New conditioning coach for Manny

MANILA, Philippines - A new strength and conditioning coach will fly in with trainer Marvin Somodio to join Manny Pacquiao’s training camp in General Santos City in preparation for the Filipino icon’s comeback fight against Brandon Rios in Macau on Nov. 24.

Biomechanics specialist and Sports Science Lab head trainer Gavin McMillan, a former tennis pro, is coming with Somodio tentatively on Oct. 21 after they work Russian Ruslan Provodnikov’s corner in an appointment with Mike Alvarado in Colorado. Provodnikov and Alvarado will dispute the interim WBO lightwelterweight championship on Oct. 19. Roach will arrive two weeks earlier.

McMillan was Roach’s choice to work with Provodnikov, Miguel Cotto, Zuo Shiming and now Pacquiao. He operates the Sports Science Lab in San Juan Capistrano, California, and his long list of clients includes NBA center Tyson Chandler, tennis pro Zack Fleishman, US Olympic volleyball players Eric and Chris Seiffert, US Olympic cyclist Coryn Rivera, US soccer star Aly Wagner, Cleveland Indians first baseman Jason Giambi, former Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Brian Finneran and former New York Mets infielder Keith Miller. What makes McMillan’s resume impressive is the athletes he has trained come from a wide variety of sports.

In the Sports Science Lab website, McMillan said there is a universal law of human biomechanics that applies to all athletic movements. “Leonardo Da Vinci discovered over 600 years ago that the human body had geometric proportion to it,” he said. “Therefore, the human body works maximally only at specific joint angles. These can be taught and completely dismisses the notion that athleticism is only a genetic trait. Athleticism is a neurological ability that can be trained and improved on anyone. Of course, there are people who are better genetically predisposed for athletics but as all current research has proven, it can be dramatically improved regardless of genetics.” He added the one of the key factors in improving sports performance is working on running, jumping, hitting, throwing and lateral movement.

McMillan said the proper foundation for sports starts with the feet. “They control the body’s ability to move in space,” he said. “This basic fact is ignored by almost all known training facilities. We train not only the strength of the foot and ankle but also their flexibility with unique training tools.” McMillan’s focus is to improve core strength, muscle flexibility, joint mobility, coordination, speed of muscular contraction and control of the limbs in different ranges of motion and planes of movement.

McMillan was born in Bonn, Germany, where his father was assigned by the Canadian government as a diplomat. He relocated to Toronto when he was six after his father was reassigned back to base.

McMillan replaced Alex Ariza who was previously tapped by Roach and worked with Pacquiao since the David Diaz fight in 2008. Ariza worked 10 fights with Pacquiao and slowly, made his way to become a visible member of his team. Ariza voiced his displeasure when Roach cut back on his conditioning routine and blamed the changes for Pacquiao’s cramping in his late bouts. There appeared to be a power struggle in training camp between Roach and Ariza. The row was finally resolved with Roach putting his foot down.

“I fired Ariza from working with Manny and he said I can’t and I said yes I can because I hired you and I will fire you,” said Roach in Boxing News (Aug. 22, 2013). “His head got too big. It seemed he wanted to be the cutman, he was yelling instructions from the corner and I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, one day, I’ll lose my job, too!’ Some of these guys out there now get big egos and all of a sudden, they think they’re the show. We have a lot of good guys in boxing but there are a lot of bad guys out there, too, like in all sports. You’ve just got to weed them out.”

In the gym, Roach said he’s gone back to basics with Cotto who battles the Dominican Republic’s Delvin Rodriguez in Orlando on Oct. 5. He called it old-school conditioning. Roach said he’s making Cotto do fundamental things he didn’t do anymore like cutting the ring off, being smart and knowing how to control the ring. It will be the same approach with Pacquiao.

McMillan said he’s out to mold “perfect athletes.” “We literally address all of the needs of each athlete from head to toe and it starts with a proper evaluation,” he said. “Athletes need coordination, rhythm, timing, balance, proprioception, joint mobility, muscle flexibility and balance, all types of strengths, awareness of space, reactive ability, foot strength, biomechanical efficiency, mental ability, confidence and of course, sport-specific skill.”