The clues to Marykom’s gold medal lie in two words: technique and discipline. Indeed, those two words also sum up the difference in success between men and women boxers, as the latter go from strength to strength in international competitions.‘‘It’s a simple technique change we brought in last November’’, says Lt Col P.K. Muralitharan Raja, secretary general of Indian Amateur Boxing Federation. ‘‘They are giving up the hook and employing straight punches — that’s what gets them the medals.’’Raja, a referee and judge at the Athens Olympics, said the difference between the Indians and those who succeeded at Athens was the method employed to score points. ‘‘We missed more than we scored because our boxers favoured hooks, losing precious seconds, while others had more of the straight punches.’’Apart from the time factor, the straight punch — a technique Dingko Singh favoured — enables a judge to see if a punch had landed properly or not and award points. Hooks and uppercuts can’t be seen from all angles and tends to leave the judges confused.The upshot? A potentially fractured verdict. To score a point at least three judges have to press the button simultaneously and the best way to ensure is to land straight punches.So the first thing Raja did after returning from Athens was to call all the coaches to a clinic at Patiala and introduce this technique. Initially, it was difficult for boxers traditionally attuned to employing hooks and uppercuts. But the eight months of training paid off when, for the first time, the men won the Commonwealth championship title in Glasgow, Scotland.The women boxers fared even better, for two main reasons. One, the sport itself is relatively new and there is less ground to make up, unlike in the men’s sport. The difference lay in strength and endurance levels, not technique or experience.Another plus for the women boxers are that they are more disciplined and professional. At camps, they work hard for five days and then completely relax — at the camp itself, following the diet regimen — for the next two days.The men spend their days off at home, and usually go off the diet. When they return to the camp, it takes at least a couple of days before they get back into rhythm.The recent successes have not only brought in medals but also the prospect of Indian coaches taking charge of foreign talent: As earlier reported, the Russian federation is looking at sending its boxers to train with Indian women.
