Bodo Andreass, boxing coach. Visit to Giants Boxing acadamy in Hastings.
When the Berlin Wall came crashing down so did Bodo Andreass' hopes of a career in the former East Germany before the turn of last century.
It was a testing time for Andreass because "no one wanted to employ" East German amateur boxing coaches.
But a visit to the Amateur International Boxing Association (Aiba) office in East Berlin opened doors, not only to a fulfilling career but also to exotic corners of the world.
"Any time anyone needs me I'll be here [in New Zealand]," says the 62-year-old Leipzig-born man who lives in Canberra, Australia, and finished conducting a four-day coaching clinic in Hastings on Sunday after Giants Boxing Academy owner/trainer Craig McDougall invited him two years ago.
Andreass first met McDougall at a clinic in the Australian capital where a blossoming friendship came with the promise of a trip here. The club raised funds to make it happen in its development drive.
"Craig is not a fulltime, paid coach at all," he says, juxtaposing that with his "24-hour" mentoring career which enables him to interact with athletes four times a day at the behest and funding of the Australian government.
Consequently Andreass and 2004 Olympic Boxer and assistant Australian coach Jamie Pittman were here to share their nous with Bay boxers and coaches.
Andreass says every country has potential talent but consistency in honing skills is the difference.
"The problem here is not just the athletes but coaches, too."
He believes bringing coaches up to speed is commensurate to lifting the standard of boxers.
Andreass and Pittman have conducted "PowerPoint presentations" before the coaches engaged in brainstorming sessions.
Hastings barber Saili Fiso caught his eye and had shown incremental gains under their tutelage in two days.
"He changed from an orthodox boxer to a southpaw because of an injury but he looks like an allrounder who is fast, has good technique and doesn't need much more to become the best boxer in this area."
Owner/trainer Craig McDougall (left) helps international boxing coach Bodo Andreass at the Giants Boxing Academy in Hastings. Photo/Paul Taylor
The Bay boxers, the first combined regional team in more than a decade, head off to the nationals in Christchurch from October 2-6.
Merrill Purcell has assumed the mantle of head coach because of his experience and the work he has done with the three boys from Ruahapia Boxing in the past 18 months.
"The four clubs (CHB, Giants, Napier and Ruahapia) have been sharing skills and sparring together over the past few months in preparation for this event," says McDougall.
"This has been so important because we do not always have good local competition in each gym."
Andreass says boxing is a minor sport so he'll return to Auckland in November to conduct an Aiba star-one coaching course.
However, Andreass bided his time to turn 10, which enabled him to box in a ring.
Not a fighter, he resorted to ringcraft to counter punch his way against bigger opponents. Sattler then sent him to another club where the teenager emerged as a 75kg champion in Germany.
"He had died then and never saw me win but I had gone to his funeral," says Andreass, who was drafted into compulsory army service in his birth nation where turning professional wasn't permitted.
Post-army he graduated with a sport science degree after five years before coaching 14 to 16-year-old boys and later seniors.
He took three pugilists to the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games but a change in the political climate in a divided Germany reconfigured his life.
Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1961, the Berlin Wall cut off West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989.
He declared he was prepared to go anywhere to ply his trade at the Aiba office.
Nigeria? Andreass didn't see that left hook coming but knelt during his one-week grace to decide what seemed like a blurred count of eight from the canvas.
He found clarity of head to beat the count, as it were, going for his inoculations despite the decision of his teenage daughter to remain in their Berlin flat in 1991 to attend school across the road - although his wife followed three months later.
That year he took a Nigerian contingent to the world championship in Sydney, returning with a bronze medal.
They went to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to pick up two silver medals before backing it up with another silver at the world champs in Finland the following year.
Bodo Andreass goes to the white board in putting his message across at the Giants Boxing Academy in Hastings at the weekend. Photo/Paul Taylor
But the death of the Nigerian boxing boss during a China tournament stymied his campaign there.
"They didn't pay me for almost nine months but even after I got my money I left Nigeria in 1994."
The Berlin Aiba office then gave him a choice of Kuwait or South Africa. He was soon disembarking from a flight in Johannesburg.
"Mmm ... that was different. The easiest part in Nigeria was I had to deal with blacks only but in South Africa it was blacks and whites.
Despite the release of the late Nelson Mandela from prison, the arm wrestle had continued in the former Apartheid nation.
Andreass found it "unbearable" to stay even though he had taken "good talent" from South Africa to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics without winning any medals.
The two-year stint ended after he met Australian counterparts, at the Commonwealth championship in South Africa in 1996, keen to head hunt him for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The Australian Institute of Sport employed him until 2014 when he retired, building an impressive resume of 11 marquee events such as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships for men and women.
"Being with the Aussies I got to meet the New Zealanders in the Australian championships so I made some really great friends here."
Andreass says his passion, even after retiring, is to give back to a sport that enabled him to carve a livelihood.
Boxing, he feels, demands human values such as discipline, punctuality and respect.
"You need to earn that," he says, emphasising it is a combat sport but having a solid stable of helpers around the boxer is imperative.
