Germany’s amateur boxers want to get back to the top of the world. After disappointing years, the German Boxing Association (DBV) is aiming for a radical new beginning – and is bringing in a trainer from Cuba, one of the most successful boxing nations in the world. At the Heidelberg Olympic base Humberto Horta Dominguez now establish technique, discipline and the famous Cuban boxing school. The big goal: Olympic medals in Los Angeles in 2028.
Shortly before 4 p.m., the boxing hall at the Olympic base in Heidelberg fills up. The German elite women and men are warming up for training and playing table tennis. Then a short man comes in with a close-shaven, half-bald head and a federal eagle on his chest. Humberto Horta Domínguez greets every athlete with a handshake.
Fixed processes instead of coincidence
“In the morning he hugs us all and then it’s just a very, very cool thing”says Ousainou Hansen. The 26-year-old boxes for Germany in the 75 kilo class and is the national team’s athlete spokesman. “You also notice that the climate has completely changed. It’s more relaxed, but you take everything more seriously and are enjoying sport again.”
At the same time, demands also increased with Domínguez. “Horta brings a lot of knowledge with him”says Hansen. “We need that in order to be able to keep up with the world’s best.”
Knowledge and routine – that’s what Humberto Horta Domínguez relies on in training. It’s not talent alone that should decide, but rather habits, repetition and discipline. “We cannot work one way today and completely differently tomorrow”says Domínguez. “Every day there are the same routines: weighing, running training, strength training or boxing school. These daily routines ultimately bring success.”
Much Persuasion in advance
The fact that a Cuban has been on the ringside of the German national team since February 1st is anything but a given in German amateur boxing. For decades, national coaches almost always came from within their own structures. Countries like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have been investing massively in Olympic medal programs for years and are specifically engaging top international coaches.
The German Boxing Association can hardly compete financially with such systems. The new President Farid Vatanparast had to do even more convincing to ensure that the position was advertised internationally. “I realized that we absolutely urgently need a top head coach”says Vatanparast. “The first thing we did to convince people was that the position should be advertised internationally.”
It is no coincidence that the choice ultimately fell on a coach from Cuba. Cuba has been one of the most successful nations in Olympic boxing for decades. The style developed there is characterized by technical precision, high mobility, a strong sense of rhythm and tactical control in the ring. Domínguez himself was trained in this system and later worked as a trainer abroad, including in Russia, Azerbaijan and France.
“In the ring you can recognize a Cuban boxer by his style, his footwork and his rhythm”says Horta Domínguez. This type of boxing is strongly characterized by systematic training in which technique, repetition and fixed processes play a central role. International trainers now regularly confirm to him that German boxers have developed in this direction.
While the sparring is going on, Horta Domínguez stands at the edge of the ring, observes every movement and almost follows the boxers’ steps with her own body. He corrects details, footwork, rhythm and timing. The secret of Cuba’s success lies not only in the talent, but in the systematic training of the coaches, he says: “The trainers first complete a four-year basic training, then a degree, a master’s degree and some even a doctorate.”
The Cuban boxing school has roots in the GDR
The look at Cuba is also part of a longer development in international boxing. In many successful boxing nations, structured training systems play a central role. Training control, sports scientific support and long-term performance development are now considered crucial for international success in many countries.
Boxer Ousainou Hansen is impressed by the style of the new national coach
The famous Cuban boxing school is actually not a purely Cuban invention. It also emerged from the sports science thinking of real socialism. The Soviet Union, the GDR and Cuba were early to rely on centrally organized support, scientific training management and long-term performance development – long before the West professionalized sport in a similar way.
“After the revolution in Cuba, the trainers were trained in Russia and the then GDR sent trainers over who set up the organization in Cuba there.”says Adolf “Ade” Angrick. “And of course the Cubans developed their own style from it.”
Lost connection
Angrick is 81 years old, a former national coach and a boxer himself trained in the GDR. To this day he continues to volunteer in German amateur boxing. The style that Horta brings to Heidelberg today bears traces of these systems: a lot of structure, a lot of methodology but also something typically Cuban: closeness, rhythm and warmth in dealing with the athletes.
“You can see that in the design of the attack and in the continuation of the attack”says Angrick. “The opponent is pressured so that he starts the attack first. And from the counterattack, the boxer from Russia and the Cuban goes into the counterattack and continues the attack there.”
After reunification, many successful athletes initially benefited from the structures of GDR competitive sports, which were also heavily influenced by doping and were strongly characterized by central training centers and experienced trainers. In the following decades, however, international competition changed significantly.
The sport became faster, more athletic and tactically more complex. Countries such as Cuba, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan consistently developed their systems, while Germany increasingly lost touch internationally. “We’ve been a little too easy lately”says Angrick. “We were no longer completely up to date internationally when it came to athletics and competition strategy.”
The long road towards Los Angeles 2028
More travel. More fights. More competition. In the first half of the year alone, the national team completed more appearances in six international tournaments than in previous years, says VBV President Vatanparast: “I think we had to lose a few times before we could win again. And we shouldn’t be embarrassed about losing if there’s a strategy behind it.”
The first big acid test for the German women’s and men’s boxing elite will be the European Championships in Sofia in mid-September. The German team should be back among the world’s best by the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It’s a long way. But apparently the first changes are already starting to appear, as Horta Domínguez did at the World Cup at the end of April Foz do Iguacu has determined: “Many trainers in Brazil told me: The German boxers look like Cubans.”
