Boxing and dyslexia, seem unlikely sparring partners. But in a Lower Hutt gym, boxing is changing the lives of several boys struggling with reading problems.
"You keep your guard up and you won't get slugged," says coach Billy Graham. "Put your smiling face down and that's where you're aiming at."
Just like these boys, Mr Graham knows how hard it is growing up with a learning disability.
"I was just a slow learner and I hated school, so I was stuck in special classes, you know. Never slowed me down really."
Now Mr Graham helps kids like Kahu Hepburn, who struggled after his dad died, ballooned to 90kg, was on medication and diagnosed with dyslexia.
Now the 13-year-old is punching above his much lighter weight, is off the drugs, has won a science prize and read his first book – on boxer Floyd Patterson.
Mr Graham's boxing workout uses both sides of the brain, which helps dyslexics' co-ordination. Last year Evan Reynard couldn't even skip.
"Getting Bs and Ps round the wrong way, but now with the boxing it's helped my in my head," he says.
Not everyone here has a learning difficulty or will be a prizefighter.
"They're not going to be champions," says Mr Graham. "They're conquering things everyone said they couldn't conquer."
They may not be champions in the ring, but they are young boxers learning to succeed in the school of hard knocks.
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