Telford boxing coach Len Woodhall reveals the secrets of success

Len Woodhall, who made a champ out of son Richie, shares his ringcraft secrets with Ben Bentley.

Nobody can question the commitment of Shropshire boxing coach Len Woodhall – the tale of the Cup-a-Soup for Christmas dinner tells you that much.

His son Richie, who at the time was just 14 years old and still a decade-and-a-half away from becoming a world boxing champion, was preparing to settle down for his turkey slap-up when Len took him aside and said: "You can't have any dinner. We've got the championships to come.

"I said, 'I tell you what – me and you will have a Cup-a-Soup and a piece of toast'. And Richie just said 'OK, dad'."

Recalling the incident today to coincide with the release of his new, five-disc DVD set, Master Boxing Training Secrets, Len reveals how later that day, after his son had gone to bed, he crept to the fridge and "ripped the turkey apart".

"Then, just two years ago Richie found out and said to me, 'Dad, you cheated that day we had soup for Christmas'."

Len smiles and says: "I said to him, 'Whatever it takes to win'."

Hailing from the Woodside housing estate in Telford, like many other youngsters his age, Richie could so easily have taken the wrong path in life.

But with the love and dedication of his father, he eventually won Commonwealth gold and Olympic bronze in the vest before ditching the head guard and capturing the WBC world super-middleweight title in 1998.

Len's expertise should not be underestimated; his knowledge of tactics, training and ring craft also helped 59 other men become championship-holding fighters.

Len describes the set – the first of its kind in boxing instruction – as a template of how to turn a young, eager boy into a grizzled world champion.

In it, Len, now 72, reveals the secrets to his 50-year-plus successes and techniques that once saw one of the greatest trainers of all-time,

Emmanuel Steward from the world famous Kronk gym hail him as one of the best pad men in the business.

"The idea is to help people to coach kids from schoolboys, give them a goal," says Len.

"It's for everyone from young boxers just starting out to coaches at local clubs and those at the top of their game, saying 'Here is a mindset plan'."

Len is very much a man with a plan. Throughout his career he has doggedly stuck to the game plan, and that would seem to have been the key of his success.

Says Len: "When Richie fought an opponent I would compile a dossier on them. I would know everything about them, including the colour of the fighter's underpants!

"And during the fight I would say to Richie: stick to the plan.

"Three weeks before the world title fight against Sugar Boy Malinga, I said to Richie, 'He will attack you. He said he had seen Richie in the Olympics and I worked it out.

"So we changed our tactics – I said, 'Let him chase you. Even after he knocked him down I said 'Stick to the game plan'."

The highlights of Len's coaching career have been in seeing his game plans come together.

"I was over the moon when Richie won the world title in 1998. My lad had done it. I came home here afterwards and you couldn't move for cars.

It was fantastic, but when he won bronze at the 1988 Olympic Games and gold at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and your kid is on the rostrum and the flag is flying... I was in tears."

As a lad, Len was once picked to play football for England schoolboys. But like other kids his age, he had "better things" to do with his teenage years.

Like watching the latest Flash Gordon. "We were at the pictures and the coach was waiting outside," explains Len, "and I said 'I'm not going out until I've seen how Ming the Merciless gets on!'"

By his own admission, like many other kids his age, Len missed the bus in more ways than one.

But in an era of so-called 'Broken Britain', channelling aggression into boxing is as important, if not more important, than it was when later Len started out training kids in the Telford area during the 1970s and 1980s.

For the past three years he has worked with the Inner City Boxing Programme, a scheme set up by West Midlands Police and Sandwell Council to help 70 young people to focus on goals and discipline through the art of boxing.

Many of those involved have been referred by schools, the police, social services, but Len has helped these young people overcome their troubles. All of these secrets are included in the DVD.

"Boxing gives young people a good focus in life, something to look forward to and feel good about in themselves," says Len.

"It also teaches them for respect – respect for other people, for the coach and for themselves.

"I always say 'We do our boxing in the ring, where there are rules, not outside of it'."

The legacy of what Len Woodhall started at amateur boxing clubs several decades ago continues today at a number of clubs around the county.

"Telford, Donnington, Wellington – all these clubs are run by fighters that were once under me, and they are now teaching their boys correctly," says Len, proudly.

More recently he has teamed up with the Midlands-based Fight for Change Foundation, a charity which delivers boxing and fitness related activities as a positive pathway for young people living in our most deprived inner city areas.

A donation from every sale of Master Boxing Training Secrets will go to the cause.

The importance of boxing in today's society cannot be underestimated, says Len.

"It is getting kids off the street, giving them discipline and honour and making them proud," says Len. "But it also teaches them to have respect for one another."

In the countdown to the 2012 London Olympics, Len hopes his Master Boxing Training Secrets will help inspire a new generation of young people to pack a positive punch and develop their talents in boxing.

"I don't care about whether I am or am not one the best coaches in the world," adds Len. "But that's how I did it."Master Boxing Training Secrets is available now through Librian Enterprises.

For more information visit the website www.boxingtrainersecrets.com. An online training programme that covers nutrition during training can be viewed at www.olympicboxing2012.com