On 19th April, a junior boxer represented Fight for Peace in the London School’s Quarter Final. He started the first round sharply, holding his ground and troubling his opponent. Unfortunately, despite his brilliant display, the judges favoured the opposition.
For any athlete, a loss is a defining moment. It’s a tipping point where passion can easily splinter into self-doubt, yet it’s also the very space where resilience takes root and perseverance truly begins to shine. As we learn from some of our young competitors, and the coaches that steer their journey, coming back after a loss is about determination, mindset and self-belief.
“Every loss is different,” Coach Kenny begins. In boxing a loss can come in the form of a knock out, a decision loss, a disqualification. The circumstances of a loss shape the knock to an athlete’s confidence, how they rebuild their morale afterward and what’s the best stylistic way to grow from it.
But as Kenny mentions, what’s most important, the moments and weeks after a loss, is that coaches listen to the athlete; “the athlete needs to speak about what they need and coaches need to give space for that.” It’s here that the relationship between coach and athlete becomes so integral; where trust, clear understanding, and supportive language can pave the way for a stronger comeback.
For one young competitive athlete at Fight for Peace, it was important to have coaches who didn’t fixate on the loss. “They weren’t concentrating on the loss, but instead on keeping me in the sport and gym,” she shares. Something that was pivotal in bringing her back to the sport after losing her first decision bout.
Her own perspective also shifted: “after you lose, what else can go wrong?” She continues by mentioning how, for herself, a loss just made her realise “how badly I wanted to win. It showed to me how eager I was to stay in the sport, and how much I loved it.”
This athlete touches on a crossroads all competitors meet at some point in their journey – a moment where they ask if the sport is really for them. “If you lose at a young age, it’s not the end,” replies one of our boxing coaches. He believes addressing self-doubt defines how you are as an athlete: “You are going to have those days where you constantly doubt yourself and how you handle those days actually defines how much of a boxer you are.”
Today’s athletes, in any sport, face a challenge previous generations didn’t: social media. With live streams, reels paired musically, and the latest phones documenting every second, a loss can feel exceptionally more public than it used to.
For one of our competitors who made his amateur debut in boxing this year, the answer is practicing a martial arts mindset. “At the end of the day, you’re always improving. You’ve just gotta keep coming back with that mindset,” he says. Stepping over the noise of a digital feed is just another part of the modern athlete’s training.
It is also a reminder that boxing is a marathon, not a sprint. “Some people win their first five bouts, get onto the England squad immediately, and then start losing when they get older,” one coach observes. “They drop off because they never learned how to lose. All that time is wasted because you don’t even know if that’s what they truly wanted to do.”
He leaves us with a lesson for all in sport, one that resonates far beyond the ring, field, and gym: “I grew up with so many talented people, but hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard enough. Boxing is a lifestyle. These lessons take you through your whole life.”
Our coaches are trained as Life Champions. This Fight for Peace course empowers coaches to build essential life skills in their young athletes – from leadership and collaboration to self-awareness and communication. By viewing these skills through the lens of sport, we show athletes how to translate their strengths in sport into their relationships, future careers, and wider lives.
Interested in the course? View it here: https://www.ukcoaching.org/courses/elffp/
This piece was written with the support of Louis Hemmings.
