Fighting and Dancing

How many people can say they got to get in the ring with their boss?  Alan can; he and Paul, his boss at his day job, got into the ring to spar each other.  Paul seems like a nice guy, and Alan didn't go very hard on him.  However, I bet a lot of people would love to get a current or past boss in the ring.  They probably fantasize about it with glee.  Paul and Alan went about three rounds.

Alan was also in sparring with Reggie.  At one point, it seemed like they were going on and on.  Then Amy noticed the timer wasn't working.  It seems that the timer -- which Alan brought in awhile ago -- has a short in it.  I unplugged it, waited a few seconds, then plugged it back in.  It began to work again. 

Kevin sparred with Reggie.  Alan kept telling Kevin to keep his hands up.  Kevin did not do his crouching near the ropes business, and stayed upright. 

The gym was a little quiet on Monday night.  Ray (in the photo above) said that most were probably out watching a Bears-Eagles game that was on.  He had been watching some of it before he came to the gym. 

Alan had been in the gym two hours before everyone else came in.  His car had broken down, and he had to leave it at a mechanic in the suburbs.  He took a bus down to the gym.  Alan had put the radio on and left it on some station that sounded like it was playing a mix of 1960's pop and trance music.  After about an hour, the station started playing what sounded like house music.  Ray was going, "Yeah!  I am a house-head!"  Then I started doing footwork, a popular dance that is done much better by people way younger than I.  I slipped and fell against the lockers.  I had to laugh at myself.  Then I got up and started stepping, a dance done better by people my age.  "You know how to step?" Ray asked.  "A little," I replied.  Willie, whose grandson had fought in the Loyola Park boxing show last month, taught me how to do a basic six-step.  "Teach me how to step!" Reggie smiled.

Several of us did burnouts on the heavy bags.  Reggie and Ray were cursing as they went through the round.  Sarah (in the foreground in the photo above) and I just put our heads down and punched until we tired ourselves out. 

Earlier in the day, Pastor Roger was telling me that he played football briefly at school when he was a young man.  A dislocated shoulder convinced him that he didn't want to deal with the fallout from other injuries down the line.  He also noticed that guys in their 30s who had played sports during their high school and college days were already experiencing health problems.  "I was playing a pickup basketball game, and saw that a lot of the guys were taping up their joints beforehand.  A lot of them were younger than me and already had arthritis," Pastor said.  I told him that I'm now feeling the effects not just from boxing, but from participating in roller skating, in-line skating, ice skating, and martial arts over the years.