Moderate training and playing to one’s strengths were the key aspects of coach Santiago Nieva’s training methods as the Argentinian guided the Indian boxing team through the final phase of practice in the run-up to the World Championships, starting Monday in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
As the elite boxers left for Yekaterinburg following a month-long camp at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), the intensity of training was brought down a few notches and the focus was on keeping the eight boxers healthy and fresh for the tough challenges awaiting them.
“We are prepared and ready to face the challenge. The camp was only for last-minute tweaks. The focus was on avoiding burnouts before competition and that’s why we’d shifted to Patiala,” said Nieva, the team’s high-performance director, who was attached with the Swiss team before he took up the India assignment.
“We started it in March-April by introducing friendly weekend competitions. It gave me the opportunity to explore each week how the boys were progressing; how much they were learning to implement (the techniques taught) during the heat of the competition,” he says.
The friendly competitions have helped Jakarta Asian Games gold medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) and Kavinder Singh Bist (57kg) improve their skills against taller and stronger opponents. The most important lesson Nieva has given the duo is self-belief against taller and tougher opponents.
“It’s better to improve your skills than to reduce your weight and kill yourself,” is the high- performance director’s mantra.
The change in attitude was evident during the Asian Championships at Bangkok in April where Panghal won gold and Bist silver in a campaign where Indian returned with 13 medals in men’s and women’s sections.
“All this is the result of more emphasis on the two most important aspects, which are taken for granted — warm-up and cooling down. We’ve been working on these basics for the last six months. A proper warm-up is the key to success in the first round and subsequently gaining an upper hand in the remaining two rounds.
“In a high-voltage match, it’s difficult to recover lost ground, especially against a good boxer who start dominating from the ‘word go’,” says Nieva.
At the Asian Games last year, Panghal had conceded after the final that not warming up properly could have cost him gold against Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan.
“Panghal took his warm-up casually in Jakarta. It cost him some vital points in the first round, though he managed to bounce back in the second and third and eventually win the title,” says Nieva.
Now there are strict instructions to every boxer in the camp to enter the ring only after the mandatory 45-minute warm-up.
“Warm-up should be a good 45 minutes. But, at the same time, it shouldn’t be stretched beyond a point,” he says, adding that the cooling down process is equally important.
In fact, it is the “first step towards the next bout”. “A 20-minute low-intensity workout on a stationary bike, or jogging, helps flush out 90 per cent of the lactic acid from the system. It might be boring but its benefits are immense.”
While there are several other aspects the Argentinian is keen to improve, a key ingredient of his training is self-appraisal. “We are trying to inculcate the habit of self-improvement in the system and I can see a lot of positive change.”
Nieva feels that with the Indian boxers committed to securing as many Olympic quota places as possible during the qualification cycle, which begins in February, giving them better facilities will only boost their morale.
“With the first round of Olympic qualifiers scheduled in Wuhan, China in February, the immediate need is for better living conditions and a good diet. “Non-vegetarian diet should be served more often and fresh juice should replace canned stuff,” he says.
The high-performance director has also suggested a recreational room at NIS “as it’s important for them to spend the leisure time in a more meaningful way and not just fidget with their mobile phones”. “We can’t stop it (mobile phone use) completely but we can channelise their energies into more meaningful activities,” he says.
Selection policy
The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has firmed up its selection policy for the Olympic qualifiers staring next February.
As per the policy, the medal winners at the World Championships will get direct entry to the first qualifier in Wuhan, China, while in the women’s section, the gold and silver medallists will get direct berth to the first qualifying tournament.
The other eligible boxers — top four in each group — will have to take part in the trials. For the second qualifiers, in Paris in May, the selection will be done in only those weight categories where no boxer has achieved a quota place for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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