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Georges Carpentier is a famous French boxer from the turn of the 19th century. He was a small heavyweight (5 feet 11 1⁄2 inches and 175 lbs) and relied on speed and technique to beat much larger opponents.
I just finished his autobiography "My Fighting Life" (1920) and thought to share some excerpts that I find to be still very applicable today.
On happiness being a prerequisite to training and becoming successful:
On bad mentalities for fighting:
On understanding your opponent's personality before fighting (something Mayweather also does):
On the importance of privacy during training:
Sometimes I think there is a tendency to make training deadly mechanical; it is just one round of the same old thing; variety is not striven for, and so there is always a danger of staleness. (169)
To attempt something new is the surest way of keeping fresh, both in mind and body, and escaping a seizure of that most harmful and heart-destroying thing called staleness. (179)
The whole aim of a boxer, as that of any man, who is seeking to make himself fit for some test of physical endurance, should be to obtain as much distraction as possible. (247)
I just finished his autobiography "My Fighting Life" (1920) and thought to share some excerpts that I find to be still very applicable today.
On happiness being a prerequisite to training and becoming successful:
I hold that no boxer who does not know mental happiness can ever hope to win unusual success. (77)
Those who would box well and with success must enjoy every minute of their training; they must never feel that it is irksome. (175)
...never go into training unless your mind is easy and you are entirely happy in yourself. (169)
Those who would box well and with success must enjoy every minute of their training; they must never feel that it is irksome. (175)
...never go into training unless your mind is easy and you are entirely happy in yourself. (169)
On bad mentalities for fighting:
But what brought his failure in his match with me more than anything else was that, instead of regarding our contest as a game of skill, he made it a personal matter, a thing of enmity. ... Now, a fighter who is for ever gloating over his immense strength, and is determined to hurt the other fellow, forgets the very purpose of boxing, and, worse, he loses all sweetness of temper. A professional pugilist can never be an exotic; he must be hard, unrelenting, merciless if you like, but only in the way of bringing his skill into full play. Contempt for a man less than yourself is fatal. (164-165)
"Do you know," Wells afterwards said, "every time you punched I imagined that you were driving great long nails into my body." In these remarks I saw the nakedness of the fighting soul of Bombardier Wells; his sensitiveness, his susceptibility to pain. (212)
...he (Wells) is without viciousness he is afraid of inflicting pain, and this is the explanation of his amazing ups and downs. (214)
On good mentalities for fighting:"Do you know," Wells afterwards said, "every time you punched I imagined that you were driving great long nails into my body." In these remarks I saw the nakedness of the fighting soul of Bombardier Wells; his sensitiveness, his susceptibility to pain. (212)
...he (Wells) is without viciousness he is afraid of inflicting pain, and this is the explanation of his amazing ups and downs. (214)
What is held to be viciousness in a pugilist is but thoroughness, and there is no sane logical reason why men after hammering one another in the ring should not be the best of friends. (165)
...my conception of a "fighting machine" is a man who, besides being hard and little susceptible to hurt, is one who is steeped in the science of perfect hitting, and, above all, one who, whether inside or outside the ring, is always thinking and studying the science of fighting. (223)
A fighter must have iron in his soul; he must let the brute that is in every man have his freedom when in the ring, but he must have the mind, with sufficient imagination in it to let the brute loose only at the psychological moment; he must, when victory is at hand, go all out to win not to win by battering, but by hitting his opponent so hard, so surely, and in the most vulnerable spot that he will win by inflicting a minimum amount of pain. (241)
When I enter into a fight I do so with an open mind. I set my brain working so that in the shortest possible time I might discover the weak and strong points of the man I am up against. ... It is the greatest possible mistake, in my opinion, for any boxer to decide what he will do before he gets into the ring. (249-250)
...if I go down, I will go down with my jaws set tight ; with all my fighting blood boiling and surging ; and in the full consciousness that I met a better man. (253)
A fighter must have iron in his soul; he must let the brute that is in every man have his freedom when in the ring, but he must have the mind, with sufficient imagination in it to let the brute loose only at the psychological moment; he must, when victory is at hand, go all out to win not to win by battering, but by hitting his opponent so hard, so surely, and in the most vulnerable spot that he will win by inflicting a minimum amount of pain. (241)
When I enter into a fight I do so with an open mind. I set my brain working so that in the shortest possible time I might discover the weak and strong points of the man I am up against. ... It is the greatest possible mistake, in my opinion, for any boxer to decide what he will do before he gets into the ring. (249-250)
...if I go down, I will go down with my jaws set tight ; with all my fighting blood boiling and surging ; and in the full consciousness that I met a better man. (253)
On understanding your opponent's personality before fighting (something Mayweather also does):
From my earliest days when preparing for a fight I have always striven to understand each of my opponents thoroughly. Mere physical qualities have never concerned me. The mind, the temperament, the outlook, the point of view of the man with whom I have been matched, I have endeavoured to study and to know. (158)
I would never dream of going into a fight without first spending all my leisure moments studying the type, the character, and the mentality of the man I had been matched against. (222)
On knowing everything about where you're going to fight before fighting:I would never dream of going into a fight without first spending all my leisure moments studying the type, the character, and the mentality of the man I had been matched against. (222)
Descamps got into the ring and took its exact size. Arriving back at Stanmore, Descamps had a ring fixed up that was of precisely the same dimensions as that at the Holborn Stadium... (168)
...my visit to the ground at Highbury serve to introduce to me a typical English football crowd... (168)
On imitating the the opponent during training:...my visit to the ground at Highbury serve to introduce to me a typical English football crowd... (168)
This is how I began. First, Descamps (his lifelong trainer) made a class-room of the gymnasium, and in it he put me on a high stool, while he, stripped for fighting, endeavoured to give a life-like imitation of Beckett. (161)
In selecting my sparring partners, Descamps employed men who were as near as possible of the same shape and size as Beckett, and he laid it down that they must try to fight like Beckett would fight. (163)
On the importance of privacy during training:
To prepare for a contest with the merely curious looking on is an entirely wrong thing to do ; at least, such is my opinion. (108)
A boxer, in order to acquire perfect physical fitness, must do his work behind closed doors; training in public is bad, it prevents complete concentration. With the public looking on one is apt to be restrained... (146)
On keeping yourself from becoming bored with training (something GSP also does with gymnastics):
Sometimes I think there is a tendency to make training deadly mechanical; it is just one round of the same old thing; variety is not striven for, and so there is always a danger of staleness. (169)
To attempt something new is the surest way of keeping fresh, both in mind and body, and escaping a seizure of that most harmful and heart-destroying thing called staleness. (179)
The whole aim of a boxer, as that of any man, who is seeking to make himself fit for some test of physical endurance, should be to obtain as much distraction as possible. (247)
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