Adam [00:00:02]:
Evening all. Episode one zero seven on The Box Gathering Podcast. This is gonna be a real quick one. Quite an interesting one. So some of you may have seen recently on our social media, especially on Instagram, a couple of posts around two coaches standing in a boxing show, having a chat to each other about, the the usual chat that every single coach has, which is, hello, mate. How are you? How many you got on today, which is always the first question everyone goes to. And I've got one on. I've got two on. All that sort of stuff. And go, oh, yeah. Who you got on? Oh, I've got this boy on. I've got that boy on. But the example that we gave in there, and we've had loads and loads of feedback over it and loads of comments, is that one says, I've got a skills about on a senior. And then the other guy goes, okay, well, what number is that? And he says, well, it's a it's one and sixteen. And then the other coach goes, oh, no nightmare. You're having a nightmare in there, mate. And he's like, yeah. I know. Stinker. Stinker. 

So I thought just briefly just chat about that. Interesting enough, someone's commented on it recently, and it's a really valid, good point. I mean, the whole thing was sort of made in jest really a little bit of fun. Just sort of poking a little bit of fun at the conversations we have. But one of the, a club called, Draig Goch, I probably said that wrong, in Holyhead in Wales made a really, important comment. They said that they've just had their home show, and they said that a lot of coaches and clubs were basically sticking it all over them saying, you need to get me on early. You need to get me on early. Blah blah blah. And that caused them a lot of stress and problems. I mean, that's all I've read into. I've not spoke to these people at all, but I think they make a really good point. 

So just to give it a bit of a levelled playing field, I think there's two parts to this, argument here. So firstly, putting on a show is a nightmare. Alright? So I do all the matchmaking for our club, and the last show that we had, a week Saturday ago was an absolute stinker in terms of organising it. So I must have rematched several of our boxers probably three times, you know, several of them in the last week, and it was it was hard. You know, every minute you're giving up, at lunchtime, night times when you should be doing other things, you know, you're on the phone. You you're sending text messages. You're double checking, and then you're answering phone calls. And it's very difficult, right? It's really, really hard. Anyway, you know, smallest violin in the world for me and for everyone else that does it. But I think when when you do go to a show and you know, you might travel an hour, two hours to get to the show and you bring your boxer along, and there might be a a team of coaches there just one or two deep or three deep that are proper struggling. You know, they had fall-outs that morning, and the show's sort of falling apart. And some of your best ticket sellers have suddenly gone ill or injured, and it's fallen apart. Other bits and pieces are happening. And it's really, really stressful. And then, of course, you get loads of coaches turn up at the last minute and go, oh, do me a favour. Get me on last minute. I'll come on. We've come all the way across here, and we you've got us on number seventeen, eighteen. 

And listen, I've said that loads of times. I've got to shows, do you mind getting us on a little bit early? But I've also had it on the other side where people are saying to me, Adam, do you mind us changing it, getting us in before the end of all this, that and the other? And it's a nightmare, isn't it? And then, of course, the supervisor, they get fed up with it as well. And then you have to go, listen, mate. It is how it is. And then you're almost sort of saying, look. You either want the bout or you don't want the bout, and it's simple as that. So I see it from both sides of the table. I see it from both sides. One is the matchmaker and the club that are running the show trying to just get it as well done as possible. And, of course, you always try to help pick people out where you can, but I think sometimes there are people asking to be on early just for the sake of asking to be on early. 

Now I get it if you've got a club come, like, three hours, four hours, and they got a couple of boxers on, and they wanna get them earlier. And, of course, there are rules around with England Boxing that the younger they are, the sooner they have to box. I've probably got this wrong, but I think, is it 16? They have to be finished by half past ten. Please correct me if I'm wrong. And then, obviously, everything needs to be done before midnight. The bouts need to start before midnight. I think that's something to do with insurance purposes and bits and pieces like that. So I get there are rules that we need to follow, but I'm not entirely always sure that when coaches ask for it, it's because of those rules. It's more because they wanna get home early. And listen, we're all volunteers, and you know, we all have families and other things that we need to deal with, so I get it. So I'm not saying it's right, and I'm not saying it's wrong. Sometimes it's legitimate, and I guarantee that I'm probably gonna ask at some point to get on early this season again, just to help them support me. So, you know, there there's lots of moving parts in this, but I think we need to kind of see it from both ends. So, whoever the coach was from, again, I'm probably saying this wrong, Draig Goch in Holyhead. I think they make a really good point that sometimes we gotta come to a show and realise that, it is hard work, especially if it's only on a few people that are organising it and we need to sort of understand that. But again, like I say, I'm not saying people are wrong to ask. 

So the only thing I can really surmise from that situation is if you do need to get on early, perhaps ask that early. Ask that when the bout is made, you know, two weeks, three weeks beforehand, and ask that then when there's no stress and when you can actually sort of back that up. And I was asked a couple of times in this recent show, and they asked me early, and I did make allowances for that. And that really, really helped me. So anyway, so it was just something that jumped up on the social media. If you're not seeing the post yet on social media, go on to, The Box Gathering Instagram and have a look. And there's lots of people sharing it, commenting, putting it on their stories, etcetera. But it just kinda thought, you know, that's a good conversation point to have. And when I say conversation, I'm sat at home on a Sunday night talking to myself, talking to a phone. But I just thought it's worth bringing up. So what are your what are your thoughts around that, guys? Around people asking to get on early, or around, the host saying no, around the host saying yes. What are what are your thoughts around that? Because I say I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. There's only good communication, around these requests. So let's draw a line under that one. 

Couple of other bits and pieces as well. We've also now bringing out some podcast articles. So for everyone that listens to the podcast, which is will be hopefully you because you're listening now, we've now developed some articles to complement the podcast that we're doing, drawing out a lot of the the quotes, the main themes. And for those people who are a little bit more along the lines of I wanna read something, have something tangible in front of me, it's a really great format, and it really brings to life some of the podcasts that we have. We've only done about seven or eight at the moment, but we will be bringing out more. So we're going back into the archives, dipping back into the archives of the podcast, and we'll be producing those articles for you. And that's free on the website to all. So just pop on to the website and you will see it there. So if you're a member or if you are not a member, that part is free to everybody. 

Welcome to all the, brand new members as well this week. It's great to see you on board. Love to hear your thoughts on all the content. And then finally, just before, signing off, we're getting a lot deeper now into the pad work course that we've spoken about recently. So that will be out in April, at some point in April. Doing a lot of hard work around that videos, research around the science and the hard science that goes into actually, why pad work maybe not what we think it is, but how we can then ramp it up in a way that's gonna have a bit more skill transfer than perhaps we first assumed. Anyway, so have a great evening, guys. This one will be going out tomorrow morning, so have a great morning. And like I say, love to hear your thoughts around, that comment made around people asking to get on early, and maybe abusing that right. And then some people might think, well, actually, they've got a good right to do that as well because they're traveling the width and breadth of the country. So, good conversation to have on the socials. Anyway, thanks very much, guys. All the best.