When Rachel Bower decided to get into the ring at the age of 23, she tapped into something that makes her a good police officer: bravery.
The detective inspector with the Metropolitan Police in London started boxing “quite late,” a sport most people begin in their teens, but she had the motivation and inspiration to fight, which later turned into a desire to coach the sport to younger athletes.
“I am really fortunate… being able to manage my day job and my passion together has been great,” she tells Olympics.com in an exclusive interview.
“I won the national championships, the first when I was 33, and I even boxed for England.”
Quite an achievement for someone who had no intention of boxing competitively until she was encouraged to sign up for an inter-police boxing tournament.
“The person who basically talked me into it, told me that he’d coach me. I met him for one training session and realised that he wasn't even a qualified coach, and it wasn’t the boxing he was interested in. But I had told everyone I was entering the tournament, and I didn’t want to pull out.”
Training with the Met team helped her realise her potential, leading to boxing internationally and steering her towards a life in the ring.
Bower began working as a volunteer trainer in her local gym, a passion that led to her being selected as one of the coaches for the England Boxing Talent Pathway, which is tasked with contributing to the development of female and young talent.
“When I started boxing, there weren't that many opportunities for women and girls in boxing… I genuinely can't remember seeing a female coach,” she says, highlighting a factor that fuelled her drive to take on the new role of moulding boxers from grassroot level.
Rachel Bower on packing punches after a late start in boxing
“I have a very, very busy job,” Bower shares on the call with Olympics.com to discuss her choice to fight.
As a detective for the Met, her days shift between managing teams of investigators, planning operations, and overseeing complex investigations.
Then there’s recording and reporting audits, all while juggling an amateur boxing career that proved successful and earned her a place in the England squad.
“And I do all this alongside boxing. So, time management is one of my strong points. But a lot of those life skills I've got from boxing.”
Shift work meant she had to rotate gyms, which was not easy.
But her sporty background as a young girl in Walton, West Yorkshire, helped her take swings and rise to the top.
“I’ve done karate, swimming, athletics, dance. There are so many transferable skills between sports like coordination and mindset. If you are an athlete or just someone who commits yourself and knuckles down and knows what is takes, you can do pretty much anything.”
The right mentality helped her in the ring, despite being very “petite and feminine” and not seeing a lot of women in the boxing training rooms.
“I always felt a little bit of an outcast in most of the gyms, which is why I think I feel really strongly about it [boxing] now,” she said.
Stepping out of the boxing ring, moving into coaching
Bower boxed in the finals of the National Championships, and at 33, she became the Elite winner at 54kg, earning her a place in England's 2015 Three Nations squad.
However, she was reaching her limit in boxing and wanted to focus on her police career.
“I had decided around 2013 that that was enough,” she recalled of her return to the ring, which also saw her box for the Met team at the World Police and Fire Games in Washington DC.
“But after moving jobs, I found myself opposite a famous boxing gym, Fitzroy Lodge, in London. I went down there for fitness training and within about two sessions they had me on the scales, and they were telling me that I was going to compete again. I'm glad I listened to them because that's when I had all my success. Nothing beats winning the national championships, and for me, it was extra special because I'd reached the finals a couple of time previously, but it was the first time that the male and female championships finals, had been held together.”
When she eventually stepped away from competition, Bower didn’t entirely keep away from punching bags and boxing gloves. She remained on the sidelines of the ring.
“The girl I boxed in the National championship finals, I was old enough to be her mum,” she joked.
“I thought, I've peaked, I'm happy I've done what I wanted to do as a boxer...It's time to hang up my gloves. Although I found that very hard. I was still training almost every day, for the first year or two. But coaching did fill the void.”
Bower, now 41, settled to helping youngsters become competitive boxers.
“I never set out to be a coach. I got into it by accident. The coaches that I've had, they pushed me to do it. I was qualified while I was still boxing. I would assist in the gyms and a lot with the police, running projects for them and coaching the team.”
Her transition into coaching was a natural progression, focusing increasingly on mentoring up-and-coming female boxers.
“I've done a lot through the police and a lot with disadvantaged communities, women and girls, young offenders, that kind of thing. And for me, just being able to manage my day job and my passion together, it's been great. I've really loved that. I've worked with a lot of trusts and charities doing that, but with my own clubs, it all started in lockdown.”
As the head coach at Rathbone Amateur Boxing Club, she led the Camden-based gym in reaching out to the LGBTQ community, promoting the benefits of social integration through the sport. This effort earned her a London Sport award in the process.
Bower also leads Hawley Amateur Boxing Club in Camden, where she continues her outreach work with people with disabilities and those suffering from Parkinson’s.
Rachel Bower’s advice to other aspiring female coaches
Bower presently serves as a Talent Pathway coach for England Boxing and Development Coach with GB Boxing, working with Olympic hopefuls
“I just love boxing, and I do want other people to get all the benefits that I got from it. I'd love to make a difference and to get more people involved in the sport. I’d like to be remembered as someone who made stuff happen.”
She is pleased that the sport is changing. Since women's boxing was first introduced to the Olympic programme at London 2012, more girls are now interested in the sport. The numbers of female boxing coaches though remains small compared to men. She encourages fellow female boxers to have the courage to try coaching.
“You will learn and develop from the coaches you surround yourself with, even if you're more experienced, then you all take things from each other,” advised Bower, who also mentors female coaches as part of the England Boxing Women’s Coach Development Programme.
“Be somewhere where you can be comfortable, and where they will give you responsibilities and the opportunities that you'll need to get there. And then just volunteer for everything. Get involved and get as much experience as possible.”