local and national provision for boxing

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Bana Mohamed

Local and National Provision of Male Amateur Boxing

In this piece of coursework I am going to write about local, which is London, and national, which is England, of boxing. I will be focusing on 5 key points which are grass development of boxing, provision for elite boxers, additional agencies for boxing clubs, provision for female boxers and whether or not boxing has been modified for disabled participants.

Grass Roots Development

Locally there are 21 amateur boxing clubs in the north east division of London association. There is a total of 68 clubs in the London association. There are a total of 1224 registered amateur boxers, 619 senior boxers and 605 junior boxers, there are 237 coaches and 69 officials in the London association. Here is a list of local clubs

Nationally

There are 656 English Amateur Boxing Clubs in England affiliated to the 30 Divisions which underpin the 9 'County' (or 'Association') structure of the ABA of England. The Divisions (numbers of Clubs affiliated) Counties can be seen in the Appendix.

The sport has a competitive base of 8,496 registered boxers (see table below), behind which are a further 20,000 individuals who deploy its training methods as part of health-related fitness programmes. All of these participants are members of boxing clubs.

Boxing Clubs operate in every part of England and in many large conurbations (e.g. Liverpool), and are recognised for their significant contribution to the welfare of youngsters who might well involve themselves in criminal activity.

About the ABAE
Amateur Boxing Association of England Ltd (ABAE) is the sport's national governing body. It also represents England as a member of the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) and the European Amateur Boxing Association (EABA).As a national governing body, the ABAE is responsible for all the administration, development and promotion of amateur boxing throughout the Country. ABAE is a non-profit organisation and is thus overseen by a board of directors and a boxing council, who are responsible for all Rules and Regulations within the sport in England.

Boxing in Schools

At the beginning of this year,2007, the launch of an initiative to bring boxing back to state schools after being banned for almost 50 years after the anti-boxing lobby got the sport off the PE menu it is back in seven schools in the London borough of Bromley. On of the main reason for the reintroduction of boxing in to schools is to develop young athletes for the 2012 games in London. In schools there is the ABA Kid Gloves programme, a skills-based non-contact form of boxing, together with the Make-The-Weight programme, constituting the ABA contribution to schools PE and health-related fitness. The police have officers linked with every school in the nation; the Schools ABA is working hard to re-establish itself in schools. Both of these organisations would play an important role in the strategic planning and management of the ABA regional development initiatives.

School Boys

There are now 2 'schoolboy' championships held each year. Golden Gloves and Golden Belt. A 'schoolboy' is aged 11 and since 2004 under the age of 15.

Juniors

There are 15 different age groups

There are 2 National Junior ABA Championships. Junior ABA National title and National Novice Championships, also known as the 'Golden Belt'. A third junior tournament exists. This is the 'NYPCC' organised by the National Association of Young Peoples Clubs of Great Britain. A Junior boxer is under 17 Years.

Senior

Many senior champions began their careers as Junior ABA ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

School Boys

There are now 2 'schoolboy' championships held each year. Golden Gloves and Golden Belt. A 'schoolboy' is aged 11 and since 2004 under the age of 15.

Juniors

There are 15 different age groups

Senior

Many senior champions began their careers as Junior ABA Champions before going onto Senior ABA titles, Commonwealth Games, European Championships, World Games and Olympics. There are 4 national senior championship which are ABA national title, ABA novice (under 20), ABA novice (under 10 bouts) and BUSA. A senior boxer is over 17 years and under 33 years. After 33 years amateur boxers are not allowed to compete in bouts.

ABA National Title

The ABA National Championships is the 'Premier' tournament hosted annually by the ABA of England. The Championships are 'open' class. A boxer who is registered with a club of the ABA of England (aged over 17 years by the 1st October) can enter.

ABA novice (under 20 and 10 bouts)

The 'Novice ABA's were introduced in 2000 to help senior novice boxers gain valuable competition experience. This covers senior boxers which have less than 10 and 20 bouts.

British Universities Sports Association Championships

To enter these Championships a boxer must be a registered boxer (to either the English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish ABA) and be full time student at a British University. The Games are in their 11th year.

Governance

The administration of the ABA of England is centred around; its Board, Boxing Council, Commissions, Associations, Divisions and Clubs. It can be diagrammatically illustrated as:

Weight Class

There 11 different weight class in amateur boxing. Depending on what weight you are boxing at you have to be under that weight class in order to box at the weight. The weight class is the same for all ages.

48 Kg – Light Flyweight,51 Kg – Flyweight,54 Kg – Bantamweight,57 Kg – Featherweight,

60 Kg – Lightweight,64 Kg – Light Welterweight,69 Kg – Welterweight,75 Kg – Middleweight,

81 Kg – Light Heavyweight,91 Kg – Heavyweight,91 Kg+ - Super Heavyweight

Provision for Elite

To wear the vest of your country is perhaps the highest honour within the sport of English amateur boxing. The most elite tournament for any amateur boxer is the Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth championship. All boxers are trained with Advanced Coaches who are assessed on national basis. All boxers will have to attend squad training in Sheffield when they are called up. Most of the time elite amateur boxers train with club 6 times a week but will have to go squad training when approaching international bouts or competitions.

Novice Boxer 6 months

Represent Club eg Fairbarn ABC

Intermediate Open Boxer

Represent Division eg North East London

Represent Association eg London

Represent England Nationally

All Boxers competing in Olympic Qualifiers, World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games for England will:

Be selected by the ABAE Selection Committee whose decision will be final.
Be a member of the ABAE of England's World Class Programme.
Have had previous international experience.
Won Gold or Silver medal at a multi-nations event.
All National Team members must enter the Senior ABAE Championships each year to maintain their Rating for selection unless on major championship duty.
Where required that two individuals broadly meet the criteria, Box-Offs will be arranged to finalise selection.
Adhere to a weight making strategy that is safe, in keeping with the rules and leaves him strong to compete.
Must attend all Squads / Training Camps provided.
Go through an intensive programme of preparation to ensure the appropriate level of fitness is achieved before competition commences.
To sign up to a Code of Conduct.
Attend all arranged testing requirements.
Agree to drug testing procedures as laid down by ABAE, UK Sport or WADA.
Adopt an attitude of promoting friendship in the sport of Amateur Boxing to fellow team members, support staff, other athletes, volunteer workers and officials, both in the ring and outside it.

Promoting Amateur Boxing

Boxing in the Olympics is the main event for amateur boxing watched by million of viewers. On 1st December 2006 the ABA national was broadcasted live on the ABA website and was viewed by many and then broadcasted on the BBC. Amateur boxing in England is also publicized by professional fights and British boxers such as Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe. There has been boxing reality shows such as “The Contender” which has increased participation in amateur boxing in England.

Additional Agencies

Other than the ABA, there are a few additional agencies that help to run amateur boxing

Such as the national lottery and sport England. Amateur boxing is a largely volunteer-based sport kept alive by hard working fundraisers. Here are the major main agencies that fund for amateur boxing- National Sports Foundation, The National Lottery, Awards for All, j4bGRANTS, The Big Lottery Fund, UK Sport, Inclusive Fitness Initiative, The Foundation for Sports and the Arts.

Sport England

Sport England has worked closely with the ABA during its recent modernisation process and has welcomed its progress towards improved governance and structure. The sport has benefited from investment of more than £10 million of Lottery funding over the past decade and has been successful in attracting future funding of more than £4.2 million from Sport England for the period up to March 2009.

Boxing foundation

In November 2005, the new Board of the ABAE agreed to establish a 'Boxing Foundation' for the benefit of the sport. This 'Foundation' is part of the long term plan to protect the future of amateur boxing in England. Each year, the Board of the ABAE, has agreed to invest 25% of all 'Affiliation Fees' received. These monies will be invested and each year 'any interest' generated will be available, in the form of grants, to any affiliated club of the ABAE. These 'grants' will go only to 'community boxing' projects and will not be available to representative or elite squads. Initially the ABAE has invested £61,000 with at least a further £50,000 in 2006. Each year the ABAE now invests 25% of all its affiliation fees received from its clubs and members. At the end of each year the money from these investments is then returned to selected Associations, Divisions, clubs and members in the form of one off grants. During the Season 2007 / 2008 the Boxing Foundation will distribute £25,000 and will support applications for:

-The delivery of coaching course from assistant coach to ABA coach. Associations will be contacted directly.

-Equipment packages of up to £200 per club. This award is not available to those Clubs who have recently secured a CCDP award.

Provision for Female Participants

Women's boxing first appeared in the 1904 St. Louis (USA) Olympic Games as a demonstration sport. It wasn't until 1988 when the Swedish ABA. AIBA agreed to female boxing in 1994. The first European Cup for women was held in 1999 and 2001 the first World Championships for women. In England it wasn't until 1997 until it was sanctioned. However the ABAE has developed female boxing strongly in recent years. There are now over 200 registered female boxers, ABA Championships and teams now sent to European and World Championships. Female boxers now can train with male boxes in the same club.

Disabled Participants

There seems nothing to be done for disabled performers locally and nationally. But there are a high number of judges, referees and coaches who are disabled in boxing. In this day and age when many sports are making increasing efforts to accommodate disabled participants, there is little or no work going into disabled participants who want to join or performers in boxing. One reason that might be the case is that boxing is seen as a dangerous sport, there is already an issue that boxing is making participants disabled but they are increasingly effort being made in boxing, by introducing head guards and shorter rounds.

Critical Analysis

In conclusion I fell that the local and national provision for boxing adequate. The ABA, which is the governing body of amateur boxing plays a crucial apart national and locally. The ABA makes up tournament at national and local provision, they provide clubs with transport to bouts and tournaments, they provide coaching certificate which enables that there is enough coaches. More money is spent on elite performers than at local provision. Also ABA spends more money in promoting the sports than at local provision. Now the ABA has come up with a boxing foundation, which allows club to be paid directly. The work that is currently carried out with schools is sporadic and not consistent before the reintroduction of boxing in schools. ABA intention is to invest their time and efforts through the School Sports Partnership programme. ABA will then task the development officers to link individual clubs with schools, based in the “whole cluster of a partnership”. ABA is trying to deliver Boxing through a mixture of curricular and extra curricular activity. Whilst the ABAE has a good, basic coach education and development programme, ABA believe the government drive towards a National Coaching Certificate is extremely important and ABA are committed to achieving this. The ABAE wants to be an integral part of this new initiative. ABA believe that coach education is a top-down process, with the technical framework established by the ABA performance staff, at least one of whom will have a particular interest in coach education. This will ensure technical consistency throughout English Boxing. On the whole I feel that participants in amateur male and female boxing in England is increasing because of the reintroduction of boxing in school and also local clubs are filling up and because of this there are waiting list which may mean more clubs will spring up. However, the ABAE is not helping boxers financially like other nations such as Germany which give boxers £100 to buy equipment. There seems nothing to be done for disabled performers at all in boxing the reason being is that boxing is seen as dangerous sport even though it has been ranked it has been ranked the 75th most dangerous sport much safe then football and hockey. The ABA are trying there uppermost best to make amateur boxing as safe as possible by introducing head guards, shorter rounds, boxing with 10oz gloves and giving doctors more right to stop fights. Amateur boxing is improving in England after 2004 Olympics, where only one British qualified to compete in boxing, Amir Khan and won a silver medal at boxing, this is rather poor compared to Cuba who had 11 boxers competing in every weight class and achieving 8 medals just in boxing. Amateur boxing has rapidly improved and has showed in the 2006 Commonwealth games where England entered 11 boxers in every weight class and winning 8 medals, this is the best ever British boxing performance in major events. The chairman of ABA of England believes that boxing will be the sport with the most medals for England in the 2012 Olympics. I also feel that boxing locally is improving because there are more club shows than ever before there’s a club show ever week and also there are less walk over’s in boxing competitions.

Bibliography

Ken, Fairbairn ABC

Hana, ABA

ABA Ring magazine