Thirty Hard Seconds

Very light crowd at the gym Monday night: Franco and Matt (seen in the photo above), Alan, myself, and Reygie.  Franco and I tried to convince Matt to spar.  Alan told Matt he had a brand new, never used mouthpiece out in his car.  Matt wouldn't go for it.  "You could spar with Hillari!" Franco suggested.  "No!  Hillari's tough.  She might hurt me!" Matt said.  "I would go easy on you," I laughed.  "No, I'll wait.  I still have fear about sparring," he said.  "You have to push through that fear," Alan told him.

Reygie and Franco sparred for about three rounds.  I noticed that Franco kept turning his head.  Alan told him he had to look at Reygie to fight him.

 

 

Actually, Franco did well.  He took some pops from Reygie, but Franco returned some good jabs and rights. 

 

 



Reygie and I sparred, and he did a cool move I hadn't seen before.  During the second round, he stepped back, threw a quick flurry of punches, then side stepped me and pivoted out and away.  By the time I would throw punches in return, he was already gone.  I was able to get in a series of uppercuts at other times, but I kept smothering the punches.  "Step back from him and give yourself room to punch," Alan instructed. 

During the last thirty seconds of the third round, I had Reygie against the ropes.  He encouraged me to keep throwing punches.  Of course, none of my punches were hurting him.  Please. . .Reygie is 28 years old and he lifts weights.  But I got practice in throwing punches up and downstairs as boxing analyst Teddy Atlas always says.  "That was thirty hard seconds!" Reygie exclaimed.  I was worn out.

Matt took this picture of me after Reygie and I sparred.  I didn't realize until I saw the shot that Reygie was clowning behind me!  Reygie is so funny.

Alan told me he had two Whoppers for lunch.  I don't know where the man puts it.  "I didn't have breakfast this morning," he said.  "Don't you normally eat breakfast?  Or can't you eat that early?" I asked Alan.  I have a friend who absolutely can't put anything on her stomach until after mid-morning.  She gets sick otherwise.  "I can eat that early, but I'm usually too busy rushing around to do so,"  he answered.

 

Once again, you may ask, "What does comedian Jack Benny have to do with boxing?"  I was listening to one of his old radio shows, circa 1939, on YouTube.  Benny was training for a fight he wanted to have with his "rival", comedian Fred Allen.  He drove out to a barn owned by his buddy, Andy Devine, to train.  Don Wilson, Benny's announcer, agreed to spar with him.  Benny sucker punched him when Wilson wasn't looking.  Wilson decided not to continue sparring, so Benny called over his butler, Rochester to spar.  Rochester hesitated to participate at first, then hit Benny hard enough to knock his bridgework out of his mouth.  Benny scrambled to find his teeth, then snapped at Rochester to finish the sparring session.  But Rochester retreated to the loft, where he stayed.

Matt took some other shots of me and gave me some photography advice that he got from one of his uncles.  It's better to use one's hand as a mount for a camera.  The camera is more steady and the pictures come out better.

 

People at church keep saying that I look like I'm losing weight.  Currently, I'm 183 pounds.  I know, that still too big for someone who is 5'1", but it's better than being over 200 pounds, which I was a few years ago.  Next year, I plan to make some trips up to Hamlin to get some extra workouts in.