Overview
Fredrick Douglas once remarked, “it’s easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men,” of which construct lies at the heart of why we at the DFC promote amateur boxing.
With America in decline from a moral, physical, and educational standpoint, we choose to go against the grain and assist today’s youth in the development of character while endeavoring to increase fitness and confidence levels through the rigors of our chosen sport.
For it is Amateur boxing and its related processes that help build strength and courage while youngsters tend to become knowledge seeking, upstanding and productive citizens as a result.
Having said that, our dedicated coaching staff is invested in steering individuals in a positive direction as opposed to losing this generation to the degradations and distractions of modern society.
About
The Dallas Fight Club amateur boxing program is highly structured and quite demanding, requiring discipline, commitment, and attention to detail. This is in consideration that club members will participate in athletic competition which, if held within the United States, is to be conducted in cooperation with and run under the auspices of USA Boxing Inc.
A non-profit organization overseen by the United States Olympic Committee, USA Boxing affords properly licensed athlete’s 8-40 years of age [41+ for Masters Boxers] necessary medical insurance and therefore the opportunity to participate in competitive based training or sanctioned events.
Such events include local, regional, state, or national competitions with all roads leading to the Pan American Games, the World Amateur Championships, and or the Olympics. These are lofty ideals which require as do many of life’s worthwhile endeavors focus, passion, and an unwavering commitment.
However, one must first register with and become licensed by a USA Boxing approved organization such as the Dallas Fight Club to from the ground up learn the sport’s fundamentals.
That said, whether an individual reaches amateur boxing’s highest level or not isn’t the most pressing of concerns. What is of prime importance is that we encourage youth and young adults to become their absolute best, striving for excellence in all pursuits whether in or out of the ring.
Program Benefits
Maximizing cardiovascular fitness levels and therefore one’s mental acuity, the Dallas Fight Club competitive curriculum is the quintessential character builder as well as confidence booster. Serving as a venue for the positive release of energy and frustration, our program is noted as a proven delinquency deterrent, the beneficial impact of which is both astounding and well documented.
This may contradict the mind-set of those who wrongly ascertain that the sport of amateur boxing promotes violent behavior. Quite the contrary as whether formerly anti-social or aggressive trained boxers abilities are rather tested and proven in the ring so that individuals are more restrained with the desire to publicly display anger or retaliate when confronted or insulted either diminished or non-existent.
Propagating solid work-ethic, daily training regimens also promote the understanding that skills acquisition in the gym involve characteristics necessary for achievement outside the gym. And whether or not one encounters genuine success within the sport, the process of trial and error of its own accord imparts critical life lessons to include learning the value of patience, poise, and dedication.
As to the competitive nature of what is essentially a combat sport, amateur boxing diminishes one’s fear so that practitioners develop an innate ability to function under adverse conditions. This increases the likelihood that an individual is able to shun negative or self destructive peer-pressure so that via better decision making youth are more apt to avoid certain of life’s pitfalls.
Above all else amateur boxing fills a void, as the sport’s many attributes help to develop within young people the social and interpersonal skills lacking in current school curriculums. These are in fact traits by which today’s major employers seek out prospective employees, this as opposed to selection based on academic achievement alone.
Come what may there are simply no losers in the amateur program as partakers become equipped with the tools to take life head on with necessary side-effects to include improved school performance, increased awareness, gained confidence, to finally produce more focused, motivated, and goal-oriented beings.
Training Regimen
Program participants upon gym arrival start with 5 to 10 minutes of warm-up activities which from day-to-day vary. Examples of warm-ups include rope jumping, jogging, dumbbell/medicine ball exercises, calisthenics, speed bag work, line drills, shadowboxing, mirror exercises, the stationary bike, and a host of other drills whether done solely or in combination.
Once warm-up is complete athlete’s proceed to doing approximately 5 minutes of light flexibility stretching all parts of the body. This promotes injury prevention, improves reaction time and fluidity of movement, to finally increase range of motion and therefore dexterity and power.
The next phase of training depending on the progression level of the athlete could either involve tactical shadowboxing, mirror or line drills, 1-on-1 punch mitt work with coaches, counter-punch drills, contact sparring, interval and or circuit training at various stations whether it be the heavy or light bag stations, floor or ring work. Both the contact sparring and counter-punch drills require head-gear, a foul-protector, mouthpiece, and padded sparring gloves.
As it relates to the program itself it must be noted that curriculum activities whether attempted individually or with a fellow athlete are to be accomplished in a progressive manner. This means that starting with the sport’s fundamentals boxer’s do not proceed to the more refined tasks until they’ve consistently demonstrated an ability to deploy the basic and or prerequisite skills.
Fundamentals include learning stance, directional footwork, and striking technique, initially to be done in concert with line drills. Such drills allow for the combining of punches, head movement, and footwork to develop balance in motion. Once line drill exercises become proficient, team members then progress to shadowboxing and or transfer learned skills to light or heavy bags maintaining proper technique at all times.
With an initial emphasis on proper form to subsequently add speed and power, heavy bag workouts build strength and stamina, teaching boxers how to put weight and leverage into their striking motion. On the other hand light bags such as air filled speed bags or double-end bags cultivate rhythm and timing, ultimately via hand eye coordination developing pinpoint accuracy so as to land the most forceful of blows.
In addition, because double end bags secured both at the top and bottom with an elastic cord strike back, athletes learn to implement a variety of defensive tactics which when converted to offense, aka the catch and counter, would prove indispensable in the ring whether during sparring or competition.
Once athletes become familiar with a beginning level routine they are then introduced to interval training, an aspect which see’s the periodic alternation between boxing drills and conditioning exercises. Maximizing one’s overall fitness level, interval training in addition enhances core stability, fosters breathing patterns, and promotes transition speed.
To further sharpen skills, increase energy capacity, and develop hand, eye, and foot coordination, the use of punch mitt and power shield floor workout routines are employed where boxers work individually with coaches in order to become more well-rounded athletically.
Upon effectively demonstrating skills on the punch pads participants then proceed to in tandem execute offensive and defensive maneuvers in predetermined sequences. Known as counter-punch drills, this exercise is supervised and requires necessary protective equipment.
Once proficient at counter-punch drills sparring is the next step, conditioning athlete’s physically and mentally for the rigors of competition. [Note: a registered boxer will not be entered into competition until he or she satisfactorily demonstrates an ability to be competitive during supervised training]
Sparring not only maximizes one’s physical condition, but affords participants the opportunity to execute learned tactics under competitive type circumstances. Furthermore, contact sparring develops poise under fire, totally reinforcing the training experience in that whatever deficiency one possesses in the ring, the opportunity to make needed corrections presents itself in practice.
As training sessions near conclusion, boxers run sprints to augment oxygen carrying capabilities while we also incorporate sports specific calisthenic and plyometric strength and conditioning exercises using natural body weight and or varied equipment to develop explosiveness. This is followed by cool down and more thorough stretching with the best time to increase flexibility being towards the end of a workout when the body is totally loose.
Boxer Safety
In terms of boxing safety the below information will rather refer to the competitive end of the sport as outside of a minor hand or wrist injury recreational program activities virtually pose no physical risks whatsoever as regards the casual boxing enthusiast.
Delving into it, athletes as well as the parents of those athletes must understand that Amateur boxing is not only highly regulated, but it’s deemed the safest of all contact sports according to ROSPA [Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents] and the NSC [National Safety Council].
Considered to be safer and result in fewer injuries as compared to that of high school football, wrestling, soccer, hockey, rugby etc., amateur boxing rates as the 75th least dangerous sport out of 100 in the ROSPA table while according to a 1996 NSC accident report it ranks 23rd on its list of injury-producing sports.
Both ROSPA and the NSC would further determine amateur boxing to have much lower incidences of injuries in comparison to that of gymnastics, in-line skating, equestrian, motorcycle racing, scuba and or sky-diving, and mountaineering amongst other such activities.
NSC Report Reference
https://cretesokol.wordpress.com/boxing/boxing-safety/
As regards fatalities, amateur boxing’s fatality rate is according to Cantu-Boxing and Medicine, Human Kinetics, Illinois 1995, 1.3 fatalities per 100,000 participants. Compare this to fatality rates for college football [3], scuba diving [11], mountaineering [51], and skydiving [123].
When boxers do suffer injuries they tend to be bloody noses, hand or wrist injuries, oral/facial lacerations, or bruised ribs. Broken noses and ribs do occur but they are not common and rarely have permanent consequences.
Safety Studies
Repetitive concussive injury [Punch Drunk Syndrome] in boxing is suspected as a cause of brain dysfunction of which condition is well documented amongst some professional boxers. Concerned about the issue USA Boxing in 1986 requested that the USOC fund a study related to this problem for which the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute was enlisted.
Johns Hopkins studied over 500 active amateur boxers from 6 different cities all of similar ages, social backgrounds, educational levels, and lifestyle habits, comparing their neurological functions to those of non-boxers. To date it is the most thoroughly organized medical study on amateur boxing of which conclusive findings were issued in 1994.
Those findings indicated that although some temporary memory loss immediately following bouts ensued to shortly dissipate thereafter, no clinically significant evidence of permanent impairment of motor skills, loss of coordination or memory, or slurred speech would be detected among active amateur boxers. In fact, the neurological system would according to the seven-year analysis sustain no measurable damage whatsoever.
Johns Hopkins Study Reference
To further corroborate the above, Australian physician Mark Porter would independent of Johns Hopkins similarly conclude no difference in neurological function had existed between these two groups. This after conducting an exhaustive 9 year controlled subject study.
In conclusion, both the Johns Hopkins as well as Mark Porter studies would indicate that there are no permanent or lingering neuro psychological effects directly related to amateur boxing. In light of this it’s apparent that there are numerous myths as well as undeserving negative connotations attached to amateur boxing, not to be confused with the same sport at the professional level, of which safety rules and regulations as defined below are quite different.
Mark Porter-Long Term Neuropsychologic Assessment
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14608222/
British Journal of Sports Medicine Amateur Boxing Findings
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/36/6/394
Safety Precautions
Boxing due to injuries and deaths occurring in the professional ranks has an image problem. Add to this pro boxing’s at times negative depiction in the news and entertainment media and from a public perspective the sport can at times seem somewhat of a mockery.
Amateur boxing however would not exist if youth were being seriously injured so that to ensure its survival rules and regulations were developed to protect its participants. Listed below, these rules and regulations differ markedly in comparison to that of professional boxing.
(1) Amateurs box 3 and 4 round bouts while Professionals box anywhere from 4 to 12 rounds.
The longer a bout goes the more likely the occurrence of an injury whether due to the nature of competition itself, or whether due to other factors such as fatigue which tends to decrease an athlete’s ability to defend his or herself so as to become vulnerable to forceful blows.
(2) Amateurs use 10 and 12 ounce shock-absorbing gloves while Pros use 6 and 8 ounce shock-transmitting gloves.
The force of a blow is not only directly related to a glove’s size, but as well to its content or material make-up. That being the case, USA Boxing siting safety concerns has stringent regulations in place requiring that certain standards or criteria be adhered to, this before use of gloves are approved for competition.
In the professional ranks a more prominent fighter and or the promoter of that fighter are usually in a position to dictate which brand of gloves are to be worn by the principal as well as by their counterpart. That’s to say whether using a less padded punchers type glove to inflict damage or a more padded glove for hand protection, this circumstance in many instances is meant to work to the principal’s advantage and or prove detrimental to his or her adversary with safety at times a secondary concern.
(3) Amateurs wear headgear for protection while Professionals wear no headgear at all.
Designed to protect ears, forehead, and cheekbones, amateur contestants, except in the Elite men’s category as per recent rule change, are required to under all circumstances wear headgear. Headgear is prohibited at the pro level so that prizefighters are more prone to suffer cuts, bruises, broken facial bones, and more.
(4) Amateurs wear jerseys during bouts while Professionals [Males Only] go topless.
Amateurs wear jerseys to prevent gloves from transferring sweat to an opponents eyes. Pros have no such provision so that a boxer may become temporarily blinded from the transfer of an adversary’s sweat which from time to time may contain legal substances applied to cuts or lacerations in between rounds.
(5) Referees in amateur bouts worldwide make liberal use of the “standing-eight-count” while this rule within the professional ranks lacks uniformity.
Specifically implemented for protection, the standing-eight-count gives the referee time to assess the ability of an amateur boxer to defend his or herself after a strike or knockdown with up to 3 standing-eights to be administered without the bout being stopped [unless in the same round]. Referees also have the power to stop an amateur bout any time they feel a boxer is over-matched, this before an athlete gets seriously injured.
Although there are standing-8-counts administered during pro bouts, this rule is not uniform to in certain locales be non-existent. Add to this the fact that some referee’s are more prone to give professional boxers additional chances due to monied interests and even though combatants may appear just as defenseless, bouts may linger so as to put athletes in jeopardy.
(6) Medical exams are required of both amateur as well as professional boxers, with amateurs more likely to receive suspensions than are pros for similar or identical injuries.
Licensed physicians performing exams on amateur boxers both before and after each bout have the right to restrict these boxers, i.e. prevent them from sparring or competing for 30, 60, 90, or even 180 days following suspected concussions or other injuries.
On the other hand pro boxers are once again subject to rules and procedures which not only lack uniformity, but they are in certain locales devoid of stringency. That’s to say in many instances unless a defeated or fallen boxer displays obvious signs of trauma or is unable to under his or her own power exit an event venue, restrictions are less likely to be imposed. This increases the likelihood of recurring injuries or worse during subsequent training and or competition.
(7) Amateurs are matched up according to 3 criteria to assure fairness and safety while only 1 of these criteria is prerequisite amongst professional athletes.
The criteria in question as concerns amateur athletes requires that contestants be of similar or identical weight, age, and or experience level so as to showcase as much as possible even handed bouts which promote the safety and well-being of each boxer.
Not always the case in professional boxing, the dictates are often very different so that weight is at times the only common factor involved if that. In fact, under-skilled prizefighters are matched with more talented if not heavier more experienced opponents quite frequently. This is calculated to build up the confidence or public stature of one promoter’s fighter not only at the expense of less well represented opposition, but on occasion at the expense of fairness and safety itself.
(8) Any one of ten people can stop an amateur bout at any time while there aren’t quite as many individuals with similar authority to halt proceedings at the pro level.
Amateur bouts can be stopped by the referee, the ring doctor, either boxer, either boxers coach, a judge, and or the sanction holder [host] so that when one entity isn’t in a position to prevent unnecessary punishment another is.
Although the authority to halt a professional level pairing doesn’t reside with as many individuals, once again the dictates not to mention the objectives of pro boxing are seemingly quite different. That’s to say a prizefight is more likely to continue beyond any competitive showing, this mainly due to the knockout factor, as well as unfortunately beyond certain safety concerns when less than experienced referee’s and or ringside physicians happen to be on hand.
Licensing
To become a licensed amateur boxer or even a professional for that matter an individual must first undergo a physical examination to be administered by a medical doctor [MD] or doctor of osteopathy [DO]. This is to ensure one is free from pre-existing conditions that would prohibit participation and or prove detrimental when exposed to the rigors of competition.
Once cleared by way of handing in completed USA Boxing Physical forms issued by the Dallas Fight Club [Professionals Must Hand in Combat Sports or Athletic Commission Documentation to the appropriate State Agency], 2 passport size photos and a copy of a birth certificate or passport face page must then be provided [to include fingerprints on the pro level] to finally submit the current annual registration fee of $80 [$60 for pro’s]. At this juncture you’ll be issued a license without which one cannot participate in amateur or professional programming.
An amateur license affords holders the option to participate in competitive based training or sanctioned competition by way of providing necessary medical, surgical, hospital, and dental coverage up to a total of $25,000. This includes a $1,000 deductible if possessing primary coverage or a $2,500 deductible without such coverage.
Please Note: Individuals must first demonstrate competency as well as excel within our Recreational ranks before becoming eligible to participate in Amateur Boxing Program activities or events.
Training Gear
The Dallas Fight Club will either provide you if qualified with personal training gear or guide you in the purchase of necessary equipment through online distributors. We oppose buying merchandise from local sporting goods stores which generally carry inferior quality equipment that will expose individuals to a risk of injury. Required items include training gloves, a mouthpiece, hand wraps, head-gear, a foul-protector, and competition trunks, jersey, and shoes.
Social Media
In order to help promote programming so as to benefit as large a sector of the community as possible we’ve taken to social media to get our message out. Having said that, we maintain accounts with and regularly post content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube where via the latest in photo and video members of the general public can view our internal workings while individuals can also obtain regular training or special event updates on these very same platforms.
To connect to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, just click on the icons located at the top of this or other web pages while to view our YouTube channel please Click Here.