Boxing and Schooling: Worlds Apart?

Two different worlds came together at The Lee Jones ABC in February when Year 8 students and staff from Notre Dame Catholic College met the GB Boxing squad and their Coach, Paul Walmsley. Team GB were in Liverpool to compete in the World Series of Boxing at the Echo Conference Centre in March. Paul Burke and Chris… contacted Paul Walmsley who grew up in the Scotland Road area and who has a long association with the club.

The boxers, Galal Yafi, Luke McCormack, Ben Whittaker, Radoslav Pantaleev and Peter McGrail, all highly ranked in their weight categories, took time out to share their experiences with the students. Notre Dame Catholic College staff, David Hodgson, Paul Mulgrew and Suzanne Doran saw the visit as an opportunity for the students to learn from successful athletes. Interestingly, Notre Dame promotes resilience, discipline and hard work which the boxers also share.

Peter McGrail, European Champion and World Bronze medal winner said, ‘I lost my first three fights.’ Paul Walmsley picked up on this immediately and impressed upon the students the importance of persistence in any endeavour.

The students conducted themselves in an exemplary manner, notably forming an orderly queue without being asked, when getting autographs from the boxers. There is something very telling when students present themselves outside of school and they were a credit to their College and their families.

The squad, competing under the name Lionhearts, won all of their fights the next night against Italia Thunder.

Paul Walmsley spoke to Scottie Press afterwards.

‘Originally the family are from this area. My Mother was from Louise Place and my dad was from Wharmby Street.  As kids we boxed with Lee Jones. When Lee Jones closed, we went to The Rotunda and I was a coach there. I was a merchant seaman when I left school. I was still coaching when I was on leave. I went into coaching at a very early age. Me and John Foran were working with Georgie Vaughan. He suggested that we give him a hand with the coaching. My job title is GB Senior Coach. There are three of us, senior coaches, responsible for day to day planning, programmes, going to tournaments abroad. It’s very rare that there are any in England, let alone Liverpool. I progressed through the coaching ranks until I got to take teams to tournaments in Europe.’ 

My job title is GB Senior Coach. There are three of us, senior coaches, responsible for day to day planning, programmes, going to tournaments abroad. It’s very rare that there are any in England, let alone Liverpool. I progressed through the coaching ranks until I got to take teams to tournaments in Europe.’ 

Asked about the days of the spittoon in the corner of the ring, Paul said, ’It’s a lot more advanced now. On Great Britain, we’ve got nutritionists, psychologists, physiologists, strength and conditioning coaches. All we need to concentrate on is purely the boxing aspect . We are based at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Sheffield and we have 25 people in our weekly meeting.’

Moving on to how amateur boxing clubs fit into the GB structure, Paul said, ‘These clubs around Great Britain, not just England, are the lifeblood of future Olympians. This is the grassroots level where they are coming though just local club versus club bouts to area champions to national champions to GB champions. Once a boxer has reached Great Britain, England national level, they’ll be invited in for assessment squads, assessing whether they are good enough, have they got the mentality, discipline. A lot of people could be brilliant boxers but they’re a headache and they are disruptive, cause chaos. If you take them to Russia and they think they’re on Scotland Road, it’s a different culture. We can’t risk that. In Sheffield, they’ll train three times a day, every day, so have they got the discipline to put up with that? It’s hard work, really hard work.’

For those young people who might not make it Paul’s view is ‘There’s a lot of old clichés associated with it, keeping them off the streets but they are very relevant for me. It does keep them off the streets. It keeps them out of trouble. It gives them a focus to their day to day lives, a bit of discipline, a bit of respect because at the end of the day, if any sport’s going to teach you respect, it’s boxing. You know your opponent has gone through exactly the same as you’ve gone through. He’s feeling the same fear as you’re feeling. I think that’s why you get that mutual respect with boxers. They know what the other boxer has gone through, is going through. Over forty odd years of coaching, I can only think of a handful of kids who didn’t conform, be disciplined, respectful. I think it’s a great sport for that.’