Women’s Coach Development Programme Spotlight: Donna Torrance

When ankle fusion surgery put an end to Donna Torrance’s competitive kickboxing and boxing career, the Hemel Warriors discovered a new love: coaching. In this spotlight, Donna provides an insightful look at inclusive coaching and a refreshing take on her boxing inspiration.

How did you first get involved in boxing?

I’d previously been training in kickboxing before an ankle injury made training and competing difficult, but I’d always been more of a puncher so I thought I’d try boxing. I loved the training and camaraderie in the gym but unfortunately, my injury worsened and I had to have my ankle fused, which meant I couldn’t train or box effectively. I went to Warriors in Hemel Hempstead and started volunteering as a coach with the girls’ classes and after completing my England Boxing Level One coaching course, I began helping with the Junior and Senior classes too.

How pleased are you to be involved in a programme actively bidding to push women’s and girls’ boxing forward?

I’m really pleased to be involved in this programme. Boxing is a great sport, whether that’s for fitness or competition and, whilst it might seem like an individual sport, the way the clubs conduct training and involve the boxers makes it a group effort.

Even with the rise in the profile of female boxers, the sport can still be seen as male-dominated and that can sometimes be intimidating for girls and women. Anything that helps make the sport more accessible for women and girls is welcome.

The feedback we get from parents of girls who attend our girl-only classes is great and the typically revolves around increased confidence. The girls are also able to develop friendships in the class that continue outside of the gym. Being able to have as many opportunities as possible for women and girls to learn boxing in an environment that is comfortable for them is fantastic.

What do you hope to get out of the Women’s Coach Development Programme that can improve you as a coach?

I want to learn more about coaching in general, as well as improve my boxing-specific coaching. I hope to learn from the experiences of others and have a network of women I can discuss anything with, talk over issues and continue to learn from and share with once the course has ended.

Sometimes you don’t know where you can improve until you see and hear how others deal with things. How we see ourselves is only one viewpoint and I hope on the course that feedback from others can highlight areas to improve. It’s nice when people say you are doing something well but, equally, constructive comments are important to aid development and it’s important to be in an environment where you feel comfortable taking the comments at face value.

How much will attending the Women’s Coach Development Programme help you in your club environment?

I have already learned which areas to consider improving and I think the course will help me in my interaction with boxers and coaches at my club. Volunteering in the boxing club can be full on and it can be easy sometimes to lose momentum and enthusiasm but having others to bounce ideas off can help maintain that enthusiasm.

This course gives me time to consider different aspects of coaching and to really reflect on this. You get to share reflections and hear other people’s experiences which have helped me look at myself as a coach.

Who are your biggest boxing inspirations?

My interest in boxing started as a child after watching Rocky. I found out about a boxing club near me but my mum wouldn’t let me go, she said I needed my brains for university. I like watching boxing and watched it whenever I could but that was tricky in the 80s. I was enthralled by Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Holyfield, Tyson and many more. I loved the technical aspects and the biomechanics and later developed more appreciation of the tactics needed and how they’re best used. I love that there are so many components to boxing and the word fighting doesn’t come close to describing what the boxers are doing.

When I was training, I learned from Granville that a little praise goes a long way.

The London Olympics was inspiring on a whole new level for boxing, particularly women’s boxing and seeing Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor excel and inspire a new generation of female boxing.

When I started coaching boxing I had already coached kickboxing for a while, but I’d only coached adults and I hadn’t appreciated the difference that it made. The woman who coached girls at the local boxing club was Laura Ball and I was impressed and inspired by the way she had set up a class from scratch. It was a really tight-knit group of girls who loved coming to the session. She connected with all of the girls, even though they all had different personalities. At my current club, our head coach Ethan is inspiring because he is constantly thinking about the boxers and how we can develop the boxers and the club.

I don’t think I have a ‘biggest boxing inspiration’, because there are inspirational moments from so many people I have encountered. I got into boxing by watching professional boxing but I’ve been inspired by the coaches and officials I have met, who volunteer so much of their time and care into the boxers.

In the Women’s Coach Development Programme, we have women who are championing inclusivity in their coaching and promoting diversity in those training in boxing clubs and that is really inspiring.