It has been famously said before that anyone can throw a towel over their shoulder and call themselves a trainer. In order to be truly worthy of the moniker, however, one needs much more than that. A good trainer should, of course, get his fighter in the best shape possible, but if this were the only prerequisite for the job, then there would be no need for trainers at all. Naturally talented fighters could just train themselves. No, a real trainer should be part teacher, part motivator, part father figure/mentor and part confidant.
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As writers, we are often told to take ourselves out of the stories that we pen. I have endeavored to do so to this point, with a few exceptions. Yet, writing this piece, I am compelled to provide a modicum of background on my qualifications to speak on such a delicate matter as what separates the trainer in name only from the real deal. Before advancing much further into this topic, I must come clean and admit that I, myself, have never trained a single fighter in my life. That does not mean that I believe that I would fail in the exercise. In my abbreviated career as an amateur boxer, I prepared with two very different trainers, each of whom were on opposite sides of the fence. One cared, the other didn’t.
If you have an apathetic trainer, chances are you will be an apathetic fighter. As in any boss-employee relationship (and a fighter must look at his trainer as “the’ boss”), there must be a level of mutual respect. The respect from the fighter should be a given, since he is the one who is being taught. There are many reasons as to why a trainer may not show interest in his fighter or fighters. Maybe he feels his fighter is not talented enough to waste his time on, maybe he has his favorites in the gym, whatever. If that is the case, then the fighter is not going to work as hard at his craft as he would if his trainer was actually there, in his face, yelling at him that he could do this or that, better.
First of all, a trainer has to teach his charge the basics. How to throw the jab, how to bring it back, the straight right, the hook to the body, etc. He can’t stop there and wait for the fighter to develop into a world beater on his own. The good trainer will be there every step of the way, pointing out things done wrong while praising things done right. This builds both the fighter’s willingness to learn as well as his confidence. A trainer who stands idly by while the fighter pounds away on the heavybag for half an hour isn’t really a trainer, he’s an observer.
Next, a good trainer should be an excellent cheerleader. He should be able to give you that little extra push, whether you are hitting the mitts or slugging it out in some dank arena in your second amateur fight. There are ways to “cheerlead” effectively, and good trainers know how to tailor their motivational speeches to each individual fighter’s needs. There is a risk of taking this too far, as seen in the many episodes of the Michael Moorer-Teddy Atlas routine. If you need to be pushed to fight so badly that your trainer has to tell you in front of a nationwide audience that your child is on the phone crying because you don’t wanna be champ anymore, maybe this is the wrong game for you.
Good trainers should also be father figures of sorts. No, I don’t mean that they have to be a beacon of purity in every way, they only have to be someone that the fighter can look up to. Maybe it’s someone who has been in the game before and has experienced its ups and downs, and can teach the fighter not to repeat his or her mistakes. Maybe it’s someone who has never even laced up a pair of gloves before on their own closed fist, but one who has seen the business side of boxing and can guide the fighter in the right direction in that respect. A trainer should find an angle with their fighter, anything that they can identify with, and create dialogue.
Finally, and going along with the father figure relationship, is the role of confidant. The trainer should not only be there for his fighter in the gym, but outside the gym as well. If the fighter has a problem, the trainer should be there not as a trainer, but as a friend, especially if the fighter has no others to turn to. This is perhaps the most important of the roles that a good trainer should possess. It comes down to just one word, and that is trust.
I am no expert on this subject. As I previously said, I’m not a trainer, never have been, and most likely, never will be. I may not know exactly how to make the above happen, but I know what it takes to get all out of your fighter that you can. Boxing is a perfect metaphor for life. It’s cliché, sure, but it is also very true. Everything that has been said here may be taken and applied to anyone that you truly care about, well, save for the physical part. It is the opinion of many that one’s trainer really does not really make a difference. For my money, they make all the difference in the world.
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(Jun 2, 2004) 
