The Ladies' Circle

Brandy and I were standing out in the hallway for awhile tonight.  We were talking as Tommy walked up.  He wondered, just like we had, about where everybody else was.  Alan asked the same question when he arrived.  Melinda came in a little later, and that was it for gym attendance.

Tommy begged off sparring, so it was another round robin of sparring between Melinda, Brandy, and myself.  I got in a right on Brandy that stunned her so much that she had to shake it off.  I was worried because the Golden Gloves start next week, and I didn't want Brandy to get hurt before the tournament began.  She was okay, and Brandy answered my punches good as the rounds continued.  My right side hurts as I type this; that's the result of several good body shots she got in on me.

Melinda took a lot of good face shots from Brandy while they were in the ring.  Tommy and I were at ringside going, "Whoa!" and "Ooh!" a lot as Brandy made her connections with her left and right.  But Melinda waited for me to start throwing then banged me around during our time in the ring. 

Figuring that I should do more to protect myself from injuries than I have in the past, I wore my chest protector during sparring.  Alan said, "I'm glad to see you wearing this," he said, as he helped me put it on.  He also made his usual joke about knowing how to take a bra off a woman easily, but not knowing how to put one on a woman, which always cracks me up.  However, my chest didn't take any hits. The rest of my body did.  My left shoulder hurts a little bit now, too. 

Brandy is in her mid-twenties, and Melinda is in her early thirties.  I'm older than both, and I can hear people telling me I must be crazy for sparring with women who are younger and faster than me.  But over the last few months, sparring has become more and more enjoyable for me.  Melinda was saying how she wants to learn chess.  Alan looked at the ring and said, "That's a big chessboard there."  Boxing is like chess, as Tommy commented, and it's become more fun for me to try to guess an opponent's moves and counteract them.  I've always liked to spar, don't get me wrong.  But I'm become more focused in the ring than I have in the past, and that's what makes it interesting.