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I left the big city life for a small seaside town four years ago, selling my boxing gym and life as a public influencer. However, word got out, and it wasn’t long before community parents approached me, asking if I would train their sons in the sweet science. Relegated to basement, carport, and garage workout spaces, I humbly recalled my early boxing years when I trained boxers anywhere — in the park, racquetball courts, playgrounds, and in living rooms, if that was available. The more considerable adjustment I faced had to do with the training purpose. The youth here are far from inner city kids struggling to make a place for themselves through sport, yet, I did find commonality. The youth, no matter how they are raised, all carry family legacy passed along through the generations they are responsible for releasing.
ADHD is common. The youth are frequently diagnosed as suffering from short attention spans, fractured mental focus, and Autistic Spectrum tendencies. Still, boxing cuts through everything with a simple perspective: Invite instead of fight the punch. Youth who are hyper-sensitive to stimuli are the new tough. They are the future boxers of America.
I met Kid Key, who lives with his mom and their elder dog at the end of a wooded dirt road in a small clearing. He got interested in boxing when visiting his dad in Alaska, and I’m brought in to continue exploring that interest. The workout space is a cluttered garage not used for cars. Then, Kid Key shows me his creations. There is a broad sword fashioned from a four-foot-long metal piece resembling a…
