Lessons From Kenny

I did a round robin session of sparring with Sarah and Taheerah.  Sarah got in with Taheerah first.  I was impressed at how Taheerah hung in there with Sarah; she's not that much taller than I, and Taheerah is petite.  But she was able to handle Sarah's punches.  When I got in with Sarah, it was the usual; I took hits to my head and to my right eye.  A right hook grazed me across my face.  I focused on giving out body shots, but none of them slowed Sarah down.  I'm convinced that Sarah should try to get a fight at the field house's boxing show next month.

Taheerah's head gear kept coming off while she was sparring with Sarah.  The same thing happened last week when she and I were in the ring.  She has a lot of hair, plus the head gear Alan put on her was old.

Kenny noticed that it seems that there are fewer sparring and bag gloves on the table each time the gym is opened.  "Sometimes, Barry locks up equipment," I said.  When the gym was given a lot of free equipment back in 2007 when the International Boxing Championships were in town, Barry had to put a lot of it under wraps for safety.  Unfortunately, a lot of that equipment -- the gloves in particular -- walked anyway.  Kenny figured that maybe some of the equipment was beginning to walk again.  

Kenny held pads for a few people, including me.  He showed me another way to throw an overhand right.  Usually, I do it the way Alan does, like a bolo punch (which is what that punch was originally called), setting it up like a right cross, but coming down with it in an arc.  The way Kenny showed me was to come over my opponent's jab so that my fist ended up striking their chin or cuffing them behind the ear.  He also had me throw right uppercuts and immediately follow up with a left hook to the body, as I would already be in position to throw the hook from leaning in to deliver the uppercut. People were watching us, including Taheerah and Ray, who cheered me on. "There you go!" Ray said, and Taheerah laughed as she told me, "Don't try those punches on me when we spar!"  Next week, Kenny is going to show me some more combinations and how to step over to avoid counter punches.

I sent an email to Steve on his birthday; I believe he's now 38 years old.  He emailed back and told me he saw the letter I sent to The Ring Magazine praising them for finally including regular articles about female boxers.  He asked if I was still going to Loyola Park and how the gym was going.  I gave him an update and asked him to say hi to Ellen (his wife) and their kids.

Tommy and I were talking about energy drinks on the market.  "Have you tried that Five Hour Energy?" he asked.  "I've never drank a full bottle.  Half of one is enough to have me hopping," I said, and I comically demonstrated the effect.  Tommy laughed.  "I drank a full one, and I was sitting on the train when suddenly I felt pumped up!' he said.  I don't trust most of the energy drinks I see advertised because I'm not really sure about the ingredients that go into them.

Alan and I were the last ones in the gym at the end of the night, and I told him, "I forgot to take pictures of the action."  "Take a picture of the ring.  You can put a caption on it that says the ropes are in distress -- much like Leon's love life," he chuckled.  "If Leon sees this on the blog, I'm going to tell him that you put me up to it,' I laughed.