Expert: Lian Shoemake - 2/7/2008

Question
hi, me and a friend did boxing when we were younger (about 2 years ago) but we had to stop going because the rates were really high where i lived to go to classes (150 a month with only a couple sessions a week, pretty steep)

anywho, we have been training for almost 4 months straight getting ready for the chicago golden gloves, we wanted to be each others cornerman because we've been training with eachother for about 4 years now. The thing is, we don't have a gym to be signed under, i want to be registered as a coach as well as a competitor in the golden gloves, is there any information or anything i can do to do that?

i had no clue this problem would come up so it would be a real shame if we couldn't go after working so hard to cut weight and train and spar everyday

Answer
Hi Mario,
Thanks for the question.
Generally, you can only be registered as either an athlete or a non-athlete with USA Boxing. There is a provision in the rules allowing for a boxer from the same gym as another boxer to be a second, or an assistant in the other boxer's corner. I've seen quite a few instances where boxers have requested that registered coaches at events work in their corners in order to comply with the rules, but there's no guarantee that you'd be able to find someone willing to do that at the event itself. I'd recommend that you contact your USA Boxing Local Boxing Committee (LBC), request a list of registered coaches, and try to contact a coach who plans at being at the Golden Gloves tournament already, and see if he or she is willing to be in your corner (and your friend's corner, of course). Then you and your friend could still work in each other's corners. Just a thought.
Let me know if you need further guidance.

Thanks again for writing, Mario!

Regards,
Lian