Interview: Marcus Hale on building a fighter's first year

Marcus Hale has coached at the club for eleven years. In that time he has taken three athletes to national level and dozens more from complete beginners to confident competitors. We sat down with him to talk about the period he considers decisive: the first year.

"People think the first year is about learning punches. It is not. It is about learning how to stand, how to breathe and how to lose a round without falling apart. If those three things are in place, everything else is just repetition."

He is equally blunt about expectations. "Nobody becomes a fighter in twelve months. What you can become in twelve months is someone who trains properly. That person will still be here in five years, and that is who wins things."

His advice for newcomers is deliberately unglamorous: come three times a week, sleep, eat, and never skip the warm-up. "Consistency is the only shortcut that exists in this sport."