The Theory of the Sweet Science
The Theory of the Sweet Science
Early on in his life, Curtis Cokes tried his hand at Basketball and Baseball with some good success. But standing at just 5’9” he ended up fighting in the welter weight division and eventually claimed the WBA/WBC world title in 1966. He accumulated a professional boxing record of 63 wins 14 losses and 3 draws. After his boxing career was over he was involved in several blue collar businesses and also trained fighter Quincy Taylor among others. He was inducted into the boxing hall of fame in 2003.
According to the Boxing Register this book sold around 77,000 copies. I’d estimate that with the rise of the Internet since the books publication in 1980 that - that figure would be certainly have been surpassed.
The word ‘deception’ is never used throughout the text but it’s clearly a strategy that makes up a big part of Cokes fighting philosophy. Feints, combinations, half punching power and even facial expressions or rather lack thereof are what you’ll read of. All these are designed to keep your opponent off guard whenever possible. Picking and pushing a jab, avoiding a right hand, spinning an opponent and some common sense advice on fighting south-paws are other bits of well earned stratagem that are sprinkled throughout. These are the kinds of matters that make up the central points of this book and a few of these techniques might be foriegn or 'new' to some readers.
" Lack of facial expression will demoralize your adversary. No matter how hard he hits you, irrespective of the pain, keep on your ‘poker’ face and maintain your basic tempo and pattern of fighting. Joe Louis always wore his ‘poker’ face in the ring, never deviating from this lack of expression. His irresistible lack of emotion, his disregard of pain, made him invincible during his great years. This was his secret strength and it demoralized his opponents. "
Things that are annexed onto the heart of the book are subjects like dirty tricks which detail some psychological and practical ploys that you should at least be aware of and the traits of what he believes are required to be a successful boxer. There’s also an interesting combination for a coagulant to treat cuts using a styptic pencil and collodion.
There’s a great talk about some combination punching and of course these are things that could be incorporated and perfected upon in your day to day training.
I was fairly impressed with the section on boxing equipment. It’s a section of the book that’s got some practical and clever ways to make use of and even modify gym equipment to fit a certain purpose. One idea uses a harness to strap a heavy bag onto a trainer. The idea is that the trainer can then move about the ring whilst the boxer follows him around. This is all designed to get a boxer used to hitting a moving target.
This was one idea that parallels to one I had myself many years ago that involved the use of an electronic gantry crane type set-up over a boxing ring that would have a heavy bag hanging from it. The movement of the bag could then be controlled by an operator whilst the boxer moves about inside the ring with it. The picture below demonstrates a rough idea but you’d need the system to operate on both an x and y axis and of course have an electric motor to control the movement of the bag. Cost would be prohibitive, but a free wheeling system without a motor will work also.
Essentially this is about making your training more realistic wherever you can, taking it from 1 dimensional (target hanging in one place) to 2 dimensional (target moving over an area) where sparring could be considered to be 3D.
One thing of particular interest for some people might be the training routine that he lays out. In relatively few words, he describes the sequence of training that occurs from a rank novice to a preliminary professional fighter boxing anywhere from 4-6 rounds of 3 min duration. Also explained is a demanding 30 day preparation program for a professional fighting over 10 rounds. The routine, as he says, can be adjusted or suited to whatever level you are at.
Overall the book is very good and there are plenty of pictures throughout that help to illuminate what’s being discussed. I suppose you can read it knowing that it’s written by a guy who knows his stuff. Like all great boxers, he is in spirit, a strategist.
"The best strategy comes round by round as opposed to an overall master plan. So strategy becomes tactics which are then round by round instructions in your corner and from your own observations during each round."
There’s a lot of information out there on boxing and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to add this work to your library. Read it, store it in that little box you’ve got in your mind, process it and somewhere in your conscience you’ll have the knowledge of a former world champion in your corner, but of course it's up to you to make it work.
You can buy the book at Amazon
