Dealing with a coach who wants to change your style.

Have you actually, you know, told your coach this before posting here?

 

I tell coach this for you at practice tomorrow...:thumbsup

PS: Stick to what you feel is more comfortable for you, unless your coach knows what he's doing and that this what he feels would make you better and not just teaching one style for all students.

 

If he gets insulted, or gives you any ****, move on and find a new trainer. Don't stick around a shitty situation any longer than you have to.

EDIT: Something similar to this happened to me, and I ended up becoming more and more crazy and angry every single week. I finally left the gym a couple months ago, and I have improved a TON.

Of course there were some sore feelings, but I know I'm a better fighter because its easier to train wtihout someone needling you on irrelevant ****.

 

Maybe move back to your old gym?
What gym did you move too? if you don't mind me asking

 

Give it a go for a while. Most things seems strange / uncomfortable at first, but with time it will feel more natural and you will become a more complete boxer.
For example, your coach wants you to plant your feet and use less movement around the ring - work on your head movement or inside fighting.

 

First of all,
this is something I went through my self and the thing is. You should learn to do both. When you get tired you need to be able to take the middle of the ring to save energy and rely on your guard as well. You should be able to fight in both styles even if you are better in one. You will soon find out that you can´t fight different oponents the same way all the time. Some styles work better towards different oponents.
Your problem is not that the coach try to change your way of boxing, the problem might be that your coach don´t know how to teach you to box the " movable style". You might be the master in that way of boxing between you and him, and perhaps he can´t accept that. A good coach knows how to teach you both ways and by right, it is much better to box with a lot of movements, it´s easier to find openings and you are much harder to hit.
I think your new coach don´t know or understand that style of boxing and instead of be honest to you and tell you that, he gets insulted and want you to use his style of boxing that he knows and understand.
A good coach don´t force you into a specific style, a good coach brings out the style and the best of you that you have inside you. You can´t train two boxers exactly the same.
This is what I´ve learned during the years as a boxer and later as a trainer as well.
Stay with your relaxed way of boxing with a lot of movements, but learn some of the old classic way as well if you get to tired to move around all the time.
Best of luck
The Predator

 

Found this also, but the guy who tried this was trying to teach me how to box flat footed which I wanted to learn (more power)

 

I had a situation not too different from this a while back.

I was boxing with the same coach for about 5 years and I'd made huge improvements and was performing really well in sparring. My circumstances changed and I couldn't train one-on-one with my coach anymore and was reduced to just doing classes once a week and training on my own. I was beginning to get frustrated with my training (even before I'd stopped doing one-on-ones) because of some changes around the gym and changes my coach was making with 'the program', I stuck with it though, because I still felt I was learning and progressing and I had my own goals I was working toward.

Eventually circumstances changed again and I couldn't train at the gym at all, I just had to train myself at home, which essentially limited my skill work to almost entirely shadowboxing and occasionally some bag work or f/c ball work when ever I had access to them.

It went on like this for a number of months before I could attend classes again, and I was a little worried about getting back into sparring, since the guys I'd be sparring would be the same guys I was sparring before, but they'd spent the last 3-4 months training privately with the coach and getting quality, consistent sparring, whereas I had spent the last 3-4 months training in my garage. I thought I'd get mauled.

I didn't. Turned out I was about as good as I was when I'd left. I was still performing very well against guys that should have been picking me apart. This continued for about a month before everything changed around again and I had to stop going to that gym. I haven't been back in almost a year now and my only regret is the impact it's had on my training as a whole (ie, I haven't found a consistent gym to train at since).

Anyways, the moral of the story is, try it and see. You might think your coach is helping you (as I did), or you might think your coach is hindering you (as you do), you might be right, you might be wrong, or you might just be treading water (as I was). It sounds to me like he has a very traditional, fundamentals based, training style. The only way to really know if it's going to work for you in the long term is to try it out and see what happens.

I listened to my coach for a long time, and he made me a better boxer, but when his coaching style changed, I think I was just heading in a different direction. I stuck with if for a while, but I knew it wasn't for me. This is similar to your situation in that you're used to doing things and being coached one way, but now you're being confronted by a different style of teaching and a different set of skills to learn. So my advice to you is, unless you genuinely feel it's going to be detrimental to you as a boxer then stick with it until you get a better feel for which direction you're heading.

 

i would say give it a try for awhile. you never know you it might not be so bad. but i do get you it can be difficult having a coach who wants you to change completely.

 

Something to keep in mind. Unless you are Archie Moore, it is very possible that the trainer knows things that you do not. This is why boxers get other people to train them. Standing outside the ring and observing, it is very possible that he sees things that you are not aware of.
it is very easy to say "I want to do it my way" and sometimes it can be pretty hard to listen to and accept criticism and advice, but that is the whole point behind seeking 'training.'
But then I don't know a thing about you or that coach so I'm just talking.

 

Guess what, your old style might be **** and unsuitable to take you further in which case persisiting with something that is i9t first dfficult will pay off.

I hate training boxers who have been coached by others - most of the time they are an absolute mess and everything is wrong. I've had two of my boxers (long term ones from the beginning) move to different gyms for work related reasons. One went to Repton and one went to a ex - pro in another part of the country and both places said what a great job i'd done,.

What i'm trying to say is that fundamentals are fundamentals and you should be able to do them before worrying about style

 

:good

 

My coach right now wants us to learn to fight in the pocket. Of course I don't like inside fighting, usually I have the better reach and better and faster jab.

But after facing bigger guys or movers, I realized how right he was. The inside is also one of the only good places to do good damage.

Sure, I get hit way more. But it actually gave me new tools to deal with situations.