Trainers key in title match | Other Sports | Sports | Edmonton Sun

Trainers key in title match | Other Sports | Sports | Edmonton Sun

Trainers key in title match

Andrews vs. Lessard cornermen talk strategy for Friday's fight at the Shaw

By MURRAY GREIG, EDMONTON SUN

Last Updated: May 6, 2010 10:46pm

• Email Story
• Print
• Size A A A
• Report Typo
• Share:
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Google
  • Stumble Upon
  • Newsvine
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • Feed Me
  • Yahoo
  • Simpy
  • Squidoo
  • Spurl
  • Blogmarks
  • Netvouz
  • Scuttle
  • Sitejot
  +

Sometimes it’s not just the fighter who wins the fight.

With all other weapons making it pretty much a pick ’em proposition, the outcome of Friday night’s Canadian Boxing Federation junior middleweight title rematch between champion Kris Andrews and challenger Anthony Lessard might just come down to which guy has the more competent corner.

The main man in Andrews’s ear is Sean Bogart, who also happens to be the champ’s cousin. Running Lessard’s corner is Ron Pasek, a former junior middleweight of some renown who hung up his gloves in 2003 and has since become a highly respected coach and trainer.

Both have impeccable credentials when it comes to the nuts and bolts of cornering, so, like their respective fighters, there’s not a lot to pick between them.

But in a match of this magnitude, there’s so much more involved than simply applying the grease or making sure you have enough gauze. A title rematch often comes down to who can best navigate the psychological minefield posed by the ebbs and flows of those 10 gruelling rounds.

“You can’t go wrong with family,” Andrews joked. “I trust Sean 100% … and I know how much he trusts and cares about me. We’re blood.

“When he tells me something, I know it’s from the heart. He sees things that I don’t, and vice versa. I think that’s why we have such a good relationship. There’s 100% trust on both sides.”

Lessard is equally enthused about what Pasek brings to his corner.

“After I lost (the first fight) to Kris, I sat down and did some hard thinking about the mistakes I made — and there were lots,” Lessard admitted.

“One of the biggest was that my conditioning wasn’t where it should have been. I was in great shape, but that’s not the same as being in great condition.

“Another mistake was not throwing enough body punches. Against a tall, skinny guy like Andrews, that’s the best way to slow him down.

“I could’ve brought in a trainer from somewhere else, maybe a guy who’s worked with (other) champions, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the guy I needed was right here in my own backyard.

“From the moment I started working with Ronnie, it was like we’d been together for years.”

Bogart’s calm demeanour mirrors the champion’s fighting style.

Andrews rarely gets flustered in the ring, even in the midst of wild exchanges.

Likewise, Lessard’s swarming, take-three-to-land-two strategy is eerily similar to what Pasek so courageously showcased in the ring over his 11-year career.

“My fighter’s gonna win this time; we’ve broken him down and rebuilt him for this rematch,” said Pasek.

“Anthony’s always been a guy who goes in there bombing, and he did that pretty good in their first fight … but there was a lot of wasted energy, too. That’s what tired him out.

“You’ll see a big difference this time. He’s conditioned to go all-out for 10 fast rounds while still throwing a lot of punches,” said Pasek. “But he won’t be missing many.”

Bogart will only say that Andrews is “more ready than ever” to defend his title.

“Training in California for his last fight was a real eye-opener,” Bogart said of Andrews’s eight-round loss on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins vs. Roy Jones Jr. last month in Las Vegas.

“Every round in the gym was a fight for survival against world-class contenders. Those were real wars, and we had him working on just 30 seconds between rounds. You can’t put a price tag on that kind of experience.”

murray.greig@sunmedia.ca

A Chairy Tale (1957)

YouTube - It Don't Men A Thing at The Blue Jackalope

YouTube - It Don't Men A Thing at The Blue Jackalope

Dixie Michelle, David and David, Featuring Ken and Gwendolyn Ransom on vocals

Aurore Quartet Quand je monte chez toi

Ravens - Discover the Brainpower of the Bird in Black - Corvid Intelligence | Nature

Ravens - Discover the Brainpower of the Bird in Black - Corvid Intelligence | Nature

Generally, birds don’t get credit for being smart animals. Just think of the way the expression “bird-brained” is used. But corvids, which include magpies, crows, and ravens in particular, flutter in the face of this negative stereotype. Their behavior is often so clever, cunning, fun-loving, smart, and witty that it has motivated researchers to try to explain why. In fact, some scientists consider these black-feathered scavengers’ position on the intelligence spectrum to be on par with canids such as wolves, coyotes, and dogs, and have conducted experiments to try to quantify the raven’s brainpower.

In NATURE’s Ravens we see zoologist Bernd Heinrich of the University of Vermont work with ravens to see whether they could learn to distinguish between strings bearing food and strings bearing rocks and modify their behavior based on their understanding. The ravens performed well, even when the level of difficulty was increased by crossing the strings.

Heinrich has also used anecdotal evidence to point to raven cognitive intelligence. For example, the researcher flushed a bird off a frozen chunk of suet and observed upon inspection that the raven used its beak to carve a precise groove around the fat, allowing it to carry off a large chunk at once instead of several small morsels to eat one at a time. Heinrich commented that “the raven not only had thought ahead, but also had acted on that thought and shown intelligence.”

A central question that presents itself is whether the raven’s sharp behavior indicates complex cognitive processes associated with human learning. Johannes Fritz and Kurt Kotrschal of the University of Vienna, Austria, attempted to provide an answer with an experiment similar to Heinrich’s. Ravens were asked to perform a task — opening a box to get a reward — and then teach the behavior to their fellow birds. According to Henry Gee of Nature Magazine Online, while the birds’ performance indicates a high learning level, the results are inconclusive because it’s impossible to tell how the ravens learn: is it by a complex form of “imitative learning” or by a lesser process known as “stimulus enhancement”?

Gee suggests that while ravens might learn by stimulus enhancement, which means that a learner raven might simply come to link the act of opening a box with getting a reward, it seems likely that the corvids engage in imitative learning, which Gee states is “considered to be the most demanding category of social learning, because it requires the learner to translate what it sees (sensory input) into its own actions (motor output).”

How then can one account for corvids’ seemingly complex decision-making skills? After all, birds don’t have a cerebral cortex, so at one time their actions were considered robotic in nature. But in the 1960s, neurologist Stanley Cobb found that birds have a part in the forebrain, called the hyperstraiatum, that allows them to perform synonymous functions, and that ravens have among the largest brains of any birds as well as a relatively high number of brain cells. Natural history author Candace Savage writes: “Crows, ravens, magpies, and jays are not just feathered machines, rigidly programmed by their genetics. Instead, they are beings that, within the constraints of their molecular inheritance, make complex decisions and show every sign of enjoying a rich awareness.”

Beyond explaining how and why ravens act as they do, it’s how this innate intelligence manifests itself in behavior that makes these birds fascinating to observe. As seen on NATURE, ravens achieve mastery and possess manipulative powers over other creatures in their domain, often letting others do work for them. For example, ravens will call wolves and coyotes to prospective meals so they can expose the carcass and make the meat accessible to the birds. In addition, ravens will show their true scavenger colors by waiting for other birds with specialized foraging skills to make a catch and then cunningly seize the defeated prey for themselves.

Not all raven behavior is so devilish; some is merely mischievous and even good-natured. On NATURE, we are treated to a raven frolicking in the snow as well as the domesticated pet raven named Loki soothingly and majestically flying alongside her owner’s vehicle. Seeing how affectionate and keen these birds are, it’s easy to understand why one might want to keep a pet raven. As Loki’s owner, Rose Buck, says, “Loki’s bright, clever, very intelligent, and mischievous. Sometimes, he can be an absolute pain, but I wouldn’t be without him. He’s just great.”

Though it might be tempting to run right out to your local pet store to buy a raven, they aren’t available and, more importantly, are federally protected in the United States; it’s illegal to buy or even hold a raven (unless one has a difficult-to-obtain permit). However, many people successfully raise orphaned, nestling crows under 3-4 weeks old to the point where they are able to eat independently, and then release the birds when they are approximately eight weeks old. Information on diet and care of orphaned ravens, as well as a wealth of other material, can be found on the American Society of Crows and Ravens Web site.

Coping With Stress: Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Reduction

The Mind Body Connection

Big Mama Thornton ft. Buddy Guy - Hound Dog

Chief Seattle's Response

Self-Respect is an empowering emotion that can be cultivated.

—Thoreau said,

"What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate."

"Man is the artificer of his own happiness." — Journal, 21 January 1838

Have a clear idea of the person you wish to be then begin acting like you are already that person, show compassion and do random acts of kindness if that is your goal. Start now, where you are with the tools at hand.

Animation

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART