More Spit n Sawdust

This short video demonstrates some of what happens at Spit n Sawdust. As well as showing what happens in the classes, it has testimonials from people who's lives have benefited from using the gym.

Every business plan will tell you that you need a mission statement, a reason for your business being there, something to keep sight of when the going gets tough. My mission statement was to improve peoples lives. It's not because I want people to pat me on the back and say what a nice man Dave Earle is, it's because it makes me feel good. It gives me an immense a

mount of pleasure to see a life turned around. To do this I have had a lot of help from many people such as the late Ken Reynolds who set up the amateur boxing club here, many members of the club are in the building trade and have helped improve the gym, some members have helped me when I have been in financial strife and also the general public who donated money when I was close to closing down. So I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those who have helped me.

Hopefully this clip will encourage more people to join the gym so I have more opportunities to do what I enjoy. I have wrote in previous blogs of some of my success stories including the rags to riches story of 3 times National Champion boxer and CK one model Robert Evans. Although he is the highest profile person to have benefited from using the gym there are many more who have seen dramatic changes since joining the gym.

Now as much as I like to 'bang on' about the gym it wouldn't be a 'Dave Earle Blog' if there wasn't a message or bit of what I believe is helpful advice included within it :0)

Most things that are worth having we all have to work for.

One of my rolls at the gym is to prepare people for boxing tournaments. Getting into a boxing ring for the 1st time can be one of the most nerve wracking and exciting things a person can ever do. For a start you know the only reason your opponent is on the other side of the ring is to win a contest by hitting you as hard as he can as many times as he can. You also know your friends and family are watching are expecting you to win the fight so you don't want to be letting them down. So the last thing that you need to be is unprepared. If you are unprepared you will worry about your stamina and thinking whether you should be concerned with saving energy in the first part of the fight, you will be concerned about how fit the other boxer is and if he will out last you and of course beat you up, you will worry what your friends and family will think if you put on poor performance. Complaints from my boxers have included "he must be over 16 years old because he has tattoos" and "he can't be my weight look at the size of him" These excuses only come about because of a lack of confidence and being unprepared, so like in life if you haven't put the work in it will be harder to achieve the results. But when you are prepared you will go in thinking "there is no way my opponent is fitter, faster or stronger than me. I know I can do the distance at any pace and I will win this fight making all my friends and family proud"

We Are Who We Think We Are

I watched a TV programme that tried to determine what makes a good child and what makes a bad child. It seems that is is all about receptors in the brain and it is often genetic. Generally the people with more compassionate receptors were nicer, friendlier people than those who had less compassionate receptors. When psychopathic killers who show little or no compassion for others were tested ALL were shown to have the same receptors in their brains. Little compassion and lots of receptors that made them aggressive with little or no regret for their crimes. This seemed to show that people are born good or bad. So this makes it easier for people who are trying to turn lives around understand why some 'cases' seem more difficult than others. The programme put all the scans up for the viewers to see and showed clearly on all the brain scans the differences between a Psychopath and the 'average person' ... Except for one. The presenter of the show, who was gathering all this information and showing it to us had his brain scanned. His scan showed his brain had virtually no compassionate receptors and was far more likely to be mad-axe-man than many of the Psychopathic murderers he had scanned.

He was astonished by the results. He had no record of violence in his life. He wasn't a particularly aggressive man but his family were not surprised. They said he had the ability to be aggressive. He was the most short tempered of the family but it seemed that because he was brought up in a stable background with a supportive family his temperament remained calm enough for him to learn right from wrong. So he had what they called 'Learned Behaviour'

I believe that unless we are born with severe mental or physical disabilities we are in control of our own destiny, If we are constantly told we are worthless it is easy to believe it. I know as a child I felt white people viewed me as inferior because of my colour. I was taunted at school and on the streets. This affected me until my early 2o's but I now know who I am and what I can achieve. I am far from perfect but I understand if I fail at anything it is my own fault.

Everybody who comes to my Boxercise classes has the same opportunities. The people work hardest get fitter than those who work less hard. Not everyone who comes to the classes wants to be super-fit and are happy to tick over knowing they are maintaining a fitness level controlling their weight and making friends. But the boxing classes are different. You need to be very fit otherwise you can get hurt so people who don't attend at least two classes a week will never box because they will not be fit enough and may get hurt.