Boxing session a big hit with college students

There were smiles and laughter all around, mixed with grit and sweat, as a class of Year 10 students took to the Amalgamated Boxing Club last Friday for their first session of a four-week block of pugilism.

It was a big step into the unknown, but The Ladies’ College head of sport Helen Le Maitre marked the morning as a success.

‘It’s just really good to bring them into a different sporting environment and to educate them in a wide variety of practical activities,’ Le Maitre said as her young charges pounded the bags and threw punches at pads.

‘We’ve got some really great female role models out there who have been boxing at the Olympics, so it’s really good to give them a chance to try a sport that they’ve seen on TV.’

Sessions like these have sprung up through Mandy Hobart, boxing development officer, who has worked alongside Steve Sharman and the Guernsey Sports Commission to create links with schools.

Le Maitre highlighted the joy of having a female development officer and praised Hobart as ‘super enthusiastic and she really knows her stuff’.

As for the youngsters?

‘This is their first time doing it and they are loving it,’ she added.

‘It teaches co-ordination, it teaches resilience, determination, and it’s incredibly physically demanding, so they are getting really great health benefits from it.’

Students Lea Phillips and Charlotte Griggs, both 15 and with varied sporting backgrounds, thought it was great to have a different activity on the curriculum.

‘I’ve been down here once or twice before and it’s really good,’ Phillips said.

For development officer Hobart, this first session was about breaking the girls in and introducing them to the sport.

But the door is always open if they wish to take up boxing more seriously.

‘Today is just really the basics – I’m not here to get them competing against each other,’ she said.

‘If they want to do that, they can come up to our sessions that we hold up here at the club.

‘It’s to get the technique right, keep their hands up, get them moving correctly and just get lots of exercise and lots of fun out of it.

‘They seemed to really enjoy it – they loved the bags, so I’m really pleased that Ladies’ College could come here to the club, use the bags, and they got a lot out of that.’

Having visited several other schools this academic year, Hobart has already drawn five children into regular training with GABC.

‘Can you imagine? The more schools we get into, the more we put ourselves out there and show what boxing’s about, we’re going to get more up training, more kids off the street, off their computers, and doing something physical.’