Excluded from school: How boxing helps teenagers with ADHD

From the BBC 

These teenagers all have ADHD and have been excluded from mainstream school. Here they tell how the sport of boxing is helping them channel their excess energy and improve their life skills.
In an amateur boxing gym in Barry, 14-year-old Levi is tugging on his boxing gloves, ready to join his friends in training.
Some are already practising in the ring, aiming jabs and uppercuts.
Others are punching the bags or skipping as music plays in the background and the smell of sweat and chalk permeates the air.
Levi is a fighter.
He always has been. In fact, he has been excluded from school twice for disobedient behaviour.



But now he's using the discipline of boxing to channel his fighting spirit in a more positive way.
Every Thursday, he partakes in a two-hour non-contact boxing session at Colcot Amateur Boxing Club, designed to help pupils who have been excluded from mainstream school.

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"I used to lose my temper easily," Levi explains. "I started a lot of fights and used to mess up the classrooms.
"I used to be really disrespectful to the teachers and felt so down all the time, thinking I was just a naughty kid."
Once excluded, however, and sent to a pupil referral unit in the Vale of Glamorgan, Levi got diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - a condition which causes inattentiveness, impulsiveness and an inability to stick to tasks.
It is also closely linked with underachievement at school, poor social interaction and problems with discipline.
"The diagnosis and medication helped," he explains. "But it's the boxing that really helps as I'm always so full of energy and struggle to concentrate.
"I get excited and want to train my best.
"Anthony Joshua is my role model and I want to follow in his steps.
"But my main aim now is just to get my head down and get my GCSEs."

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It is a similar story for Aalijah, 14.
She too has ADHD and her inability to concentrate meant she fell behind academically from a young age, causing her behaviour to spiral.
Frustrated with school and feeling like she constantly had to "catch up", she was eventually excluded for intimidating her teachers.
"I don't like school," she explains. "It puts me under pressure and frustrates me.
"If I try to concentrate on something, my mind is just blank… and with the ADHD, I can't control what I do. It's like my body is locked back and in its own trance."
But if Aalijah struggled with school, in boxing she has found something she loves.
"The boxing really helps," she explains. "It lowers my energy and calms me down, helping me to concentrate.
"After it, I feel a lot calmer and more sensible."

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