Season 2011-2012 Calender

All dates are provisional. Authority to Travel and the Sports Board Approval letter can be found here.

1. 27 Nov 11. ABAE Novice Quarter Finals. RAF Cranwell. Admin Order. Poster.
2. 9 Dec 11. Benny's Gym Boxing Show Invitation. Cotgrave Miners Welfare Centre, Nottingham.
3. 12 Jan 12. RAF Vs Cumbria and Lancs. The Cliffs Hotel, Blackpool.
4. 6-13 Feb 12. RAF Lord Wakefields and RAF Regiment Boxing Championships. Admin Order. Poster (LW). Poster (LW and Regt).
5. 25 Feb 12. RAF Vs Notts and Lincs. Wortley Hotel, Scunthorpe.
6. 7-9 Mar 12. Team and Individual Interservice Championships. Venue TBC.
7. 18 Mar 12. ABAE Senior Pre-lims (CSBA Vs Merseyside and Cheshire). Venue TBC.
8. 25 Mar 12. ABAE Senior Quarter Finals (CSBA Vs Midlands and Yorkshire). Venue TBC.
9. 29 Mar 12. RAF Wittering. Stn Gymnasium, RAF Wittering.
10. 7 Apr 12. Hoddesdon ABC Open Show. Robert Gilling Hall, Hoddesdon.
11. 1 May 12. ABAE Senior Semi Finals. Venue TBC.
12. 6 May 12. RAF Vs Manchester. Venue TBC.
13. 15-29 May 12. ABAE Senior Finals. HQ NUK Sports, Sheffield.
14. 17 May 12. RAF Brize Norton Stn Invitation. RAF Brize Norton.
15. 30 May 12. Iceni ABC Open Tournament Invitation. Cambridge University (TBC).
16. Date TBC. Devonport ABC Invite, Plymouth. Venue TBC.
17. Date TBC. Western Counties. Venue TBC.
18. Date TBC. Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri. Venue TBC.
19. Date TBC. Yorkshire. Venue TBC.
20. Date TBC. Cornwall and Devon. Venue TBC.
21. Date TBC. Scotland Select. Venue TBC.

Aims of Events

The RAFBA is making in-roads into becoming a strong opposition for the Full-time Squads of the Army and Navy.

The RAF squad is beginning to revolutionize its’ methods and is starting to see some positive results. There is now a core of excellent young boxers that are regularly challenging for Combined Services selection. This is, in no small part, thanks to a committed Exec; a passionate coaching team and a dedicated group of boxers.

All coaches involved with the squad are ABA qualified at levels 1 to 4. This enables them to carry out full sparring with the boxers; an essential part of developing a competitive combatant. A positive aspect, of having a nucleus of top level coaches training the squad, is the level of personal knowledge gained of each boxer’s style, needs and wants. The coaches need to have a wide breadth of experience to be able to offer different training methods to tap into each individual. The coaching team is made up of a mix of former RAF boxers and younger, newly qualified coaches and this offers a variety of traditional, experience-based methods and more modern techniques.

The squad, where possible, attends training camps to hone their craft and use the above methods to a high intensity. For optimum results, the squad also employs the use of our own RAF PTI’s for the boxing fitness aspect of the training. By tapping into the PTI trade, this relieves an amount of pressure from the coaches to really concentrate on ring tactics and techniques and also show the boxers how to use this boxing fitness to best effect and educate them as to their strong and weak points of a bout. If the boxers are aware of when they tire, and when their form is likely to drop, they can receive bespoke training to combat the problem from either their coaches or the PTI’s.

Further to using RAF PTI’s alongside the dedicated coaching team, the squad also makes use of local civilian boxing clubs and civilian shows to provide ring experience and also to expose the boxers to a different sort of boxing than they may see in military competitions. They may have to experience different boxing styles, but they will also need to learn how to mentally deal with things such as strong partisan crowds, local judges and different standards of venues.

By combining these techniques with a strong work ethic, it is the plan that the RAFBA will provide a stern opposition to the strong teams from the Army and Navy full-time boxers in the Inter-services and will regularly compete for Combined Services spots in all weight categories.