Rocky Balboa has it Sussed!!!!

(before you think I’ve lost the plot,read on……….)


If you are in your 30’s-40’s (or even older) you most probably grew up with Rocky. Even if you had never watched any of his films most of us could identify the theme tune from the Rocky movies, and most of us laughed at the way he spoke (or mumbled).

When the first Rocky movie came out I was still a really young girl, and being a real “girlie girl” hating anything related to boxing, I remember watching the first film and being quite non-plussed by what I saw.

However, this week something changed all that.

My husband came home with the Rocky Anthology this week, and I suddenly lost the will to live. There was NO WAY I was going to sit through six Rocky films. However, my husband then said something that really sparked some curiosity in me. He said “it’s not about the boxing, it’s more than that”. So I grabbed my tub of Haagen Daaz Choc Chip (well I needed some incentive!) and settled down to watch them over a series of nights. Suddenly I saw everything with completely different eyes. My husband was right (again!).

As I watched the films I realised there was so much to learn from the stories. Firstly here we had a man from a less than privileged background, with very little formal education. However, he had something really potent; he had a vision and a dream. In each film he had a different goal/vision, and he worked, sweating blood and tears to achieve each goal he set himself. I watched as he was so nearly de-railed achieving each goal, and yet he just kept picking himself up (literally) and continuing. He didn’t let anything get in his way, even when his body was literally broken, he kept going. Now that’s vision!!! What really stood out for me the most was not only his determination and motivation but that he never lost his integrity. Despite constantly swimming amongst sharks and piranhas, he never became one. He achieved his goals by keeping his integrity and spiritual belief in tact.He always believed in his goals, but the love for his family always came first. That for me was what really resonated for me. How many people do we know who start off swimming with the sharks and then become one themselves. Their excuse is usually that they needed to change to survive. Rocky shows us that this is nonsense.

And what about his coach. For me the person who epitomised his coach wasn’t as you might expect his trainer, it was his wife. Yes, the famous Adrian! She was more (or as ) certain and focused on his goals than Rocky was himself at times. She always encouraged him to press on, learn from his set-backs and celebrated his victories with him. She encouraged him to be more, and to do more than he would sometimes ask of himself, and most importantly she was the first person in line waving the flag at the top of the mountain when he finally arrived there.

So take it from a “girlie-girl” albeit somewhat older, that this film is more than a film about boxing. If you are looking for some real down-to-earth, hardcore motivation/inspiration without too much spiritual woo-woo, then give these a try. Just watch them from a different perspective, and see if I’m right. I think there's a lot that can be learnt from these fine set of films.