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Posted On: 7th Mar 2019
Katie Woods
The Boxing Club
Boxing For Confidence
“There was a time when I felt full of self-doubt. I had a lot of negative emotions and not a lot of happiness in my life. I wasn’t feeling good about myself. I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence. I felt worthless.”
Now 17-year-old Katie Woods wants to promote self-belief in other young people.
“I want them to know that having self-doubt is completely normal but it could be prohibiting your success in life,” she says.
“Our insecurities can stop us from crossing over the boundaries of our comfort zones. I personally have been stuck in a negative mental attitude in the past, that I used as an excuse to never push myself to experience all of life's opportunities.”
Fixers has helped Katie, from Deal in Kent, to make a short film, based on her own experience. showing a young woman struggling to decide whether joining a boxing club is a good idea.
“In my film the girl comes into the boxing club all nervous. There’s a load of self-doubt going through her head and she doesn’t know if she should be doing it or not.
"But then she thinks - just get on with it! So she signs up and ends up walking out feeling good about herself. I’m proud I took that step and persevered with it.”
Katie, who is studying for A levels and wants to be a sports psychologist, says another major turning point for her was making the decision to leave what she calls a bad friendship group.
She says: “I didn’t have the confidence to leave that group even though I knew they were bad for me. Then one day I decided that I didn’t need them. And since then I have just got better. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do but I’m glad I did it in the end.”
Katie’s advice?
“Take a step and try something,” she says. “You don’t know until you try. If you try it and you don’t like it, you can stop and do something else. But if you find something you really like, you will be happier. I believe success is there to be achieved by anyone, they just need to believe they can get there.”
To find other resources on this topic, and watch Fixers films, click on the image below.
This film is based on a real life story about how anxiety affects pupils in the classroom.
Emily hopes her film will help people understand Alzheimer's and support families more.
Students are educating their peers about the prevalence of food poverty in the UK.
Sam used to be homeless and hopeless. He's turned his life around and wants others to know they can too.
Ciarán wants students to keep a lookout for vulnerable people in their midst on campus.
A group of aspiring actors are calling for better roles for black and Asian people.
Care leaver Julia is raising the aspirations of teenagers growing up in foster homes.
Ben Simms and his group from Watford FC are encouraging those with disabilities to work in sport.
Layne wants people to shun celebrities and choose real people as role models.
Welsh students want to reduce the stigma surrounding free school meal provisions.
A group of students from Worcester Uni have made wristbands promoting mental wellbeing.
Sarah wants to turn her driving test failures into motivation for disheartened learners.
