respect to all of the techniques that she must master, but more importantly she must also begin to learn the responsibilities of achieving the rank.  That is all pretty heady stuff for an 11-year-old, and yet, having been thrown to the front of her class to lead the warm-up, she has become cognizant of how difficult it is to command the attention and respect of a group of people long enough to actually get something done.

What she’s also learning is that small things matter.

In Aikido, stance is everything — much as in boxing — and finding the balance means a lot not only to her practice, but in her role as a novice teacher, to those of her students.  Thus she now sees when something is wrong and has begun to correct the tiniest of movements.  This process of breaking it down is helping her to ascertain the faults in her own practice — at least that’s her Sensei’s ingenious plan, though this last is perhaps the hardest to achieve.

Sometimes it is not really possible to articulate what happens beyond the realm of the pure mechanics of a particular set of movements.  In Aikido, that might mean the execution of a series of moves with a partner — pretty difficult stuff in that both partners must also act in a kind of harmony with each other even as the one may be attempting to toss the other to the ground.

Boxing offers something similar — a remarkable improvised dance executed by two well-skilled fighters balanced for ability and for that little something extra that comes from the heart.