April 1, 2015 — Every Sunday at the gym at Pompano Fitness, Jay Silverman runs a special program of non-contact, safe boxing for those on the autism spectrum. Today he visited PCE Media to discuss Aspertools.

Jay, who’s originally from Brooklyn, is a gentle giant of a man who, when speaking about his “clients” on the autism spectrum, speaks from the heart. He understands that one size does not fit all. “Their brains are all different, and each of them is different,” he said. “But you can reach all of them.”

Jay enjoys describing the strides — physical, emotional and behavioral — that many of the youngsters he trains have made physically.

We discussed the role that anxiety plays in those whose brains are a bit different. I shared the significant anxiety and fear I always felt in the week leading up to each of my 26 professional heavyweight fights. In fact, shortly after I won the Lowell New England Heavyweight Golden Gloves Championship back in 1971, in my first year at Boston University School of Medicine, I was visiting my uncle in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where I had the amazingly good fortune to discuss my pre-fight jitters with none other than the former world heavyweight champion,  Joe Louis.

I’ve never forgotten what Joe told me that day. “Doc, we all take fear into the ring with us. It’s what you do with it that makes you a champion.”

Such are the intangibles that guys like Jay Silverman “get” in mentoring those on the autism spectrum. He’s not a psychologist, or a doctor, or a college professor. He’s there in the ring, teaching non-contact, safe boxing training techniques. Muhammad Ali has shared that he benefited greatly from his cornerman Angelo Dundee, who might have just been the greatest cornerman of all time. Angelo knew when to meddle, when to let it ride.  “You can only work with what you got” was a well-known Dundeeism.

My boxing trainer/manager and good friend, Tommy Torino, had to be part-psychologist at all times. As he laced up my gloves for my first televised 10 rounder, he gently said,  “Hack, somewhere in these 10 rounds, your character will be exposed, and so will that of your opponent.” These are the life lessons one learns in the ring.

So there’s Jay Silverman at the gym in Pompano, dispensing life lessons, ring lessons, physical fitness, teaching a group of individuals who need a little bit of encouragement how to feel good about themselves. Just like you and me.