When a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist boxer talks about high-performance training, it pays to listen.
And when David Nyika put St Kevin's College pupils through the paces of a workout he developed to keep him going in the ring for a three-minute round, the pupils worked.
The star New Zealand boxer was visiting family in Oamaru this week and stopped by the high school where his uncle - year 13 dean Marc Nyika - works to show some of the high performance youngsters at the school what is involved in taking their training and their sport to the next level.
"It really comes down to the individual, how bad they want it, and what they're willing to give up to pursue that dream."
"My priority has always been my sport. And the people that I keep closest to me, looking after that, those relationships.
"I think that's what makes a great athlete is someone that can actually put their sport above everything else and really commit to something that might not be easy - and nothing's guaranteed especially in a sport like boxing.
"They're all pretty keen athletes and they're all pretty sharp - they've got a lot of talent - and so they need to know what to expect when they do make it to the elite level of sporting."
