Line #36 Main/BoxingLesson


1	A victim of [[TheBully bullying]] is cajoled into taking boxing lessons, usually from a cartoonishly macho alpha-male character. The victim may end up gaining confidence and the ability to fight back, but often ends up finding an alternate, non-violent but always interesting means of dealing with the bully.
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3	Eastern martial arts (karate or kung fu) are generally considered to be an acceptable way of dealing with bullying. [[CombatPragmatist School]] [[MoralEventHorizon shootings]], [[CurbStompBattle not so much]]. Related to TeachMeHowToFight.
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6	!!Examples
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10	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
11	* ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'' has this as the entire basis of the early story. The solution here is at first that he is fitter than them and runs away too fast, then later [[CharacterDevelopment they look up to him, becoming his devoted fans]].
12	* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': Subverted in the manga version; Yusuke, as a ghost, sees a kid he knew in grade school getting bullied. To help him out, Yusuke tries to communicate with him in dreams to get him to stand up for his dream of being a professional boxer and challenge the bully. On the day of the arranged match, however, Yusuke simply possesses the boy's body and beats the crap out of his tormentor.
13	* Ryo Narushima from ''Manga/{{Shamo}}'' learns karate to keep himself alive in correctional facility. It goes downhill from there, to put it mildly.
14	* Played straight and deconstructed in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple''. Kenichi starts learning martial arts at the Ryozanpaku dojo to protect himself from Daimonji, an ArrogantKungFuGuy. However, beating Daimonji with his newly acquired skills doesn't end Kenichi's problems; he instantly becomes a FightMagnet for many trained fighters who take notice of his win.
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17	[[folder:Comic Books]]
18	* ''ComicBook/UltimateDaredevilAndElektra'': As he was defeated and humilliated by her, Trey attacked Elektra's friend, Melissa. Melissa took classes from Elektra's sensei. Trey tried to attack her again, but with her new movements, she managed to keep him at bay and then run away.
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21	[[folder:Film]]
22	* In the film ''Film/BillyElliot,'' the young Billy is sent off to the boys' club to learn boxing, and instead he takes up ballet dancing.
23	* In ''Film/RockyV'', Rocky's son learns how to box in order to deal with the school bully (though, ironically, not from Rocky himself).
24	* Subverted in ''[[Film/{{The Kid 2000}} The Kid]]''. The main character, who is in his forties, meets up with himself as an eight year old, somehow. In an effort to toughen himself against bullies, he gets his boxer friend to teach him. After the boxer learns it's for bullies he says "He doesn't need boxing, he needs to learn street fighting."
25	* Dre in the reboot of ''Film/{{The Karate Kid\|2010}}'' learns Kung Fu in order to stop [[TheBully Cheng]] from bullying him.
26	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', when Baloo first meets Mowgli, the man cub tries to fight him off, but of course his blows are too puny. Taking pity on him, Baloo decides to teach him how to fight like a bear.
27	* In ''Film/StVincent2014'', a not-so-lighthearted/exaggerated version of this trope comes into play when Vincent, a veteran who served in Vietnam, teaches Oliver how to fight.
28	* In ''Film/TheBellsOfStMarys'', Sister Benedict trains Eddie how to box in order to fight his bully. She goes so far as to get a how-to-box manual from a sporting goods store, before teaching Eddie how to move his feet and dodge punches and throw a right cross, etc.
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31	[[folder:Literature]]
32	* In David Weber's novel ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Honor Among Enemies]]'', a major subplot revolves around newly enlisted naval rating Aubrey Wanderman being targeted for violent harassment by Steilman, a petty criminal lowlife stuck in the same crew. He [[CanNotSpitItOut refuses to testify]] that he's being threatened, so a few of the ship's noncoms start giving him martial arts lessons. If anything, this [[GoneHorriblyRight succeeds too well]]; in their next confrontation, Wanderman injures the bully so badly that he would be crippled for life if not for the setting's [[GoodThingYouCanHeal advanced medical technology]], and he actually gets brought up on charges for the way he deliberately provoked the fight. However, because Captain Honor Harrington and everybody else recognize that Steilman ''deserved'' the beating, they keep the punishment purely symbolic. [[DeconstructedTrope They just want him to realize that, next time, he should not try to take it into his own hands.]]
33	* ''Blossom'' by Creator/AndrewVachss. Ex-con turned private investigator Burke teaches a young man facing prison how to conduct himself, including a no-holds style of boxing.
34	* In Richard Llewellyn's "Literature/HowGreenWasMyValley", Huw Morgan gets boxing lessons to defend himself from school bullies. His first lesson comes from his father (along with a payment plan for every bruise, bloody nose or split lip Huw comes home sporting). This is not enough, so his older brother gets the valley's professional boxers to train him specially. He gets VERY good at it.
35	* Gaku Homma, a teacher of aikido, has deconstructed this trope in his book ''Children and the Martial Arts''. He recounts one parent wanting to enroll her child for aikido to protect against a bully. Homma explained to her that if her child did hit the bully back, the bully would probably [[FromBadToWorse return with a knife...or worse]].
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38	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
39	* Mork in ''Series/MorkAndMindy'' unsuccessfully tries to learn how to box from Mindy's father when faced with a bully. (His alternative solution is to use his [[ForgottenSuperweapon hitherto unmentioned power of Time Warps]] which enables him to essentially make everyone move in slow motion while he moves at normal speed which enables him to humiliate the bully.)
40	* DoubleSubversion in ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', when Quinn runs across a universe that takes place years before his own. Despite the constant urgings of his team about the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]], despite no time travel being involved, Quinn teaches his younger self to box bullies, but [[spoiler:the end of the episode reveals that he wants him to do that because non-alternate young Quinn hit them with a baseball bat in his own past, giving one bully a permanent limp. His alternate self [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen just gives them a few bruises]] by [[CurbStompBattle mowing them all down with a powerful barrage]] of [[GoodOldFisticuffs punches]]. This is an incredibly creepy, violent, and scary.]]
41	* Happened in ''Series/FamilyMatters'' no less than three times.
42	** First, an early episode had StereotypicalNerd Steve Urkel dealing with a bully. He actually ends up challenging the bully to a boxing match, but having no experience and muscles like wet string, he knows he's in trouble. He convinces Carl to teach him to box. It's pretty much for nothing, though, and he's beaten down. Before the bully can finish him off, though, a spectator protests -- and then the whole crowd. The bully backs down in the face of pretty much the entire student body apparently being willing to fight on Steve's behalf.
43	** Second, Richie, a cousin of the Winslows who calls Urkel "Uncle Steve" (though they're unrelated), has trouble with a bully at school. Steve, apparently not remembering his own experience with the same tactic or maybe understanding Richie had more muscle than a quadriplegic orange (unlike him), advised Richie to stand up to him--physically if necessary. Richie got in trouble at school for fighting, and his mother was angry at Steve--until Richie explained that he was defending himself from a bully, at which point it became somewhat accepted.
44	** Third, Richie and a friend had their playground taken over by an adult gang. Steve tried to intervene, but with all the physical prowess of [[ComicBook/XMen Professor Xavier]] on Valium, he was pretty much powerless -- until he used his TransformationRay to infuse him, Richie, and Richie's friend with the [[LamarckWasRight DNA of Bruce Lee]], upon which they went, well, Bruce Lee on the gang's asses...complete with offensive Engrish accents.
45	* A flashback in a first season episode of ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'' had Cabe giving a young Walter some fighting tips to help him deal with a bully at school. A later episode had Cabe offering to do the same for Ralph after the team learned a bully was forcing him to do his homework for him, but Ralph found a different way to deal with the bully.
46	* ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' tried, unsuccessfully, to learn to box when a bully was picking on her. Her friends told the bully that even if she beat up Punky, she'd still have to fight all of them, one by one.
47	* The pilot of ''Series/BurnNotice'' has the Michael teaching a kid how to defend himself from bullies, using guerrilla tactics. The implicit acknowledgment is that he suffered from bullying as a kid (either from his peers or from his father), and wished he had received boxing lessons as a child.
48	* Subverted in ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': Peter learns to fight after he has run out of ways to stop a bully from tormenting Cindy. At the end, the bully eventually respects Peter, who has a good left hook punch in his opinion.
49	* In season two of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', tired of relying on Clark to save her, Lana Lang gets a crash-course in self-defense and self-esteem in the form of boxing lessons from Lex Luthor after being harassed by a bunch of thugs.
50	* In ''Series/KitchenNightmares'', Chef Gordon Ramsay gives one to a restaurant manager with serious self-esteem issues. It works to say the least.
51	* On ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'', Max gets boxing lessons from none other than the professional boxer Laila Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali.
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54	[[folder:Webcomics]]
55	* Season 3 of ''Webcomic/WeakHero'' starts with [[OvershadowedByAwesome Alex]] taking boxing lessons to toughen him up so he'll no longer be a hindrance to his best friend. He offers the same lessons to his nerdy friend Eugene, but Eugene is content with being the NonActionGuy.
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58	[[folder:Western Animation]]
59	* The episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' titled "Bobby Goes Nuts" puts an interesting twist on the BoxingLesson, by having Bobby take a ''women's'' self defense course and then dealing a [[GroinAttack savage groin kick]] to his tormentors. The trope is subverted nicely when Hank attempts to teach his son how to box, and receives a nasty kick to the testicles when Bobby gets frustrated with the lesson. Then double-subverted when he learns groin kicks do nothing to keep his mother from punishing him [[note]]a break from reality[[/note]].
60	* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' where it the ''bully'' who seeks help in the martial arts from Jade (who is the would-be victim that happened to kick his ass). After being trained in the "Ancient Art of Butt-Whoop" he becomes the one who stops bullying.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
62	** A variant occurs where both Tweek and Craig are taught different fighting styles for their upcoming fight. Jimbo intentionally teaches Tweek dirty boxing techniques (like nut shots) and Craig is taught sumo wrestling.
63	** Also parodied in the episode "You Got F'd in the A" (also serving as a send-up of "You Got Served). The gang is unexpected "served" by a group of out-of-town dancers, leading Stan's dad to give Stan a self-defense lesson -- in dancing.
64	* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'' episode "[[Recap/TheRaccoonsS5E8BlackBeltBentley Black Belt Bentley!]]", where Bentley is eager to learn martial arts from Schaeffer when he is bullied so he can smash their heads in. However, when Schaeffer learns of the young raccoon's intentions, he promptly kicks him out of the class. However, Bentley does not get the message until he gets so psyched up improvising learning from a martial arts film that he inadvertently attacks Bert and breaks his arm. While Bentley is kicking himself for being so stupid, he meets the bullies again. However, chastened by his experience, Bentley uses his martial arts training with appropriate restraint to defend himself while reasoning with the bullies about the original misunderstanding that caused the conflict. The combination of Bentley's explanation and his fighting moves are enough to make peace with the impressed bullies. As a result, Schaeffer not only lets Bentley back into the class, but promotes him to the yellow belt training rank in appreciation of his solid learning and good attitude.
65	* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Phineas is forced into a fight with Buford the school bully...and he's trained by Evander Holyfield. Yes, it's ''that'' kind of show.
66	* When Chicken in ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' is bullied at school, Father tells Chicken to take Karate lessons from -- who else? -- the Red Guy. You can guess the rest.
67	* In ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'', Brendon's decrepit grandpa gives him an impromptu boxing lesson to help him deal with an angrily super-competitive goalie. The lesson quickly CrossesTheLineTwice as grandpa's boxing gloves are filled with ball bearings for "oomph". When Brendon later encounters the goalie, he tries an alternative means of discussing the goalie's relationship with his overachiever father, and quickly ends up on the ground in an armlock, Eventually, he gets through to the bully, who rejects his father's competitive teachings and becomes a hippie pacifist; leading Melissa to beat up Brendon for "ruining" the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys bad-boy she had a crush on]].
68	* The ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode, 'Hero Hamton' is based on this trope.
69	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' has Jon being thrashed by a mugger while out on a date with Liz. Jon goes for karate lessons to learn how to protect himself. On his next date with Liz, he says that [[TemptingFate he'd beat up that same mugger if they met again]] - guess who he runs into? In the end, it's not Jon's karate skills, but Garfield who saves the day.
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72	[[folder:Real Life]]
73	* When Muhammad Ali was young, he had his bike stolen while receiving some freebies inside a building. When he reported the bike stolen, he said to the cop in question that he was gonna find the person who did it and beat them up; the cop told him to go to a boxing lesson, and invited him to come back. He then became the best damn boxer in history.
74	* In Montreal there are several police officers who offer young kids in poor neighborhoods boxing lessons as a mean to get off the street. Boxing is a regulated sport with lots of rules and requires good discipline, so it helps distract kids who like to fight anyway and give them contacts with people who can give them help with getting out of street gangs.
75	* When [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti]] and his brother Nityananda were sent to prep school in England they were both bullied unmercifully until they conspired to spread a rumor throughout the school that they knew kung fu. They didn't, but it worked.
76	* A bullied and angry [[Music/{{Eminem}} Marshall Mathers]] was taught to box by Detroit underground rap legend Big Proof, which contributed both to him gaining confidence and no longer fearing pain in the way he had done before - which transferred to a lack of fear of emotional pain, getting him over his stage fright and terror of rejection enough to take up BattleRapping.
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Context Main / BoxingLesson