Kevin Brownlow [00:00:28]:
Kevin Brownlow, head coach and founder of Holmes Chapel Boxing Club. The reason I stay in amateur boxing and give back to amateur boxing is through one person, Ted Peep Leave a Light ABC inspired and changed so many lives over the years. An absolute legend.

Craig Turner [00:00:43]:
I'll always be grateful to an amazing coach and educator, Kurt Ernest of Exeter. Born in Germany, Kurt's family escaped Nazi rule and settled in England, where Kurt joined the RAF, taken part in many international tournaments and twice made it to the national semi finals. As a professional, he took part in 27 bouts. 1970 he qualified as ABA Advanced coach at Crystal Palace. In '79 he was appointed as ABA staff coach. 1980 was part of the ABA England coaching team at the multi-nations Tournament at Wembley, celebrating 100 years of amateur boxing. 1982 Commonwealth Games, Brisbane and Australia, where every boxer in the England team won a medal. 1986 Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh, where every boxer in the England team won a medal. 1988 Canada Cup multi-nations before final selection of 1988 GB Olympic team 1990 Commonwealth Games, Auckland and New Zealand. Kurt was simply dedicated to the sport and the star studded lineup of boxers he coached. None of them were more or less important to him than the novice kids of the Western Counties. He was patient, calm, but had the ability to command discipline at a glance and was a class act in every way.

Dave Hardy [00:01:48]:
My name is Dave Hardy, head coach and matchmaker for the Cheltenham Boxing Club over in Essex. The first amateur coach to inspire me was a former coach at Cheltenham. His name was Charlie Blake. I first Met Charlie roughly 13 years ago when I took my own son, now Charlie Hardy. Charlie asked me to help out and a few years down the line I took over the club. Charlie remained with us up until about a year ago. My son boxed through the club, 66 bouts as an amateur, done very well now, turned professional and he's now in his fourth year as a level one coach and hopefully inspiring the young ones to do the same sort of thing as he done, to go down the same route.

Emmanuel Izon-Eritei [00:02:29]:
My name is Emmanuel Izon-Eritei, head coach, Fight for Peace, ABC London. Former coach, Stonebridge Boxing Club. Olympic boxer, Commonwealth Games boxer and England boxer too. Coaches that inspired me growing up. My first coach from Nigeria was my local coach, then the national coach, then was for my SOL area and he coached two of my elder brothers. He took them to the Olympics. However, he didn't go to the Olympics with me. Since moving to London, the number one coach, I'll say, Tony Davis, in my time in the army, he was an amazing coach, got good skill and he's the one that shaped my coaching career. The way he coaches and thinks out of the box, he's one of the people that made me the coach, who I am today. So, Tony Davis, big ups to you. Thank you.

Donna Torrance [00:03:11]:
My name is Donna Torrance and I'm coach at Himmel Hempstead Warriors. And while I've learned and picked up loads of different things from coaches over the years, my shout out is to Laura Ball and to Natalie at Warriors. When I first went to help coach at warriors, it was in the junior girls class and I'd taught kickboxing for years, but it was always to adults, so I'd never taught children and I had no idea how different it was going to be. Laura and Natalie were brilliant at connecting with the girls and engaging with them and making sure that the classes that they created, the kids really enjoyed, they engaged with. And whether they wanted to box or not, they would always leave with a smile on their face. The way that Laura and Natalie Ware made me realise how much of yourself and your personality you have to put into your coaching to connect with, especially, I think, with the children in an open, honest way to get them to engage back with you and to ensure that they can get the best out of the sessions. So while this is something that I'm still working on, it was Laura and Natalie that inspired me to do so.

Ben Harmsworth [00:04:03]:
Ben Harmsworth here, Guildford City. So a few coaches that have inspired me over the years. My old coach was Peter Matthews, who I thought the world of, as did all of his boys. Peter was a very strong, tough man and he coached in that image. There were no frills with Peter at all. Got us very fit, taught us the basics, lots of good straight punching. One thing that I'll always remember is that Peter loved all of his boys and he believed in us and he let us know that he believed in us. And when you had him in your corner, it just gave you that bit more, you know, you were boxing for him as much as for yourself. And relatively short period of time I spent with Peter has had a big influence on the rest of my life and I suppose still does. A few others, so at the time, the Big four in London were Stevie Heiser at the Fisher, Tony Burns at Repton, Mickey Delaney down at Dale Youth and Mick Carney at the Lodge. Similar characters, no frills coaches, but they were leaders. They led their clubs from the front, they knew what they wanted and for decades they inspired and helped generations. 

And running a boxing club's not easy, is it? And there are times when I, I'm sure all of us feel like, I don't know how much longer I can do this, when some results don't go your way, when you're exhausted, when it affects your work again, when it affects your family life again. And you think, I don't know how much longer I can do this. But that's when I take inspiration from men like that who did a massively important and undervalued job in our community. Probably only really be understood by those of us within the game. I mean, Mick Delaney still does. That's when I take inspiration from them. And I think, right, we've got to try and carry on, continue with their work. What we do is very important. And a couple of other coaches, just two more similar men really, both better known as professional coaches, but one in particular did a lot with the amateurs are Jimmy Tibbs and Martin Bowers. Both of whom I've had very privileged to spend time with and talk about boxing with and watch them coach. And one big thing that I've taken from both of them is that not very much of what we do is rocket science. And I feel that it gets very over complicated. But those are two men at the top of their game who've done this for years, have produced world and British champions who stick to some basic principles and some basic fundamentals that we can all do. And I feel but by keeping it simple, we can help boxers at all levels. Some strong men there that have inspired me over the years.