Women’s Coach Development Programme Spotlight: Emma Middleton

Emma Middleton of London Community Boxing Club epitomises ‘transforming lives through boxing’. Emma hopes to channel the ‘superpower’ of boxing to build a bright future for herself, and her boxing family.

How did you first get involved in boxing?

I started boxing when I was in the early years of addiction and mental health recovery. It was during the COVID pandemic, in 2021. I would run an hour to meet a boxing coach in a basketball court next to the boxing club – do a socially-distanced hour of training and then run home!

When gyms re-opened, I joined an amateur squad. I hadn’t done the sport before and had zero natural aptitude for it, but I loved it and was fuelled by the desire to get better. Alongside talking therapy, boxing is a healing therapeutic activity for me, and it has enabled me to recover and rebuild myself.

I believe deeply that boxing has the power to change lives, and it should be prescribed by the NHS for mental health issues. Today, I live next to that basketball court, and I work at that boxing club as a coach. Little did I know those hours with the boxing coach would be the foundation for a whole new life for me.

How pleased are you to be involved in a programme that is actively bidding to push women’s and girls’ boxing forward?

I am beyond thrilled and it’s pretty surreal! I am very passionate about empowering women and girls to find freedom and joy in moving their bodies. As a girl and young woman, I was very disconnected from my body and sport was a place that I felt was for boys, or very special girls with natural athletic talent.

The cultural message, I believed, was that girls should aspire to be small, and I quickly learned to achieve this through the restriction of food which further limited my ability to move. Disconnection from my body and lack of movement was a big contributor to the mental health challenges I have experienced.

Discovering boxing in my late twenties taught me to reconnect with my body, to be strong and to nourish my body for fuel. It taught me to be powerful and channel aggression. And I learned that I was no more and no less able to enjoy and excel in sports than any other man, woman or person. The only difference was the amount of consistency and commitment I put into it.

I take great pride in creating spaces where women and girls feel safe and empowered to move and I aspire each day to be a role model exhibiting confidence, connection and freedom in my body.

The WCDP is connecting me with an incredible network of women who are doing the same thing. It is equipping me with skills, knowledge and confidence to move out of my comfort zone and achieve more than I ever thought possible for myself.

I want to shine that light to the women and girls in my gyms and my community.

What do you hope to get from the WCDP that can improve you as a coach?

At first, I simply wanted to do whatever I could to become the best coach possible. I have experienced so much unintentional sexism in the sport of boxing, and equally from the outside world (if I get told ‘Oh wow, you don’t look like a boxer’ one more time…). I knew I couldn’t change the rest of the world, but what I could change was myself, becoming the most skilful, knowledgeable, confident coach possible. The WCDP is massively helping me to fulfil that through education, experience, networking and mentorship.

I am also gaining so much more than I hadn’t anticipated. Simply from being around so many coaches, sharing what we are doing and supporting one another. I am learning that so much coaching is about knowing how to do the boxer’s administration, having an awareness of what’s going on in the sector to get boxers to the right events, and having connections with clubs and coaches to arrange sparring.

There is a hidden part of coaching, which I never fully appreciated as a boxer. Getting our boxers in the right places, the right opportunities at the right time, and knowing the right people to help achieve all of that. The programme has hugely helped me on the journey to developing this.

The WCDP is also helping me to set goals and ambitions, and to move through coaching with a sense of direction and conviction in my values and purpose. Before, I was just bumbling through giving things a go. This programme is changing that, helping me to see how much I have to offer and empowering me to believe that the things which matter to me are important and
worth pursuing, and that I have the potential to do them well and make a difference.

How will attending the WCDP help you in your club environment?

My club London Community Boxing is founded upon the firm belief in the power of sport as a vehicle for personal development and social cohesion. I coach our junior amateur squad which is full of talented and brilliant young people. I also coach adults and children with SEND, mental health challenges, addiction recovery, adults over 65 (self-proclaimed squad name ‘Life in Us Yet’), new-arrival asylum seekers and local mothers and their children, as well as many women and girls 1:1.

The WCDP is helping to diversify the content of my sessions, enhancing the experience of the boxers I coach, and helping me understand how to develop and progress them over time. It is building my confidence and self-esteem as a coach, giving me the courage to show up with a greater sense of presence and clarity.

A huge thing it is helping with is building my network and connection with other coaches, and people within England Boxing, which is gradually building my ability to create opportunities for our boxers. This is really key for me.

I have also loved the opportunity to bring some of our boxers up to the Sheffield gym for our WCDP days. It is a beautiful experience to bring people from my club up to the home of GB Boxing and watch them thrive up there in the Olympic ring.

Our club is doing life-changing work in our local community, and my own life, and I am grateful for the opportunity to grow as a coach in this programme so that I can bring it all back to the people in our boxing family.

Who are your biggest boxing inspirations?

My coach Chris Lodge has taught me most of what I know about boxing and a lot about life and how to be a good human too. He has shown me how to show up with humility, consistency and the integrity of doing all the small things well – always showing up early and well prepared, making notes and constantly being open to learning and growth, being honest when I don’t know the answer to something, holding things lightly and with humour, holding no barriers to anyone who sincerely wants to learn, communicating simply and clearly – and so many other countless lessons.

He is a coach for England Boxing now, but he still shows up to coach our seniors’ squad six hours a week exactly like he did before. We shared a special moment recently when I was at the EIS in Sheffield, as he was finishing an England camp, and I was starting a WCDP workshop, and he made me a cuppa!

Also, my coach Chris McKenzie, has also taught me so much of what I know about boxing and coaching. He gave me a lot of time when I was a boxer, and now I am honoured to coach alongside him for our junior amateur squad. He has taught me about the art of boxing, but also about showing up with humility and having a laid-back approach which relaxes boxers so they can thrive. He has been a great role model to me in freely giving people your time and energy and expecting nothing in return. And about how to achieve excellence without ego.

I am also very inspired by my mentor Kate Waters. She brings so much love and heart to everything she does. She really understands and advocates for my values and passions in boxing and is helping so much to build my self-belief and confidence. She takes a holistic view of me as a human, nurturing both my coaching skills and journey but also my personal experience and emotions. For me, boxing and life are inseparable, and I am learning from her how that is a superpower, not a weakness.

Finally, Leigh Bruce the owner of our club, London Community Boxing. He gives so much to the community and encourages and supports me in everything I do. He has built a space where I and countless others feel entirely at home and peace. And he does it all while being the most laid-back guy on earth, always laughing with a beaming smile, closely followed by his dog Scruffy, whom he found as a stray in Greece and took home with him to Peckham.