Boxing in schools

My dad who graduated high school in 1932 told me that they had boxing as a typical activity in gym class. Today and certainly back to the 70s no such programs exist.

 

Used to be pretty big; liability insurance costs and parental protests (much more the former, since kids' parents routinely sign them up for other dangerous sports) killed it.

The same phenomena is going to kill the youth talent pipeline in football at some point in the future despite massive amounts of money being spent by the NFL to bury the risks of the sport and market a nice, family friendly product. Fans today are complacent enough to play along and ignore it for now, but the small, growing wave of people realizing they've been played like cheap fiddles is going to continue to expand. And the sport's going to get much more expensive to insure, both from the school's standpoint and for the players themselves.

 

"American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society oppose boxing as a sport for children and adolescents. These organizations recommend that physicians vigorously oppose boxing in youth and encourage patients to participate in alternative sports in which intentional head blows are not central to the sport."

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/08/24/peds.2011-1165

 

the health authorities in Britain said that they are not happy about head guards not being used in amateur boxing any more but they said they want boxing banned altogether because of the trauma on the brain

 

American football is nowhere near as dangerous as rugby but we do rugby in school in Britain, but then again British people are just tougher than Americans in rugby we don't use pads or helmets but we hit a **** of a lot harder. Rugby players are a lot bigger stronger and faster yet your midget American footballers need padding and massive helmets. :roflatsch

 

Much like the glove produced a more lax attitude toward punching someone hard, the pads and helmets allow for harder contact on every play with the head used as a weapon.

Boxing with the headgear isn't easy or risk free at all, from experience it really only protects from superficial scrapes/bruises and catching a hook on the ear/chin (generally only protected by a flap of leather with most guards, or open in others) is still a problem. Boxing is dangerous, so is am. football and rugby.

 

When I was in middle school there was no boxing ... but we had a coach who kept gloves handy and anytime there was a fight between two (male) students you had two choices -- you could put on the gloves or you could take a paddling with a big, painful, wooden paddle.

Everyone chose to fight, haha.

You could also challenge someone and if two people agreed to fight they could get together at lunch or after school and Coach Henderson would ref while you boxed someone with a large group of students circled around (making up the ring, of course).

I think I had two matches and won both. A kid a grade younger challenged me. His big brother, two grades older, was the best football player and the biggest, baddest jock in our school. I thought he was going to beat me up after I beat his little brother up, but he came up to me and said, in effect, 'He called you out, you beat him, I got no problem with it.'

 

I remember I brought gloves to high school to spar with friends during free periods. Ended up drawing a nice crowd to the gym. One day a guy from the track team wanted to spar with me. He was tall with a long reach but I stepped forward with a jab and he immediately crossed over with his right with power. Few seconds later he caught me again....did not like that one bit so I went from coming to him to boxing doing my best impersonation of Willie Pep. I then began timing his right with my own hook, which I had a good one. He was not setting up his right just throwing it with abandon. I'd see this and catch him just as he would let it go. All the movement took away my power but I was catching him often. We sparred non stop for a good 15 minutes. Finally I stood my ground and let off a hook as good as I could throw it. The crowd went wild with that punch and a few seconds later my opponent ended the session nursing a sore jaw.

I was told later that I looked great and the other guy could not land on me after the first couple rights at the start of the match.

One of the highlights of my high school years.

 

I did community service at a church for a while, and the guy that was in charge of my duties had a story of when he was a PE teacher and as Saintpat outlined, conducted afterschool matchups for those who had beef... He said it was always voluntary and it was a great way for kids to work their problems out mutually and in a civil way. He supplied the gloves and other safety equipment, they just brought their grudges and bad attitudes...

They're puusifying our youth now, its a shame they don't have such official programs running... I would be volunteering...

 

Boxing in schools (in Britain) was gradually removed after 1962 after a prolonged campaign - there was an effort to get it banned outright but it lost a vote in parliament. The campaigners were your usual suspects - medical professionals and women; infact, the architect of the 1960's campaign was a female MP.

But schools have the option of incorporating if they want to, it's just that many choose not to - having said that, some schools have began to reintroduce it under the watchful eye of local amateur clubs; but again, there is a lot of resistance though - look at this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ort-improves-behaviour-school-attendance.html

 

Boxing in schools was also commonplace in the Philippines. My dad, father in law and many other uncles did it after school.

I almost wish it weren't so.

Cuz my dad is deluded and brags about being some amazing boxer, and thinks he can give me boxing tips when all he did was spar at an elementary level after school against kids.

I on the other hand (admittedly, not the most talented fighter) at least competes at a provincial level, against adults. Not to mention my golden gloves gold medal and respectable ranking...sheesh....
Good thing i'm not one of those guys who seeks validation from his dad.

 

I like the idea of boxing in schools (at least learning the skills/doing the training) maybe an optional sparring event at the end in conjunction with a local gym for kids who want to actually get in the ring and try it.

I'm all for the idea personally (there are a handful of schools in the US...like 4...that have a team, though I'm not sure how it works). It'd be cool to institute the boxing skill/training as PE in middle school with a sparring option, then the next semester you could do boxing II with regular sparring (basically the school boxing team), then after a year of training if you make the team you can fight for the school. Could all be done in conjunction with community centers/PAL/local gyms/etc.

I can see it being accepted if it's presented to the right people backed up by research. It's really much safer than football or karate or other stuff people want their kids to do. As long as kids aren't sparring/competing until they're more than ready to protect themselves, it's relatively safe.

 

atsch:rofl in what world are you living in? NFL players are bigger stronger and faster than rugby players by far, and the equipment actually makes it more dangerous because it allows for more impact

 

Sorry beast. Not a man in Britain who can tackle Adrian Peterson.