Before Friday's Bout

Alan had something to do at his day job, so he didn't get to the gym until after 8:00 PM.  In the meantime, Professor gave Brandy extra pointers on how to handle herself against her opponent this Friday.  He worked with her in the ring.

Neither Leon nor Emmanuel came in the gym Wednesday night.  Emmanuel had a legit excuse -- he had to work late.  I don't know what happened with Leon.  I had my camera ready to take video of their sparring session, too.  None of the other guys in the gym, including Art, Tommy and Ray, sparred. 

Jacob's back.  He's no longer taking his online classes.  It's not that he couldn't do it - Jacob's a smart guy - but it was a lot of work to master the terminology he had to know.  So he's able to train again in the gym.

Brandy sparred with Sarah for a few rounds.  I took a picture, and seeing how it didn't look right, I deleted it.  Unfortunately, I accidently deleted several other pictures and some videos.  I should have taken the camera in to the drug store to download the pictures on CD awhile ago, but I decided to wait.  Fortunately, some of the pictures made onto prior blog entries, so I'll just copy them from there.

I also sparred with Brandy.  As usual, both Sarah and I took our lumps from Brandy.  Sarah's nose was bloodied up a little, and I took a few shots in the mouth.  Brandy threw a left, and instead of slipping right to avoid it, I slipped to the left.  Her fist caught me in the chest.  That quickly taught me the importance of knowing which way to move.

Sarah, Brandy and I did a burn out on the heavy bag afterwards.  When I get tired of throwing straight punches when it's my turn on the bag, I throw hooks instead.  I sure wish I could throw hooks in the ring as good as people say I throw them onto the bag.  Ray was telling the guys, "Hillari is really throwing those hooks.  It's all in how she uses her hips."  The guys encouraged Brandy to hit the bag as hard as she could.  Indeed, they all were giving Brandy a lot of advice to use during her upcoming bout.

Alan mentioned me bringing along my chest protector on Friday to the Gloves.  "But I don't want to wear it," Brandy said.  Alan told her she may need it just in case.  I was thinking about the wild punches I saw her opponent throw on that YouTube video.  Perhaps the chest protector will help ward off the effects of some of those punches. 

Looks like my coach's license problem will be solved.  When I show up at the Gloves on Friday, Rita told me to find her and she'll take care of it.  I'm glad because I didn't want to not be able to work Brandy's corner because I didn't have the license in hand.