3: WIMBORNE BOXING CLUB, DORSET
SOUTH COAST community gym and a leading light in girls’ boxing. Alongside producing medallists in international competition, they promote physical and mental health through their ‘Phones Down, Gloves Up’ initiative.
DAVE RIMMER (Head Coach)
We focus a lot on female boxing but it wasn’t initially something we set out to do. Our club attracted three or four young girls, we started to look for sparring and there were so few female boxers of any age. I went on a mission to promote the sport, to break the stereotype that it’s a boy’s sport and show them it was great for confidence, discipline, bullying. We took all-female boxing into three main schools in our area. It was their most popular club ever. From there it just built.
Some of the first shows I took girls to, coaches would openly say that they would never have girls at their club and didn’t really believe in girls’ boxing. That’s what we were dealing with.
Boxing is a tiny bit about competing. But the majority is about getting kids into the gym, exercising and building confidence. The generation coming through, if they haven’t got their phone they feel naked. I realised the hour or two the kids were in the gym they were the happiest they’d ever been because there was no social media or distractions. Before lockdown, we were training no less than 80 girls a week. It would have got bigger but Covid completely stopped us in our tracks.
One parent contacted me. Her youngster is 13 and had started self-harming again. The only thing she could think would ever help her was boxing. There’ll be a lot of kids all over the place that are really battling demons now and they need boxing back in their lives. Government funding should take us to April, so I want to put this money towards a couple of things in the gym to make it more Covid-friendly so we can get back earlier. It will also be put towards kit that will help us restart our all-female projects as soon as we’re allowed.
Fortipsonhelpingstrugglingclubs visit madebysport.com/funding