Gone, But Not Forgotten. How One Man’s Mission To Fight Knife Crime Cost Him Everything
I recently had the privilege of interviewing, Richard Davis, head trainer at Dwaynamics, a community boxing club working with local kids and youth to help them avoid the knife crime and gang involvement that plague many Brixton estates.
Hi Richard, how are you? How are things going at Dwaynamics?
I’m doing really well, thanks. It’s a busy season for us here at Dwaynamics!
We became affiliated last year as an amateur boxing club for England. We just came back from two different Box Cups. One in the Lake District which was really good for them because they’d never been out of London before. We won two gold medals there as well.
Then we were in Lincolnshire three weeks ago and also won two gold medals. There were over 500 fighters so it’s a big tournament. Now that we know what to expect, we can train specifically for that and I’m going to bring more fighters with us next time. The aim is to win a lot more medals because we’ve got the coaching and they’ve got the talent.
The cool thing is, once they get a gold medal at an event, they have to defend it. But after they defend it once, they actually get a belt so it’s really nice. The atmosphere at the tournament is brilliant and it’s great seeing some of the parents that are able to come and cheer on their kids.
I’m also about to start working with a group of people struggling with their mental health, using boxing as a form of therapy. We’ll be working with them for 12-20 weeks and they’re all around ages 18-24.
How did you first get involved with Dwaynamics?
How did I get involved? Well, I was at another boxing club and Dwayne Simpson had just been murdered as part of the ongoing knife crime struggles in Brixton. Dwayne’s mother, Lorraine Jones, wanted to honour his legacy and also help the Brixton community overcome the issues that took her son’s life.
Now Dwayne had been running boxing classes for kids in Brixton as a way to give back and highlight the lack of services in the area. When he died, Lorraine registered the boxing group as a Community Interest Company to benefit the area. So she called me up and asked if I’d help.
So Errol Christie and I went down to Angell Town in Brixton. We had a look around and decided to do a boxing project meant to last for a couple of weeks. It ended up stretching on for an entire year! Then it got so big, so quickly, that we had to find a new location in Brixton which is where we’re still at now.
Initially we focused on younger children but, it turned out, there was a lot of interest from the older boys. So we combined the two. Now we run a youngsters group three times a week and an amateur senior boys group three times a week.
Can you tell me a bit more about Angell Town?
Okay, well Angell Town was notorious for — I don’t know if you can look it up but have you heard of the GAS gang? They were one of the worst gangs in London and they all lived on the Angell Town estate. Now I had lived on another estate before, which was bad, but this was on another level. It was a whole new ball game.
So we took the challenge up. We went in there with no expectation, we just wanted to train. We were there to train boys and girls to look after themselves mentally and physically. All I can say is, so far, it’s worked out for us and we haven’t looked back.
I have no personal experience with boxing. I know from movies, and tv shows, that it’s meant to be a good way to learn discipline. But what would you say to people looking at this thinking, “Wait, so you’re trying to teach the youth to avoid violence by…teaching them how to be better at violence?” For many it might sound a bit backwards.
I get that but there are a lot of articles about how boxing helps the youth to avoid violence and knife crime. The problem for these kids is they have no outlet, there’s no hope for them to get out of where they are. Idleness breeds discontentment. Boxing helps them to focus, it gives them a purpose, and it requires incredible discipline of them. Boxing actually humbles and transforms you.
And there’s so much more to it than just the boxing because so much of what we do is actually mentoring. We get to feed into their lives in many ways. For instance, sometimes we’ll even go shopping with them so we can teach them about how to cook and how to eat. Then they can learn to take care of themselves and stay healthy.
There’s a lot that goes into training and boxing. And once you’ve got their attention and trust you’d be amazed by the transformations that take place. Some of the boys we work with used to be violent offenders and you just wouldn’t dream they’d do anything like that if you met them now.
And another thing that we do for these kids is we take them to different clubs which helps break down that post code rivalry they’re prone to. There was one particular club I took some boys to where I knew they had a violent history with each other. But I wanted to push them and show that it didn’t have to be that way.
We took six of our boys down to the club and, as soon as we walked in, it felt so tense. As everyone was gloving up, getting ready to take turns in the ring, I stopped everything and said, “We are here to help each other.” When I said that, it was like a pressure cooker that had been ready to burst but instead of exploding the pressure just faded away. Everybody was like, “Phew! Thank goodness somebody said something!”
Now the relationships between those boys and our boys is totally different. You would not believe it. They all talk about what they eat, how they train, what their tricks are etc. which just goes to show the impact that training them in this sport brings. And it’s not just in the ring, but out of it as well.
What are some of the biggest hurdles you run into with this sort of work?
The biggest difficulty is in getting to know each person. It’s about knowing what buttons to press. But it’s something that you have to do sort of naturally so you can’t really teach it you know? It’s something you’ve got to have the knack for already. So, yeah, that’s one of the biggest hurdles is just knowing who’s coming through the door and what specifically will help them grow. Once you’ve got that, everything else slots into space a lot easier than you might think.
In the midst of such difficult situations, how do you know whether you’re succeeding?
Oh man! Well, there’s the obvious transformation we see these kids go through, that I was telling you about earlier. That’s priceless. But, outside of that, seeing how hard they’re training and how that’s translating into gold medals for them at these Box Cups, that is amazing.
Because no one expects a club like this to go beyond basic community boxing, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to flip the lid. I made sure we got affiliated and connected with England Boxing so we can show there’s a clear career path for the boys. We’ve got pro managers if they want to turn their efforts to going pro.
Not only that, but I always give them something else to focus on so if boxing doesn’t work out for them or they want to pursue other paths they have options. So there are a few different companies I’m connected with that can help push the boys to get work in various fields once they finish school and GCSEs.
I think that’s really amazing. The sad thing about most sports, but especially a sport like boxing, is that it takes such a physical toll on you and you can’t do it forever. It’s good for these kids to see so early on that there’s light at the end of the tunnel; that there will be other things for them.
Absolutely! It’s not the end. It’s definitely not the end and I always make a point to tell them that.
After hearing all the great things you’re doing in the community, and the impact that’s having, how can people can get involved? What are the specific areas you genuinely need help with right now?
I mean, to be fair, it’s funding. That’s definitely the main problem for us. It’s vital to us keeping things going. And we don’t charge the kids any money to come here. But funding is really hard to get now. Not just for us, but for anybody. So if anyone wants to help and they’re able to fund us, or help us find some funding, that would be amazing. Because keeping things running for the future is the only way we can guarantee these boys and girls will continue to have clear career paths moving forward.
What age ranges do you work with and roughly how many would you say are in each group?
We start at five years old and they’re absolutely brilliant. We start it that young because the pressures and temptations kids are facing are coming younger and younger. So to offer them an alternate route, we’ve got to get there first with a positive path they can focus on.
So we split the groups into ages 5-13 (we’ve got about 40 in this group), ages 13-18 (about 20), and then we also work with ages 16 and up to help them pursue amateur boxing depending on how seriously they want to take it.
I also do some separate work with kids coming out of trauma because they need to do one-on-one sessions until they’re comfortable and able to work in a group setting.
And does gender play into this at all? Because surely girls are going to be in need of the same sorts of discipline, challenge, and support as the boys are?
There’s a lot of female boxers coming through the door. They’re working hard, sometimes harder than the boys! I’ve got one I’m working with right now who wants to be a world champion. She’s only 13 but, potentially, she’s got all the right pieces in place. So we’re going to get her competing properly this season and see.
We’ve also got a lot of mothers. A LOT of them. You wouldn’t believe it if you saw it. What happened was they’d bring their kids and see what an impact that had on their kids and want a change themselves. It started with one or two but now we’ve got about 50 mothers that come down every week to train.
Many of the mothers started boxing as a way to get healthy but also as a way to channel their anger and frustration. Because it’s not easy being a parent at the best of times but if you’ve got children that are wrapped up in all sorts of trouble it’s a lot harder. And if you’re a single parent, which many of them are, it’s even worse. Fortunately, boxing has really helped them get centred and mellow out. So it’s been a brilliant thing for us to be able to do and has gone over really well.
And now we’ve got a whole group of these older women who want to push forward and start boxing competitively!
Is it really possible to look at a 13 year old and see the potential for them to be a world champion?
It is! First of all, because of my teaching, ha, ha! In all seriousness, I’m very lucky because my Dad has trained seven world champions. So there is a certain sense I get when I look at a boxer that’s got the potential, I can just see it in them because I’ve been around champions so much. And this girl, she really does have everything you look for and she’s so driven. I can’t wait to see how she handles the competition!
You mention that your Dad was also a boxing trainer so can you tell me a bit about what boxing means to you and why you’ve chosen to dedicate your life to it?
For me, I learned boxing by going to the gym with my dad as a boy. And now, I always take my son to the gym. Growing up, I never had any anger management problems, probably because I was always at the gym with that healthy outlet. I was always very relaxed and that’s what boxing can do for you.
It gives you the confidence to not need to react to every little thing that might get under your skin as a young man. It gives you the ability to know that you can do anything if you set your mind to it, find the proper instruction, and constantly work at it.
So parents bring their kids here and it gives them both a greater understanding of each other and how they can grow. That’s what is so amazing about boxing to me.
Looking to the next five years, what are your goals for Dwaynamics?
My vision is for Dwaynamics to become the number one boxing club in the country. I always aim high because it gives us something to work towards and I know that these kids deserve it. It’s just like no one thought we would ever move beyond being a community boxing club but now we’re nationally affiliated and making great strides in competitions. This year I’ll be getting my pro license so I can train both amateurs and professional boxers which will help us move towards producing some champion boxers.
What’s more, I want to see this place used more and more as a hub for kids that need it. Because there’s no more community centres around so if they can’t gravitate to places like this, there just won’t be anywhere safe for them to go. And we have two dedicated mentors on site so we’re a little bit different than other community boxing clubs. We’ve got our own way of doing things where we focus on the kids holistically rather than just in the ring.
That’s why we’ve found such success working with kids from the area and those who need extra help as well due to things like ADHD, abuse, and severe trauma. When you walk in here, it’s all about the love you feel. And that’s one of the key things we pride ourselves on and pay attention to.
Alright, Richard, I’ve got everything I need. I just want to say that this is such a compelling story. It’s amazing to see the genesis of all this coming from Dwayne’s passion for the community. And even though his life was cruelly ripped away, knowing that his vision lives on so powerfully is absolutely incredible.
It is Chris. And, you know, the reason any of this is working is the team we’ve built up here is full of loving souls. That’s not been by accident either. We’ve done everything possible to hand pick these people. Once they’re chosen, we also provide them with extensive training and support to do an amazing job.
And we challenge ourselves! I look to change things all the time, we like to be diverse in what we do and that’s helped us. Since we got this group together, you know we’ve never had one argument either. I don’t know why that is, I just know we’ve all gotten on well together and remain focused on the mission!
