University of Amsterdam: Boxing veteran Stef in charge of USC School of Boxing
Stef van Gelderen can land a hefty liver punch. He first stepped into the ring when he was 16 and won the regional North Holland boxing title at the age of 18 by knocking out his opponent in the first round. Almost 10 years later, he won the Dutch kick-boxing championship. The boxing and kick-boxing veteran now teaches the art of landing and, more importantly, evading a liver punch to students at the USC School of Boxing in the Bajeskwartier neighbourhood in Amsterdam Zuid-Oost. The School will officially open its doors on 3 November.
With the opening of the School of Boxing, the University Sports Centre (USC) will have a location solely devoted to boxing and kick-boxing. According to USC location manager, Arjan Petersen, a permanent boxing location had been on the wish list for quite a while due to the high demand for boxing classes. ‘Boxing has become extremely popular in recent years. The improvised space and boxing ring at the USC’s main location was becoming too small,’ says Petersen.
Low threshold
The School of Boxing aims to expand to about 500 members in the coming years. In the new room, about 48 people can do boxing activities at the same time. The School of Boxing is open to students and staff of the UvA and AUAS, but it also welcomes local residents, pupils of nearby secondary and primary schools, and others who are interested. The cheapest trial membership available costs €7.50 and is for three classes. The USC chooses to keep prices low. Petersen: ‘We want to make the threshold for exercising as low as possible.’
Coming eight years
The municipality of Amsterdam has designated the new location at the H.J.E. Wenckebachweg to the USC for a period of eight years. As part of the agreement with the municipality, the School of Boxing will be supporting and organising initiatives in the neighbourhood. This includes workshops for local residents, collaborations with schools and highlighting the history of the Bajeskwartier neighbourhood as the site of the former Bijlmerbajes remand prison. One of the walls of the School will soon feature a mural full of references to the Bijlmerbajes. Petersen: ‘This is a part of Amsterdam with a lot of history; we don’t want to gloss over that.’
Dutch champion
The real star of the School of Boxing is boxing veteran Stef van Gelderen. He regularly used to drive a police van with detainees from the prison gate, about 300 metres from where the entrance of the School is now located, to the court building. When the native of Zaandam stepped into the ring for his first fight at the age of 16, it was at a boxing venue near the site of the current School. It was a fight he lost. ‘But all good boxers lose their first fight,’ says Stef. He was talented, fell in love with the sport and won the Dutch welterweight kick-boxing title at the age of 27 by beating this opponent on points.
Boxing lesson no. 1
To Stef, boxing is the ultimate sport. He is the kind of teacher who makes good use of his years of experiences in his classes and speaks with contagious enthusiasm about the sport. ‘You need to have it all: a lot of air in your lungs, speed, power, good technique and tactical awareness.’ Defensively, he could take quite a beating, and offensively, he had that liver punch and, most importantly, ‘more than enough heart’. That big heart was both his biggest strength and his biggest weakness in the ring, Stef feels. ‘You shouldn’t be afraid in a fight, but I took a quite few punches I didn’t need to’, he says with a smile. That is why he has a piece of free advice to offer: ‘Boxing lesson no. 1: Get hit as little as possible.’