As the boxing Trainer for the U.S. Olympic Team, much has happened to boxing coach, Marc Gargaro, since he contributed as one of fifteen coaches interviewed for as part of the writing journey for the newly-released (and much-needed) book HOW TO COACH GIRLS. He has now been twice to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to work with two Elite Boxing Teams — the teams that will go on to compete in the Pan American and Olympic Games. For these training camps, Marc was one of three guest trainers preparing the teams to compete in the World Boxing Competition. The two teams — Mens and U17/U18 Girls– would go on to win collectively five medals including a gold, a silver, and three bronze.
With experience in training both men, women, boys, and girls simultaneously in his own gym, Nonantum Boxing Club, Marc has a unique vantage point to compare the differences between these groups. In this video, he compares the U.S. Olympic Boxing Teams he just trained: Men vs Girls:
Training camps for both girls and men for Elite Boxers at U.S. Olympic Training Center do not differ. Here, Marc Gargaro talks about a typical day at training camp to prepare for the World Boxing Championships in Germany for the men, and India for the U17/U18 girls.
Marc\’s contribution to HOW TO COACH GIRLS includes more insights on the differences coaching girls versus boys.
Timely Advice from Marc Gargaro | Coaching Girls versus Boys
I started coaching women several years into my coaching career. Women’s boxing really wasn’t that popular until about ten years ago so I started coaching just one woman at first who had boxed as an amateur for a really long time. Every year, there are more and women coming in to train at the gym, which is a good thing. The sport is definitely evolving for women. Now, my fighters are almost evenly split between men and women.
The girls who come into the sport these days have been with me for some time. There have been quite a few women over the years who have been successful as well at our gym. I feel that the women who come in usually put in a lot of time into it; they are not just coming in the door and disappearing.
There are slight differences training men versus women. When you a good boxing who wants to train, they have the same qualities: they are driven, they are athletic, strong-minded, they have a toughness to them. The women are usually more independent. Guys that need that push more. Girls They can set up their own training sessions and you need to push them to do that. The women get frustrated more easily. It’s not necessarily bad or good. They push themselves a little too hard so sometimes you need to rein them in a little. That’s the main differences that I see.
Read more of Marc\’s coaching wisdom, and more on the nuances of not only coaching girls but keeping them in the game, in the newly released book, HOW TO COACH GIRLS by Mia Wenjen and Alison Foley.
Marc Gargaro is a professional boxing trainer as well as USA Boxing Level 2 and AIBA Star 1 amateur boxing coach. He has extensive coaching experience on the regional and national level and works with boxers of all ages. He has coached hundreds of fighters since co-founding Nonantum Boxing Club, with about a quarter of them women.
Did you know that 70% of all kids quit organized sports by the age of 13, with girls quitting at 6x the rate of boys?
Alison Foley, former Boston College’s Women’s Head Soccer Coach and current CEO of Foley Athletic Advising, and Mia Wenjen, parenting blogger at PragmaticMom.com, help coaches — both parent volunteer and professional — crack the code of how to keep girls in sports. As a mother of two daughters who played a lot of sports, Mia provides personal accounts to illustrate issues discussed throughout the book. Alison, also a mother of a young female athlete, has hands-on advice from coaching young women professionally for more than two decades.
Volunteer parents and experienced coaches alike will find invaluable advice on creating a successful team that motivates girls to stay in sports beyond the middle school years. Twenty-two chapters cover major issues, including how to pick captains, the importance of growth mindset, issues around body image and puberty, as well as the challenges of coaching your own daughter.
In addition, fifteen professional coaches from a range of sports, including former Olympian athletes, give their advice on what girls need from a coach to allow them to flourish in sports, and most importantly, have fun. This is a hands-on manual to help coaches keep girls in sports! Go HERE to read more about this much-needed resource for parents and coaches.
