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Blog Post 8


            My sophomore year of college I joined the boxing club here on campus. I had no experience with boxing but joined it with a few friends because it seemed like fun. I first learned about the club on quad day and everyone I spoke with described how it doesn’t have to be competitive. It was set up in a way, that there was essentially a club inside of the club. People who had boxing experience or wanted to compete could try out for the team. Being part of the team ultimately meant that in the spring you would compete in a tournament against amateur boxers from other schools; however, being part of the team also meant stricter rules.

Each week we had three practices Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Most non-team members only typically went to two out of three practices; however, if you were on the team you were expected to go to three practices a week. If someone not on the team missed a significant number of practices, no one would care. On the other hand, if a team member missed a lot of practices, they could be kicked off the team and not compete. They would then become a non-team member and still be in the club but wouldn’t compete in the spring. There were still basic rules that applied to everyone, mostly involving basic manners and respectfulness. However, this tiered rule system seemed to be a successful way to run an amateur club. It attracted and allowed casual members to be a part of the club, but still created the opportunity for those who wanted to compete.

            My friends and I were able to join and still have a good time even though we were never part of the team. We went to probably an average of two practices a week because we enjoyed them. If the club had a rule that required an average of two or more practices a week, we likely would have never joined. Just by seeing the attendance of the practices made it clear that this was true for other people. Sunday classes had few people outside the team members, so at best the average non-team member was going to two practices a week. Even though attendance percentage wise was low, this relaxed attendance attracted a significant number of people. Each practice, other than Sundays, had a decent group of people. Each practice about half the group were team members who went to nearly every practice, and the other half was a mix of non-team members.

            If I were in charge of the club, I am not sure what I could have done differently to create a more successful club. This is the only college sports club I have been a part of, so its possible there is a better way to run it that I am un-aware of, but to me it was very successfully run. They successfully attracted a base of casual members who had at least some interest in boxing, and also created an opportunity for highly motivated students or those with prior experience to compete. This created a good mix of members and allowed everyone to have an enjoyable time.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanNovember 11, 2019 at 6:14 AM

    Boxing is fun? I need some elaboration here so I can understand things. Was part of practice taking a punch and learning how to do that? I can imagine learning the leg work and how to throw a punch could be enjoyable - when done against a bag, not against another person. The rest of this I need more explanation to get where the entertainment value is.

    There is an implied issue that you kind of walked around in this post that should be considered. How good was the person at boxing? How much can practice improve performance in this area? Let's say that the person is not currently very good at all, but is willing to practice a lot. I believe by your description that person is on the team - perhaps the lowest seed - although weight must matter too in actual matches. Does this person's prior fight record matter as a performance measure? Would a person who never won a match continue to be on the team?

    Now let's imagine a different person who was early on quite good given the little prior experience and willing to practice for a while, but then the novelty wore off and interest waned. Would removing that person from the team count as a punishment? Or would it simply be in everyone's interest.

    I leave it to you to write still a different scenario where kicking the person off the team was a punishment. I'm not entirely getting that, so could use some help in visualizing it.

    ReplyDelete

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