Orator Frederick Douglas once opined that “it’s better to build strong children than it is to repair broken men.” Along those lines building strong children not only entails gaining physical strength, but gaining necessary confidence which will in turn help to develop beneficial character traits.
Such character traits will undoubtedly assist youth in overcoming obstacles that would otherwise hinder progress towards becoming productive family members and or contributing members of society. And with obstacles plentiful, usually in the form of negative peer pressure or stimuli, such impediments primarily affect those who tend to make poor decisions and or those not independent minded enough to stand apart from the crowd.
Bombarded on a daily basis with social media and input from peers which mostly spectacle has little relevance to building a solid foundation in life, too few stand strong to follow their own conscience while a sizeable contingent seems to go along with the crowd. This despite the fact that going along with the crowd often times means exhibiting and or becoming involved in negative or anti social activity.
Such activities are often times accompanied by unintended consequences which many can come to regret so that youth must be strong as well as discerning enough to shrug off the temptation to partake. This takes strength, courage, and the confidence to be yourself which is perhaps the most important lesson of all to be learned in life.
For it’s being yourself that brings inner peace and a sense of self worth while it helps breed success in one or another form. Quite important this is where recreational as well as to an even larger extent competitive boxing comes in to play. Boxing helps build real confidence and therefore the wherewithal to go your own way to rather stay focused on what’s important as concerns future aspirations.
Through acquired fitness and the process of skills development boxing builds mental toughness while individuals gain sufficient confidence knowing that one can achieve by way of making tangible progress on a daily basis. This bodes well in that youth are better able to shun peer pressure while not living up to anyone else’s expectations but your own. Being boxing strong in addition means you will tend not to worry about what others think or say but you will rather have the courage and the vision to plot and then follow your own course in life.
As regards building real confidence, I’m alluding to the confidence one acquires through boxing. Aside from going through the motions of a daily recreational boxing regimen practitioners will eventually step in to the ring to spar. This endeavor is not only where individuals learn to develop and execute skills on a situational basis, but they learn to do so while under fire. In this scenario youngsters first and foremost learn to deal with fear so as to handle oneself under adverse conditions.
This is the type of experience that will build authentic confidence while gaining nothing short of a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Coming to know yourself and trust in your ability is huge so that not only will you gain self respect, but the respect of others for those same attributes. For it’s inside the gym where youth and young adults prepare to navigate the world outside. In essence participants develop the wherewithal necessary to move forward along a positive path without once again caving in to peer pressure or concerning oneself with the negative opinions of others.
That same confidence acquired through boxing helps individuals thrive socially as well, preventing feelings of isolation or depression. Along those lines one must understand that although boxing in a competitive sense is an individual sport. which is why it’s the ultimate confidence booster as well as character builder, by the same token it takes team work in the form of guidance from coaches as well as support from fellow athletes to come into your own.
This is quite vital because to be successful in any relationship whether that’s with a friend, family member, teacher, or peer you must as an individual be able to hold your own to a degree at which point you don’t necessarily arrive without assistance of those who support who you are and what you’re about. This as opposed to the sensational types who pressure you into things for their own benefit or amusement.
From another perspective not everyone thrives at or is suited to team sports which in my opinion doesn’t help to build up the individual to the extent boxing does. That’s to say the positive or negative results derived from a team sport setting are mainly dispersed amongst an entire cast of participants and not necessarily placed upon an individual’s actions so that things don’t always register or hit home in the same way.
In other words personal scrutiny is not as prevalent while there isn’t as pressing a need to make necessary adjustments on the part of the individual from which one can derive a better outcome. Easier said than done but it cannot be stressed enough that the attributes developed in the boxing gym will better allow young practitioners to get on with the more important things in life like getting an education and forging beneficial relationships having nothing to prove outside of a boxing setting.
Once put through the motions peer pressure hasn’t much of a chance whether coerced or otherwise while getting bullied is pretty much out of the question. That’s to say bullying in any form is for the most part not an effective tactic as regards the average boxing tested youngster. Prepared both mentally and physically, a situation involving bullying won’t amount to much if anything at all.
That’s not to say one who undertakes competitive or recreational boxing is more prone to use his or her new skills in a random fashion. Quite the contrary as whether formerly anti-social, aggressive, or even passive, 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.
When boxing and reality do meet and they will, critical life lessons are learned so that headstrong individuals are less likely to succumb to the negativity of others while just as importantly a precedent is set as well as framework put in to perspective. That precedent is defined by the self realization that you can only improve or move up to the next level through dedication and perseverance while the framework put in to motion is a work ethic that see’s one striving to improve on a daily basis. This is more often than not commonplace a result of being immersed in as well as motivated by the culture that is boxing.
Quickly coming to understand this phenomena youth gain important attributes to include both physical and mental while paramount is going through a skills development process that in and of itself calls for self evaluation or introspection. This look inward or the questioning of oneself if you will is prompted by the fact that beginners are surrounded by intermediate as well as advanced level boxers who are steps ahead so that the novice quickly comes to realize where they are truly at in the process which is at the very bottom.
If undeterred because more than a few turn away at the beginning, then those who forge ahead will begin to improve in all respects motivated by the contagious atmosphere where a plethora of athletes strive for excellence on a daily basis daily to become their best. In this environment instead of athletes looking externally as to why shortcomings exist those who undergo a boxing training rather tend to focus internally as part of the aforementioned process of self evaluation.
This is crucial in that one comes to the realization that success or even failure in and of itself has nothing to do with anybody but yourself, a critical life lesson learned which is even more integral when applied outside of a gym setting.
All told, boxing helps many youngsters thrive and as a long time coach I see this with my own eyes day in and day out which motivates me to continue to make a difference in the lives of youth. However, the unfortunate thing is that the sport is somewhat frowned upon if even considered at all by many parents who have been led to believe that boxing promotes violence while leading to serious short and or long term injury.
As regards professional boxing many could argue this to be the case but when it comes to amateur or recreational boxing nothing could be further from the truth. The facts are in and they have determined recreational as well as amateur boxing to be a highly regulated sport resulting in less injury than numerous other well accepted high school or recreational club sports such as wrestling, soccer, football, and the like.
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With suicide on the rise, and morality, discipline, and work ethic on the decline not to mention that important social and interpersonal skills needed to thrive are lacking in school settings, the younger generation can easily become deterred if not depressed while neither are they being put in the best position possible to succeed.
Seemingly less on a path that builds strong children but rather more on a road that will produce broken men, society has changed to soften the younger generation with hand held devices, addictive video games, virtual learning apart from connecting with humans and so on so that young people are introverted, easily offended, and lack the confidence as well self-esteem to get beyond senseless behavior or criticism directed at them by others.
Let’s get back to boxing where strong children are built or we’re going to have a broken society in the near future from which rebuilding will be that much more difficult a task.