Hove boxing club makes sport accessible

Kieran Green, who has cerebral palsy, wants adaptive boxing to become a Paralympic sport

A boxing club in East Sussex says it wants its accessible coaching programme to be made available in other gyms across the South East of England.

Brighton & Hove Amateur Boxing Club's adaptive boxing programme is backed by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and has weekly sessions for people with a range of disabilities.

Kieran Green, who has cerebral palsy and leads the programme at the club, says the gym teaches "a safer style of boxing - it’s not just for getting hit".

The programme includes sessions for wheelchair boxers and people with Parkinson's disease.

'Fitness and fun'

Brighton & Hove Amateur Boxing Club first opened in 1946 and has seen Tyson Fury, Lennox Lewis and Chris Eubank walk through its doors.

The club wanted to make the sport more accessible and so developed a carefully planned programme to deliver training safely.

Mr Green explained the sessions taught a range of skills, including defence.

"It’s actually highly skilled, high tempo. It’s all about the fitness and fun as well as the sport," he said.

People travel from outside the county to attend classes

Johnny Dawson-Ellis travels from Kent every week to attend the training.

"Being in a wheelchair is sometimes difficult. It’s good to get out the stress and it’s a great stress reliever to come down and do some boxing here," he said.

Victoria Lacy has been boxing since 2019 and thinks other boxing gyms should run similar programmes.

She said: "Everybody has got this concept of a disabled person not being able to look after themselves, not doing their own stuff, and it’s far from the truth."

Mr Green says he wants to see the programme rolled out to other boxing gyms across the South East, and, competing in exhibition bouts himself, also wants adaptive boxing to become a Paralympic sport.