Ep 013 - Eddie Bolger
Fri, 10/16 11:16AM • 43:31
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, boxing, boxers, billy, people, culture, germany, eddie, athlete, ireland, german, train, little bit, podiums, katie taylor, katie, benefit, sport, vision, learned
SPEAKERS
Jan Stirling, Eddie Bolger, Transition, Paul Barnett, Intro, Jim Woolfrey
Intro 00:01
Welcome to the great coach's podcast. To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard after this is a chance. You can understand the dressing, you can work towards a common goal. We are all on the same team. Now you focus on the fundamentals. We've gone over time and time again. It's got to be better. We've known great moments are born. Great opportunity.
Jim Woolfrey 00:34
My name is Jim Woolfrey. And you are listening to the great coach's Podcast, where we interview great sporting coaches to try and find ideas to help all of us lead our teams better. Our great coach on this episode is Eddie Bolger, the coach of the German national boxing team, and he was born into a boxing family in Wexford, Ireland. As a boxer, he won national titles at under age and senior levels before moving into coaching. He joined the Irish boxing program in 2008. Initially on a voluntary basis, his status grew steadily and he was eventually appointed as one of Ireland's three national coaches at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The success of the Irish program prompted German boxing to poach him in 2017, to set up their own high performance unit and awaken the sleeping giant that they hope boxing can be in their country. Eddie is a humble and honest coach. He speaks openly about growing up listening to boxing stories around the home, and how learning early boxing disciplines have influenced his own coaching philosophy. He describes how he moved a highly regionalised sport into a common collective now seen as the German national boxing team. And he speaks openly about the mistakes he made along the way. And that by working to understand his adversaries, he now counts them as some of the most important people that work beside him. He shares a great story about the professionalism of five time world champion and Olympic gold medal winning Irish boxer, Katie Taylor, and the power of being seen as a unified national German team through the simple act of wearing the squads uniform whenever they are together. We hope you enjoyed this discussion as much as we did
Transition 02:22
the great coaches podcast
Paul Barnett 02:25
Eddie Bolger. Hello, and welcome to the Great coach's podcast. Oh, thanks very much for having me. I'm a big boxing fan. So I'm very keen to hear your story. But could I start with something really simple? Where are you in the world today? And what have you been up to?
Eddie Bolger 02:41
I'm sitting in my kitchen at home preparing for a camp on Friday in a place called zoldan. In Austria, it's in the Alps. And it's our second camp. We call it our second gen camp with only German boxers. But yeah, that's that's that's we had a camp maybe one month ago in Cuba, for the six athletes. And we called it our educational camp, where we got people together, try to give them a picture of what what was coming down the line, what they expect when you come to a high performance environment. We have our number ones or number twos, and we identified some guys that angles that would maybe the potential for pirates 24
Paul Barnett 03:26
Eddie, you have worked with some great coaches, Billy Walsh, and our editor to name just a couple. But what is it you think the great coaches do differently?
Eddie Bolger 03:37
Two different people. Billy speaks with the same accent. He comes from the same street nearly we're same town. We never lived too far apart from each other. So we speak the same accent. And we came up to the same club same Boxing Club. Billy went to a different club. As he grew older, he went with his father. Billy's passion for boxing was second and and is a good GM and also, you know, which would be Harlan football. But his art came from a an Eastern European and a well educated man through that system. But together both of them brought, you know with a 5050 contribution. Billy's passion Billy's a bit like myself. Now Billy's passion to learn and develop in management in directing things was was the key and the knowledge that I had in the technical development, technical tactical, conditioning, development periodization of of preparation. It was just a good common together and very lucky for me that I got a credit regretted apprenticeship in grad education. It's sometimes it takes different people in the one team. different personalities. Yeah, different makeups and these just clicked[PB1] . And the lads followed. It was a fantastic achievement for a small for a small nation, you know, even now To this day, I know the system that there and I know what they're doing every week, grinding out these programs. They're a difficult opponent to deal with. And it's fantastic the system to have up to
Paul Barnett 05:22
Eddie you were born into a boxing family, your uncle's boxed and your grandfather was an all Ireland army champion. What do you think are the key things you've learned from them that now form part of your coaching philosophy?
Eddie Bolger 05:38
I thought about this. Yak a courser is but it would be more on the culture side or my behavior and my personality or what I've learned I spent a lot of time on my granddad down in his grandfather down in his house. And unfortunately, their boxing was long before I became before I walked into the club there and they didn't have the technology back then they could watch your grandpa boxing or your I my uncle's boxing. But yeah, they want to restate was my granddad won an army title. These are difficult things to do in those days. But I learned a lot about, you know, being on time. I could never I could never tolerate me being late for the club or leaving the house later. So I learned these things are really key to be honest, for young people go on, that your bike is full with the right equipment, that you're on time that you're in good moods, and yeah, these sort of things[PB2] . And, of course, the stories he told me, inspired me. Yeah, they were they were very key elements. To get me to put my foot through the door for the first time as an eight year old. You know, that's, that's really where they would have had the effect on me. You know, that's what that's what a lot of people need, you know, they need that inspiration. The motivation and your own motivation comes later.[PB3] But to be inspired and to be educated and to know the stories and no, I used to polish trophies, Polish little plaques every day with my granny. And it leaves an imprint on you definitely gives you a direction, which way you're going to go, I was probably never going to keep football, it was always soon as I was old enough to go through that door down the boxing club than the school. That's where I went.
Paul Barnett 07:26
You know, one of your first coaching Jobs was working with 12 and 13 year olds, and you said it was a big role because you were the psychologist, the physio and the coach. So how would you describe your role as a coach today with the German team?
Eddie Bolger 07:41
There's four key areas in my opinion, or my philosophy or is what I always focus on is to be a world class boxer, you need to be mentally strong, physically strong, a good lifestyle, and technically and tactically developed know, as a club coach. And as a young coach, you think you must do all this, but it's so much better when you when you can avail of experts. And when you lead the program, get these experts in to help you lead the program and help everybody push in the right direction.[PB4] This This was the biggest education I got when I went to Dublin that I met with the service providers. And then it expanded into video analysis, nutritionists, psychologists, that was really an education for me, served my time well in Dublin. I was like a sponge I cause more rows than I would ask them questions and interrupting people. Yeah, it was really an amazing how Billy kept me around long enough to get to get those four years under my belt. I was always asking questions always saying but but why do we do this. And when we went to Dublin are sorry, when we left Dublin then to go to Germany. It was really that was a big, something that I noticed that wasn't working collectively. In the regions. It was more regional quarters again that had good experience that maybe had the knowledge and had the the education from 30 years ago in the GDR system or they were playing that role of a club coach again. Playing the psychologist being the being the s&c coach, being the pad man and being the corner man. And I really wanted to get a collective program again together and bring in the experts. So we so we could, we could monitor the national team collectively make profiles of each boxer and with the input from our strength conditioning coach, our physiologist, develop that profile. And that's the real change that I wanted to do over the last six to one six months to one year is we've really turned the corner and we can see it in the results. I think
Paul Barnett 09:57
when you got that job you were poached from Ireland. Germany, which was a, you know, huge share of faith in the Irish system, but also you personally, you walked into that German setup that was fragmented, and you brought it all together? What were some of the first things you did?
Eddie Bolger 10:14
I met a lot of rookie mistakes first, I went in and thought that I had to do everything. No, I'll do this on that course. And I'll do this. And that, which I'll go here and slowly but surely. And, you know, I want to try and speak honestly, because you probably get more value out of this, if I'm speaking honestly, you know, you identify with your characters, you identify with new personalities, you meet these new coaches, and we all didn't gel really very quickly, you know, I'm sure they didn't think they needed me there[PB5] . Some regions, or some regions in Germany, were doing a lot better than other regions. So they didn't think really things need to be fixed. was really that collusion or that that bonden that wasn't there. And you know, as a head coach, you could say, well, it's my Where are nowhere. And I really believe to this day. Now, most of them some of these coaches that I encountered in the first couple of months, I could have said, Look, it's not gonna work. But now today, these are some of the best coaches that I got are better beside me. It was just about learning over the last couple of months, making a lot of mistakes, get an old people's personality, and actually get when I say getting an older personality, getting an older value, because they have a lot of knowledge. They have a lot of experience. They have fantastic talent in their regions. And really, it was just getting them to trust me. by gaining that trust, I had to show what what I had to offer. And it took a while. And like I said, I think the last year, definitely. And the last six months, we've turned the corner. And we've a year, we've a year now maybe to Tokyo, and it's going to suit us all the better. But yeah, the real thing was decided to sort of say, look, this is not my program. It's it's a program that we used in Ireland, it's a program in Ireland that we probably stole from somebody else. And this is what we've got from this. And it was only only really after a while that they started when they see the benefit doctor came on board and really, really sort of said, Okay, this is where we're going, let's give it a go. And it's early days, but we'll get there.
Paul Barnett 12:37
I can't wait to see, see how the team perform at the Olympics, I've got a feeling they're going to do pretty well. But I want to go back to your philosophy, you know, and one of the things he said is you want to create mentally strong fighters. And I want to just take you to the changing rooms, if I could in the walk to the ring. And I imagine the nerves of the fight, I must be very high at that point. And I'm wondering, is there anything you do any routines or tips that you use to try and calm the nerves down and get people focused and ready?
Eddie Bolger 13:11
Look, it's different for different people, different athletes at this stage that the the level that we're working with now is elite level. And they've really made that walk a lot. They've made that walk to the ring many, many times. And the thing we tried to do is instill a process, a good process that we've done all the time, you know, and they try to repeat this good process that has worked for him before. And this gives them a little bit of focus. And they warm up at a special time each individual might have a little bit, it might be one minute, there might be five minutes in the difference. But you try to instill this process. And the regularity of this brings comes and brings brings brings a sense of normality.[PB6] And I have some focused in on really do performance under performance is everything. That's really what you're trying to get everything about good performance, you use the habits you've done before the habits that have given you good performance before so you train and study them and repeat them boxers on hold on the a lot of talking at that stage. They don't want a lot of talk and they don't want to be interfered with. They know they have their process really. So we practice it.
Paul Barnett 14:24
And what about you Eddie, how do you stay calm? You know, you're at the side of the ring. There's punches flying everywhere, and you know, sometimes the judging is corrupt. We need to talk about that because this was a horrible instance in Rio but how do you how do you stay calm? How do you keep cool
Eddie Bolger 14:38
to be honest, during is probably the easiest part of it. You're you're in the battle is gone or the whistle is gone, the balls drawn in it and you're done. You're in, you're in the middle of it and you're concentrating on things that are happening within those seconds and minutes. But yeah, you think about what if what what's going to happen will we get a good draw And then when we're we're down to the draws over is how do we come up with a tactical plan? Will this tactical plan work? The biggest monkey on your shoulders will be get fairplay? You know, and that's that's the thing about boxing, you have to deal with that as a coach, and try not to offload that onto your boxers, you know, you just really performances, everything, you just have to concentrate on performance. And then you as a coach, you've got to have your routine also. And try and repeat good practices and repeat good performances. If there's no coach in the world doesn't think about bad decisions, but you just got to try and implement the best plan, you can.[PB7] Your plan, you know, you do your video analysis, you look at your opponent, you look at the weaknesses, you tried to you try to say like, Okay, this is what we're going to try and do. And that's that, that takes up most most of your targets, that is just a most of your focus until those seconds before the weekend goes up. That's that's the hardest part for a coach. Because nobody knows, really.
Paul Barnett 16:07
You talked earlier about you fighters need to be physically strong. And I think, you know, the sacrifices, we've all watched the rocky movies, we know the sacrifices, the boxes make a legendary and I was watching a web web web summit with Michael Conlon, who I think's trained with you at some point. And he was talking about the just the routine it was just insane. And I was wondering, how do you help your fighters maintain motivation? When their energy drops? Because it must be so hard to maintain that level of intensity with their training?
Eddie Bolger 16:41
Yeah, first of all, you've got to discuss, you know, what's the best training schedule? What's the best loading, you know, loading is how hard you train, how often you train, and how long you transfer. That's really as the loading of training. Once you've decided what works, what's the best, it's about getting the right loading and getting the right recovery. Recovery is everything. Some people forget about recovery[PB8] . Michael was a phenomenal trainer, you know, and people from other sports or even the walk of normal people it to step inside that gym for a week. It's phenomenal. The amount of training so recovery is everything. Yeah, motivation. I have to be honest, the guys I've worked with over the years, motivation is the least problem. You know, the likes of Michael, Katie, Patti Jo Ward motivation is it doesn't come into it. He can try and help inspire and then he can help give them encouragement. But these guys are always motivated. You know, they did this is their life. Yeah, they might need they might need a little bit of extra recovery when when things get on top of them. So it's usually discussed with the team.
Paul Barnett 17:58
I read where you said that. When you with the Irish team, you would sometimes train with the rugby team. And then the next day, we do some boxing. And then when you're in Germany, you did something similar with the slalom skiers ? Yeah. And I'm just interested, what do you think other coaches could really learn from boxing
Eddie Bolger 18:17
it we didn't do very often, you know, people have their schedules and stuff this but it was a great idea. And it was a you learn from your peers. Sport is a game of percentages, if you can gain a percentage again, something here a little bit here. And dealing with successful, you know, other sports, they could be something in it very much. You could hear something from a rugby coach or you could just bounce something off somebody else.[PB9] And it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun, you know, and in Ireland, you know, rugby is perceived as a big sport has big personalities in it. But we will collect we were collected from the from the National Stadium on a bus, and we were brought to Carlton House to meet these rugby superstars. And from the minute our lads got off the bus, it was a 5050 experience as in respect, they were really made to feel on a par with these guys. So that was the first step. You know, that was something these guys felt really important. They felt on a level with the superstars. And what we decided to do was do a box in there where the rugby players would join in with the warm up the shadowbox in the school box in and then we put gloves on, we do a little bit of choreograph stuff. And I remember then Michael and Patti asking for you know, let's do a free round and let's show these guys were three minutes. How long three minutes is. It was a great day, a great day. Coordination was probably lacking a little bit with our op players, but they had great fun. We bounce things off each other and then that night we had a sit down meal together. Four boxers at one table, it was four rugby players at the same table. we bounced, we bounced questions across the floor. You know, how would you make weight? How do you lose so much weight? How do you do this? How do you guys I train for explosiveness and stuff like that. And I remember one question from the rugby team, one individual. I think it was Paul or Colin that they were notorious. They said, we're starting. We're very slow starters. We can't start quick enough. We come into the game to live. And I think it was Kenny Egan come back with said Well, maybe your warmup is not correct. You need a higher intensity warm-up. So that's what you can learn from these things, you know, and it was a lot more questions like that. Germany with the slalom skiers, fantastic athletes too. And these guys are superstars. These guys are really on a par with the other back end. So it was great for our lads involved. And again, again, it was another Boxing Day. Again, I implemented the same, the same schedule, teach them the warmup, teach them how to throw punches, give him an idea what it feels like to be on the bag for a minute on it. It's it's phenomenal that the respect and the understanding, then you get how difficult the boxing is. It's it's an absolute, it's a hard game, and it's a hard training regime and to see that respect from other from other sports. It gives you It gives you It gives our lads really mental strength and self confidence.
Eddie Bolger 21:26
Eddie you were involved helping coach Katie Taylor, the Irish gold medalist and the pressure that was on Katie must have been immense. And I'm wondering if she ever had any self doubt and if she did, how you helped to get through that.
Eddie Bolger 21:41
And to say this I can I came to work with Katie just at the latter part of her amateur career. It was at the call just before the qualifiers in Kazakhstan. I yeah. We work together in in a working environment in in in the high performance setup, but it is a working environment he there is not much time for chats and talks and stuff like that. But I did get to know Katie over the years and same with the other athletes and when her father. When they went our separate ways for a while. When he drifted out of the corner with Katie. She asked for me to fill the gap now it was very difficult to feel from Pete Taylors gap and the fill a fathers gap but she's a phenomenal athlete to work with she's very funny person. And this is something that she brings to train and and nobody, nobody outside that sees one liners, great personality, can can bring you down a couple of steps with her when she's very funny, very funny girl. But a very focused trainer. Also, I remember really getting to know her because he had a problem with a wrist. And I used to do professional hand wraps and takes 20 minutes per hand to do and you get to know somebody fairly well then. But yeah, I have. Absolutely. To look back and say you're in a you know, you're supporting somebody like Tsar antiA and Katie Taylor in an Olympic ring. I mean, I was the one that was benefit. And really, you know, I think at that stage, maybe Katie wasn't the flavor anymore. And there was a few decisions that she surely got that she didn't get. So from that point of view was disappointing. But how could How could How could you focus on the negative spin in, in that kind of environment, and I am working with that person, like a great athlete.
Paul Barnett 23:34
I've got daughters in, I think Katie Taylor has an amazing role model. And I think she's an amazing athlete, and just watching her work, you know, on YouTube, and seeing the ferocity with which she brings to the to the ring is fantastic. And I did ask you about self doubt. And it's interesting that you didn't even talk about because clearly she doesn't have any
Eddie Bolger 23:54
No she, I self doubt, absolutely not. She has no self doubt. she prepares for fights professionally, she prepared for em, right? There's never a stone unturned, so that again, that that's a process she has, and you believe in that process. You cant control what five or four or three people around during are going to do. So she had never any doubt in her performance.[PB10] Probably, if you asked me who were the best people to be in the corner, for for, for Rio, Tsar Anti and her Dad at 100%. But circumstances changed and for one reason personal that it couldn't be so I was the one that was happy and honored to take that supporting role. Or the Yeah, the little bit of disappointment was I believe she won the fight in Tokyo. She won a number of fights that the fights were given as draws and then you have to press a button and press for the other guy really but you Look, she had an Olympic gold medal, she had her five world titles. And, of course, she didn't know that that's a sign of a sign of positivity and self belief. So the best of luck to her.
Paul Barnett 25:13
At the 2016 Olympics, one of your boxes was caught in the doping controversy. And I know this put a lot of pressure on you. But I'd be interested to ask you, what advice do you have for other coaches who are caught up and ethically challenged like this?
Eddie Bolger 25:27
Again, your training program, and your culture is more important than any individual. So that's what you got to get right? First, you have to, and your boxers can be part of developing this culture and developing this, to say this code of ethics, right? First of all, you have to have a culture. And maybe before your culture, you want a vision, you want a vision of where you want to go what you want to do, and then that culture supports this. So you've got, you got to let these people know, this is the culture that you created. This is what you've got all told. And this is what it means to uphold this culture. Now, if the signs of these things are people not upholding the culture, you've got to identify it. And if it continues, then you've got to see the red flags for other coaches, they've got to look and see and understand that no individual is bigger than your program are bigger than the culture around. And if that starts to happen, it could be your nephew, yours, it could be somebody that you're rare in boxing from 11 years of age, but you have to understand that something don't sacrifice the culture or your program for individuals. And if there's too many red flags, then you got to deal with. Now, it's not that easy. Because there's, you've got your Federation, you've got your executive board, you've got your club coach, but it's about having the autonomy to carry out your program, your code of ethics, and the culture of a high performance system. And if there's individuals that no matter how good they are, no matter how powerful their club coaches, you got your culture, and your program is everything. And it was difficult. It was difficult at that time[PB11] . For us, our head coach or sports director was gone. And it was about, you know, some individuals are not the worst, not the best behaved, the signs are always there. If you sacrifice your culture and your program, it will cost you and it kind of cost us one way or another, we lost a very talented athlete, we lost an athlete who particularly got a good draw and could have went on to win a medal. But I think overall, we didn't deal with the science.
Paul Barnett 27:47
Eddie, you talked about, you know, you talked about having a vision, setting up a culture, watching the behaviors. So what's your vision for the team you've taken over for German boxing,
Eddie Bolger 27:59
the vision can change in all the division at the start can be can be conservative, and then we can change division as we go along. I'm really, I'm still I'm still waiting from the comeback. We, we've achieved our visions, the I I'm kind of, I'm on the same, the same wavelength as our Irish, Irish vision, you know, you should be looking to consistently put German boxers on European world and Olympic podiums. We're not looking for the top of those podiums yet. We're looking for to beyond those columns consistently. So this is something that we're going to try. And this is our, our vision at the moment, we want to get this maybe under t shirts, maybe printed on the walls of the gym, and randomly at 630 in the morning, when we line up the Strikeforce training session, you can ask somebody, what's your vision? And if they repeat it, and believe in it, then we can build that culture and we're really that's why I'm so excited about this German team. No, it's a very, very good team. And they are so hungry to buy into these visions and and visualization and, and the culture will come into the last year of recycle[PB12] . What we gain the air really so but you know, it's four years there now, but I really believe the year will really stand with another year. So yeah, that's that's it. That's our vision to start get hidden podiums. And my personal vision, what I'm looking at things and see how things are developing. When we go to training camps. I want to make an impact. I want to make an impact as a national thing[PB13] . Again, in the last couple of months, we were traveling collectively, we were the same tracksuits. We arrived in the airport with the same tracks as we go for breakfast. It's the same tracks and believe me, Paul at the start. This was very difficult to do. They turn up with the regional tracks to them. They were more into the regional area and the word attraction, and even now, they're seeing the benefits of a raven To a breakfast table or breakfast room, dress, from top to bottom, the same with their crest, and even the guys or the girls, for instance, that would have a problem with it, you get around it by saying, Listen, I'm going to put you in charge of this, you decide what we wear today, we can wear the black, we can wear the white, Jordan church. And this gives them a little bit of become around a little bit better. So on our Facebook, what's up tomorrow, everybody wears black. It's and it gives them a sense of belief. Because, for example, our German team, our male team, there's not one gentleman, there's no German, no German mill, they're all from multicultural kazakstan, at Eastern Europe, Turkey, Africa, they're born in Germany. But, you know, you've got to instill this, this culture. And this is what I learned in Dublin, this is this is this is the education, we've gotten done. cultures, everything on performance is everything. So it's been three years, but we've really turned the corner and we have the greatest facilities, we have the greatest care to the district we were is fantastic. And when we everybody wears it together, got we got a lot of it from other nations, USA, Italy, Ireland, we're gonna get one of those courts, we're gonna work on IDs, where can I get one of them, you know, that's what you want to express, that's what you want to when you walk into a room, you want to turn people's heads and said, this is a team that means business, you know, and then the box becomes comes, you got to perform them, but you got to make a good impression. So these are some of the things I'm trying to get these guys to, it's always been there. You know, the gear has always been locked in or in a wardrobe has always been there under the bed. Get these things out again, you know, and start instill a culture and that to support each other that we don't see ourselves as I'm from Berlin. So why should I support this guy from stuttgart you know, now it's everybody. And that's that that took a little bit of time.
Paul Barnett 32:07
So Billy Walsh is from your hometown as well. Set up the the great program you had in Ireland, he got poached, he's coaching the USA team. You're poached, you're coaching the the boxing team in Germany. When you and Billy talk, and you talk coaching, what are the things you discuss?
Eddie Bolger 32:29
Well, you have to remember, just like a professional soccer player who played forever now and then plays for money, and he pulls on that jersey. We don't if I'm honest, again, it's if I'm talking to Billy about coaching, it's what's in it for me. Well, what can we do to help each other? That's really it. We don't give away too many secrets, I suppose. But it's important. Billy Billy's been to Germany more times. And I've been to one market just because we've absolutely fantastic facilities, fantastic. Training venues and stuff like that. And it's kind of a hope that everybody can come Ireland, GB and USA that the these are the new classes of people we've been working with. Because we speak the same language we speak the same. I mean, the coaches we speak the same language we speak the same with the same accents. So to get back to your point, yeah, there is a commonality that is common content or it just seems to benefit each other that we we know what we want. We know we know what I get from Billy because it's the same program. When Zahra comes it's the same program. It's the same technical development and how we do all these things. So that when the guy is for one, for example, when they when we have a school combat session, which would be eight rounds of choreographed boxing, like boxer one would make an attack boxer two would make an account attack, for example. It's nearly all the same development. You get the best benefit and there's no confusion on goes like clockwork. Zahra could step in and implement the session. My quarters can step in and implement the session Billy could step up so it's it's it's these three nations benefiting each other. What we're trying to do and back in in Germany, really and I noticed in Ireland we're trying to train universally. We want our boxers to be universal boxers and what I mean by that you will always get somebody that will say well I don't box like this on the counter puncher are I go forward or like or I box close distance about but we trade the tray and I was universally true these combat sessions you know by giving them rules giving them tasks. So when it comes to changing the tactical plan to train them, so you become a universal boxer. That's, that's really what we benefit off each other are trying to benefit our future head. This is this what we want to do tomorrow and believe will come to me.[PB14] Maybe the next So what what's the content tomorrow? What are we looking at here? I said, Well, this is round one, round two, round three, round four, round five. Same same as what we want. That's it. When we go over there, it's the same. It's breeding a sense of familiarity. And that's how you get better at some don't they say, 10,000 hours to become a master. So we believe and with czar with GB, we have this connective contact plan. And we it's just about agreement the night before, and then, you know, but we usually do in Germany, or Sheffield, maybe sometimes. So that's the other conversation is about extorting money to anything else. How's your mother, how's your dad has ever
Jim Woolfrey 35:49
Eddie during lockdown, we've all had chance to read or catch up on stuff, or there hasn't been any resources that you've looked at in the last few months that have that you found particularly useful in your coaching?
Eddie Bolger 36:02
I yeah. First of all, I'll give you I'll try and give an explanation of what Germany is like. And the things that we try to, we frowned upon in all, we had Olympic centers, decentralized and Olympic centers all over with different boxers in different ones. And the programs were kind of slightly different, or are totally different. And I was looking at saying, you know, this, we need more collectively, we need more collective training we need. So when I got back, and I knew that was locked down, and Ireland couldn't train, they had to go back to their clubs, USA couldn't train in the collective environment, these Olympic centers in each region, were a godsend, where the boxer was in full time training in a small group, maybe him on his own with his coach, or maybe two guys in these Olympic centers. So our training never stopped. But what are you my time down at home was, I thought it was a very good time to get all the coaches together, maybe happened in Heidelberg, and give a PowerPoint on nutrient concept. And we call it Germany's new trainer concept about trying to get this a collective common content throughout all these regions. So again, when young lads turn up to the High Performance Center or high performance camp, no matter where it is, nothing is nothing scares him nothing as a shock to them. They know that in the mornings, they'll have to do their schoolbooks in their warm up their school box. At 10 o'clock, we'll either be doing a craft session, which is a strength conditioning session, or running session, in the afternoon, we do our boxing sessions, that will later be a bag session, and then we'll have our school combat. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we'll have a recovery there. And if we get this collectiveness throughout, throughout the, throughout the whole country, the sky's the limit. You know, it's all about getting these guys familiar with what they need to do. And get in when once they get familiar. Repeat, repeat, repeat continuous development. And that's where we are at the moment. And it's coming together. My personal goal is every training camp we go to, we make an impact. Every tournament we go there we make an impact doesn't have to be gold medals here. And it doesn't have to be we make an impact, we get good results. And try and get these guys on the podiums.
Paul Barnett 38:30
Eddie, you've said the boxes success is your success. That's your award. So what is it the legacy that you want to leave as a boxing coach?
Eddie Bolger 38:41
Ah, part I don't really want to leave a legacy I the more people I can be part of their success is you know, when we get older and we sit on a barstool or we sit somewhere else or we sit in retirement home or I bump into Billy well set anywhere on the GA match to look back and say well, yeah, you know, we helped somebody who's achieved gold medals, we we help people achieve world titles we've done but look for me to say I had an impact on change in sport in Germany. This is this this is these are rewards, if other people recognize that and it's called the legacy I don't have very much but that's not what I'm looking for. It's it's to be able to give myself some satisfaction to be able to say, that wasn't a waste. That was you know, that was a good journey.[PB15] And didn't myself and Billy Well, sure didn't. Myself and Dr. Andy Arden, myself and the baseball rushing coaches in the world that we have some battles. This is what I want to get out of it. I really don't care about a legacy. And if somebody can learn our say, Eddie Bolger , he got up and left. He went to Germany, maybe maybe these people that are offering me a job. Can I cook more go for That's just to help other people. And that's the greatest satisfaction for me. And it's not a selfish thing. Because a lot of kudos come with it, we do all do it for ego. You know, it's ego, if we can control that ego, but most of us coaches, it's ego that drives us on it's it's nobody wants to lose, you know, we probably all come from a boxing ring.[PB16] So, yeah, you know, there's nothing nothing like the thrill of achievement, thinking of a plan and succeeding. And like even, even if it's against your home country, sometimes it It helps your profile and it gives you a little bit more feedback. You know, the qualifier in London was fantastic for us. It was cut in half, but we had the biggest fight of our life against car Walker. It was the biggest fight of our life. And we implemented a plan and Hansard in both implemented that plan. We were sorry. We call it the plan. We went over it again. And again, the young lad implementers. And we've just about got over the line. That's the best, you know, that's what it's about.
Paul Barnett 41:11
Eddie Barger it's been wonderful talking to you and learning a bit that bit more about boxing. I think I'm going to head straight down into the gym. We've got a bag here and I'm going to get that bag and get into training. Thank you very much for your time today. It's been fantastic. Yeah, look, I'm still learning still developing. Still still there. This is something I don't do comfortably. So I hope you get some value out of it and some some benefits.
Paul Barnett 41:34
We got tons of benefit out of it. Eddie, thank you so much.
Eddie Bolger 41:37
You're welcome.
Transition 41:39
The great coaches podcast.
Paul Barnett 41:42
Hi, everyone. It's Paul here. You have been listening to our discussion with Eddie Bolger, the coach of the German national boxing team. The key highlights for me were Eddie's thoughts on the coach being a facilitator for World Class boxes, so that the right people are brought in to help them be mentally and physically strong, have a good lifestyle, and be technically and tactically developed to the right level. The importance of recovery, given the demanding nature of the training required for elite boxes, the importance of the warmup, in making sure that your team starts the game well, and the need to have a vision. And as I was putting German boxes on European world and Olympic podiums, before you start building a culture that supports it, and being prepared to act immediately on the signs when an athlete is not following the required culture. I hope you enjoyed it as much as Jim and I did. In our next episode, we will be speaking to legendary basketball coach Jan Sterling. Here is a sneak peek.
Jan Stirling 42:42
So I very quickly learned that there's no one leadership model that fits all. At the end of the day, Paul, I still think it's about the values and the behaviors that you're still and how are you going to be? Your true leadership comes through when there is chaos around you. And you're still able to deliver to the best of your ability. In other words, you can still stay focused on the task and deliver to the best of your ability when there is absolute chaos around.
Paul Barnett 43:12
And just before we leave, if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you. Please contact us using the details in the show notes.