What should I look for in a trainer?

Great question where I live there are two decent trainers, three including me and the rest are various degrees of clueless!

A good trainer should be a good council to you
They must understand the fundamentals of the sport
They must understand fitness and correctly apply training methods
Must be keen
Must be a great observer and a stickler for detail.

Too many people stick a set of pads on and call themselves a trainer/ manager!! People in the boxing world just laugh at them though- believe me

 

Can you plz comment on the age of the trainer also? Mh trainer is 58 years old BTW, and he is well known for his technical skills..

 

Age is unimportant surely!

 

Yes. Like experience is unimportant. You nailed it..:good

 

What?? Someone might be 60 and only watched the sport for 2 years

 

Look I respect you, but this sounds silly. Lets be practical and honest.. In real world, can you name a trainer who is old but got less experience in the sport? I mean, any sport for that matter..?

The reason why I mentioned age is because I though of bringing the 'patience involved' into the discussion.. With age come patience..

 

Age has nothing to do with it! Think what ur writing

 

Lets be serious if hes 20 then hes unlikely to have as much experience than a 58 year old but that doesnt mean that the old guy definitely has more experience thats just idiotic logic. Id recommend looking at the successes of people hes trained as a good benchmark. If you have the time try out both gyms and see which trainer you prefer, one may be a better trainer for you than the other even if in general he is a worse trainer.

 

Put it this way, who is a more knowledgeable driver- John, age 28, taxi driver or vince, age 65, ice cream man!??? Which is better qualified to teach you to drive??

Further to this, have you ever heard of cpd? How many older trainers have? I'm not slagging older trainers- andy sumner-my old amateur coach had tremendous knowledge and teaching skills but that's because he was a teacher and broke down what he was watching really well. Not because he was over 30.

Age is irrelevant!

 

Funny I was talking to a guy the other week, and this subject came up in conversation. His observation was, coaches in the 1st year, learn to do coaching a certain way. For the next 20 years they dont change or think of doing so, they dont evolve. I found that interesting Jeff. Plus this guy knows sport through out most systems, He has too

 

Yeah I believe age is irrelevant. In fact being older is often a disadvantage if the coach doesn't keep an open mind, every coach needs to evolve with the times and be ready to learn new things. An old school trainer might not know much about how to train the body and he might be stuck on what worked for his fighters thirty years ago. You'll be starting off as an amateur so you'll want someone who understands the scoring system and follows it closely. Jeff nailed it when he said his old coach could break down what he is seeing really well, if you can do that at any age then you'll be a good coach.

 

They could be the best trainer around but if hes not interested training you then hes not much use. You want a trainer who is constantly harrassing you about fubdamental errors like crossing your feet, jabbing. Proper punches, workrate, variation, movement etc etc you want trainer who demands solid training session with rules, you dont want him to be nice and friendly when youre training you need someone who works hard to help you improve your skill will and fitness and definitely someone who has had success with other boxers.

 

Okay. Good that we have a constructive discussion now. But the above logice is not valid, in my opinion. I never said just old age, I said old aged trainer which means the chances of them being in the field for a longer time is higher. So plz compare 2 taxi drivers of different age ok? Not even a taxi and a truck driver, jsut 2 taxi dirvers..

Moreover, are we talking about traniers who are going to coach world champs? or some one who is going to coach newbiees..? Because, for some who is going to get started a coach who is good at basics should be more than good enough.. And if the coach has age (which means more experience, in most cases) he has a good influnce on the fellow who is getting trained. Feel free to correct me, plz..