American Boxing Trainer, Michael “Coach Mike” Kozlowski offers his thoughts in defense of tough “Old School” trainers…trainers parents hire to discipline children who complain hard instead of working hard.

Posted on 28. Apr, 2024 by BoxingCoachMike in News

America is sinking deeper and deeper into political correctness and children’s permissiveness which leaves our kids unable to defend themselves. This political correctness only serves to help maniacs, rapists, pedophiles, and other categories of criminal elements of our society. Political correctness, which sometimes borders on idiocy, also extends to sports. Therefore, parents should consider trainers who provide their children both skills for physical defense as well as education. A true Coach prepares his students for real life difficulties and is engaged in the education of his students. And while never cruel, a coach can only be successful if he is both tough and fair.

The role of the parent is to be just as tough and fair, but also involved working alongside the coach training their children. Trainers like Coach Mike are committed to strengthening a child’s defenses both mentally and physically. If a child becomes emotional and complains about the work, the parents must support the coach and vice versa to keep the child motivated and committed to growing and developing.

One of Coach Mike’s training strategies is to create real-world situations as a stress test for students. He describes a recent session:

“Just the other day, for the first time in my almost forty-year career as a trainer, I had a difficult situation that was unique. During a self-defense training class, students were divided into pairs working on techniques they have practiced countless times…
Before the next task, I asked the teenage students (13-15 years old), not beginners!!!, what actions should be taken if the attacker strikes with an unknown hand?
With these students, we have already worked on such a situation countless times!
But this time I, SPECIFICALLY, asked this question in a very sharp and, to some extent, aggressive form, so I didn’t give the student time to think and instantly, one might say, on a subconscious level, make a decision! I turned sharply to one of the students and began to imitate an attack. She was confused and dodged, still remaining a target for strikes or a grab, although initially she knew (according to her later admission) that it was necessary to take a step back and break the distance!!! I imitated several strikes with my fingers, light slaps, touching her head, shoulders, body and showed her that she did not protect herself… Then, in an even sharper form, continuing to create a street situation, I turned to another girl standing nearby, older and more experienced, in terms of training processes, with the same question, imitating an attack!
I was sure that this student would take a step back, or just jump away from me, as we had done dozens of times before! But she was also confused and only ducked her head from my imitation blow, also remaining in the danger zone! I began to very quickly, as in a street fight, imitate with my fingers, slaps, possible blows of the attacker in such a situation, she made an awkward movement of her head and I, accidentally, lightly hit her in the ear area with my palm!.. I immediately apologized and asked her if it hurt???, to which the girl said that everything was fine. The training continued and during the training I asked this student several more times how her ear was! After the training session, I asked her again how she was feeling, and she looked me in the eye, smiled and said that she was fine…
And… a few minutes after she left, there was a call from her dad, who said that his wife had called him and complained that I had hit their daughter…
The girl’s father, after my explanation of what had happened, understood what had happened and accepted my apologies…
But before I could finish talking to him on the phone, the girl’s mother was already at the threshold of the gym and began to express her indignation about what had happened…
My apologies and explanations that boxing is a CONTACT sport and that at the most varied training or competitive levels in this type of martial arts such accidents happen and that no one is immune from them, did not convince her at all…

While talking to the girl’s mother, I remembered an episode from many years ago that happened to me when I saved a woman from a serial rapist…
You can see the video of this episode, filmed with a hidden camera, below.
I was conducting our Morning Boxing Class for Adults, which began at 6 am. At 7 am, the class ended and my students began to disperse. Other clients began to come to the gym and I decided to train a little myself beginning with the jump rope.

Suddenly, from the other side of the gym, where the entrance was, I heard a very weak female scream, “HELP!” I looked around and there were only about ten people in the facility, including two of my students (a mother and her daughter). I did not see any reaction to the screams, but I knew something was wrong and ran to my students who were standing near the entrance to the women’s locker room.

I asked if the screams had come from the locker room and the ladies confirmed they had. Knowing that as a male, I cannot just enter the women’s locker room, I asked the two female students to accompany me at which time we all entered together. And there, inside the shower was a serial rapist assaulting another female student. Using the boxing defense skills I’ve developed over the many years; I neutralized the scoundrel. You can see my reactions in the video.”

Parents choose to bring their children to old school trainers like Michael “Coach Mike” Kozlowski. Coach Mike has dedicated his life to protecting others but most importantly, teaching others to protect themselves. He focuses most of his efforts working with women and children who are most vulnerable to threats in the real world.

“ I can teach them self-defense or how to stand up for themselves and for the weak. I remember so many instances of protecting girls and women, including protecting my mother. That all happened in my life and wasn’t caught on camera. Based on these life experiences, I teach my students basic courage so that they will not remain paralyzed in stressful situations. Instead, they will recognized danger, keep distance, run away and call for help as quickly as possible.”

Coach Mike concludes:

“Due to many year studying and contacting with other trainers and coaches from different sports in various countries worldwide, my life experiences have helped me to develop my own specific and INDIVIDUAL coaching approach to the training AND education of students…for both physical health and mental superiority.”