TITLE:
Factors Underpinning at Least Three Years of Participant Adherence to a Community-Focused Modified Boxing Program
AUTHORS:
Paul Perkins, Allan Hahn
KEYWORDS:
Box’Tag, Community Sport, Modified Boxing, ModBox, Sport Design, Sport for all, Sport Participation, Self-Determination Theory
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.7 No.2,
February
28,
2019
ABSTRACT: In Australia, a modified form of boxing aimed at maximising participant safety and enjoyment has existed since 2006. Known as Box’Tag, it precludes impacts to the head and neck, in accordance with recommendations of medical and other experts. It also makes use of automated scoring technology. From 2012-2016, a Box’Tag program was run at a Police Community Youth Club (PCYC) in Canberra, Australia, with the first author of this paper as the coach. It rapidly grew to include more than 100 regular participants, which was ten times the number involved in a conventional boxing program that it replaced. During its term, it gradually evolved to increasingly take on characteristics that seemed to be valued by participants. Upon its closure, participants were asked to complete a Program Evaluation Form as part of standard PCYC procedure. Among participants who met this request, there were 38 (18 F, 20 M) who had been involved in the program for at least three years. We subsequently carried out thematic analysis of their written feedback to identify which aspects of the program had attracted them and were primarily responsible for their prolonged participation. Four major themes emerged, covering the program environment, the underlying concept, the timetable and the characteristics and outcomes of the training itself. Specifically, the environment was considered friendly, welcoming and supportive. The concept was seen to have extended beyond a sport program to encompass the establishment of a dynamic community brought together by a common interest. The program timetable was regarded as accommodating and flexible, and the training itself was described as safe, fun and beneficial in multiple respects. Overall, the participants expressed deep affection for the program. Our findings accord with those of other researchers who have sought to discern factors influencing adherence to sport and exercise programs and who now suggest that traditional, highly instructional approaches to the operation of such programs might contribute to participant dropout. Prolonged involvement in the Canberra PCYC Box’Tag program is explicable in terms of self-determination theory, in that the program seems to have provided conditions that supported participant growth in autonomy, competence and relatedness. A strong case exists for replication of these conditions in other settings.