All about boxing. Biography of Mike Tyson Speed ​​kills cus damato

BEST QUOTATIONS CASA D "AMATO. -- The first lesson I give children before I teach them boxing is a lesson about fear, about what it is and why we have it. Fear is like fire. If you control it, how we control the fire, when we want to keep warm, he is a friend. When you do not control, he will burn you and everything around you. - The guy comes to me with a spark of interest, and it becomes fire. I add firewood to this fire, and he turns into a flame I add wood to the flame and it becomes a real fire -- When you can hit your opponent and he can't hit you, then you're a fighter -- Those born round don't die square -- It doesn't matter who says what, apologies and explanations: only what happens at the end testifies to true intentions - Heroes and cowards experience exactly the same fear. Heroes just know how to control fear, but cowards do not. - I believe in that nature is much smarter than we think, throughout a person's life she creates pleasures for him and other people who matter to him. Then she takes it all away one by one. This is how nature prepares man himself for death. - There are no stupid people. There are those who are not interested. - There are no natural punchers. There is a natural predisposition to be a puncher, and these are completely different things. Nobody is born the best. You have to train and improve to be the best. - I think that a person is a professional when he can do what needs to be done, no matter how he feels. An amateur is an amateur in his emotional attitude. A professional is a professional in the way he thinks and feels, and in his ability to act in the most difficult conditions. “A person who thinks or worries about being hit will not be in a state of good anticipation, he will actually be hit. “If he wasn’t here, I probably wouldn’t be alive today. The fact that he is here and doing what he does and doing it better gives me the motivation and interest to stay alive. Because I think that a person dies when he no longer wants to live. But I have a reason here with Mike. And he gives me motivation. I will live, I will see how he becomes successful, because I will not leave this world until this happens. - When two people enter the ring, only one of them deserves to win. When you enter the ring, you should know that you are the one who deserves to win. You must know that fate owes you victory because you trained harder than your opponent. You ran more, sparred more. -- You are your own worst enemy (If you let it be!). - Losers are winners who give up... even if you lose... you still win... if you don't give up.

Constantino "Cus" D'Amato is one of the most famous classical boxing trainers. Born January 17, 1908 to an Italian family in the Bronx, New York. When he was 22, D'Amato opened the Empire Sporting Club. He lived in his gym for many years and waited for the arrival of champions who could recoup his investment. Several times with his pupils he was very close to winning the champion title, but in the end he achieved his goal when his boxers stopped all relations with his competitors in the boxing field. One of the boxing champions in whom Cus saw talent was, for example, Rocky Graziano. Graziano established himself as a boxer under the close supervision of Cus, but later began working with another coach and management team and under their guidance became the world middleweight champion.

The first boxer with whom D'Amato achieved a world title was Floyd Patterson. In 1952 at the Helsinki Olympics, he won the gold medal in the middleweight division under the auspices of Kas. When undefeated world champion Rocky Marciano relinquished his title and retired in 1956, Patterson, then regarded as the number one middleweight, moved up to heavyweight with the aim of challenging for the vacant title. He won it on November 30, 1956 with a fifth-round knockout victory over Archie Moore. Cus subsequently chose opponents for Floyd who could make as much money as possible, and at the same time minimize the risk of losing the title. Among other things, Cus was wary of his pupil's fight with Sonny Liston. In the end, the fight still took place, it was 2 consecutive defeats by knockout in the first round from Liston. In fact, at that time, Cus already had the most minimal influence on Floyd, which may have served as such a bitter defeat.

The next with whom Cus got to the world title was Puerto Rican Jose Torres, a former light heavyweight champion. As Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres ended their careers, Cus vanished into oblivion. He then moved to Catskill, New York, where he opened his new boxing gym. It was where Cus met future heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who attended a nearby reform school for troubled teenagers. D'Amato took Mike under his wing, and when his mother died, he helped to survive this misfortune and adopted him into his family. Tyson said about him that he was the only one whom he considered a father in his life. He is always grateful to him for changing his life and giving him self-confidence. Cus trained Tyson for several years, and on November 4, 1985, he passed away at the age of 77. A year later, Mike became the youngest world heavyweight champion in boxing history when he knocked out Trevor Berbick in the second round.

„ I often said to Mike: I owe you a lot ...., and he did not understand what I mean. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have lived for a long time. Nature is smarter than people think. Over time, we lose our friends who were not indifferent to us, and then the very interest in life disappears, because why live without meaning? I believe that a person dies when his desire to live disappears. Someone, perhaps, no longer sees the point of being on this earth, but on the contrary, I see it all thanks to Mike. I will live and watch him become successful. I won't leave until that happens, because if I leave, not only won't I teach him how to fight, but he won't be able to take care of himself. I will lose when my pupil
will become a champion, and I will win only when he becomes a champion independent of me. “Kas once said.

In the history of boxing, Constantino "Cus" D'Amato is also known for his discovery of the peek-a-boo style, where the boxer holds his hands very high, and therefore better protected. Floyd Patterson was the first to box with this style, and Cus taught Tyson in the same style. Today, many professional boxers and amateur boxers around the world box in this way. Cus has also mentored a number of great coaching names such as Teddy Atlas, Kevin Rooney and Joe Fariello. In 1993, the street where Cus' boxing gym was located was named in his honor - Cus D'Amato Way.

On November 4, exactly 20 years have passed since the death of the great coach Constantine D'Amato. Having trained many good fighters in the professional ring, including Floyd Paterson and Jose Torres, D'Amato is, however, better known as the trainer and mentor of the most ruthless and destructive boxer of our time, "Iron" Mike Tyson.

Constantine D'Amato was born on January 17, 1908 in a rough section of the Bronx called the Classon Point section. His large family (9 children, all boys) immigrated from Italy to the United States in 1899. Growing up in an exclusively male environment (his mother died when the boy was only 4 years old), Cus dreamed of becoming a professional boxer like his brother Jerry. But these dreams were not destined to come true after 12-year-old D'Amato had a fight on the street with an adult man, as a result of which he was blind in his left eye.

Despite this, Cus did not leave boxing and in 1939 opened the Gramercy Gym. In it, he consistently “releases” strong boxers, one of which was Rocky Grociano. Having trained him as an amateur, Cus expected to continue working with him after turning professional, but Groziano chose another manager associated with the mafia and who had more influence in boxing. So for the first time in his life, Cus experienced for himself what the “theft” of a boxer is in a professional ring. Nevertheless, Gramercy Gym has built a good reputation for itself. In recognition of Cus D'Amato, the City of New York named a street (Cus D'Amato Way) that once housed a gym after him.

After World War II, in 1945 Cus meets a Ukrainian girl, Camila Evold, whose sister was married to his older brother Rocco. For the rest of her life, she became a faithful companion of D'Amato, running the house, in which, under the supervision of Cus, many aspiring boxers grew up, among whom was Tyson, who called Camila his "white mother". Cas and Camila were not married and had no children, except for the adopted 15-year-old Tyson. In 2001, at the age of 96, Camila died in her sleep and was buried next to Cas in the cemetery in Catskill.

After fighting for his country in World War II, Cus was forced into another war, this time with the International Boxing Club (IBC). For 11 years (1952-1963), Cus fought a dangerous fight with the IBC, a powerful organization that monopolized professional boxing in the late 40s. Officially, it was run by well-known businessman Jim Norris (owner of the Detroit Red Wings club, as well as numerous stadiums and arenas), but in fact, all cases were decided by the famous mafiosi Frank "Blinky" Palermo and Frankie Carbo. One example of IBC fraud is Jake Lamota, who was forced to lose a fight to Billy Fox in order to be able to fight for the middleweight title in the future.

Leading Floyd Paterson to the top, Cus refused to cooperate with the IBC, which earned him many enemies. However, thanks to his perseverance, D'Amato ensured that it was Paterson who became the first boxer to earn a million. Meanwhile, the Senate took an interest in the IBC, which led to its dissolution and the sentencing of Frankie Karbaugh to 25 years in prison.

Fearing the mob, Cus sells his Gramercy Gym for $1 to coaches Bob Jackson and Al Gavin and moves to Catskill. There, in 1970, above the police station, along Main St. he opens a new hall "Catskill Boxing Club". Cus commented on his decision to leave New York: “I'm not paranoid. I just know that if they (mafia - B.S.) can get to me, I will have a bad time. So I acted accordingly."

Camila and Cas bought a large Victorian house (2 floors, 13 rooms) on the banks of the Hudson, a few miles from the hall. After Camila's death, it was acquired by a lawyer from New York.

Cus' goal was to help difficult children from poor families. All he asked in return for his lessons (Cus taught not only boxing, he wanted to develop the personality of a teenager in the first place) was help around the house. One of his students was Kevin Rooney, the 1975 Golden Gloves champion. Growing up in a family of alcoholics, Rooney became a devoted student of D'Amato. It was he who continued the work of the old mentor and led Tyson to the championship title. To this day, like his coach, he trains everyone at the Catskill Boxing Club for free. “He spent all his money on children. His house was open 364 days a year, and on the 365th he always had a Christmas party for the kids. His suit was 20 years old, but he gave everything he had to the children. ”, Rooney recalls.

In October 1985, a year before Tyson took the title from Trevor Berbick, Cus D'Amato was hospitalized with a rare form of pneumonia. Doctors were forced to put the patient into a coma to more successfully fight the virus. However, Cus D'Amato never got out of it. He died on November 4, 1985 at the age of 77 from interstitial pulmonary fibrosis.

He died, but his words and the wisdom contained in them continue to live:

"I deal in minds and emotions."
(I work with consciousness and emotions.)

“The first lesson I teach these kids before I teach them to box is a lesson about Fear, about what Fear is and why we have it. Fear is like a fire. If you control it, as we do when we heat our houses, it is a friend. When you don't, it consumes you and everything you do and everything around you."
(The first lesson I give children before I teach them boxing is about fear, what it is and why we have it. Fear is like fire. If you control it, how do we control fire when we want to keep warm , he is a friend. When not in control, he will burn you and everything around you.)

“There is no such thing as a natural puncher. There is a natural aptitude for punching and that is different. Nobody is born the best. You have to practice and train to become the best."
(There are no natural punchers. There is a natural predisposition to be a puncher, and these are completely different things. Nobody is born the best. You have to train and improve to become the best.)

“A boy comes to me with a spark of interest and it becomes a flame. I feed the flame and it becomes a fire. I feed the fire and it becomes a roaring blaze."
(The guy comes to me with a spark of interest and it becomes fire. I add wood to this fire and it turns into a flame. I add wood to the flame and it becomes a real fire.)

"People who are born round don't die square."
(Born round don't die square.)

"No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does in the end is what he intended to do all along."
(It doesn't matter who says what, apologies and explanations, only what happens at the end indicates true intentions.)

“Heroes and cowards feel exactly the same fear. Heroes just react to it differently."
(Heroes and cowards experience exactly the same fear. heroes just behave differently.)

“There are no stupid people. There are only uninterested people."
(There are no stupid people. There are disinterested people.)

"I believe nature's a lot smarter than anyone thinks. During the course of a man's life he develops a lot of pleasures and people he cares about. Then nature takes them away one by one. It's her way of preparing you for death."
(I believe that nature is much smarter than we think. Throughout a person’s life, she creates pleasures for him and other people who matter to him. Then she takes it all away one by one. This is how nature prepares the person himself for of death).

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Cus D'Amato

The book by R. Shau "Kas D`Amato" Life Lessons, Will, Skill, Discipline and Mentor Mike Tyson's Psychological Approach to Combat" mentioned in the previous article - in my opinion turned out to be quite interesting and instructive in terms of psychological motivation, and at the same time relatively small in volume, that I decided to publish it as a separate article.I really would not want the ideas expressed in this wonderful book to be left without the attention of blog readers - and almost all the ideas are really "working" - it feels like they are built on real life experience. in fact, they are of particular interest not only for boxing fans, but also for fans of other types of martial arts

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R. Shau

Cus D'Amato "Life Lessons, Will, Skill, Discipline and Mentor Mike Tyson's Psychological Approach to Combat"

“A guy comes to me with a spark of interest and it becomes fire. I add wood to this fire and it turns into a flame. I add wood to the flame and it becomes a real fire.”

- Cus D'Amato

INTRODUCTION

Cus D'Amato is considered the best boxing trainer, to this day, he is considered a true visionary.
D'Amato is solely responsible for the fame of the famous Iron Mike Tyson in the 1980s, mentoring the teenage Kid Dynamite for many years in will, skill, discipline and how to be a person.
From accurate fight predictions to the sheer certainty that Tyson will claim the heavyweight title (and that he will be the youngest person to ever do so!). D "Amato knew that he could turn this blank canvas into an impenetrable force.
Unfortunately, Cus D'Amato passed away shortly after Tyson's first professional fight in 1985, a year before Tyson's prediction that the world's youngest heavyweight champion would soon come...
It is worth noting that D "Amato himself never set foot in the ring, being blind in one eye after a street fight, his childhood love of boxing led him to become the chief commander, mentor behind the military machine, instructing Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson, who claimed the heavyweight gold belt while in their early 20s.
There won't be any bullshit in this book, no vague set of rules or motivational mambo jumbo, if that's what you're looking for I recommend picking up one of the paraphrased self-improvement books on the Barnes & Nobles shelf in your area.
Styled like Law 50 by Robert Greene and 50 Cent, you'll find lessons, quotes, and examples from Diaz along with my examples of powerful lessons.
Let's start with the first lesson... enjoy!

Chapter 1:

#1 - Be a Pro (It's all in your head)

“I believe that a person is a professional when he can do what needs to be done, no matter how he feels. An amateur is an amateur in his emotional attitude. A professional is a professional in the way he thinks and feels, and in his ability to act in the most difficult conditions.”

- Cus D'Amato

It's not about luck, bad luck, chance, or the voodoo spell that separates professionals from those who are considered amateurs. The reason why someone sits in the crowd during the "Rumble in the Jungle" and someone in the ring, showing his will and skill to his opponent, is not what was said before, there are only excuses. Perfection in decision making separates the professional from the amateur. There are two forms of decision making, value-based decision making helps you pave the way for your goals, whether it's in the ring in Manila or head of the boardroom. This is the way of the professional. If you succumb to mediocrity, which is the world today, you will make emotional decisions based on feelings. This is the path of the amateur. Before we delve into these two decision models, let's lay down the hard truth.

You will NEVER succeed if you rely on your feelings when making decisions.

Mike Tyson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk... these titans would never reach the level of success if they based their decisions on how they feel at the moment, it just wouldn't happen.
Two ways - your decision
“Two roads diverged in the yellow forest, unfortunately I could not go on two and being the only traveler, I stood for a long time and looked down as far as I could, to where it was bending in the undergrowth.”
Value-based decision making is the path least taken. When it comes time to make decisions, we are faced with two paths. There are two ways you can go. It may not sound like much, but your decisions add up over time. If you choose the path of the winner, time is on your side. With every decision you make, you will get closer to where you want to be. If you choose another path, the path of the loser, then it becomes your sworn enemy. With every bad decision, every day, you fall into a vicious circle.

Path of the Amateur:
Amateurs make decisions based on their feelings, especially based on how they feel at the moment of making the decision.
They are all right with their values, because they probably do not have enough strength to overcome their current state, their current feelings. If they are motivated, they can complete the task at hand, but what if they are tired? Conversation is over.

Path of the Professional:
The professional makes his decisions based on his values. They know that they will not always be able to do what they should. But before they allow their current state to let go or ignore the opportunity or task they need to complete, they return to their values. They value the result of the task, and they act, damn it.
If the winner is tired or feeling overwhelmed, they still have the opportunity to improve themselves, take a step in the direction that their goal is, you can do anything, but they will say yes and do it 10 out of 10 times.

Chapter 2:

#2 - Fear is like fire (make it work for you)!

“Boxing is a sport of self-control. You must understand fear in order to manipulate it. Fear is like fire. You can make it work for you: fear can keep you warm in winter, cook food when you're hungry, give you light when you're in the dark, and produce energy. Let it get out of hand and it can hurt you, even kill you... Fear is a friend of exceptional people.”

- Cus D'Amato

As the saying goes, fear makes some people break, while others makes records. As the ancient Stoics used to say, fear is what it is, we can't escape it, and if you're pursuing bold goals (such as a unified world heavyweight title), you'll face fear every day.
Fear of failure. Fear of injury. Fear of being knocked out and embarrassed in front of thousands and thousands of people. The only thing you can take control of anything, and that's what Cus D "Amato instilled in his champion boxers Floyd Patterson and Mike, what they could control was a reaction to fear. Instead of forking out and creating insecurity in ourselves, we can use it for win-win top-level performance.

As Cus D'Amato told Iron Mike:

“Fear is the biggest barrier to learning in any field, especially boxing. For example, boxing is something you learn through training. You do it over and over and suddenly you come to this...
However, in the process of trying to train, if you get hit, injured, it makes you cautious, and when you are careful, you cannot repeat it, and when you cannot repeat it, it slows down the learning process ... When they come to the gym and say "I want to be a fighter", the first thing I would do would be to talk to them about fear...
I would always use the same example where a deer crosses an open field and as it approaches, all of a sudden, instinct tells it there is danger and nature begins the process of survival, the body releases adrenaline into the bloodstream causing the heart to beat faster and the deer performs extraordinary acts of agility and strength. This allows the deer to go beyond the danger, it helps him to escape to a safe place, into the forest through the clearing. An example of when fear is your friend.
What the child is most afraid of should be called yellow or chicken, and sometimes he will do the most stupid, wild, crazy things to hide how afraid he is. I often tell them that fear is such a nasty thing, an embarrassing thing, nevertheless, it is your friend, because someone saves your life, perhaps a dozen times a day, no matter how nasty it is, you need to watch on him, as on a friend, and yet this is fear ...
Nature gave us fear to help us survive, we cannot look at fear as an enemy.
Think how many times a day a person would die if he had no fear. He would walk in front of cars, die ten times a day. Fear is a defense mechanism. By talking to fighters about fear, I cut the training time, maybe by half, sometimes even more, depending on the person.”

In my eyes, the greatest demonstration of the use of fear as an absolute motivating factor is an example from ancient times:
Alexander the Great arrived on the shores of Persia along with people. Once they got there, they realized that their enemies were vastly outnumbered. Alexander's army begged to immediately retreat, and later return with more people. 99% of people would suggest exactly the same thing, it's a logical response, isn't it?
But Alexander the Great decided to slightly change the approach. He ordered his men to burn their boats. As soon as their only way back went up in flames, according to legend, Alexander turned to his people, saying:
"We are returning home on Persian ships or we are dead!"
At this moment, their fate was decided, they will all go into battle, and they will kill or be killed!
This unorthodox decision led to one of the biggest upheavals of all time.
People like to have options and not take risks when we set goals, there is always a second option in the back of our mind, an airbag, the so-called "Plan B", which you are ready to switch to if you do not achieve your favorite goal. If you take Alexander's approach, you set yourself on the path to success by focusing your attention on one thing and you have no options, no choice but to give everything for it.
This principle can be applied to any part of your life.
What about the business you were trying to create?
Focus on it 100%...go into it head on and the way it works, if you know there's a comfortable job that pays the bills, you won't even come close to what you wanted, and I'm speaking from experience. Are you fully invested? Are you risking? Do you focus exclusively on that battle, whatever it is?
Or have you hidden some of your chips, and have one eye on the escape route?
Cus D "Amato poured into Tyson that his fate was predetermined, that he would BECOME the heavyweight champion of the world! No other profession, no other sport, no other business was considered, there was no other choice.
Tyson lived the way of the Samurai when it came to fear and when it was necessary to take up the sword.

“For the samurai, honor was one of the most important things, and the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdefending honor was so ingrained in his psyche that he was even ready to die to save it. Ideally, the death of a samurai would come in a battle with a famous warrior, and after a great battle, people would compose stories for several generations. If the case was not so, then throughout his life, until he died, serving his master, his honor was pure.
A plan to retreat will always result in average zeal; Victory is the only way out, use the inevitable fear in the right way and achieve new...

Chapter 3:

"A person who thinks or worries about being hit will not be in a state of good anticipation, they will actually get hit."

- Cus D'Amato

An unbreakable mindset is the result of constantly building your mental toughness, resilience, and is achieved when you expose yourself to tough situations and overcome hardships.
Therefore, in order to remain calm in stressful situations, it is required
intellectual steadfastness, but what exactly is this steadfastness?

"Mental toughness is the set of attributes that enable a person to work hard in challenging environments (such as hard training or difficult competitive situations in games) and rise without losing confidence."

There is no doubt that some people are born with a higher level
mental state than others, they can endure more without breaking down, they can make their way through difficult situations, difficult times and move forward much further than others can. But, as with body shaping, anyone can do it. Your neighbor may have a better starting point, a better foundation than yours, but like all things, if you don't practice consistently, you won't
can expect any growth or further development. If you want to forge the fortitude of Mike Tyson, Navy SEALs, or the undeniable will of a Spartan competitive athlete, you need to expose yourself to uncomfortable situations. You must today, secure the reward for tomorrow. You will never build a categorical mindset if you spend your days lying in front of the TV with fast food. This is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (psychologist) describes in his book Flow as a pleasant sensation. If you want to become mentally tough, you need to put yourself in uncomfortable situations—situations that push you beyond what you can currently handle. You need to jump into the proverbial "very bottom", instead of splashing in
safe, shallow waters of your daily life. Cus D "Amato instilled this state both in himself and in his champion fighters from the point of view of the psyche and physiology. On the intellectual side, a sense of calm in the fight was achieved by statements, constant repetitions of statements every day several times.
"I'm too fast, he can't catch or hit me"
"I will withstand any dam in victory, I am indestructible!"
Constant repetition builds beliefs, tell a lie enough times and you will start believing it yourself. In a physical sense, it came down to constant training. Repeating the same slip, the same right-hand counter or the same dive followed by an undercut (uppercut) to the bag, over and over and over. These drills were not only focused on combination, but as a surgeon, he came to pin point precision, hitting the right place at the right time.

Cus knew that if his students worked their asses off by training exactly the way they beat their opponents, knocking them out with a bang, and if they kept repeating affirmations to themselves, they would be unstoppable in a fight. They will take a hit and keep moving forward towards victory. They will not be like an amateur who throws his plan out the window and prepares the moment when the enemy’s glass, which holds to the end, hits hard in the face.

Chapter 4:

#4 - Fear is eternal, curb it!

“You have to understand fear in order to manipulate it. Fear is like fire. If you control it like we control a fire, it can keep you warm in winter, cook food when you're hungry, show a light when you're in the dark - he's a friend. When you do not control fear, it will burn you and everything around you ... Fear is a friend of outstanding people "

- Cus D'Amato

On the battlefield in antiquity, in the boardroom in the business sense of the word, or in the ring, if the lead dog had no sense of fear, that was a problem. Many athletes have proved invincible. Nobody could stop them. They didn't just defeat their opponents, they crushed them. They completely destroyed, including their souls. Then, they involved them in their PR hype. They started to agree with the fans, I'm the best, nobody can EVER beat me. They stopped training hard like they used to because they weren't afraid anymore, they won competitions so many times that they just expected the same thing to happen. Dangerous expectations.

Fear is what lights the fire under your ass and makes you run those extra miles on the treadmill.
Fear is what lights a fire under your ass that makes you stay and go 10 more rounds while everyone else has taken off their clothes and gloves at the end of the day.
It doesn't matter if you're in the ring for your 5th fight or are about to retire after your 50th fight, it's best if you have that guts and a sense of fear urging you to max out.
As Cus said: Fear can hurt you if you can't use it when it manifests...
Hiding in a shell, not being able to move, giving up on strategy is the result of fear spreading like wildfire.
At the other extreme, the absence of fear as a result of overconfidence can quickly give you a reality check when your fear control and preparation are missing, then your defeat in battle is prepared, while your opponent has been training for more hours to be sure that they will not be the one. , who is collected from the canvas after the roar.

Chapter 5:

#5 - Set goals.

“If he wasn’t here, I probably wouldn’t be alive today. The fact that he is here and doing what he does and doing it better gives me the motivation and interest to stay alive. Because I think that a person dies when he no longer wants to live. But I have, here, a reason with Mike. And he gives me motivation. I will live, I will see him become successful, because I will not leave this world until this happens.

- Cus D "Amato

You can be as knowledgeable as you want in any particular subject, whether it be your health, nutrition, the legal system of the United States, or how to grow the perfect Christmas tree. You can find literally all the information you need about these subjects and millions more on the Internet, and there really is no excuse today for not having access to the information you are looking for.
So now that you have the information, it's time to set specific goals for yourself, very few get to that step, putting your goals on paper is a very powerful thing. Writing down that you want to make $5,000 in a month or that you want to gain 315 pounds in 10 exercises...great.
But did you know that there is another extra step?
Why do you want to earn $5,000 per month?
One simple principle: "I want ____" won't motivate you enough to get out of bed at 5am to work on this project, it won't motivate you to stay up late, and it certainly won't motivate you to which you need to go through in difficult moments.
Perhaps you want to earn $5,000 a month to support your children and ensure they have a stable future at a good school. You don't just want to get an "A" on your upcoming exam, you want to get an "A" on your upcoming exam so that next year you can transfer to your chosen course, which will allow you to get the job you've always dreamed of - it all comes down to to live the life you choose.
Chances are if you lack the motivation to succeed, or hit a roadblock and are no longer moving forward, you need to take a step back from your goals and figure out exactly why you are moving towards them. Once you find why you have the motivation and willpower to get to the end, no matter what difficulties you face along the way, you will be ready to burn your boats and never look back. People must always have goals and a clear sense of purpose in order to live. Stagnation, retirement, a decade of doing nothing. This leads to death. Keeping the mind and body occupied is necessary not only for happiness, but also for health! The lives of Cus D "Amato and young Mike Tyson crossed paths when Tyson was only 13 years old, and Cus had already gone through a long career by that time and was in his seventies.

Would Cus have lived as long as he did if it weren't for the fire with which he mentored Iron Mike Tyson every day? Without the dream of setting a new record for the world's youngest heavyweight champion, would Cus have lived this life? I doubt. Take a minute, think about yours, why do you wake up every morning? What is the reason that turns you on?

Chapter 6:

#6 - You get what you deserve. Earn Success!

“When two people enter the ring, only one of them deserves to win. When you enter the ring, you should know that you are the one who deserves to win. You must know that fate owes you victory because you trained harder than your opponent. You ran more, sparred more."

- Cus D "Amato

You have EXACTLY what you deserve. Don't have money? Are you rich? Are you overweight? Does your body resemble a Greek God? Your habits, decisions and mentality up to the present moment in your
life are responsible for what you have. Don't like what you have? Well, it's time to act.

Charlie Munger, business partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, in his book Poor Charlie's Almanac, had the most true words I've heard when it comes to getting what you want:

"To get what you want, you have to earn what you want, the world isn't such a crazy place yet to give a whole bunch of jerks what they want!"

- Charlie Munger

How do you deserve what you want? You do your best and
take the necessary steps to qualify.
You won't lose 100 pounds of fat unless you're in a calorie deficit (by tracking your calorie intake and burning more calories 24/7). Your pockets won't be filled with gold unless you're running a business that provides consistent value to your customers while making solid profits. It just can't happen. If you don't meet the requirements you don't deserve, you won't get anything. Spending every second of every day thinking about what you want while paralyzed is the wrong way to achieve your goals, you have to think positively, but more importantly, you have to act.

Cus knew that if he wanted his boyfriend, whether it was Mike Tyson or Floyd Patterson, to be the one with the hand up after the fight, they needed to do some "nauseous" work on themselves. They needed to work harder and faster, think and outlast their opponent in order to win. Tyson's training regimen, which we will discuss later in this book, was very intense, such training would break most people both mentally and physically. If Tyson's training had been easy, if Cus D'Amato had been soft with Tyson because he loved him, Mike would never have gone that far, he would not have deserved to win over his opponents. Don't expect success, don't expect victory! Put in the work day in and day out and you'll get exactly what you deserve when the time comes.

Chapter 7:

#7 - You are your own worst enemy if you let it be!

“It doesn’t matter who says what, it doesn’t matter if it’s an excuse or an explanation. Only what a person does is ultimately evidence of his true intentions.”

- Cus D "Amato

We fight every day, whether you know it or not, but we are not talking about the enemy in the physical sense. We fight our lethargic nature, which stops moving on, content with the results we achieved last time.
We fight resistance and the voice in our head. We are at war with ourselves. You're your own worst enemy if you let it be.
Go for small victories every day, regardless of your nature.
Run the extra mile, cut the regulations by one lap, do whatever you have to do, and end the day a little better than you were at the beginning of the day.

Once you beat yourself day in and day out in training until the big day, your opponent will be walking in the park at that time. Mike Tyson is a prime example of how an unstoppable person defeats himself. To be sure, Iron Mike did suffer many defeats in the ring later in his career, but long before Douglas' glove knocked out Tyson, he was already a self-defeated one. He himself knocked out his chances of success. He became lazy with training, lived a wasteful life, allowed women to distract him from the work he was doing. As they say, the worst thing a warrior can lose is his discipline.

When Cus D'Amato died in 1985, shortly after that, we began to see small cracks appearing in Mike Tyson's armor. He no longer followed Cus's strict daily routine, he no longer talked to him about intellectual and psychological warfare in the evenings. alone, Tyson began his own downward descent.

Chapter 8:

#8 - If you give up, you will lose!

“Losers are winners who have given up. Even if you lose, you still win, as long as you don't give up!"

- Cus D "Amato

You may have started a new job at a prestigious real estate company. You've called several prospects, but none of them are willing to buy. You get discouraged and stop following the orientations, you have convinced yourself that no matter how convincing your offers and how profitable the property offered, no one is going to buy a house or apartment from you. You've received a series of potential red flags from your boss, but you don't even pay attention to them, you've convinced yourself that nothing will change as a result. You tell everyone you're a hopeless salesman and give up. Maybe you're away from making a deal in one or two calls, but you haven't even bothered to pick up your phone again...

Seth Godin calls it a pit, a long period of time during which you go sideways and see almost nothing in the context of the results. Most people sink into a pit when they fail to see tangible results for the effort they put in, they get discouraged and fall back in defeat.
Failure (the pit) is a test, if you want something badly enough and survive the failure, there is a good chance that there will be a reward for it.
A failure is a moment in time when an amateur can become a professional if he does not let the lack of progress prevent him from relentlessly continuing on his way. When it comes to any business, whether fitness or business, there will also be ups and downs. You will rise and fall from time to time, this is the nature of being the best at what you do. It's all in the head. Work hard. Make your way forward and make any twists and turns based on your results (or lack thereof).

The people who fall prey to conscious helplessness are the people who don't understand that this road will never be smooth, you will never sail easily to the desired result. Get involved, make changes, and don't live like a monkey in a cage. The cage is always in your head!

Chapter 9:

#9 - Workout, workout, workout!

“There are no natural punchers. There is a natural predisposition to be a puncher, and these are completely different things. Nobody is born the best. You have to train and improve to be the best."

- Cus D "Amato

Practicing physical skills, whether it's throwing an aggressive right hook to a heavy bag or a backflip on a trampoline, gets more polished and eventually soaks into your mind with constant repetition. You no longer have to consciously think about turning your leg and twisting your torso for a hook, it happens with the snap of your fingers. Throw a punch at an unprepared person, and he will either raise his hands up and give up, or do nothing, or start to retreat.
Through constant training, training, training, the boxer or martial arts practitioner reprograms his brain by spending long hours in the gym to be able to respond differently. When the fighter sees the punch coming without a doubt, he bounces to the side before landing a powerful right or left hook to the aggressor's chin.

Iron Mike Tyson was not gifted with the indomitable will, skill, power and speed that he demonstrated to the world in the ring during the 1980s and 90s... he came to this through constant training. Look at Tyson's daily routine (7 days a week!)

5 am
Climb and run 3 miles (often with a heavy backpack).
6 a.m.
Return home, shower and sleep.
10 am
Wake up, oatmeal for breakfast.
12 p.m.
10 rounds of sparring in the ring.
2 p.m.
Steak and pasta, fruit juice, preparation for the next workout.
3 p.m.
Return to the ring, more sparring and technical exercises, and then a 60-minute session on a stationary bike.
5 p.m.
2000 squats; 500-800 push-ups on the bars; 500 pushups; 500 shrugs with a 30kg barbell (this was broken into 10 rounds, all round)
Tyson also did 10 minutes of neck strengthening exercises during this workout.
7 p.m.
Steak and pasta, fruit juice.
8 p.m.
30 minute exercise bike workout.
After the last practice of the day, Tyson studied videotapes of great boxers "religiously", analyzing their methods for both offensive and defensive purposes. Tyson said he watched these tapes over and over again from the age of 14 to 20.
Cus D'Amato didn't force Tyson to do 2,000 squats a day all at once, constantly training day after day, he slowly added 50 here, 50 there, and eventually worked up to 2,000 (within 2 hours!) By the age of 20.
It's worth noting that neither Cus nor Tyson himself believed that lifting weights created the strength and volume needed to dominate the ring, Tyson's strength came directly from heavy bag punches from his early teens. Cus had Tyson hit heavier and heavier bags, helping him build that explosive-like power through his hips that he was known for.

If you are a seller, you are better off repeating scenarios and calling potential buyers daily. If you want to be on the podium in a marathon, it wouldn't hurt to start working out every day.
The key to success is relentless effort and constant training with discipline. Tyson was not lucky. Bill Gates was not lucky. Mark Zuckerberg was not lucky. They all worked every day for many years. It's your turn!

Chapter 10:

#10 - Use the power of the mind.

“There are no stupid people. There are those who are not interested."

- Cus D'Amato

The discipline, the skill, the will, the desire to get better, and the passion to keep going when you're losing. No matter how rich you are, how fit you are, if you don't build a mindset as solid as a rock, you won't be very successful in your endeavors.

Cas knew that Iron Mike could use manipulative techniques, psychological warfare with his opponents. He was "in their heads" long before they met in the ring. Any advantage is a plus when it comes to a world-class enemy, so psychological warfare was used often and deliberately.

Cus taught Tyson that the key is emotional response.
It is necessary that the enemy forget about the pre-calculated, patience-oriented strategy at the beginning of the battle, and instead rush into an emotional blitzkrieg, becoming wide open to the ultimate counter-strike that will lead them to defeat.
A lot of people think it's rubbish...

10 PRINCIPLES OF D "AMATO

10 Lessons

#1 - Be professional (All in the head)
#2 - Fear is like fire (make it work for you)
#3 – Worry destroys focus (Be Calm!)
#4 – Fear is eternal, curb it
#5 – Set goals
#6 – You Get What You Deserve (Deserve Success!)
#7 - You are your own worst enemy (If you let it be!)
#8 – If you give up, you lose
#9 – Workout, workout, workout
#10 – Use the power of the mind

View a book on the preparation method of Cus D'Amato:

Cus D'Amato "Life Lessons, Will, Skill, Discipline and Mentor Mike Tyson's Psychological Approach to Combat" -

Cus D "Amato always been the best, he also excelled as a mentor to the most popular, strongest and most destructive boxer Mike Tyson.
Who is Cas D "Amato? Cas D" Amato was born in 1908 in the Bronx. In a large family of Italian emigrants. In the family, besides Cus, 9 more boys were brought up. The mother of the family died when Kas was barely 4. And maybe the guy who grew up in an exclusively male environment, therefore passionately dreamed of a boxer athlete. Moreover, such a passion was characteristic of his older brothers. However, the unexpected fight of 12-year-old D "Amato on the streets of the Bronx did not allow this dream to come true - the boy received an irreparable injury, as a result of which he was forever blind in his left eye. However, the injury did not break Cus's spirit, he did not leave boxing, and let him not became a great boxer - he became a talented coach.

His coaching career began around 1939 with the opening of the Gramercy Gym. It was then that Cus began to train Rocky Groziano, who later joined the ranks of boxing professionals. At the beginning of his career, D "Amato experienced not only ups and downs, but also bitter disappointments - it was in the case of Groziano that for the first time in his life he was faced with the" poaching" of an athlete in the professional ring. But what does not kill us makes us stronger. Gramercy Gym all and, subsequently, earned himself an excellent reputation in New York.

In 1945, Kas changed his marital status - entering into a civil marriage with a girl of Ukrainian origin, a certain Camilla Evold, who was by his side throughout his entire subsequent life, as a friend, companion and just a loving wife. Cus and Kamilatak did not get married and did not have children together, so they later decided to adopt 15-year-old Tyson.

Cus was a unique person who never gives up. So, for 11 years he waged an uncompromising struggle with the International Boxing Club. This organization monopolized professional boxing and sought to maintain its position - and by any means possible. All cases, incl. and the outcome of the battles was decided by a certain Frank Palermo and Frankie Karbo - on account of this couple there were many dishonest frauds. In the International Boxing Club, boxing matches were just a commodity that was exchanged for money, bought, sold - and it was not the strength and skill of the boxers that decided who would win and who would lose. It's simple - the champion paid, did not pay - an outsider.

Perhaps that is why Cus completely refused to cooperate with this organization, which made him many irreconcilable enemies, including such powerful ones as Frank Palermo and Frankie Carbo. However, the machinations of the International Boxing Club caused its closure and dissolution, criminal cases were opened against many of its founders, some were taken into custody. D "Amato, fearing reprisals from the mafia clan of Palermo and Carbo, was forced to change his place of residence.

D "Amato quickly moves to Catskill, having sold his offspring - the boxing club Gramercy Gym, at the lowest price. However, later, the restless Cus D" Amato still continues his coaching career, and again acquires the boxing club "Catskill Boxing Club". Thanks to his honesty and hard work, he brought more than one champion athlete to professional boxing, but it is characteristic that most of his pupils were, once, difficult teenagers, street bullies.

Cus sought to help difficult children become better, change their worldview, give them meaning in life - he did not take money for his training, he did not ask for anything in return. Perhaps that is why his house was always crowded, the pupils came just to help him around the house and visit. Even today, the Catskill Boxing Club is a club where everyone who wants to train is trained, and, moreover, completely free of charge, just like during the life of its founder Cus D "Amato.

So, for example, his famous pupil Kevin Rooney, the champion of the Golden Gloves tournament, was once a difficult offspring, and grew up in a very dysfunctional family, but it was thanks to his acquaintance with Cus D "Amato that he changed and became interested in boxing. Kevin Rooney was next to his coach all life and, as a result, continued his work, including coaching Tyson.

Yes, unfortunately Cus D "Amato died before Mike Tyson took over the title of Trevor Berbick. Cus D" Amato died of transient pneumonia in 1985, at the age of 77, and, unfortunately, could not share the triumph with his protégé Iron Mike .

However, his triumph was fidida Camille Evold. She outlived her civil husband and lived to a ripe old age. At the age of 96, with her eyes closed for good, her remains were buried next to Cus, in a cemetery in Catskill.