Boxers Are Not Street Urchins

Tajudeen Kazeem is the Head Coach of Always Boxing Gym in Lagos. In this interview with Boxing in Focus, the coach corrected the notion that boxers end up as street urchins after they retire from the sport. He also shed light on the reason he is interested in coaching kids how to box

Why do you prefer to train kids how to box?

I see it as a way of contributing to the upliftment of the children in the society. What many people don’t understand is that one thing is to have talent and another thing is to have someone to mentor or guide you to make maximum use of that talent. But it is sad that many of these children don’t make use of their talents becasue they don’t have the right people to guide them. That was why I concluded that it wouldn’t be a bad idea if I start to teach them boxing. And I am happy that these children are doing fine since they enrolled in my gym.

How do their parents react whenever you want to introduce their wards to boxing?

Convincing a parent to release his or her child to learn boxing is very difficult. And the reason is due to the belief that people have that boxers end up as touts and street urchins. Consequently, I make it a point of duty to correct an impression that many parents have about boxers. I assure them that their children will not end up in the streets. I make them to realise that I am only trying to give them a better future by introducing them to boxing, which can be another means of livelihood for them aside from education by the time they hit adulthood.

What effort are you making to help the children in your gym to realise their dreams?

I guess my coleagues who are running other gyms will agree with me that children who are learning boxing need great attention from their trainers. They need to be monitored closely, else they might get carried away and jeopardise their careers through nonchallant attitude. That’s why I always advise them that their education must be paramount to them at the moment. I tell them from time to time that it is only their degrees that can bring food to their table by the time they finally retire from boxing. Aside from this, I often advise them to take their training seriously. I tell them that there is no short cut to success if they want to make it in boxing. And as I said earlier, I am happy about the progress that the kids are making at the moment.

What are the major challenges that you are facing in training the kids?

The challenges that I encounter are not different from what my coleagues are facing in their own gyms. But the most difficult among them is the issue of finance. To be honest, it requires a lot of money to train kids how to box. For instance, I need to by them training kits and also make the atmosphere in the gym conducive for proper training. In addition, I need to equip the gym with modern training equipment so that the kids can get the best of training. But the fact is that many of the parents will only send their children to the gym and live their upkeep completely to us. This is a challenge that we need to tackle if we really want to make champions out of these children. But as I said earlier, this is the hardest of all the problems that we encounter in the course of training the kids.

What is your advice to the parents of the kids?

My advice to the parents of these kids is that they should take the trainers as people who only want to help in securing a better future for their wards. We are introducing them to boxing. Many of the coaches have their own children among these kids. And I believe there is no parent that will introduce his child to a sport that will jeopardise his or her future. However, I appeal to the parents not to leave the upkeep of the children entirely to us because we are not that financially bouyant. I appeal to them to always do their own part by making sure that these children are well fed and are in good health. As a coach, I give them my word that I will not disappoint them, by also doing my own part.

How can the Lagos State government be of assistance to you and your colleagues?

In truth, the Lagos State Government has already taken boxing to the secondary schools in the state, the state feature the young lads at the Monthly Saturday Boxing Show at Rowe Park in Yaba. I see the move as a step in the right direction considering the fact that these children are champions in the making if they are properly monitored. But I still want to appeal to the state government to provide more modern training equipment in the state so that the children can have the best of training. To be honest, the state is trying its best in making sure that the state continues to dominate boxing in the country. The exploits of its boxers at the Garden City Games attest to the fact that the state is a home to the best boxers in the country. But the state needs to provide the necessary training facilities and other incentives for children so that the the state can continue its dominance of the sport in the country.