Boxing is serious, not a game, and should be taught by people who know what they're doing. Just having been a boxer, even a professional, isn't enough. What sets the Boxing Coaches apart at The Armoury is that they are all formally trained and accredited and our continuous development ensures that their qualifications and skills remain current. This means that they are technicians, tacticians, motivators and physical conditioners of note. But whilst our coaches are special, you won't find any strutting egos.   Our favoured boxing style is ‘white collar' so we're unlikely to create the next "Greatest," but our coaches' will certainly make their clients the greatest they can be. The coaches are there for them every step of the way on what, for many, is a truly transformational journey. They are great guys, everyone loves them and the member's relationship with their own coach is always a very special one.

The Armoury Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) are equally distinctive. They have all boxed (it's mandatory, we are after all a boxing club!) and they share a passion for boxing, but they have all come up the ‘personal trainer' route through health clubs & gyms. The PTIs specialise in smart, precision, strength and conditioning training - which complements the cardio oriented and more intense boxing fitness workouts.  We have carefully selected our instructors to ensure superior one-on-one personal training and because of their aptitude for taking group classes. Indeed we take quiet satisfaction from the fact that when other trainers want to do their own training it's to The Armoury that they come.

Looking for the best, The Armoury went overseas to appoint an honorary Head Coach. Tony Davis is the coach to the England Amateur Boxing team and is an Amateur Boxing Association of England advanced coach, tutor and assessor.  Tony runs an annual coaching and refresher course for The Armoury staff, as well as boxing skills clinics for our members.  He is also a serving Physical Training Instructor in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps - which has long been a pioneer in developing fitness plan for soldiers -  and helps us to develop the Armoury Physical Training concept by drawing on current British Army best practices and experience.






Aladin hails from Bukara, Democratic Republic of Congo where he started boxing at the age of 13 with a local professional and African Title Holder. Aladin developed a passion for the sport and realised that boxing was the best way to get fit.

Seeking new opportunities, Aladin moved to Cape Town and found work at The Armoury’s predecessor, the famous Harrington Street Boxing Gym, where he built his reputation as a coach. Aladin spearheaded two boxing projects with the goal of making boxing more accessible to the community. It was through his initiative that funding was sourced to support the Lewis Kids Boxing programme for youngsters as well as the MylifE Champions Boxing programme for street kids.

Both programmes were tremendously successful and Aladin continued them into The Armoury where he mentored two of the MylifE boxers all the way to winning silver medals at the Western Province Amateur Boxing Championships.

Aladin takes the fitness side of boxing training particularly seriously and is currently on a course to win his personal training accreditation. He is justifiably proud of the results that he produces from his one-on-one coaching sessions and his dream is to coach a World Champion.  In the meantime, he gets satisfaction from making each and every one of his clients feel like a Champ.

Clever comes from Gweru, Zimbabwe where he started boxing at the tender age of 11 years. He spent his afternoons as a young boy in the Gweru Community Hall learning amateur boxing skills and maintained an unbeaten record.

Clever loves his fitness training and complimented his boxing with hours on the football pitch. It was a serious blow to him therefore, when he had to retire from competitive boxing after 11 years in the sport due to Asthma. Undeterred, he continued to e involved in boxing by mentoring and assisting his younger brother, Frank, through his professional boxing career.

Now a popular member of the coaching staff at The Armoury, Clever enjoys taking classes and gives high energy, enthusiastic one-on-one sessions.

He makes his clients "Work Hard" whilst putting a smile on their face!  Clever is a natural coach who gets great satisfaction from seeing the lives of his clients transformed by getting fit, healthy and purposeful. But he says it's not a one way relationship because he is always learning from their wisdom too.

Johannes, better known in the gym as 'Salie' and, in boxing circles as 'The Pearl of Paarl', began boxing at the age of 20 whilst serving as a paratrooper in the South African National Defence force. He was an accomplished amateur boxer who reached the SA Amateur Championships three times, winning a silver medal in 2005. He is also a fitness fanatic and keen all round sportsman. He won an award as the 'Fittest Paratrooper of the Year' in 1999 and competed in ‘Gladiators' the popular TV series. He also played rugby at a high-level with the Bloemfontein Crusaders.

Salie turned pro in 2007 and competed in the SA Baby Champs twice, reaching the semi-finals and the finals in his attempts. His current record is 13 fights, with only 3 losses. He fought for the SA title in the junior-middle weight division and, at the time of writing, is rated number 4 in the country and is preparing for his next pop at the title.

Salie is a very deliberate, technical coach who takes his clients back to basics and builds them into very fine boxers.  He lives by the mantra 'quitters never win and winners never quit' and he says the word ‘can't' doesn't exist in his dictionary. Don't think you can ‘play' boxing with Salie as he expects a similar level of commitment from his clients.

Kessy, from Tanzania, is an Armoury success story having worked his way up through The Armoury development programme to become a ‘MylifE Champion' and a highly valued member of the coaching team.

Kessy found his passion for boxing with the MylifE boxing initiative where he developed exceptional boxing skills, got extremely fit, and demonstrated strong character. Kessy fought on the bill at The Armoury's very first Fight Night and went on to become a keen amateur boxer who has fought in two Western Province Championships.

Noted for his enthusiasm, Kessy was taken onto the Armoury staff where he took every opportunity to hone his boxing and coaching skills and won a place on the prestigious coaches' course.

He is a regular class assistant and takes private clients for one-on-one coaching sessions. Kessy is a light, nimble boxer - as fast as lightning – and great on the pads, who works especially well with youths, women and guys seeking a fast paced workout.

Richard, from Kwekye Zimbabwe, has boxed pretty much all of his life. He had his first competitive bout at the age of eleven, won Gold at the Zimbabwe youth games and as a senior, was twice national champion in the Light Welterweight division. After boxing for the air force, he moved to Cape Town in search of better prospects and trained at the old Harrington Street Boxing Gym where he fell in with the coaches.

After representing The Armoury in the 2010 amateur championships he was invited onto the coaching team and attended the coaching course. You know when Richard's taken one of his uplifting Boxing Fitness classes or coaching sessions by the smiles on the members' faces.

Richard is a serious minded boxer with a keen eye for the technical side of the sport whose thrill is to take novices from ‘brawler to boxer'. Currently the Western Province Silver medallist, he has recently qualified as a Professional and is looking forward to his first pro fight.






Andy stands out from the crowd of personal trainers and is right at home in The Armoury because the club stands for authentic fitness training. Hailing from Galashiels, Scotland, Andy found a love for sport at an early age, competing in high level rugby, athletics, swimming and basketball, as well as outdoor activities such as BMXing and mountain biking.

A talented rugby player, Andy played for Boroughmuir Rugby Club (Edinburgh's premier club), and for the Scotland U18 side before suffering a career ending knee injury. Andy's style of personal training derives from this sporting background and he firmly believes that all training should be functional – don't go to Andy if you're after big muscles and the facade of physical fitness; his training is the real thing.

In 2006 Andy decided to chase the sun and surf to Cape Town and worked as a personal trainer at Virgin.   Whilst he found the big gym health club experience dispiriting, he found a passion for boxing at Harrington Street and fought in a ‘white collar' Fight Night. At The Armoury, he has continued to box as an amateur. He has also built a reputation as a leading Kettlebell instructor and his classes are where you'll find other instructors getting their training.

Andy created the Armoury Physical Training concept out of his belief that he can't be the only person to be bored by traditional personal training techniques. Armoury Physical Training is about smart, precision training that develops superior strength and conditioning and serves as a great fitness platform for all sports and activities.   You can benefit from Andy's diverse, enjoyable training through the scheduled classes or personalised packages of one-on-one sessions.

Suraj was born in Zambia and was sent for private schooling in Scotland, where he came to believe that physical training could be a lot smarter than his experience of being ‘toughened up' in the wet and cold would suggest! Unusually, perhaps, for a personal trainer he has a Masters degree in philosophy and he takes a very holistic and considered approach to health and fitness.

A qualified Exercise Scientist (with credits for sports massage), he brings a precision element to training, specialising in sports injury prevention and resolution with lots of emphasis on stretching, posture and muscle activation.   Although keenly interested in the ‘eastern' integrated approach to health care, he also enjoys the earthiness of boxing.  He gained his amateur card whilst working at a boxing gym in Joburg and you may see him in the ring on an Armoury Fight Night.

Suraj also joined us from Virgin where he was renowned for his stretching and ‘boot camp' classes.

Suraj believes that "exercise may be the fountain of youth – but only if you don't wear the body down too much!"  He says that "the only way to get the most out of your body is to engage the mind fully and purposefully" and he's not a great believer in endless repetitions!   If you're recovering from injury, trying to avoid injury, or want to complement a full-on training regime with some precision and balance, then Suraj is your man.






Tony, a serving Sergeant (Staff Instructor) in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, boxed his way into the England team as the sparring partner to David Haye and progressed to the Great Britain Olympic elite squad with Amir Khan.  He was the British light heavyweight champion and Commonwealth medallist.

He is currently coach to the England boxing team and his coaching CV includes the Combined Services and British Army boxing teams. Tony is an Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) advanced coach, tutor and assessor and is a qualified judge and referee.  Boxing has taken Tony all over the world but Cape Town's Armoury Boxing Club is his club of choice – "I love this place" he says.





There is nothing ordinary about The Armoury - our manager included! Olivia, from Cape Town, travelled the world on modelling assignments and was always sure to carry her gloves and maintain her fitness in the local boxing gyms – she's seen lots of them, good and bad, and draws on this experience to ensure the highest standards at The Armoury.

Whilst she loves traditional boxing, its Thai boxing where she made her mark; she was the South African champion and fought in the world championships in Thailand, where she stayed on to help run a world famous Muaythai gym.  Olivia had 29 professional fights and was rated 'No. 1 Female Fighter' in the world by The World Professional Muaythai Federation – but we'll forgive her for not being a proper boxer!  More recently Olivia has been doing stunt work for movies, specialising in fight scenes.

Olivia likes to cut about the gym and get to know the members, as well as show new guys around and be there to sort any issues.  You may also see her going through her own, somewhat arduous, training regimes and watch out - she's always looking for sparring partners!   Olivia is also a fully qualified personal trainer (ETA) and nutritionist and is available during her off-peak hours to take individual strength, conditioning and skills training.

Steve is a Sandhurst trained former British Army officer who served for sixteen years in the elite Parachute Regiment. His experiences included training raw recruits and taking them through the legendary ‘P Company' selection process; leading troops on training deployments all over the world in all terrains – from jungle to desert - under the most arduous conditions; and commanding troops on active service.

During the interlude of an IRA ceasefire in Northern Ireland he helped raise a boxing team to keep the blokes active and they surprised everyone by becoming the Army champions.  Steve was appointed team manager of the British Army boxing team from 1995 – 1998.

Steve draws on a continued association with the British Army boxing team to develop the Armoury Boxing Club as a Centre of Boxing Excellence and also brings to bear a truly authentic British military fitness influence on Armoury Physical Training.

Steve's profession these days is management consulting but his passion is White Collar boxing, especially the exhilaration and magic of an Armoury Fight Night.  "Boxing is tough" he say's "you have to dig deep - physically, mentally, emotionally – it's a very personal experience and you learn a lot about yourself.  But when you've been in the ring under those lights, endured and finished with a warm embrace, a smile on your face and your gloved fist held high - then you earn respect."  The Armoury is about taking regular guys and girls and giving them that extraordinary experience.   "I love what we do here" he says "people love it, they work hard and it changes their lives, every time I walk out of the gym it's with a spring in my step and feeling inspired."