The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

EVER since he came to the Bahamas as a former multiple British amateur boxing champion and accomplished executive, Terry Goldsmith has been devoted to helping the Amateur Boxing Association of the Bahamas in its pursuit to enhance the sport in the country.

Goldsmith, now 77, has spent the majority of his time in Grand Bahama with his wife Dorothy, but he has always had a passion to work with as many amateur programmes on every island in the Bahamas that he was given the opportunity to assist.

This weekend at the Ray Minus Boxing Gym on Wulff Road, Goldsmith will be returning to New Providence where he will be working in conjunction with the ABAB and the Bahamas Olympic Committee, both headed by Wellington Miller, to put on a national amateur boxing development skills programme for local coaches.

“The coaches will be given a curriculum, which they will follow and be awarded gold, silver and bronze awards in their skills achievement in boxing,” Goldsmith said. “Everybody will start at the bronze level to show that they know the basics, the very simple basics because so many kids get into the ring and do know what they are doing when they get under pressure.

“So although the coaches have been working with them, what I found out is all they want to do is win, win and the kids lack the basic skills so when they go off internationally or they from one island into the other or to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, Florida, they get beat because they are lacking the basic skills.”

During the sessions which begin 10am Saturday, Goldsmith said each coach will have to go through 25 basic skills to demonstrate to a panel of judges what they are trained to do and then they will be awarded their certificates based on the skills they display from bronze to gold.

“It’s very similar to the National Arts Festival. It has the same principle,” Goldsmith said. “I implemented it in England when I was the national advisor to the amateur boxing association for Britain. It was very, very successful. Every year, we would have a 10-day programme where people would travel and sleep in accommodations provided in the gymnasium and they went through the various stages of examination period and they got some training from the national coaches at the same time.”

Without a national skills programme in the country, Goldsmith said he intends to travel to every island in the Bahamas where there is a boxing programme and to those islands that could have a boxing programme started before he retires.

As a boxer from the age of eight who went on to win numerous amateur titles in his career, Goldsmith is a retired international referee and judge for IABA.

Goldsmith, who also served as the president of the Grand Bahama Amateur Boxing Association and head of the YMCA Boxing Club in Grand Bahama, said his only wish is that all of the amateur boxing coaches in New Providence will show up to participate in the skills programme.