Boxing in schools is such a knockout idea

Published on Tuesday 6 February 2007 11:58

SOMETHING fantastic is happening in England and we can only hope that Scotland will wake up and follow suit. Almost 50 years after it was removed from the curriculum, boxing is making its way back into schools.

In a time when we're striving to stop people punching each other on the streets and in schools, it might seem odd to be encouraging physical violence among children. And it would be if that is what boxing is about.

But it's not, any more than ballroom dancing is about jigging around to music.

There is a world of difference between randomly hitting people whilst drunk on a Saturday night and hitting people within a properly officiated boxing ring. This is the same difference that exists between someone chucking a spear in a public park and someone throwing a javelin in the Olympics.

Whether some like it or not, an act of aggression, once correctly codified and regulated, becomes a sport. That is the origin of most of the good bits of the Olympics. (Most of the bad bits - throwing streamers up in the air while dancing underneath them in a leotard, swimming in time to music while trying not to drown - are examples of what happens when you derive sports from non-aggressive activities). And as any sociologist will tell you, and most of us can see, people who have discipline in their lives are not the problem with contemporary society.

More than ever, children need discipline in their lives. Boxing training can not only provide this, it can do so in a way that dramatically improves fitness. Boxing is a physically demanding activity that can make other sports look like as demanding as putting on a leotard.

I keep myself pretty fit and could run a half-marathon at the drop of a souvenir T-shirt (you need to keep fit when you puff hot air for a living). I once sparred with an ex-boxer. This involved him bobbing and weaving with a pair of pads that I was trying to hit using proper boxing punches, body moves and footwork. He was not trying to hit me. Midway through the session I was wishing he would, just to put me out of my misery. This was after ten minutes or so. It was like repeatedly trying to throw a lead Frisbee underwater at a circling shark. I cannot imagine how much more intensive this would be if the shark was actually trying to bite. Anyone who can go eight to 12 rounds of this sort of thing must be in great shape. Doctors and health groups will point out that there is no such thing as safe boxing. I agree. There is also no such thing as safe train journeys, safe flying or safe walking; maybe we should all just stay home. All activities come with risk - from shopping in Lidl to deep sea diving.

Swimming, boating, riding, and, yes, fishing all register more deaths each and every year than boxing. Whether measured by actual injuries or injuries per thousand participants, boxing is never the most dangerous sport. So the dangerousness of it as an activity cannot be the reason some people don't like it.

The simple reason that far too many people disapprove of boxing boils down to class-snobbery. Take yachting. Recently a 14-year-old Briton became the youngest person to sail the Atlantic. The media gushed over this like he had invented a cure for bird-flu.

As any sailor can tell you, anything can happen at sea in an instant. This was a truly dangerous and brave undertaking. Yet because it was yachting - a nice, middle-class sport - and not boxing - a dirty, working-class sport - there was next to no criticism of the risk involved (and incidentally if it transpires that this achievement was accomplished with a 100 per cent guarantee of safety, no matter what the circumstances, then it wasn't much of an accomplishment, was it?).

For some bizarre reason people often bring up Mohammed Ali as an example of the damage that boxing can do. There are quite a few people who have never boxed in their lives who have come down with Parkinson's Disease. I would imagine that if we're going to start looking at professions and the incidence of Parkinson's, then teaching and management will score higher than boxing. Michael J Fox came down with Parkinson's in his 40s after a hazardous career in acting.

Edinburgh and Scotland has a great boxing tradition. The likes of Alex Arthur are a wonderful demonstration for schoolchildren of how hard work and dedication can win through. Let's put his example to good use. In a time when both discipline and physical fitness are severely lacking in the country's youth, this is an excellent time to use boxing to help deliver a KO to both.

Ban these thugs from buses now

NOW that we are beginning to get a form of community policing on public transport - and well done to Midlothian Council on this - it's to be hoped that the punishment will fit the crime, both quickly and effectively.

Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't need a court case for a private company to ban someone from their service. The sooner those who disrupt the lives of others are treated like outcasts, the better. The courts can chip in in due course.

Whining student misses the point

NOT so long ago I made mention of the appalling lunchtime mess that could be found at the Edinburgh College of Art canteen, the apparent result of students who are so incredibly creative that cleaning up after themselves would distract them from their work.

As a result of this mention two things happened: a whiny protest came in from one student, and the column was pinned up by the canteen's over-worked catering staff for all to see. Who do you suppose had the better point?