People: Victoria Fisher – Female Boxing in Gibraltar
Boxing “is something I had wanted to do since my early teens after having regularly watched the sport with my late grandfather. However, back then I never had the confidence to start”. A good friend of hers gave her the encouragement needed to join the Wellington Boxing Club; once there, she readily applied herself to the rigorous and incredibly demanding training required for the sport. “I discovered a sense of empowerment and confidence in my own abilities which I have since then transferred into other aspects of my life. I think I was at a point in my life where I needed to put some serious discipline into my mental and physical development and I felt that boxing was the perfect sport to help me achieve that”.
A year passed and Victoria had yet to consider competing until she was asked to take part in an exhibition bout in the UK. A wrist injury and work commitments prevented her from training to the level needed for the event, “so on the advice from my coach I decided to postpone my participation. This minor setback has only fuelled my motivation to compete in the future”.
Covid-19 had unsurprisingly took its toll on Victoria’s training routine, having then to halt regular training with “only the occasional training session taking place in line with the lifting of restrictions”. Her usual routine consists of 4/5 days of hard training in one to two hour sessions. It can “range from circuit training, bag work, pads and sparring. Training becomes much more intense when there is a fight lined up”. The lack of female competitors here means that the Wellington Boxing Club arranges sparring with Luna from the Don Principe gym in La Linea “who is a keen up and coming amateur kick boxer within my weight class”. Victoria finds that this is always a “very positive and beneficial experience which in turn promotes healthy cross border relations through good sportswomanship. In addition to sparring with Luna, prior to lockdown I also had the pleasure of training with another fierce young female competitor on a regular basis. These sessions are extremely valuable to our progress and play a very big role in my training routine”.
Victoria’s experiences as a female athlete in a sport predominately dominated by men have been thankfully incredibly positive. “In my every day interactions at work or while socializing, whenever I tell people about my background in not only boxing but in MMA too, people are generally very surprised and make remarks to the effect of ‘I wouldn’t want to mess with her’ which is always said in jest and taken light heartedly”.
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02-07-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
