Keep your hands up.

A boxer with her gloves held high at her chin, looking over them

Feint is a boxing club under the railway arches in Leeds. Beginners every night, a coach on every class, and your first round is free.

Book a free round See the week

Under the arches.

Arch 14 sits below the Manchester line and you will hear every train. Two rings, eighteen bags, a floor that gets mopped between classes and a bell that does not care how your day went.

Nobody shouts. First-timers get a coach for the whole class, and the gloves are on us until you decide you like it.

A coach holding focus pads while a member throws a right hand, in front of a brick wall — Tuesday, 18:15. Pads, a lot of noise.

Four ways in.

Start with the first one. Move when your coach says so, not before.

Fundamentals

A boxer throws a straight left from behind a tight guard

Stance, guard, footwork and your first four punches. Forty-five minutes, no experience needed, and a coach stays with the new faces.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday mornings.

Pads & combos

A coach holds two pads high while a fighter drives a combination into them

One coach, one pair of pads, you. Combinations get longer as you get sharper. Thirty minutes that feel like ninety.

After four Fundamentals classes. Dario runs it.

Fight conditioning

Two fighters leaning into heavy bags during a conditioning round

Bag rounds, sprints and core work on a round clock: three minutes on, one off, until the bell has stopped being funny.

Open to everyone, five times a week.

Strength for strikers

A boxer stands square to the camera with his gloves pressed together at his chest

Barbells, med balls and the muscles that make a punch land heavier. Theo keeps the lifts boring and the rest times strict.

Tuesday and Thursday, early or evening.

Counted, not guessed.

Every six weeks you redo the same test: one three-minute round on the bag, counted by a coach with a clicker. This is Maya's first twelve weeks. She started in January and says the stairs at work are a lot shorter now.

Maya's bag test results at weeks 1, 6 and 12
	Week 1	Week 6	Week 12
Punches in one round	84	109	131
Rounds before her guard drops	2	4	6
Resting heart rate, bpm	74	68	62

The card.

Head coach

Nia Okafor

Eleven years in the ring, thirty-one bouts, and she will tell you the seven she lost taught her more. Runs Fundamentals and the footwork nobody wants to practise.

“Your feet are your first punch.”

Dario Venn

Pads, combinations, sparring

Former amateur welterweight. Holds pads like he is reading your mind, and sends you home with one thing to fix. Just the one.

“A jab is a question. Ask a lot of them.”

Strength and conditioning

Theo Marsh

Used to be a physio, still is a bit one. Writes the programmes, counts the rounds and is the reason nobody gets hurt on a Thursday.

“Round three is where it gets decided. We build for round three.”

Coach Theo Marsh standing tall, gloves down at his sides

I came for the fitness and stayed because nobody made me feel like a beginner, even though I very much was.

Hana Liu, trains three nights a week

Dario's pad rounds are the hardest thirty minutes of my week and the only ones I never skip.

Ines Duarte, first amateur bout this spring

I'm fifty-one. They scaled every drill and never once treated it as a problem.

Graham Pike, Fundamentals regular

This week.

Class timetable for the week
Mon	06:45 Conditioning12:15 Fundamentals18:30 Fundamentals19:45 Pads & combos
Tue	06:45 Strength18:00 Pads & combos19:15 Conditioning
Wed	12:15 Conditioning18:30 Fundamentals19:45 Sparring, by invitation
Thu	06:45 Conditioning18:00 Strength19:15 Fundamentals
Fri	07:00 Pads & combos17:30 Fundamentals18:45 Conditioning
Sat	09:00 Fundamentals10:30 Open gym
Sun	10:00 Conditioning11:30 Open gym

Classes cap at twenty. If one is full you will see it when you book, and Nia will keep a list.

Price list

First roundFree
Drop in£16
Ten classes£140
Unlimited£79a month

First round: any class you like, gloves and wraps lent. Ten classes last three months. Unlimited includes open gym and a counted bag test every six weeks. Cancel in any month.

Before you come.

I've never boxed. Is that a problem?

It is the normal case. Fundamentals exists for exactly this, and a coach stays with first-timers for the whole class.

Will I get hit?

Not unless you ask for it. Sparring is its own class, it is opt-in, and a coach has to say you are ready.

What should I bring?

Trainers, water, clothes you can sweat in. Gloves and wraps are lent for your first month.

How fit do I need to be?

Fit enough to walk in. Every drill has an easier version, and coaches show you before you have to ask.

Where exactly are you?

Arch 14, Mill Lane, two minutes from Leeds station. Look for the orange door and listen for the bell.