Gary Blower - Boxing: Training, Skills and Techniques

I first really got to know Gary Blower twenty-two years ago, when he came to join our boxing club. The club in question was the Austin Amateur Boxing Club and I was assistant coach to national coach Dennis Jackson. Gary had been boxing for Redditch ABC and whenever he was matched against one of our boxers we always knew they were in for a tough contest. I particularly remember him causing quite an upset when in only his eighth bout, he outboxed and outpointed one of our area champions. A couple of years later he came and joined our team, as he felt he had reached as far as he could with his current club. The Austin was a club steeped in boxing history that had produced many champions at national and multinational level and under Dennis Jackson, Gary became a much better all-round boxer.

He was a very popular and busy boxer who would compete at a minutes notice and never once turned down or pulled out of a contest. Gary would be regularly involved in the best bout of the night on many shows and won endless boxer- of-the -tournament awards. As a model club member, Gary was probably one of the fittest boxers in the gym, who was extremely dedicated and gave one hundred per cent in every bout. He was a very skilful, textbook type of boxer who had a great understanding and knowledge of the sport.

Gary would always be on the wrong end of a close decision and it was due to the character of the man that he would be first in the gym the next day. Although he had a good career in boxing he never quite reached the heights that I felt he was capable of and after over fifty senior bouts he retired from competing.

Due to illness Dennis Jackson retired from coaching and I took over the reins of the club, producing many champions of my own. I renewed my association with Gary ten years later when he asked if I would take a look at a few young prospects he had been coaching at his gym. Week after week he would bring his boxers along to spar and train at my gym and not one of his boxers failed to impress me! The most noticeable thing about each and every one of them was their extreme fitness and dedication and they all gave one hundred per cent, very much in the same mould as Gary. He possesses the same enthusiasm and attitude in schooling and training his boxers as he had when he competed. His boxers are now becoming a major part of my squad, as is Gary, who along with my coaching team and myself hope to continue producing even more champions .

Anyone who reads this book will gain a wonderful insight into the sport of amateur boxing and the preparation required for any boxer to reach competition level. For someone starting out in the sport, the section on training, techniques and nutrition will be most valuable. As an experienced coach of over twenty-five years, I personally found the training section combining old tried and tested methods along with new techniques, most useful.

Micky Redman

ABA Coach

Saturday 10 October 1981 is a date firmly fixed in the mind of the author. It was on this day at a sold-out Abbey Stadium in Redditch that he boxed competitively for the first time, winning on points and receiving the boxer of the night award. Twenty-five years later Gary is still involved with boxing, training and coaching people of every level. During his boxing career he boxed under the guidance of national coach Dennis Jackson. Dennis was part of the England squad headed by probably one of Britains most innovative coaches, Kevin Hickey.

It was whilst under the tuition of Dennis that Gary received his grounding towards training competitive boxers. As a fitness instructor for thirty years, Gary has qualified in aerobic fitness, Aerobic and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) weight training, National Amateur Body Building Association (NABBA) and Olympic Lifting, British Amateur Weight Lifting Association (BAWLA). At the age of twenty he managed his first health club, that at this time was the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom. In 1997 he opened his own fitness centre specializing in boxing training and conditioning , where people could learn the art of boxing away from the competitive atmosphere of an amateur boxing club. Working with small groups of boxers or on a one-to-one basis, with his knowledge of training and experience in competing, Gary can teach and prepare any youngsters who may have ambitions and the ability to compete. Many of the boxers he has trained have now filtered through to competitive level, with more and more almost up to that standard.

The author, Gary Blower.

Boxing training is widely regarded as one of the hardest forms of training there is. It is due to this fact that many people of all ages and levels of fitness are using the training methods of a boxer as a way of improving their physical condition.

This book will be a useful guide to anyone wishing to participate in a boxing-based programme, purely to learn new skills and improve their overall fitness. The core of this book is dedicated to the amateur side of boxing and in particular the amateur boxer. Anyone with aspirations of boxing competitively will almost certainly go through their local amateur boxing club. There is, of course, a major difference between training for wellbeing and training to compete, as the competitive boxer has to be totally dedicated and, at the same time, extremely fit and focused.

For any up-and-coming boxers reading this book, they will find it useful in helping to understand what is required to box competitively. The technical and training advice given throughout the book has all been tried and tested on boxers of all levels, but they are only guidelines and competitive boxers will need to consult their coaches before attempting any new methods. To a boxing purist the amateur code is often regarded as the true sport of boxing, where a contest between two amateur boxers is not a fight but a challenge of skill.