TJ Smith's Premier Boxing Ring & Gym: Ali Carle and Andrew McLeod visit the gym in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

Tucked away in the backstreets of Adelaide is a little piece of sporting history, created by a man with a passion for moulding young athletes. Thomas James Smith or 'TJ' to those who came to know and love him, was a bloke who knew plenty about life's hard knocks, having grown up an orphan. But boxing was the making of TJ and throughout his life he followed a very basic philosophy.

"Think clean, talk clean, fight clean. That sums up Tom." said Paul Stratis

Paul is one of a group of TJ's proteges who manage his old-style gym in what was an old sobriety hall in Brompton. Here the message is simple - get drunk on life through discipline and hard work.

"A lot of the success stories that come out of a boxing gym have never set foot in the ring," explained Paul. "But the character development, how they come out of their shell and the person they become is important. The culture is very misunderstood."

To better understand the craft of boxing, Andy McLeod and I put ourselves through a crash course. Under Paul's guidance the first discipline to be mastered was the skipping rope.

"Apart from the obvious cardiovascular benefit which assists fitness, you learn to coordinate your upper and lower body at the same. You learn to be light on your feet." Paul said.

Good hand and foot coordination is crucial in AFL football and so too is hand-eye coordination. So for that we head downstairs into the cellar TJ converted when he took over the hall in 1976. His first gym was at Tennant Creek in the Territory, where he worked with many young aboriginal boxers. By the 40s he'd moved to Victoria Street in Adelaide, where he had great success training young soldiers and policemen.

TJ Smith's Gym was also a hit with many women in the 40s and it still is today. Even Ali got a crash course in the use of the speedball.

The speed ball teaches controlled aggression," explained Paul "It can teach a person to remain calm and focussed. You won't master speedball with brute power and anger. The only way you'll master it is with controlled aggression and patience."

After watching Andy skilfully master the ball, Paul points out that it's common for professional footballers and boxers to do well.

"Things can happen to the average person in the blink of an eye but a footballer has trained his eye to be faster - he finds gaps and spaces that average people don't."

Next on our crash course is boxercise - a discipline which is becoming very popular. The idea here is not to hit with power. Mohamed Ali once said the trick in the ring is not to hit hard but often. The emphasis at TJ Smith's is on focus and control.

Boxing often gets a bad wrap, but Paul says TJ's success was instilling a sense of discipline in many wayward lads. It was an attitude to life that saw Thomas James Smith, the orphan from Tasmania, receive the Order of Australia for Services to Youth back in 1987 seven years before his death.

TJ Smith's Premier Boxing Ring and Gym is at 35 West Street, Brompton.

TJ Smith's Premier Boxing Ring & Gym
35 West St
Brompton