News

In focus – Winning Traditions

12 august, 2013

Last week Astana Boxing Development center in less than a day has turned into a huge shooting set with lights, electricians, camera cranes, green screen, cameras and tons of cable… Saying that our boxing glove masters are not used to such set up is actin against our conscience. But still, our national team athletes are much more comfortable with gaining viewers' affection out on the ring rather than before the camera lens. However, modern world can't do without this. Later, Serik Konakbayev mentioned: «Athletes are media people. Our boxers need to get used to this».

At the point of the major event in the history of Kazakhstan boxing which is by the way celebrating its 80th anniversary this year – the World championships, the national team has gathered in Astana just before going to the training camp in Turkey.

After a large-scale «Energy of the Nation» promotional campaign before the Olympic games, the photos and video footage are actively used by the Media representatives even a year after the Games. In this regard, the KBF management decided that the best way to attract viewer's attention is to tell them about the honored traditions of the Kazakhstani boxing school. To do so, we invited not only the best boxers from the national team, but also those who contributed a lot to the making of the history of the development of national boxing. The champions of the past years have met the champions of the future on the shooting set.

«Winning tradition» - is the name of this promotional campaign. We'll shall not spoil the intrigue but provide you with a sneak peak at what happened behind the scenes.

Day One

For the shooting crew day one started much earlier than for the boxers. It is not an easy task to prep a huge arena for the shootings. They had to eliminate all sources of daylight – which is pretty much all of the windows 5 meters high from the floor; they had to dress the set using black and white photo-banners depicting the essential and important moments and the heroes of Kazakhstani boxing starting from the founder of national Shokhra Boltekuli; they had to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff (including two other rings which are hard to disassemble) and to add what is necessary (the equipment from the gym on the second floor was moved down), and then place all the necessary shooting equipment around the gymnasium – all this took one day.

The looks on the boxers' faces were telling it all as they were entering their everyday workout place. The process of shooting a 30 second commercial last for minimum of hour and a half, although this timing was rather an exception for one of the ads – most of those took two and a half hours to shoot.

Our heroes did not need to learn their part or words – they were playing themselves and thus, their parts got more complicated. It took several takes and various camera angles to shoot a single episode. They started out wide and kept coming in closer with camera – athletes had to repeat the same exercises over and over which turned into a real practice on the day.

First one to «get shot» was Merey Akshalov who told the secret of pumping abs. However his exercises looked simple compared to those shown by his mentor in video, the renowned specialist Viktor Demyanenko, the finalist of the summer Olympic Games in Moscow, European champion and now a coach of Astana Arlans team. Experienced boxer, good apprentice with fair Arlan experience, Merey Akshalov did very well despite Viktor Leonidovich walking (literally)on top of his abs. «The abs exercises» lasted over two hours. This was something worth applauding to our super lightweight boxer.. «Merey is an established boxer and his awards speak for themselves. He showed well as Astana Arlan member and he is the leader in his weight in the national team; he is hardworking, very diligent, and a nice guy all around. We should be happy for him and wish him reach the heights of being the World champion. He has it all for it», - that is what Viktor Demyanenko had to say about his «mentee» after a long shoot.

A young and talented boxer who is number one in national team's bantamweight – Kairat Yeraliyev, he will be well remembered by the entire shooting crew as a person with a smile on at all times. Whether he talks or exercises – Kairat keeps smiling. Although the director of photography kept telling him to act more serious in front of the camera for he is a serious contender to his opponents. In Kairat's video, his assistant happened to be the medalist at 2004 Olympics, Serik Yeleuov who specially came to the nation's capital as did many others. He made Kairat’s punching workout harder by adding extra assignments. But our boxer still managed to stay calm and even tempered.

Birzhan Zhakipov keeps inspiring rising younger boxers, although who is now himself a national team veteran with loads of experience. He can advise boxers on prepping to competitions but on this day he was the one being advised by a world champion, two times Olympics silver medalist (1996 and 2000) Bolat Zhumadilov. He mentored one of the basic boxing exercises – shadow-boxing where an athlete works out combos and defense techniques and that usually leads to poundage, however the poundage weight never exceeds 1 kilo. In the video, Bolat hands Birzhan dumbbells weighing 3 kilos each – that is as hard as it can get. After an hour and a half shoot, Birzhan looked worn out but he admitted that this shoot was just like a normal workout. Lifting 3-kilo dumbbells is easy but shadowboxing with those is a lot harder. Give it a try and you'll know why.

Closer towards 11 pm of the first day we got to super welterweight. Taking into consideration the importance of this weight category to Kazakhstani boxing, there were no problems in choosing partner for Daniyar Yeleusinov. But since weight was not the key factor in choosing the respected guests, the best option was obvious – two-time world champion and London Olympic champion Serik Sapiyev. Two captains of the national team – former and present – the distinct succession line of the generation of boxers – we can go on forever listing the advantages of the duo. Besides, the workout by the two boxers looked less like a shooting of a movie. Despite the fact they were the last ones for the day, their good mood ignited everyone on the set and soon no one could believe it was the end of the day – the work got lively. According to the script, Serik helped Daniyar work his punches by helping him with his palms. In between the takes athletes managed to dance, joke at each other and pose to the cameras competing in biceps size. The shoot took just as much time but it sure did last quicker.

Day two

Second shoot day started with super heavyweight. And the shootings were just as hard. And more likely Ivan Dychko performed the hardest task among all others. Working out with the 20 kilogram grip – one of the well-known exercises for a knock-out punch. However, the usual exercise was made complicated by Sydney Olympic champion and 1996 Olympic medalist Yermakhan Ibraimov, who suggested throwing the grip from down and up to master the upper cut. Yermakhan also complimented Ivan's work, noting that perfecting of his skills will definitely lead him to becoming Olympic Champion. «Skill workout» took over two and a half hours on the set and throughout this time Ivan never let go of the grip. By the end of the shoot Ivan and Yermaknan practiced the blows in the shadowboxing. After the morning shoot, Ivan also decided to cancel the gym workout for the day for shooting with the grip was quite enough for a one-day practice. We should say, that Yermaknan Ibraimov did energize the entire set – vivacious and funny guest did not only helped Ivan but also the director, camera crew and other set laborers providing a good piece of advice for everyone. Thus, some parts deemed to take time were shot in a snap.

And the super flyweight promo video featuring Ilyas Suleimenov surprised us with a visit of infrequent guest to Kazakhstan but a person who filled in his name in the history of national boxing as the first world champion among Kazakhstanis earning the title 35 years ago, three times USSR champion, participant of summer Montreal Olympic games – Valerij Rachkov. He paid his last visit to Astana in spring of last year coming as AIBA's technical delegate to an Olympics qualifier and found himself very happy of coming to his motherland. Valerij Rachkov confessed that he always follows Kazakhstani boxers’ performances and rejoices their successes at the international arenas. He accepted the invitation to take part in the shootings and was quite serious about his part. Holding on to the punching bag our guest kept hinting Ilyas how to move properly, how to hold the head right, how to work the feet and hot to punch in either direction. All those hints were for boxer only. Later, Ilyas admitted that the advice of the veteran were indeed helpful.

Number one super middleweight boxer Zhanibek Alimkhanuli with the Athens Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev were the last ones for day two. Having changed his sport uniform to a manager suit, the renowned kazakhstani boxer still stays in shape by constant workouts and he very well remembers his ring times.. Bakhtiyar helped Zhanibek with shadow-boxing by teaching him some of his signature combos. Zhanibek proved to be a skillful student, learning everything on the fly and this weight category shoot was completed earlier than usual.

Day Three

The final shooting day at the boxing center was the quickest of them all but that did not make it easy for those who had to be in frame.

Push-ups – is also one of the fundamentals for the athletes and a usual thing for the national team members. Berik Abdrakhmanov was the first one to step out on the set that morning and throughout the two and a half hour of shoot he never mentioned his weariness or complained about something when he was asked to repeat some action over and over. Galib Jaffarov – world champion and medalist told us that there are a number of types of push-ups and they all build up arm muscles well. To complicate the exercise Galib used the wadding ball. «This ball is used by boxers to imitate the punch, like a nucleus», - Galib said. Later, teammates joked about Berik having gained some three centimeters to his arm muscle bulk. «I'd say five» - Berik replied immediately.

The only boxer whose video features more than two people was Adilbek Niyazimbetov. His video's script is based on the sparring. Zhanibek Alimkhanuli helped out with this one even though he boxes in a lower weight.. Besides Adilbek, the stage was taken by another actor – Serik Konakbayev, Moscow Olympics silver medalist, two times European champion, two times World cup winner and now – the vice president of Kazakhstan Boxing Federation. For the shoot, he became Adilbek's corner man, helping him out with advice in between and during the rounds. Just this fact made boxers feel good about their job – which was made quite not for the camera.

Anton Pinchuk completed the shoot for the promotional ad with Beijing Olympic champion Bakhyt Serkebayev with the hook and jab pads. Bakhyt set the fierce tempo for the series and combos making the main heavyweight work even faster. Their tempo also accelerated the shooting crew and thus the tenth video was shot a little earlier than other ones.

But this was not the end. Besides the individual shoots, we still had to shoot the teamwork, practices, photo-shoot and other elements necessary for the promo campaign. Known well for the work with the national team (“Energy of the Nation”) and with Astana Arlans team, the «Big Fish PRO» company's shooting crew included over 15 specialists. Once this shoot is over, another group of specialists will take over – they will work on the shot footage and edit it thus creating mini movies. The result of this work will be at public display very soon. The country must recognize its heroes. We are sure that there are people who are not aware of those heroes but they will after the promotional campaign.

To tell about the campaign, we asked the vice-president of KBF and one of the shooting process, Serik Konakbayev: «Winning tradition» - this motto speaks for our actions. – says Serik Kerimbekovich – What is essential for this? From coaches – good quality training, providing the school for our young boxers and as for the lads – perfecting their skills, and as for the federation in general – not only developing the sport achievement but also providing the conditions to increase popularity. All these require qualified coach trainings. Today, Kazakhstan has the background for this. The World Boxing academy is opening soon and we bind our hopes with it. World known specialist would arrive here to hold master classes and workshops. I presume our coaches will get into it. Seeing the professionalism of the Federation today – the result is obvious. Even this shoot tells us that the approach has changed including the approach towards the popularization of boxing. I think people should also see the other side of it – not only the gold medals but also the hard work beyond the ring ».

Serik Konakbayev also confessed that our athletes should start to get used to publicity: «I think – athletes are media people. It is very good that they start to get more shooting time and recognition. Of course, most of the guys are stiff in front of the camera but they should get used to it. They are the face of the national team and today; we do our best to have them as the role models fro the growing generation. Just like we did back in our days when we dreamt of becoming Vassiliy Solomin, Dan Poznyak, Muhammed Ali. Nowadays when lots of other sports emerge to compete fro the audience, we should show our lads as ordinary people. I guess this helps a lot ».

For the majority of boxers cameras and lenses are of commonplace. Sparing a couple of days to work with our team is not hard for them at all. And later, watching these videos on TV or looking at the billboards and in the internet, we'll get to understand that their favorite place to be is still boxing ring. And boxing is what they do the best. And this certainly makes us happy.

Moreover, the World boxing championship is coming in just two month of time from now. On the 10th of August, right after the shoot, the national team headed to Turkey for training camp. After some recreation, our boxing gloves masters will start doing what they do best. The preparation for the world championship will continue at the camps around Almaty. And this will be their real job, hardly compared to any shootings.

Zhanara Utesheva, special for KBF

Photo: Izturgan Aldauev