Exploring the potential for drug use among amateur boxers in England.
The setting
Like all centrally funded sporting organisations in the UK, England Boxing has to deliver clear outcomes in terms of its governance and accountability. In this regard, and the prevalence of drug use in elite sport being one example, there is an expectation that governing bodies direct some attention to researching and managing such issues.
The task
I was commissioned by England Boxing to assess drug use in the sport. Given that there are well over 900 amateur boxing clubs in the country and approximately 16,000 competitive boxers, actually conducting a full survey (not to mention drug testing) would have required most of the organisation’s annual budget. This was an unrealistic proposition, so I moved beyond the assumed model for such research and designed a study where I would embed myself in a number of boxing clubs across the country. Alongside this process, I conducted several interviews with key cultural insiders who had an overview of boxing in their areas to provide further context.
The result
The tailored approach for gathering this research produced a partial but incredibly illustrative picture of drug use connected to the sport; achieved with a manageable budget. Findings were sufficiently detailed to provide England Boxing with actionable evidence that it could report to its funders, as well as shape its drug testing policy and procedures.Often people assume that detailed and wide-ranging research must be prohibitively expensive. But when designing a study in a pragmatic manner, I find it possible to streamline the research process by working with a project’s constraints, rather than against them. The key is in valuing the outcomes that organisation’s require, and working towards that focus instead of being led by esoteric academic ideals.