Parent's Guide to England Boxing Schools and Junior Boxing Ages 10-16 2026

1. Parent or guardian permission. Every boxer under 18 needs it, and the coach must get it before applying for a Digital BCR1.
2. Membership. Your child needs an active, paid Tier 2 (boxer) membership with England Boxing, registered on The Locker through their club.
3. Medical. The coach arranges a medical with an England Boxing registered doctor or your GP. Once it's recorded, your child is issued a Digital BCR1 (their electronic record book).
4. Previous combat experience. Any experience in other combat sports (for example kickboxing, karate, judo, taekwondo, MMA or wrestling) must be declared on The Locker. The BCR1 won't be activated until it is. Some experience converts into boxing bouts on your child's record, which affects who they are matched with.
5. Sparring. From 1 June 2026, your child must have an annual medical recorded and have done at least 30 days of active sparring before their first bout. All sparring must be supervised by a fully licensed Level 2 coach.

• Initial medical: before registering to box, your child sees an England Boxing approved doctor or their own GP. The result goes on their Digital BCR1 (the electronic Boxer Competition Record Book) on The Locker. If your GP does it, the surgery emails the details to England Boxing to verify.
• Annual medical: this lasts for a calendar year and must be renewed every year for your child to stay "Fit to Box". The club, coach and boxer are responsible for renewing it.
• Pre-bout medical: a ringside doctor checks every boxer before each contest.
• Girls: a Declaration of Non-Pregnancy is completed at annual registration. For under-18s, the parent or guardian completes it.

Your child can't box if they are:

• declared unfit at any of these medicals
• serving a medical suspension from a bout or sparring
• epileptic (epilepsy isn't permitted)

Soft contact lenses are allowed. If your child wears braces, the ringside doctor decides at the pre-bout medical whether they can box.

A skills bout is a supervised, non-competitive bout that bridges the gap between club sparring and competitive boxing. There's no judging and no winner, and heavy punching and aggression aren't allowed. The announcer tells the crowd it's a skills bout before it starts.

Rules:

• Open from the 10th birthday to the day before the 16th birthday.
• Opponents must be less than 12 months apart in age and no more than 2kg apart in weight.
• Rounds: 3 × 1 minute if a 10-year-old is involved, otherwise 3 × 1.5 minutes, with 1 minute's rest.
• Coaches can't coach from the corner during rounds. They can give instructions in the 1-minute interval.
• A boxer can have a maximum of 6 skills bouts and none after their first competitive bout.
• Each skills bout counts as half a bout on the boxer's record and must be logged on their Locker account.
• The supervisor and referee can declare "No Further Skills Bouts" if a boxer has outgrown them.
• A club show can include up to 4 skills bouts unless it's advertised as a skills show. No competitive bouts are allowed on a skills show.
• Boxers under 16 must not compete after 10:30pm.

All bouts are 3 rounds with a 1-minute rest between rounds.

At the 2026 England Boxing National Junior Championships, all bouts are 3 × 2 minutes.

Age gap

• Minors and Schools boxers: opponents must be less than 12 months apart in age. A Schools boxer can face a Minor or a Junior within that gap.
• Juniors: less than 24 months apart against other Juniors, with extra caution over 12 months. Against Schools or Youth boxers the gap must be under 12 months.

Weight

• Minors and Schools: no more than 2kg apart, except in championships.
• Juniors: no more than the span of the smaller of the two boxers' weight categories. For example, if one boxer is in a 3kg-wide category and the other in a 4kg-wide one, they can be at most 3kg apart.

Weigh-in allowance
During the weigh-in, Minors, Schools, Junior and Youth boxers may only gain or lose:

• 300g if under 50kg
• 500g between 50kg and 63kg
• 700g over 63kg

Recommended limit on bouts per season (skills bouts included, national championships excluded):

• Minors: 10
• Schools and Juniors: 14

Compulsory for all Minors, Schools, Junior and Youth boxers (boys and girls):

• Head guard, red or blue to match the corner, from a sanctioned brand (Sting, Adidas, Wesing, Top Ten, Greenhill or Taishan). It is put on only after entering the ring.
• Gum shield, any colour. If it falls or is knocked out, the boxer gets cautions, then warnings, and is disqualified on the 5th time.
• Gloves, from the same sanctioned brands: 10oz for boxers 65kg and under, 12oz over 65kg. If one boxer is over 65kg, both wear 12oz.
• Groin protector for boys. For girls, a groin or breast protector is optional.
• Hand wraps/bandages: 2.5m to 4.5m long, stretchy cotton, checked by an official before the boxer enters the ring.

Clothing: vest/singlet (no red vest when boxing from the blue corner, and no blue vest from the red corner), shorts from mid-thigh to above the knee, light boots or trainers without spikes or heels, and socks no higher than the knee.

Also:

• Remove all piercings, false nails and false eyelashes.
• Long hair must be secured, with no more than 5cm showing outside the head guard.
• Full skin coverings, including a hijab, are allowed.

The referee gives an eight count when a boxer is hurt or knocked down. The maximum number of counts before the bout is stopped depends on the category:

A count caused by an illegal blow doesn't count towards these limits.

The ringside doctor sets a medical suspension, records it in the boxer's Digital BCR1, and it can't be negotiated. During a suspension your child must not train or spar.

If a bout is stopped for heavy head blows (RSC-H) but the doctor finds no concussion, no suspension is required, though the doctor can still give one. The same suspensions apply if a sparring session is stopped for blows to the head.

Returning (boxers 18 and under): after the 30 days, and once symptom-free for at least 2 weeks, your child works through England Boxing's graduated return-to-boxing steps. They must stay symptom-free for 48 hours at each step before moving up. If symptoms come back, they rest for 48 hours and drop back a step. They must see a doctor and get medical clearance before going back to sparring. They should not return to sport until they are back at school or learning full time without symptoms.