Cus D'Amato's training methods 2

Cus D'Amato's training methods 2

NOTE: No copyright infringement intended.

BLOOD, NEON, AND FAILURE IN THE DESERT
(Village Voice, March 24, 1987)
By Joyce Carol Oates


Las Vegas, Nevada. 7 March 1987

[snip]

As for Tyson: unlike Dempsey, Marciano, and Frazier, those famously aggressive fighters to whom he is often compared, Tyson is not a reckless boxer; he is not willing, as so many boxer-fighters are, to take four or five punches in order to throw a punch of his own. His training is defensive and cautious --hence the peek-a-boo stance, a Cus D'Amato signature: for is not boxing primarily the art of self-defense? of hitting your man, and scoring points, without being hit in return? For two years, which must have been very long years, D'Amato trained Tyson to bob, weave, slip punches from sparring partners without throwing a single punch in response -- a conditioning that has made Tyson an anomaly in the ring. His reputation is for power, speed, and aggression, but his defensive skills are as remarkable, if less dramatic.

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NOTE: I am mirroring my old archives. Posted 8/12/2014 and backdated to 4/25/2001.

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Cus D'Amato's training methods

Cus D'Amato's training methods

NOTE: No copyright infringement intended.



BLOOD SEASON: MIKE TYSON AND THE WORLD OF BOXING
by Phil Berger
Pages 70-71



Whatever Atlas did with Tyson, it was by D'Amato's methods. For instance, when D'Amato had been with Jose Torres, he had developed a punching instrument known as the Willie Bag, after Willie Pastrano, from whom Torres would win the light heavyweight title. Willie was made of five mattresses wrapped about a frame. On the exterior of the front mattress was a rough-hewn sketch of a man, with his body demarcated by numbers that served as targets for particular punches. #1 was a left hook to the jaw; #2 a right hook to the jaw; #3 a left uppercut; #4 a right uppercut; #5 a left hook to the body; #6 a right hook to the body; #7 a jab to the head; and #8 a jab to the body.

D'Amato had created Willie to encourage his fighters to punch in rapid combination and had made tape recordings, in his voice, of varying sequences of numbers. When the fighter stepped up to Willie, he would respond to his master's voice by delivering the mandated combination punches.

For Tyson, there was also the sand-filled "slip" bag, a teardrop-shaped black bag about the size of a fist that would swing from a length of rope as the fighter stood directly in its path. To avoid being hit, Tyson was taught to move his head from side to side and dip down, the prescriptive maneuvers for avoiding actual punches. Through his work on Willie and the slip bag, and through sparring, Tyson was acquiring the means to activate his power without its backfiring on him.

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NOTE: I am mirroring my old archives. Posted 8/12/2014 and backdated to 4/25/2001.

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Basketball Drill 3

basketball drill 3

Subject: RE: INFO
From: Bolo
Date: 03-Apr-01 | 05:58 PM

Lay your chest on the ball and put your hands out wide as if you are flying like Superman. Sprawl your legs out so the only thing that is touching the ground is your feet. Keeping contact with your torso at all times, lean your weight on the ball and switch your body and leg position as if you are switching to a different pin. Keep changin your body position as if you are switching from pin to pin. Keep your arms out to ensure that you are maximizing the body weight that is being placed on the ball.

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Subject: RE: INFO
From: nubian
Date: 07-Apr-01 | 02:45 PM

I only know of a few with a basketball, but you can do more with a heavy bag. With a basketball, you can practice spinning belly down, like if you were spinning from a front sprawl to someone's back. I guess you could practice knee on stomach as well, but this would be easier with a heavy bag or grappling dummy. With a heavy bag, you can practice distributing weight throughout your transistions. Like switching from side control to kesi gatame, to knee on stomach, to mount, etc. Tony Giammatteo

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Subject: RE: INFO
From: greenknght
Date: 07-Apr-01 | 05:01 PM

Tony Cecchine teaches an exercise w/ a basketball and a bathroom scale. You put the b-ball on the scale then lay acrross it with your chest as if you had a person in the side mount. The scale registers the amount of pressure you exert, so you can make adjustments until you exert max pressure. You can switch to scarf hold, etc., and if you don't exert the same or similar pressure in all positions, there is room for improvement in your technique. Pretty cool trick.

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Other posts about the Basketball Drill can be found here:

• The often-mentioned famous basketball drill for solo grappling training
• Basketball Drill Revisited
• attn: m.g thread started by armbar612 (more on basketball drills)

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NOTE: Posted as-of Apr 6, 2001 on Nov 22, 2013 to mirror my old archives - http://stickgrappler.tripod.com/ug/basketball3.html. Pageviews at the time of copying over from old archives to this site was 2,210.

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