Liam Alloway [00:00:31]:
So my names Liam. I'm from the Ring Boxing Club. A couple of coaches that inspired me was my dad, who ran Bracknell Boxing Club for many, many years and not only did it produce some really good boxers, but also helped lots of young people and people in the local community as well with boxing and skills outside of boxing. The other coaching inspiration for me was Mike Bromby, Paul Kershaw and Jimmy Stephenson at St. Paul's made me feel very welcome. When I was 18, 19 years old, moving away from home made me feel part of a really successful boxing gym, played a massive part in my first stages of my coaching career and also made me feel very welcome being obviously away from home.

Martin Webb [00:01:06]:
Hi, my name is Martin Webb. I'm head coach of Harwich Boxing Club in Essex Eastern Counties for the last 27 years. In terms of inspiration in my coaching journey, it started when I boxed as a junior at Colchester Boxing Club. Terry Borthwick was the head coach and he was a great conditioning trainer and matchmaker. From there I spent a period in the army under many coaches, but the one that stood out was Mickey Dowland, who's from the Royal Angler Regiment and a legend in terms of coaching circles within the army. After that, I qualified as far back as 1989 and followed by 1990 in the Level 1 and 2 coaching qualifications which were run by Ivan Cobb. And Ivan was again a great inspiration in my journey from there on in. I also have been operating as a team manager for the England team for 20 plus years and from that I've seen some brilliant coaches in action, ranging from even Kevin Hickey, in the early days, he took part in some training and then I worked alongside Ian Irwin, Terry Edwards, Mick Gannon and more recently Amanda Coulson and Mick McGuire and I managed to nick little snippets of coaching styles and practices and motivational techniques and I've been able to bring those back to my club. They've all in their own ways inspired me in the journey I've completed or so far as a coach.

Bobby Mills [00:02:25]:
Hi, my name is Bobby Mills, I'm the head coach of Afewee Boxing Club in Brixton and I'm also an England Boxing development coach and the person that has inspired me along my coaching journey is a guy called Q Shillingford who is the head coach of the Heart of Portsmouth Boxing Academy as well as England and on GB. Reason being, I remember I met Q around 2012, 2013 when I actually did a level one course through him and his boxing tutors course and the amount of energy and passion he put into those courses for me to see early on kind of took me back and inspired me and combined with his knowledge, experience and success at national and club level was great for me to see early on as a young coach myself. So, yep, thanks to Q for the early inspiration and someone that I'm still good friends with today.

Ian Brum Tennant [00:03:15]:
Hi, my name is Ian Brum Tennant. I'm a coach at Truro Boxing Club. I'm a level four and EBA one star coach. I'm also the Western Counties regional coach, England pathway coach and coach educator. Starting my boxing journey with Mr. Summers and Mr. Protheroe. They were school teachers. They give up lots of their own time to volunteer to run a boxing club on school premises after school. Moving on to Paddy Riley and Johnny Sutton at Aston Villa ABC as teenage lads we were treated as young men and given lots of confidence. Roy Barber at Hubs Mountain Sol ABC was an old school autocrat, great community leader and father figure for many young lads. Moving on to Leo Toms as a Royal Range PTI in the daytime, a boxing coach in the evening. The very inspirational man who led by example. Moving on to Chrissie Young, when I first moved on to Truro Boxing Club in Cornwall, straight talking, directing on his coach and finally my mum, she gave me the genes, the grit, determination and the resilience to be who I am today. Thank you.

Jane Wallace [00:04:12]:
My name's Jane Wallace and I'm a coach at Billingham Boxing Academy. I joined the gym around five years ago and Adrian Worth was the first coach that I met. As a new coach I had a lot to learn and Adrian took me under his wing and mentored me from day one. He encouraged me to aid my progression by attending regional squads and applying for the female coach development program. So that I could learn from other coaches too. Adrian is always looking for new ways to learn and this inspired me to do the same. I went on to take my level two qualification and I'm currently on the level three course. Adrian is all about the boxers and the coaches in the club and puts everything into their progression and growth. His drive and passion for the sport and the people in it pushes me forward and encourages me to be the best that I can be. I know that I wouldn't be the coach I am today without his guidance and with his continued support, I know that I will only become better. He's selfless in what he gives and all he wants back is the best out of everyone.

Intro [00:05:03]:
Nick Griffin, Heart of England Community Boxing Club, Hinckley, Leicestershire. A very mediocre boxer in the 1990s, took up coaching early 90s and attended a level one coaching course with a fellow called Brian Hinckley. Brian's approach was dramatically different from anything I'd experienced in the past. Relaxed, knowledgeable and supportive and he remains a great friend to this day. Speak to him every week and yeah, maybe he's the number one mentor. My philosophy generally is to observe as many coaches as possible, steal all of their good ideas, claim them as your own ideally and just discard the less useful bits. Coaching should be a never ending journey. Coach education should be a never ending journey. And despite being in my 60s now hope to keep to learn, learning from the likes of Brian and anyone else that I encounter.

Speaker E [00:05:55]:
So massive thank you to Liam Alloway, Martin Webb, Ian Brum Tennant, Bobby Mills, Jane Wallace and Nick Griffin for supplying their their testimonies for coaches who've been part of their journey have inspired them. Just a reflection on listening back to those guys. Liam talked about the skills and the kind of community impact that the coaches that he's been working with have had. But also elements of mentoring which was quite prevalent across all six of these recordings. 

Martin Webb mentioned about taking something from every single coach that he encountered and learned, as did Nick Griffin is making sure that you're really listening to what other coaches are saying and how they're doing things and assimilating and discarding what you don't need as well as Nick mentioned, but also being very open to learning again. Martin and Nick were very similar in their sort of testimonials there, how they were inspired by coaches that they were able to learn from. 

Thanks to Bobby Mills as well, who mentioned Q with his energy, his passion, but also his expertise and success and all these things kind of pushed together helped really inspire him. And at least two or three of the coaches mentioned they're still friends with these coaches today. Brum also had lots of different people that he mentioned. He mentioned school teachers, even mentioned his mother, community leaders. But one of the things that kind of will outed through all of those was honesty and integrity seemed to be a theme that's inspired him through his journey and the coaches that he's interacted and the mentors that he's had through his journey. 

Thanks also from Billiingham's Jane Wallace. She mentioned Adrian Worth and the mentorship that he's provided all the way through. And also something that's quite important that how she was welcomed on the very first day. I think successful coaches seem to be those who've had good experiences right from the start, otherwise they probably wouldn't be in the position they are now. And that he managed to pass down the ladder, as Carla just mentioned the other day, and called her up and really supported her through her journey and been a really a great leader. And it seems like someone that she mentions, you know, particularly altruistic as well. 

And then just finally through Nick again, who actually did my level three, he mentioned about Brian Hinckley, how knowledgeable he was and supportive, still being friends today and offered mentorship and the fact that he thinks, whether you're a boxer, a coach or a coach educator, that ongoing learning is an important process. So as we've mentioned before, if you're not learning and getting better, then why should the boxers? 

So thank you to all six of those coaches. We've got loads more recordings already on board and we'll be putting those out weekly. And so thanks to all those coaches who are just paying back a little nod to those people who've inspired them in their journey and over the years.

Also, if you would like to get involved and if you'd like to pay a testimony to someone that's inspired you in the journey, please get in contact with us at www.theboxgathering.com and we'd be happy to hear your account. And just giving that little nod, that little doff of the cap and that ode to the people that have helped and inspired you. That would be great. Thanks very much, guys. Really appreciate it and look forward to putting the next one of the revered coaches messages out there. Thanks very much.