On November 4th, it will have been 21 years since the death of Cus D'Amato - a man who helped alter the future of the sport and who developed some of the greatest fighters in history. To remember this legendary trainer we would like to point out to the Tyson Quotes section to read some of Cus D'Amato's words of wisdom and remember the great man and brilliant trainer/manager he was.
Cus D'Amato on how the recognition and acknowledgement of fear is the crucial
lesson he taught and was ignored by other trainers:
“Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning in any area, but
particularly in boxing. For example, boxing is something you learn
through repetition. You do it over and over and suddenly
you’ve got it. …However, in the course of trying
to learn, if you get hit and get hurt, this makes you cautious, and
when you’re cautious you can’t repeat it, and when
you can’t repeat it, it’s going to delay the
learning process…When they…come up to the gym and
say I want to be a fighter, the first thing I’d do was talk
to them about fear…I would always use…the same
example of the deer crossing an open field and upon approaching the
clearing suddenly instinct tells him danger is there, and nature begins
the survival process, which involves the body releasing adrenalin into
the bloodstream, causing the heart to beat faster and enabling the deer
to perform extraordinarily feats of agility and strength…It
enables the deer to get out of range of the danger, helps him escape to
the safety of the forest across the clearing…an example in
which fear is your friend.
The thing a kid in the street fears the most is to be called yellow or
chicken, and sometimes a kid will do the most stupid, wild, crazy
things just to hide how scared he is. I often tell them that while fear
is such an obnoxious thing, an embarrassing
thing…nevertheless it is your friend, because anytime anyone
saves your life perhaps a dozen times a day, no matter what how
obnoxious he is, you’ve got to look upon him as a friend, and
this is what fear is…Since nature gave us fear in order to
help us survive, we cannot look upon it as an enemy. Just think how
many times a day a person would die if he had no fear. He’d
walk in front of cars, he’d die a dozen times a day. Fear is
a protective mechanism….By talking to the fighters about
fear I cut the learning time maybe as much as half, sometimes more,
depending on the individual.”
More pictures and quotes available in the extended section of this post (click 'Read More' below).
