Two Shiners

Alan was sporting the trace of a black eye he received last week, courtesy of Jacob.  Today, Sarah showed up with a bit of a shiner that had also been doled out by Jacob.  I'm surprised that I haven't had one, as many times as I've been hit in both eyes over the past two years.  Maybe I shouldn't talk so loud. . . .

I ran into Kyra -- whom I had wrongly named J here -- on the bus over the weekend.  She would like to come back to the gym, and plans to do so at some point.  But she lives out on the south side, and it's a haul traveling way up north to get to the gym.

Professor sparred with his brother Miles.  Alan noted that they are good together because they know each others' moves.  I laughed, "If I was sparring with any of my sisters, that would turn into a war."  In particular, I imagined my late younger sister taking people on in sparring sessions.  I can hear it now: "Damn. . .Hillari's sister is vicious!"   I make an effort to be nice while I'm sparring because the goal is not to overpower someone.  My younger sister would have beat someone until the coach pulled her off of them. 

Sarah, Renee, and myself had a round robin session of sparring.  As usual, I had to focus on the body with Sarah -- it's practically impossible for me to reach her head most of the time.  I noticed when she was sparring with Jacob last week that Sarah loves to keep her left hand high up close to her head for protection.  There's no way I can get a right hook to her head because of that; I've tried. Usually, I'm just trying to survive when I'm in the ring with her.

Renee had her hands down a lot, and I was able to get in a lot of punches to her head.  She surprised me by rocking a combination of punches straight to my stomach when I wasn't covering up.  Believe me, I felt those punches.  I had to back up to get some air.  Right now, I feel fine.  But tomorrow or Friday, the pain will return, and I'll go around wondering, "What did I do?" until the reason why comes back to me.

Jimmy and Alan sparred, and I told Jimmy as they got ready, "You have to watch Alan, because Alan is slick."  Jimmy said, "Is he going to be rough on me?"  Alan said, "No, we're just going to move around."  "That's what he always says," I told Jimmy.  Jimmy gave Alan some good hooks to the head, and he kept moving around.  I called out instructions, sounding like the boxing referees on cable TV:  "Break!"  "Box!"  "Hands up!"