4:20am Thursday 11th September 2008
By Ben Barnett
A boxing academy for students will be the first of its kind in Yorkshire when it opens at Bradford College next week.
Students can take eight hours of boxing training a week, fitted around their academic studies, when the Bradford Police and College Academy Boxing Club opens its doors on Monday.
Paul Porter, the Amateur Boxing Association of England’s boxing development officer for Bradford, said: “It’s going to be at the heart of amateur boxing with the national squads training here.”
He said the number of ABAE affiliated gyms had doubled in two years in Sheffield, where he worked in a similar role and he anticipates the same enthusiasm here.
“In Bradford there are not as many clubs to start with but I expect there to be an increase in participation,” he said.
The club is making boxing sessions available to take into the district’s schools through the School Sports Partnership.
Mr Porter said: “I expect more than 20 schools to take it up over the next couple of years. The feedback from non-boxing people on the teaching staff is that it engages youngsters because boxing has a lot of credibility.”
He said boxing in schools would involve non-contact work based on movement and boosting fitness, with the academy there for people who want to pursue the sport further.
“It’s a tough but regulated sport,” he said.
“Amateur boxing is not what people see on the television on a Saturday night, contests are much shorter, it’s faster and more technical because it operates on a points system. It’s a lot different from people’s perceptions of it.”
Former boxer and academy head coach Alwyn Belcher is working alongside club head coach Julian Cyprien. He boasts fine boxing pedigree having worked with Naseem Hamed, who went on to be a world champion, and Amir Khan, who won a silver medal at the Olympics in Athens in 2004, at the national squads in a training career which started in 1962.
He spent ten years in the ring himself in the 1950s and is now the national women’s amateur boxing coach.
Mr Belcher has just returned from Hungary with Nicola Adams, 25. The Leeds-born amateur won a gold medal in the grand final of the Rich Cup. She is the number one amateur women’s boxer in England and is ranked fourth in the world.
She started boxing when she was 12 and has enrolled at Bradford College to continue with the sport while studying for a Sports Diploma and A-Level Spanish.
She said it was a great opportunity for her as well as newcomers to the sport.
“It’s great because I get to do all my training and studies at the same time. Normally I had time for one or the other so it’s perfect.
“I think the academy will prove popular. You get a lot of people doing it for keeping fit. It’s a fun, active sport to do and if anyone has dreamed about representing themselves at the Olympics then this is a good place to start.”
A decision on whether to include amateur women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics in London has yet to be made.
e-mail: ben.barnett @telegraphandargus.co.uk
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