Boxing Clever: How One Alternative Provision School for Excluded Teenagers Used Traditional Teaching, Personal Relationships & Sport to Fight Gangs

by Tom Ogg

Boxing Clever is Tom Ogg's account of teaching teenagers at the London Boxing Academy Community Project (LBACP) in Tottenham, North London, who had been expelled from school. The aim of the project was to make use of the strong relationships that boxing coaches have with wayward young men. The principal of the LBACP was Chris Hall, a boxing coach of 30 years' standing. The school was built around Chris's 'rules without relationships ain't worth toffee'. The book explores this and how Chris's principles of honesty, realism and kindness guided his work. It describes how boxing as a sport was uniquely suited to foster maturity in the students. It addresses why boxers, despite often coming from very tough backgrounds, saw the boxing community as a hub of moral improvement and why this meant boxers were able to connect with the students where others had failed. This is the story of Tom Ogg's baptism of fire, fresh from university, teaching the unteachable.

211 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2012

Reviews

[Martin Pozos · Rating 4 out of 5]

😉

[Juan Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boxing Clever is an excellent and deeply compassionate book, rooted in real lives and real stakes. It shines a light on young people living at the very edges of London society — navigating trauma, poverty and violence — while never losing sight of their humour, resilience and hope.

What makes the book so powerful is its respect for its subjects. These young people are not reduced to statistics or cautionary tales; they are fully realised, complex and alive on the page. The writing celebrates their potential as much as it exposes the systems that fail them.

The reason for knocking a star off is purely technical. The sheer number of typos proved distracting at times and occasionally pulled me out of the narrative. With tighter editing, this could be an even stronger book, and a second edition would really benefit from that polish.

The tribute to Kemar Duhaney — known as Felix in the book — is especially affecting. It is both beautiful and tragic: a life full of promise, cut short far too soon. That section alone stays with you and gives the book much of its emotional weight.

An important, heartfelt read that deserves attention — powerful in intent and impact, even if imperfect in execution.