On Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th of May, Scrappers Gym had the privilege to host some of England’s best young boxers.
Scrappers Gym hosted more than 40 young boxers from England Boxing’s National Talent scheme over the weekend for the two-day training camp. Male and female Boxers aged from 12 to 40 were in attendance with some of England’s finest Coaches, and the likes of Anthony Joshua, Nicola Adams and Amir Khan are amongst those who have followed the pathway in recent years.
Amanda Coulson, lead development coach, said: “The facilities here are amazing.
“It’s a luxury to have the floor space and three boxing rings that this gym has, and in such a beautiful area.
“We’d like to thank the owners for allowing us to host the camp here.
“We feel lucky and privileged to be here and hope that this brings a bit of prestige to the club.
“This programme is all about developing the future of England boxing and helping these young people realise their dreams of representing the country at international competitions.”
These training days are for those boxers highlighted for International competition by England Boxing and are on a talent pathway that leads as far as the Olympic Games and those on it may represent England across the world.
The 42 girls and boys which make up the youth, junior, school, and senior teams have two training sessions a month, one in the north of England and one in the South, and Scrappers Gym was picked to host the camp due to the great facilities it has.
Les Brooking, one of the National Talent programme’s talent development coaches, said:
”We wanted to use Scrappers Boxing Gym & Community Fitness Centre as it is the best boxing gym in the West of England and it’s a perfect location to train. Swindon has produced many top boxers, such as former ABA champion Paul Rogers, now Head Boxing Coach at Scrappers Gym.”
“The camp is going really well and working like clockwork.
“This is about developing their technical skills and sparring, they’re really enjoying it and getting good experience.
“A lot of the young people here are national champions, so they struggle to get good sparring practice because they’re usually the best at it in their gym.
“These training camps are useful because they bring the best young boxers in England together to spar with similarly-experienced young people, which makes them all better boxers.”
Head Boxing Coach, Paul Rogers, was delighted to host England Boxing, and said:
“We are very fortunate to have these facilities and we look forward to inviting England Boxing to Swindon at Scrappers Gym.
This is what we want our boxers to aspire to and because we already work in local schools and run children and young people’s sessions in the gym we have established relationships and pathways to competition. This is a great opportunity for us to raise the profile of Scrappers Gym.”
