91훑괵 Wales - Colin Jackson's Raise Your Game - Training ground

Cathy Brown

The European Flyweight Champion knows all about setting and achieving her goals.

It is important to set goals, but they should be realistic goals.
People put themselves under too much pressure, whether it's due to social pressure or pressure from their teachers. It's good to say 'I want to achieve this or do that much work by next week', but not to set the goals too high or expect too much straight away.
There was a girl in the gym who'd never done pull ups in her life and was upset because she couldn't do one. But she shouldn't have compared herself to me. I didn't just wake up one morning able to do them - it took a lot of hard work and effort to build up to it. You should set small realistic goals, then when you reach it you'll feel really good and can set yourself another goal.

Keep setting small goals.
Do it step-by-step. I didn't start kick-boxing and say 'I want to be a world champion by next week'. I knew that was what I was working towards, but there were lots of steps in between.

Write a training/revision schedule.
When I was at school I'd have a timetable so I'd know that I'm revising such and such in the morning and such and such in the night. Otherwise at college you'd spend half the time thinking about what you're going to do, whereas if you've got a plan you know exactly what you've got to do and you get on and you do it. It's the same with boxing, it's so important to plan. I like to know what I'm doing for the week and what I need to achieve.

Manage your time by making lists and setting goals for the day.
I live by my lists. I'll go home tonight and see what I haven't done and tick off what I have done. On Sunday I go through the whole lot - it's a good day for me to organise my whole week.

Post-it, Note-it.
Post-it notes worked a treat for me. When I was doing my Photography degree I had post-it notes all over my wall telling me what I was going to be doing each day and it really helped.
When I was revising I'd write down things I couldn't remember or things that weren't sticking on a post-it note. When I came back to work on that area again I'd know that I'd have specific issues to work through. The list gets smaller and smaller everyday. It's working on the things you find hard - your weaknesses.

If things aren't going your way try to refocus and analyse where you went wrong.
I have a discussion with my trainer at the end of every round about where we think I'm going wrong and I'll try to rectify that. But it's all about not losing heart. We call it 'digging out the trenches' because you're out on your feet and losing, and it's all about regrouping, keeping your strength up and fighting all the way to the bitter end and making sure you finish strong even if you are losing.

Understand what you're doing, don't just memorise it.
Work out why you find something hard and why you don't understand and can't absorb it. Once you understand something, you'll remember it. Maybe it's the way you're being taught, because everybody needs to be taught differently and has a different way of absorbing information. If it's not working for you you've got to rethink and go about it in a different way.
Get taught by somebody different. Even a friend or who's doing the same subject, or a relative, might be able to help. They might understand it and explain it differently. At school I found maths really hard so I ended up getting a private tutor and it became my strongest subject in the end.

Be positive about negative things that are happening to you.
You can do this, you just have to do it a different way because the way you were doing it wasn't working. Sometimes I'll go in with a plan of how I'm going to fight and after the first round I might decide that it just isn't working. I'll have to re-evaluate how I'm approaching the fight and turn it around.

If you think you didn't perform well, don't be too hard on yourself, but hard enough that you'll improve.
I've come out of the gym nearly in tears because I didn't do this or that well. You've just got to be realistic and say 'ok, so I didn't do that well, but I've just got to work on it' - instead of just giving up and thinking you'll never be good at it. It's recognising your weaknesses.

Never stop learning.
I don't think you're ever too old to go back to college or university and study. You've always got to keep advancing your mind and your knowledge. That's why I like meeting new people - you gain knowledge from them. After I got my degree in photography I got a diploma in sports massage therapy and I've got my YMCA gym and fitness instructor award. I did them over the weekends while I was working.

What's your role?
It's important that everyone in the team has their role and it's quite clear what that is. When the planning process for a job, project or event starts, people get really into it. Someone will want to do everything and someone else won't want to do anything. So it's very important that you decide at the beginning who's doing what and stick to that the whole time. If you've got a clear role it should go smoothly.

Follow the leader.
Some people might try to get out of line so you should have a team leader, and it's their responsibility to talk to the person getting out of line and remind them what they should be doing. The team leader should also give people confidence and compliment the things they've done and set tasks for the week for everyone.

Accept praise.
Sometimes you do need help and compliments from an outside source. You need to be reminded how good you are and your strengths. I think sometimes we're too hard on ourselves so we should sit down and think about what our strengths are and what we're really good at. I don't think people know how to give compliments in this day and age, they just want to put others down. We're just too negative all the time.

Work on taking negative things and turning them into positive.
In boxing or kickboxing I'd never tell someone that they're rubbish at something. I'd point out what aspect they're good at, but suggest we improve something else. It's about communication and learning to put it across to people without putting them down. Everyone's got their weaknesses and things they're not very good at, but it's about making them feel good about themselves.

Share what's on your mind.
I used to encourage a weekly meeting so if anyone had views you'd sit down in a group and air those and talk about what you are and aren't happy about, what's gone well and what hasn't - and just talk about it as a team. Rather than keeping it pent up you have a group discussion about it and then it's all laid to rest so you can start a new week afresh.
People don't communicate enough. It might be something small and you might feel like an idiot talking about it but if it's on your chest it's on your chest and you've got to get it off. You'll respect each other more as a team and work together harder.

Talk it out.
Now and again I'll sit down with my trainer and I'll say what I'm not happy about or what I'm worried about. As strong as a person might be, if they're feeling a bit low or lacking in confidence then they need to have someone to talk to. That's really important.

Get to know people and learn to speak their language.
It's a good attribute to have to be able to communicate on all levels to kids, adults, men, women and people from different social classes. Some people can only communicate on one level to one type of person. Everybody is different and I actually train people quite differently.

There are certain people I can push until they're nearly crying, but you've got to judge what sort of mood they're in when they turn up because they could be having a really bad day. Some days you might really push them but others it's better to work them hard but give them a feel good session and do stuff you know they enjoy doing so they come out feeling really good and confident.