Not many understand combat sports. From the outside, the gruelling process of training to fight another as a profession – and for entertainment – could be perceived to be futile. However, Stellenbosch boxing coach, Nicholas Jonker, finds many valuable and applicable life lessons in the world of combat sports.
Nicholas Jonker has been working at the Body Elite gym since 2010, a year after he finished high school. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
Amidst the raspy screams of rock music, the clanks of chain from swinging boxing bags, and the piercing beeps from circuit timers, eight out-of-breath students look towards their trainer, Nicholas Jonker. A teacher of boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), Nicholas attempts to pass on to his students the lessons of discipline, adaptability, and the understanding that things don’t always go according to plan.
Nicholas started boxing at the age of 16. And with the variety of experiences he has encountered since, he has learnt and sustained one important thing – to stay comfortable with being in uncomfortable situations.
“Don’t stress at all, you know?” says Nicholas. “With what I’m doing now, you get so comfortable with being in uncomfortable situations, and you’re just completely used to it. It’s something that they [schools] don’t teach you enough. I feel like I learned more from boxing than what I did getting a degree.”
Nicholas is also the assistant Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach at Body Elite. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
Life before boxing
After matriculating in 2009, Nicholas was pursuing a degree in teaching, with maths and science as his focus subjects. But a former neighbour questioned his decision to study teaching. This redirected Nicholas into studying drama in his home town, at Stellenbosch University.
From his neighbour’s passionate disbelief, Nicholas was sold into making a decision that fitted into his already established love for action-packed physical entertainment.
“As a kid, I played a lot of fighting games like Street Fighter. I always watched pro wrestling and a bit of boxing growing up,” recalls Nicholas. He felt that drama and combat sports “moulded very well together”.
With the help of one student, Nicholas demonstrates defensive skills to use when the opponent thinks they have you pinned. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
As he learnt how to combine his dramatic tools of character development and his childhood love for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now the WWE), Nicholas made his entrance into the world of pro wrestling in July 2011.
“Learning how to develop a character when it came to wrestling, I was actually very good at pissing people off,” he says. “I could rub people the wrong way. So, I just took that, and I multiplied it by 10. I could actually make this character an extension of myself.”
Like many small-town 20-year-olds, Nicholas wanted to leave the country in pursuit of the big stages set in Japan, but the opportunities to get there never came. Acknowledging that times have certainly changed for the better since then, he occasionally catches himself reflecting on his days as a wrestler and entertainer.
“It was actually quite a freeing feeling – not being myself, but at the same time, getting to be that person that you kind of want to be, or giving people this presentation of how you should be – you got to speak your mind on a few things, and some people just didn’t like to hear the truth,” he remembers.
In high school, Nicholas had two exhibition bouts and one amateur bout. “Unfortunately, I never really had the opportunities to gain much fight experience, because when I started boxing the amateur circuit wasn’t as good as it is now,” he says. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
But all shows must come to an end. After a couple of bad experiences with a large production, Nicholas closed the curtains on his wrestling career and moved his act into the boxing gym.
Stepping into coaching
In the same year that South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup, Nicholas was hired as a boxing coach at the Body Elite gym. He found himself juggling his studies, wrestling, and coaching until he graduated with his drama degree in 2013.
Life decided to trade blows with the new graduate. It denied him his plans for Japan as a result of unfavourable circumstances. Similarly, his career as a wrestler came to an end after unpleasant industry experiences. And although he had a TEFL course to his name, hopes of venturing outside the country’s borders also came to nothing.
“There’s so much over the years that [boxing] has taught me — more than sitting down in an office.”
Nicholas teaches his students to accept the reality that even with boxing experience, you can still lose. “Be comfortable with the fact that even a drunk guy can get in a lucky strike and knock you out,” he says. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
But much like James Toney, a former multiple-division world championship boxer that Nicholas admires, he weathered the storm. And when given the opportunity to work full-time at the gym, he didn’t hesitate to take it.
“I was a lost individual,” he recalls. When he got a full-time job at the gym, “I took it, I doubled down on it”.
Whilst twiddling the edges of his impressive moustache, he speaks passionately about his current situation as a boxing coach. Since taking the leap into coaching, the former wrestler acknowledges how fortunate he is to be teaching something that he knows. And at the same time, he appreciates and remembers how much the sport has taught him.
“It’s awesome because I’ve got complete freedom – I’m very lucky to train with quite a few individuals and spar with a few high-level ones. There’s so much over the years that [boxing] has taught me – more than sitting down in an office,” says Nicholas.
Nicholas has a very hands-on approach to his coaching as he spars with each of his students individually. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
Lessons from the ring
Remembering the path that led him to boxing, Nicholas says his experience of getting bullied throughout his schooling career enabled him to drop the controller and lace up the gloves.
“From primary school to high school, I was bullied quite a bit and I had enough of it at some point. And then – since I liked playing boxing games – I just said maybe I should try box.”
“I feel like I learned more from boxing than what I did getting a degree”
Boxing eventually did help him deal with the bullies, but instead of mentioning his old confrontations, Nicholas chose to dialogue how differently everybody responds to experiences like his.
“I understand it’s traumatic for some people. Everybody deals with their trauma in their own way. That makes you or breaks you, and you’re in control of that,” says Nicholas.
In the world of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), Nicholas is most amazed by the skill and technique of Ryan Hall, a black belt in BJJ and a professional mixed martial artist. “I mean, this guy is a technical genius. I’ve got a bunch of his ju-jitsu DVDs…There’s a reason why the guy is called the wizard. PHOTO: James Cameron Heron
Within his ever-changing world, the lesson that the boxing coach passes on to his learners, both with and without gloves, is one of adaptability, because “up to this point, it was all about adapting”.
“Plan A didn’t work, Plan B didn’t work. And sometimes, actually, Plan C seems like a better idea than Plan A in the first place,” he explains.
As his students skipped rope behind him, Nicholas comments that the lessons he has learnt from life can be easily translated into his coaching, and vice versa.
“[Boxing] I guess could be used as a good analogy for life as well. Because if you don’t adapt, you’re gonna lose,” he says. “You don’t know what the other side of the table decides to bring… Every day is a new day and you don’t know what challenges are gonna come. You only know when it’s time to touch gloves… when somebody strikes you in the face and they want to put you down, you need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Nicholas hopes to continue coaching boxing, to continue his work in the sport, and perhaps to enter the ring as a competitor again.
“Training comes first for me at this point. I may want to do a couple of more amateur fights and then do a pro fight and just finally see this thing through. To say ‘Fuck yeah, I finally did it.’ Then I can relax,” says Nicholas.
Looking back on his journey, Nicholas gave a simple but sincere bit of advice: “Enjoy the ride… when I was studying, you’re in an environment that everybody just makes you stretch and it’s so easy to get caught up with so much… Enjoy the ride. Don’t stress at all.” PHOTO: James Cameron Heron