How coach Santiago Nieva is changing the way Indian boxers train

Small changes can trigger big transformations – it happens to be the philosophy that India’s Swedish boxing coach Santiago Nieva has applied in his training methods, and has received the collective thumbs up of his wards within months of taking over, PTI reported.

Nieva, a three-star coach from the International Boxing Association’s coaches commission, took over in April and went through his first big test, no less than the World Championships.

India’s medal count stayed at one but having three quarter-finalists was an improvement from the last edition, where only two had made the last-eight stage. The performances of the Indian pugilists were widely praised, and had a couple of close results and a hint of luck gone India’s way, the final standings could have made for even better reading.

“His positive attitude is brilliant, besides in his training methods, he allows boxers the space to sometimes think for themselves,” said this edition’s lone medallist for India Gaurav Bidhuri, who won a bantamweight (56kg) bronze.

There are some who feel Nieva’s eye for detail and a scientific approach to training is helping them iron out technical flaws. “The video analyst not just records our opponents’ bouts but also cuts short videos of our mistakes. These videos are sent to us over WhatsApp and the boxer can see for himself where he is gong wrong.

Having them on WhatsApp also makes it more convenient for us to revisit the videos,” former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar said. “Instead of watching it once in a class, we have it on our phones as constant reminder. He is innovative when it comes to explaining things,” he added.

Personal touch

Nieva said the detailing was a part of adding a personal touch to training. “The idea behind this is to ensure that the boxer never forgets what he is doing wrong. Now I can explain things in a classroom full of 40 boys but that’s not going to have the desired impact. This way, it stays with him and is more personalised,” Nieva said.

Nieva talked about he went about correcting the technique of one of his wards: “For instance, I realised that one of my boys was making it a habit to unwittingly move to the corners, which was giving opponents easy shots.

We cut a video of that and explained to him how this tendency was hurting him and it became a lot more easier for him to grasp. He could better understand his mistake,” the Swede said.

Nieva was with the Swedish men’s team until last year before stepping down after the Rio Olympics. The 42-year-old is a former bantam and featherweight boxer and was inducted into the AIBA coaches commission in 2015.

He has also served as a manager of the Argentine boxing team and even competed for the South American nation at the 1997 World Cup.

Vikas Krishan, another former world bronze-medallist, spoke highly of his motivating powers. Krishan said: “Santiago is patient and even if you are up against a tough guy in any international tournament, he is good at motivating you before a fight. He doesn’t allow you to feel bogged down.”

Nieva’s ‘eye for detail’

Nieva has also been keeping a close tab on the mistakes committed by his wards during sparring – from time “wasted” in the ring on clinching to punch speed, the monitoring has become more thorough.

World Championships 2015 bronze-medallist Shiva Thapa also gave his vote of approval: “He does have an eye for detail and a good understanding of the boxers’ needs. His experience at the international level is there for everyone to see. The small changes that he has made have been very helpful,” said Thapa, who was forced out from the ongoing edition due to food poisoning.

Nieva said all he has tried to do is bring in a bit of order into the training methods. “With a big camp like ours, certain aspects of training will always be general. But yeah, in certain others areas, a slightly more personalised approach works better,” he said.

While Nieva was encouraged by the overall positive feedback he has been getting from his team, he has his eyes firmly fixed at the task at hand. He said: “It’s good if they are telling this about me. Probably means, I am doing something right. But yeah, there is still some way before I change the luck factor and get better results.”