Rochester wrestling club tackling Kent's unemployment

Data shows the number of unemployed young people in Kent is above the national average.   Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00From January to March 2024, there are around 580,000 young people in Kent aged 16 to 24

00:08who are not in full-time education, employment or training.

00:11Known as NEETs, the number of these people in Kent from ages 16 to 24 is higher than

00:17the national average and is increasing year on year.

00:21One coach at a gym in Rochester wants to get more young people off the streets and onto

00:25the mat.

00:26Well, wrestling isn't the only practice they teach here, with coach John placing special

00:31emphasis on life advice and wisdom that they can use outside of the ring.

00:36John has been coaching since 1994 and has been doing sessions at Evolution Gym in Rochester

00:41since it opened 14 months ago.

00:43He also coaches at a gym in Tunbridge Wells, where the youngest wrestler is only 5.

00:48A lot of young people in some areas, like this area, get involved in misbehaving, either

00:55drugs, carrying knives, because they don't respect themselves.

00:59They're like a little growly dog on the street.

01:04And I'm changing them around to stop doing that, stop dealing, stop taking that stuff.

01:10There is a different way.

01:11Not it's easy, but in life, if it's easy, it ain't worth having.

01:16John is a former national wrestler and has competed in places like the United States,

01:21Macedonia and Sweden, but his hopes now lie in giving young people the confidence to attack

01:25life with all they have.

01:27From a poor background, John started wrestling in a local park, eventually joining a wrestling

01:31club where he was able to compete around the world.

01:35He thinks young people are constantly comparing themselves to other people through social

01:38media and wants to use wrestling as a way to build them up, mentally and physically.

01:43I feel like the biggest impact it's had is in terms of pushing myself.

01:48Everyone always says they're going to push themselves for a test, they're going to push

01:50themselves in the gym or something like that, but when you're actually having to physically

01:53exhaust yourself and you're at your breaking point, and then you've got John shouting down

01:56your ear, you know, one more, one more, push a little bit more.

01:59It's just that extra bit of motivation in life, which is kind of, it has a great carry

02:02over into everything else that I do now.

02:04And yeah, it's a great coach as well.

02:07Well their coach will hope that wrestling can give young people the tools to both suplex

02:11and to succeed.

02:13Brendan McDermott for KMTV in Rochester.