Utifrån att boxning är en mansdominerad sport syftar denna studie till att utforska och undersöka kvinnors erfarenheter av att ta plats och hitta en gemenskap inom boxningen. Vilka faktorer som är bidragande till kvinnors val att fortsätta boxas och hur kvinnor anpassar sig till och påverkas av boxningen diskuteras med hjälp av uppsatsens insamlade empiri och antropologiska teorier. Studien ämnar utforska och tydliggöra sambandet, och diskutera komplexiteten, mellan genus och boxning. Genom deltagande observationer, enkätundersökningar och intervjuer med kvinnor som boxas undersöks kvinnornas egna upplevelser och erfarenheter kring boxning. Med detta utforskar studien hur inlärning sker av fysisk kunskap såväl som mental kunskap. Boxningen i sin roll som en uppfostrande institution visar sig återspegla samhällets normer genom att skapa och återskapa normer och regler på boxningsklubben. Samtidigt som studien håller fokus på genus och idrott så bidrar den främst till en fördjupning av boxning utifrån kvinnors perspektiv.

SyfteSyftet med studien är att undersöka translationella accelerationer och rotationsaccelerationer hos huvudet vid lätt sparring hos manliga ungdomsboxare samt hur dessa påverkas av slagens acceleration, hastighet, slagteknik, träffområde och blockerande guard.MetodUrvalet baserades på fyra manliga ungdomsboxare tillhörande viktklass -60 kg och -77 kg. Tandskyddssensorer (Hybrid Mouthguard, Prevent Biometrics, USA) och handledsaccelerometrar (Corner Wearables Ltd. U.K.) användes för att mäta accelerationer i huvudet respektive slaghastighet och slagacceleration. Testupplägget bestod av 15 minuter individuell uppvärmning och två ronder a’ 3 minuter per rond på 50 % intensitetsnivå. Pearsons korrelationstest har använts för att undersöka samband och independent-samples t-test har använts för att mäta skillnader.ResultatEtt starkt positivt samband uppmättes mellan translationell acceleration och rotationsacceleration (r = 0,75; p < 0,001) hos huvudet. Inget signifikant samband upptäcktes mellan träff med/utan blockerande guard gällande translationella accelerationer (t = -0,09; p = 0,93) eller rotationsaccelerationer (t = -0,80; p = 0,43) hos huvudet.SlutsatserInget signifikant samband upptäcktes mellan uppmätt slaghastighet och translationella accelerationer hos huvudet eller mellan slaghastighet och rotationsaccelerationer hos huvudet. Ett starkt signifikant samband mellan translationella accelerationer och rotationsaccelerationer hos huvudet. Kollisionerna kännetecknades av de kinematiska egenskaperna som indikerar potentiella skaderisker. Det krävs mätningar i större omfattning för att undersöka de potentiella effekterna av upprepade subkonkusiva slag, då samtliga kollisioner låg under de tidigare uppsatta gränsvärderna för milda hjärnskador. / PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine the translational and rotational accelerations from head impacts during low intensity sparring bouts among competitive teen boxers and how they are affected by punch velocity, acceleration, punch type, impact locations and a defending guard.MethodsFour male competitive teen boxers in the -60 kg and -77 kg weight classes participated in the study. Mouthguard accelerometers (Hybrid Mouthguard, Prevent Biometrics, USA) and wrist accelerometers (Corner Wearables Ltd. U.K.) were equipped to measure the accelerations to the head as well as the punch velocity and punch accelerations. The test battery included 15 minutes of individually chosen warm-ups and two sparring rounds at three minutes each at an intensity of 50 %. Pearson’s correlation test was used to examine the relationships between variables and independent-samples t-test was used to compare means.ResultsA strong correlation was found between translational acceleration and rotational acceleration (r = 0,750) (p < 0,001). No significant relationship was found between the translational and rotational accelerations of a clean punch to the head and a punch to the guard (t = -0,09, p = 0,93 (t = -0,80, p = 0,43).ConclusionsNo significant relationship between punch velocity and translational accelerations or between punch velocity and rotational accelerations of punches to the head. This result emphasizes the need of defensive movements to further avoid the risks of punches to the head. There was a strong correlation between translational accelerations and rotational acceleration. The kinematic properties of the head impacts could indicate potential injuries to the head during sparring even at lower intensities. Even though none of the impacts surpassed the 25 % probability threshold for brain injury, more extensive research is needed to evaluate the potential risks of sub concussive impacts.

SyfteStudiens syfte är att undersöka boxares förmåga att slå slag med givna intensitetsnivåer mot en boxningssäck. Vidare syftar studien till att undersöka boxares förmåga att hålla en förbestämd submaximal intensitsnivå vid sparring.MetodFyra boxare deltog i studien. Corner handledssensorer användes för datainsamling av slaghastighet och acceleration i slag under slagtest på säck i självvald 50 %, 70 %, 90 % och 100 % intensitet, och i två 3-minutersronder av lätt sparring med instruktionen att sparras i 50 % intensitet. Shapiro-Wilks test användes för att undersöka variablernas normalfördelning, därefter analyserades data med One-sample t-test och Wilcoxon Signed-rank test beroende på normalfördelningen.ResultatDet fanns signifikanta skillnader (p < 0,05) mellan flera av deltagarnas slag och slagteknikernas respektive uträknade slagintensitet i samtliga slagintensiteter. Det förekom ingen eskalering (alla p > 0,05) under lätt sparringen, men merparten slagen var över den instruerade sparringsintensiteten (50 %), och i flera fall även över boxarnas maximala slagintensitestvärden.SlutsatserDeltagarna tenderar att underskatta sin egen slagintensitet vid slag mot säck. Vidare så kan det under lätt sparring förekomma flertalet slag med intensitet vid eller över deltagarnas egna maximala slagintensitetsvärden. Resultatet från den nuvarande studien kan dock inte generaliseras på grund av ett litet urval och utrustning utan validering. Mer forskning bör genomföras med ett större urval och även med högre sparringsintensiteter för att se om slagen i de olika intensiteterna skiljer sig åt. / PurposeThe purpose of the study was to examine the ability of boxers to punch in predetermined submaximal intensities. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the ability of boxers to maintain a predetermined submaximal intensity during sparring.MethodsFour boxers participated the study. Corner wrist sensors was used for data collection for punching tests in self-selected 50 %, 70 %, 90 % and maximal effort on a boxing bag, and for punches thrown during two 3-minute rounds of low intensity sparring with the instruction to spar at 50 % intensity. Shapiro-Wilks test was performed to examine the variables normal distribution. The data was then analyzed with One-Samples t-test or Wilcoxon Signed-rank test depending on the normal distribution.ResultsThere were significant differences (p < 0,05) between several of the participants punches and the punching techniques respective calculated punch intensity for each boxer, in all punching intensities. No escalation of punching intensity was found in the sparring rounds, most punches was over the instructed intensity (50 %), and in several cases had intensity values near or even over the participants maximal effort punching values.ConclusionsThe participants tend to underestimate their punching intensity when punching a boxing bag. The results of the present study show that high intensity punches are still present even in light sparring, with several punches having values near or even above the boxers respective maximal punching effort value. However, these results cannot be applied to the general population because of the limited sample size and due to not validated equipment. More research with a larger sample size and including higher sparring intensities for comparison.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur sportsektionen i två stora svenska kvällstidningar konstruerar två framgångsrika svenska boxare, Mikaela Laurén och Badou Jack, som vann varsin världsmästartitel mellan hösten 2014 och våren 2015. De frågor som undersökningen försöker svara på är 1: hur den professionella boxningen konstrueras som verksamhet i samband med vinsten av en världsmästartitel, 2: hur den manliga respektive kvinnliga boxaren konstrueras inom denna verksamhet, och 3: huruvida dessa konstruktioner framställer herrboxningen som norm gentemot damboxningen. Materialet består av totalt fyra artiklar som publicerades i samband med respektive boxares vinst. Två artiklar är hämtade från Aftonbladet och två är hämtade från Expressen. Frågorna besvaras genom en analys av den ideationella metafunktionen ur systemisk funktionell grammatik (SFG). Undersökningen utgår från en analys av det semantiska skiktet i texterna för att blottlägga det kontextuella skiktet och därmed få insyn vilken typ av verksamhet som konstrueras. Resultatet visar att den profesionella boxningen konstrueras som en högst individualistisk och prestations- och statusinriktad verksamhet där vinnaren realiseras som den viktigaste deltagaren. Det visar även att den manliga boxaren och hans vinst konstrueras inom en historiskt och karriärmässigt viktig kontext och att den kvinnliga boxaren och hennes vinst konstrueras inom en främst personligt viktig kontext. Slutligen så visar analysen även på drag i den manliga boxarens text som kan tolkas som normerande för herrboxningen gentemot damboxningen, och detta utan att damboxningen nödvändigtvis förminskas.

The thesis analyses representations of body and class, and their wider ideological meaning, in Swedish power sports from 1920 to 1960. Boxing and weightlifting – sports dominated by manual workers – are chosen as study objects. The sources used are magazines connected to the power sports, and autobiographies by four prominent athletes. The thesis relates to different areas of previous research. One concerns the body as such, from a social and cultural history perspective, another revolves around medial and autobiographical representations in relation to sports, and a third is about the relationships between body, class and sport. In the analysis, the Bourdieusian concepts capital and hexis are added to a discussion on the ways that value is attached to the body, linked to the notions of use value and exchange value. The content analysis of the source material makes ground for an analysis of more implicit ideological aspects, e.g. using Barthes’s theory on mythology. Manual labour and working life appear as central organising themes in the source material. Boxing and weightlifting were largely regarded and designated as professions, challenging ideals of amateurism. A physically demanding manual work was depicted as natural breeding grounds where sports practitioners became skilled. This masculine ideal united people from various manual working groups (not only from the working class in its socio-economic sense) where the emphasis was put on the physical strength and ability of the athlete to work hard. The body was used in a form of class polemics, preferably against middle and upper class people. Certain aspects of strength and style of athletic performance were related to particular levels of intelligence and education. Power athletes from the manual working groups were depicted as “natural”, with associations to rural areas, not least working in the forest. The ideas of naturalness in its most derogatory sense of being close to animals and lacking civilisation, was however mostly used in connections with black athletes. Success stories were common narratives about power sports as arenas of success. They included a powerful norm that success must be cultivated, where the responsibility was put upon the athlete himself. Successful athletes from manual working groups could transform their physical capital into economic capital, which was often depicted as short-lived because of aging and individual shortcomings. A commercial consumer culture became more explicit in the 1950s, when bodybuilding had its Swedish breakthrough within weightlifting. Sports training was rationalised and largely decoupled from its associations with manual work. This led to an increased reification of the body as pure surface, which was attributed a value itself. The body became an area of consumption, a commodity with an exchange value, when decoupled from its use value as labour or tool for sporting success. As to the ideological aspects of the development, it is shown that there was a widespread individualist norm. Only the individual himself had the possibility to rise up and achieve success. The ideal of manual work was more of a moral and cultural nature, than political. Although there were some collectivist features in that rhetoric, the manual worker idealisation fundamentally carried an individualistic tendency. It is argued that this idealisation, or workerism, is a fruitful object for further analyses.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine how Swedish tabloids portrayed Sweden’s greatest female boxers Mikaela Laurén and Klara Svensson the time before and the time after their great meeting at Hovet the 10th of September. We examined the following questions: Which gender roles are given to Sweden’s greatest female boxers Mikaela Laurén and Klara Svensson in Swedish tabloids and how is the interplay between media and the figures in the text described in the Swedish tabloids?   We used narrative analysis to investigate 14 texts from Aftonbladet and Expressen which were related to the match at Hovet. We found that the two boxers were portrayed differently. Laurén was portrayed as the bad girl who had to fight hard to get to where she is. She is tough and she is the one that comes with mean comments and gives media the real intrigues and she likes to use props. She believes she has a greater purpose, to get female boxing acknowledged on the media agenda. Svensson is portrayed as the good girl, she is more girly and is portrayed as if she seems to think that she is a better person than Laurén and therefore pity her when Laurén creates drama in the media. Svensson tries to convince the media that she is a tough girl but is still portrayed as more girly. Both Laurén and Svensson were also portrayed with their roles outside of boxing, as girlfriends which is common for female athletes. The meeting seems to be perfect for both the media and the boxers team. The meeting is portrayed as the final battle between good and evil.