![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This research, which is based on the thoughts and experiences of coaches, athletes, officials and others involved in amateur boxing, explores the use of recreational drugs, supplements and performance-enhancing drugs in the sport. After providing some context through a discussion of ideologies that shape elite sport, some key methodological issues are briefly described. The findings explore the manner in which ideologies of performance are shaped in relation to the notion of ‘pugilistic amateurism’. In this way, the paper maps out a theoretical scaffold that can be used to understand the manner in which ‘old school’ training methods and participation in sport align with ‘traditional’ understandings of work-class manhood to produce an ideological tension with a win-at-all-costs mentality. This sheds light on the ways that boxing gyms might be understood as havens where drugs use can be resisted at the same times as potentially positive behaviours can be learned.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Medicalisation and scientisation are the processes whereby ideas from medical and scientific understandings of the world increasingly dominate social interactions and the ways in which people interpret everyday life.
2. Wadler (Citation2009, 542) provides an overview of doping in boxing, but oddly says very little about the sport and instead offers nothing more than a conservative retelling of tired old narratives about doping being ‘a violation of the publics trust’.
3. Taken here and commonly within boxing gyms to mean traditional training methods and sensibilities employed by previous generations of coaches and athletes.
4. it is important to note that no judgment is made by either author of this paper as to the legitimacy or otherwise of drugs use. Rather, we foreground the participants understandings which tended towards a negative interpretation.
5. Is in his 40s and coaches at a boxing club in the South West of England. He boxed while at school but gave it up due to illness, was formally a police officer and maintains links between the local force and his boxing club.
6. Is a former competing amateur boxer in his 30s who does some part time coaching so stay connected to the sport. He currently runs his own plumbing company and often helps out at the club when they need things fixing.
7. Is in his 30s and coaches at a club in the South East of England. He boxed for over ten years and had over 40 bouts.
8. Is in his 20s and had a small number of amateur bouts when he was young. He has but stayed involved in boxing as a coach and works in sports development.
9. Is from the South East and is in his late teens. He is currently competing at the regional level while studying at college.
10. Is a coach at a boxing club in the South East of England in his 40s. He also uses the sport at schools with children with behaviour and emotional difficulties. He had over 40 fights in a variety of combat sports.
11. Is in his 50s and oversees coaching in a boxing club in Lincolnshire, he’s worked in public services since his early 20s.
12. Is in his 30s and lives in the midlands. He started boxing as a teenager and had trials for youth national squads. He know works in higher education and hopes to use boxing to help some of his students.
13. Is in his 20s, he has been involved in boxing since before he was ten but only had a small number of fights. He is currently unemployed and looking to attend a vocational course at a local college.
14. Is former amateur boxer who is in his early 40s. He now brings his two boys down to train at a local boxing club. He works as an alarm fitter and still does some boxing but mainly at home on his own punching bag.
15. Is a former amateur boxers in his 60s who has ran a small gym in the West Midlands for over 20 years.
16. Is a boxing coach in his mid 30s. He started coaching after retiring from amateur boxing at 17. He also works as a football coach and splits his time between the two sports.
17. Is a former amateur and professional boxer from Yorkshire in his 40s. He prefers running to boxing as a means of staying fit but he stays involved with a couple of local clubs through his contacts in boxing.
18. Is a barber from the midlands in his 20s. he topped boxing competitively after around six fights due to work commitments. He still likes to train and spar at his club, but also enjoys golf and lifting weights.
19. Is a teacher in her 30s from the midlands. She started bringing her daughter to boxing classes after taking up the sport herself.
20. Is a former amateur and professional boxers in his 40s who now owns a gym and organises some white-collar boxing events.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Christopher R. Matthews
Christopher R. Matthews is a Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, he has published widely on themes connected to sociology of sport, health and gender. He is currently supervising research on the medical supervison of combat sport and conducting research on brain injuries in sport.
Mark Jordan
Mark Jordan is a Honorary Fellow of the School of Sport and Service Management at the University of Brighton. Until his recent retirement he was the course leader for the undergraduate Sport Business Management and Sport Studies programmes. Mark continues with his research interests in the law and regulation of sport, human rights in sport and doping/substance use in sport.