For the 13th year in a row, Dagenham (PC) Boxing Club delivered the highly popular and award winning ‘Summer Boxing Programme’ as part of the ‘Schools Out Get Active’ programme of activities.
Two programmes were run, for children aged 5-15 years, and each successful participant was awarded a Daggers boxing t-shirt, medal, and certificate of completion.
A number of trophies were also awarded to those youngsters who were also awarded a place in the club's existing Beginner Groups.
The first programme took place on August 3-4, and the second was delivered on August 10-11, with around 25 youngsters per group.
The recreational programme was offered to children aged 5-15, who were taught the three basic components of amateur boxing, including stance, guard, foot movement and delivery of punch combinations.
In addition, the children were put through their paces with skipping drills, punch bag assessments and pad work techniques which were all delivered by the club's boxing leaders, who were a credit to the club.
Five club coaches oversaw the syllabus delivery, and assessed the participants, and also ran a number of ‘Bleep Tests’ to assess the participants endurance levels - which were extremely high across the board.
Healthy eating was a hot topic of discussion at the programmes, with very healthy snacks and fresh fruit provided throughout. There were useful short inputs on healthy eating, which were carefully designed to improve the health of all participants.
Local Police were also involved, with officers from the LBBD Safer Schools Partnership delivering useful inputs around safety and rights.
PC Woods and PC Heard were also on hand to present awards at the first programme, while Chief Inspector Dixon from Dagenham Police’s East Area Command presented the awards at the second.
A special award for an outstanding effort in tackling the ‘Bleep Test’ went to six-year-old Scarlett Maloney, who reached level 7.4, a level very few adults can reach.
Police Officers have regular tests with this method, and the pass rate is level 5.4, just to put Scarlett's magnificent effort into perspective.
Award winners were, group 1 (under 10’s): Best Male Boxer: Ellis Kite; best female boxer: Aaliyah Nessa-Alom; most effort/endeavour: Daniel Somiah; best footwork: Ethan William; skipping award: Ehsan Khan.
Group 2 (5-15 years): best male: Ayo Okusanya; best female: Alexa Upjohn (also highest on Bleep Test); most effort/endeavour: Zack Woods; best footwork: George Horler; skipping award: Maria Lee.
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