Using Boxing In A Crowd

I forgot to take my camera to the gym again.  The photo above is of the place where I usually buy copies of The Ring magazine.

I was a little tired.  Spent most of the weekend partying -- well, partying as much as a middle-aged person can do.  I went to three festivals over the past weekend: the Ginza Festival, Retro on Roscoe, and North Halsted Market Days.  Just as I was leaving the North Halsted Market Days festival, I got caught up in a massive, thick crowd. Being as short as I am, it would have very easy for me to be trampled and stomped on.  It was that serious.  Normally, I get panicky around crowds.  Here's where some boxing experience kicked in.  I couldn't push my way through the crowd.  Others around me were pushing, shoving. . . I thought a fight or a full-scale riot would break out.   I just remained calm, followed lines that were moving, and remained observant.  Eventually, I made it out.

This photo is of one of Superdawg, a famous hot dog place where Alan is always going to eat.  One location is in Wheeling; the closest one to me is on the far northwest side.  I don't get up there that often, not since I lost Dad's car in an accident several years ago.  Neither Alan or I need to going there, truth be told, but the place has very good food.

In the gym, I was the only woman again.  Gabriel, Tyson, Professor, Khan, John, and a new face named Danny, were in attendance.  There was round robin sparring between the guys.  John and Tyson had the toughest sparring session.  Alan tried to slow them down, but the action remained a bit intense.  There were many good exchanges between them.

Khan got in with Gabriel, but they only had one round together.  Khan hung in there as best he could.  But before he stepped into the ring, he told Alan that it had been a long time since he sparred last.  Khan reached up to get shots in when he had Gabriel backed in a corner.

I had two rounds with Gabriel, and that was enough.  Gabriel's very tall, so like Khan, I had to reach up -- way up -- to get some shots in.  Alan commented that I often don't get the overhand right in easy on others, but I got one in on Gabriel.  Gabriel ducked down to my height several times to get punches in.  I got some hooks and straight rights to his body, because I really couldn't reach his head often.  During the second round, Gabriel did a very smart move by keeping me jammed up in corners and against the ropes.  "Get out of the corner," I heard Alan say.  He also told me to tie Gabriel up when I was blocked in, but I wanted to practice turning out of the corner instead.  Afterwards, Gabriel was slumped against a corner.  "Are you okay?" I asked.  "Hell, no," Gabriel smiled.  He had done a lot of rounds with everybody, except for Professor, who mostly observed the action.

My bag gloves have just about had it.  The thumb on the right glove is going to tear open completely one of these days.  But I'm going to have to wait awhile to replace it.  Just got notice a couple of days ago that another coach's clinic is coming up, which means, I'll have to shell out money for that.   I just paid for a coach's license a few months ago, before the Golden Gloves took place.  USA Boxing changed some of the amateur boxing rules, so all coaches have to be up on the new changes before a certain date or else we can't work the corners.  Hopefully this certification will cover me through the 2014 Golden Gloves.