Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Wednesday After The Gloves

I saw Jim as I was walking up to the fieldhouse. It wasn't long before his usual complaints began. Steve interacted with him as little as possible. Jim seems to have a fixation with working on the punch mitts every time. Steve was tired, having worked with JJ on the mitts for most of the evening. Jim opted to spar instead, and he got in with Brian. I think he only did a couple of rounds before stepping out of the ring.

Earlier, Jim decided he should give Ben some jabbing lessons. Ben went along with him, but gave the impression that he probably could have done without Jim's intervention. "He's been here a year, and he should be farther along than he is," Jim told me off to the side. "Ben has been here for a few years," I informed Jim. That conversation quickly turned into Jim complaining about what Steve doesn't teach him. I was glad when the bell rang to start the round again.

John sparred with Brian, and started giving out early. "Don't focus on when the bell will ring. The round will end when it does. Hoping and waiting for it to end will just make the round longer," Steve advised John. That's true. How many times I had I been in sparring, wondering what happened to the sound of the bell? Once you start thinking like that in the middle of a round, you're no longer focused on the opponent in front of you.

Seems like quite a few people were roaming into the gym, including Montrell, the star of the youth boxing program. A woman who claimed to be sixty years old -- she didn't look older than late 40s -- came in with her 25 year old son, who said he was interested in boxing. The duo looked around a little, but didn't stay long.

None of the new people returned, and I was the only woman in the gym tonight. It was a little quiet in the gym, as it usually is behind the Golden Gloves. Steve added JJ and Mike's names as winners on the chalkboard in the gym for that purpose.

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