Indigenous Ability

[Excerpted from our book Boxing Like the Champs, Round Two , to be released Fall of 2020.] Rocco Francis Marchegiano. Rocky Marciano The Brockton Blockbuster. Yeah, yeah, we all know, the only undefeated heavyweight champion.  Retires with a perfect record. A strong, powerful fighter with a big heart, tremendous work ethic and a good character to boot. Usually we start all of these mini-lessons with a reminder to the cognoscenti or an introduction to those new on the path.  Rocky Marciano is one of those rare few who seems to need little of that “ Gather around, let me tell you about …” noise. So, in this case, let’s not talk about what he did well, but something that he did poorly. And….how that poorly done thing often made him perform so well. Contradictions abound there, huh? The legend, while graceful in character, has never been accused of grace in movement. He was an awkward lunging fighter. Some labeled...

This is Lieutenant-General John “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne on the rabble that was encountered during the American Revolution. “It is not to be expected that the rebel Americans will risk a general combat or a pitched battle, or even stand at all, except behind intrenchments as at Boston. Accustomed to felling of timber and to grubbing up trees, they are very ready at earthworks and palisading, and will cover and intrench themselves wherever they are for a short time left unmolested with surprising alacrity…Composed as the American army is, together with the strength of the country, full of woods, swamps, stone walls, and other inclosures and hiding places, it may be said of it that every private man will in action be his own general, who will turn every tree and bush into a kind of temporary fortress, and from whence, he has fired his shot with all deliberation, coolness, and uncertainty which hidden safety inspires, he will skip as it were to the next, and so on for a long ...