Developments in local boxing: Poole on stream to complete IBA Cut Technician’s course

The historic IBA Cut Technician’s Course has been successfully completed by three-star tactician Sebert Blake, and Guyana Boxing Association’s Technical Director Terrence Poole will be the second Guyanese to participate in this significant programme, which will be conducted at the Men’s World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from May 1st-4th.
The official invitational missive from IBA, signed by Development Officer Chris Roberts, OBE, detailed the primary aim of the course as development of a Cutman Technician in each national programme, which would provide pugilists with the essential treatment to avert and manage injuries such as hematomas, lacerations, and nose bleeds. The course would also diminish hand injuries with the mastery of hand-wrapping techniques.
“The main objective of the course is to help develop our Cut Technicians and increase the pool of specialists around the world, as well as to broaden the knowledge of coaches, doctors, and physiotherapists about hand wrapping techniques and facial injury care of the athletes”, the correspondence stated.
The course is eligible only to officials affiliated with the national federation, and who are already registered for the impending Men’s World Championship, to be staged from April 30th to May 14th in the capacities of team coaches, doctors, and/or physiotherapists.
With the removal of head guards, IBA states, the importance of experienced cutmen to assist boxers cannot be understated. Thus, the world governing body has crafted a course that would train and equip cutmen with the requisite aptitudes to prepare combatants before, during, and after fights.
The programme will comprise one theoretical session and extensive practical segments, which will be followed by respective assessments.
Blake, who is part of a small cadre of three-star coaches in the Caribbean, is the first-ever Guyanese to participate in, and successfully complete, the programme — which occurred at the Women’s World Championship in New Delhi, India from March 15-31. Blake scored in the 90th percentile.
GBA President Steve Ninvalle has said, “This is the development of our human capital, and this is how you cultivate the discipline from a personnel perspective. The advancement of the sport, and by extension the athletes, can only occur if the teachers – essentially the trainers and coaches – possess the requisite and ever-evolving knowledge to impart to their students.
“We envisage creating an assembly line of qualified and knowledgeable coaches; that is the vision of the GBA. We anticipate, as in the historic case with Blake, similar success for Poole, which is to the benefit of the overall boxing ecosystem.”