By Emily Divine
In 2023, Boxing Scotland piloted a completely free program to encourage women and girls to get into boxing… this month we caught up with them to see how it was going.
In line with their 2023-2027 strategy, Boxing Scotland has been working hard to break down barriers and offer more opportunities in their sport to Women and Girls.
In November 2023 they set out with an idea and passion to increase participation levels from grassroots clubs upwards.
The program first started at Southside Boxing Academy and Community Hub in Glasgow, where the pilot brought women and girls over ten, who had never tried boxing before. This ran for six weeks, allowing participants to grasp the sport, meet new people, and get active. Due to the amount of positive feedback from the initial pilot, the program then visited Argo Boxing Club in Drumchapel for four weeks bringing in even higher, more consistent numbers.
We spoke to Cameron McAlpine, a development officer at Boxing Scotland who gave me the rundown on the program. Cameron explained to us that the fuel to getting the program up and running was to not only increase participation but to reduce the split difference between males and females.
We discussed the sport’s background, and its challenges with being male-dominated and traditionally viewed as being ‘hypermasculine’.
However, we are now seeing a positive shift in more and more sports getting more women and girls involved and offering a more inclusive and welcoming environment. Cameron and the team didn’t have the easiest job ahead of them. However, their passion shone throughout as the pilot saw 10 women and girls try out the sport with even higher numbers of 14 at Drumchapel. The program has been entirely female-led. Not only creating a more inclusive environment for participants to step into but also allowing female coaches to upskill and get time to coach regularly.
The feedback received from the first two deliveries of the program showed promise – most of the participants were sad that it had ended.
Cameron explained that they didn’t want it to be something where the girls got to the end and didn’t have anywhere to go. So, another main aim of the program was not only to get women and girls into the sport but to keep them involved and use the program as a pathway into clubs.
An amazing example of this can be seen from one of the Drumchapel participants; they had previously done some boxing at a different club but were looking to push themselves and learn more alongside other women. Through the program, they switched to the club at Drumchapel as they loved the coaches and environment so much. They went on to win their golden gloves as part of the school and junior national title in the same year.
I was blown away when speaking to Cameron about the number of opportunities there are in the sport and how beneficial the program has been already.
Cameron’s Dream outcome from the program: “higher participation and ensuring females have ways to get involved in the sport,
“But also allowing females to achieve the competitive titles and get the national wins. From grassroots up, if we can help someone represent their country and achieve their goals, that’s the dream.”
We also had the pleasure of speaking to the two-time world champion Hannah Rankin about her thoughts on this initiative: “It’s brilliant that Boxing Scotland is getting behind this, boxing will always hold a special place in my heart, so this is great to see. We want to create strong females and role models so being able to expand this is great… you never know where you are going to find the next hidden gem.”
Hannah also reminisced about the time when she first started boxing and stated the importance the sport has had for her building self-confidence, holding herself differently to feel more empowered as an athlete and as a female: “From where I started as the only professional woman in Scotland, it’s amazing to see that this has grown and boxing is now a sport where girls belong, my main goal is to inspire girls to be as successful and more so than myself – when we can see people like us doing these things, that’s what inspires people.”
Looking forward, the program will first be rolled out across the rest of Glasgow and will expand to other areas in the country. Women and girls who take part will also be given the option to reapply rather than join a club straight away if they don’t quite feel ready for the next step.
It’s safe to say that the Begin to Box initiative is a massive positive for women and girls in sports, as well as getting the thumbs up from Hannah herself.
It’s great to see that women and girls participation is an area of focus for Boxing Scotland and we can’t wait to see what comes next!
