Going it alone?

Going it Alone

Yes I have been selected to carry the Olympic torch and I was shocked and as happy as I have been for a long long time.  The nominations were the reason for my selection but the reason I was nominated was because of the gym and how people have benefited from using the gym.  I have ran this gym for just over 8 years and many people have been through it and many have been here since the start but I haven't always managed alone.  For the first 2 years it was a gym that catered for my 'boxercise' classes weight loss classes and a bit of personal training.  Over the years I have introduced more classes and schools and the local colleges have been using the gym for many years. 2 years with no assistance was difficult and just getting people to know about the gym and where it is was hard work, especially for someone who had never run a business before.  But luckily for me and the gym users people came along and joined in to help run the club.

Amateur Boxing Club

Two years into running the club and after many teenagers had harassed me about introducing an amateur club to Spit n Sawdust I decided to ask Ken Reynolds, my former boxing trainer, to join me and start an amateur boxing club at the gym. He agreed and he did a fantastic job.  In fact he ran the boxing club and I became his assistant watching and learning from his vast knowledge that he had picked up in 40 or more years of being a boxing coach, inevitably he eventually got introduced to the England team and looked set to be a part of the GB set-up for the 2012 Olympic Games in London where ironically I will be carrying the Olympic torch.  Ken unfortunately left this world in January of 2010 and was never able live that dream.  He will be in my thoughts as I carry the flame for that short time between Oxford and Reading on July 11 2012.  


After the passing of Ken, Ben Malcher, who like me boxed under Ken's guidance, took over the reins as Secretary of the club, I became Chairman we enlisted a man who trained here in the fitness classes, Mark Cooper, as the treasurer and we were up and running again. We have since added more coaches, Jamie Johnson, who boxed under Ken Reynolds 20 years ago and who has recently passed his ABA coaching badge and Paul Evans who passed his coaching badges many years ago and was an experienced boxer 'back in the day'  Ed Bilsdon is our most recently added coach and he also has been training with me for more than a decade so all in all I have a great team that I can rely on.  We increased the committee by adding Maggie Muir as an official and Zoe Bourne who helps with fundraising and anything you ask of her.  oh and of course Geordie Danny Patterson who is a reformed kickboxing nutcase who is the parents representative for the club. Ben Malcher is now number one matchmaker (no not like a dating agency) and is responsible for a large amount of arranging our home boxing shows at Spiceball, which seem to improve year by year, and organizes opponents for the boxers at other clubs we travel to. He also brings his expertise to Spit n Sawdust to help coach the boxers, as like me he is a level two coach, with the rest of the team. On the whole between us we manage to do what Ken used to do on his own.  We now can cater for more boxers so we can hopefully help change a few more lives for the better.  And what makes this all the more remarkable is that all these people are volunteers. The only benefit they get is how helping makes them feel.

Frank Wise School

I was lucky enough to have a friend named Anthony Munday who works at Frank Wise special needs school and he asked me if I he could bring his students up on a weekly basis about 4 years ago and now they are here year in year out and I get invited to the school for talks parties and have even taught them ballroom dancing.  I had never worked with the physically and mentally disabled children before and the experience has been fantastic and has helped me understand a little more about there lives and how lucky we are to be fit and healthy.  What I also came to understand is that there are a lot of people doing great work in the community and are not getting recognition for what they do.  The Staff at Frank Wise are some of the nicest people you could ever meet and do a fantastic job of looking after the children of this town that will never be able to look after themselves.     

Talks to Youths

Occasionally I get asked to do talks to schools and colleges. Sometimes here at the gym and sometimes at the school or college.  One of the talks I gave was about making the most of your life.  I had a group of around twenty students who came to the gym not sure whether they were going to train or have a talk so I decided, as I always train people, that I would try a bit of life coaching to see if I could benefit any of the students using my life's experiences.  So I gathered them downstairs and proceeded with my informal but hopefully informative chat.  A little way into our getting to know each other chat I informed them that most of the people in the room would not go on to take up the profession they were studying for.  On hearing this I noticed on young lady whispering to her friend. It was clear to me that she was not agreeing with me.  So I asked her What she was studying. She told me "beauty and hairdressing" so I asked her what she wanted to do when she left college, and she happily told me "I am going to be a hairdresser" so I told her that was great and wished her all the best.  Then I asked the person next to her what she was studying and she also said "beauty and hairdressing" so again I asked her "and what will you do when you leave college" and she said " I don't know" I asked a young man what he was studying and again his subject didn't match what he wanted to do when he stopped studying. In facy of all the people I asked only the first girl new what they wanted to do once they finished college. 

So I told them a story.  I told them they were all at the start of their adult lives and to imagine that as the start of a river that leads to one of the world's largest waterfall, the Niagara Falls, with the Falls being the end of their lives.  I explained that their destiny in life was governed by the choices they made as they travelled down the river.  They could do as I did and go with the flow letting the river make the choices for them or they could choose their own route.  By going with the flow I decided education wasn't important and this determined what choices I had as far as the places I have worked.  I explained that I had many jobs over a twenty year period after leaving school but can't remember enjoying any of them.  Because I had no formal education my choices were limited and I had some jobs that would last for up to 5 years where I would spend my time doing menial jobs and watching the clock waiting for the day to finish or 'temping' doing a job that had no future or security making it difficult to pay my bills.  I told them they are at the point where they can make choices and that they can decide what direction they want to take now instead of doing what I did a choose it 24 years down the river and struggle against the tide with a lack of knowledge and experience of how to make my business  work successfully. 

If you want to re-visit this Blog soon as it will continue