Girls' Day

On the way to work, I ran into Professor.  He was going to Seward Park to get a workout in.  There's a new coach over there.  "How come there seems to be so much turnover among the boxing coaches?" he asked me.  It didn't used to be like that.  There are guys like Alan, Pat, and Bill who have been coaching for decades.  In recent years, unfortunately, there has been a revolving door going on where new hires have been concerned.  I keep hearing rumors about what happened at some of the field houses, but I'm not sure what really went down.

I was anticipating another slow day when Lu came in.  Lu's mother, seven year old sister, and one year old brother was with him.  Lu is a nice kid.  However, he likes to talk more than train.  It's not that he doesn't ask a lot of good questions.  Most of the questions pertain to boxing.  But I'll start him off on the punch mitts, and have a hard time getting Lu interested in hitting the bags and doing other drills.

Three girls who were in the gym the other day, but not officially signed up for the gym came in near the end of the 12 and under class.  I let them put the hand wraps and gloves on to move around in the ring a little.  I'm always telling the kids about the fights I had back in grade school.  The girls were amazed when I told them I had never been suspended for fighting.  Not even for that time when I was in third grade and I threw a steel chair at another kid.  They told me that some boy in their class was bothering them, mostly with verbal taunts.  "My mother always told my younger siblings and I to ignore what other kids would say.  But as soon as they put their hands on us, we were supposed to hit back," I told the girls. That is not a popular thing to tell kids these days in light of all the political correctness and zero tolerance for violence in schools.  But those girls told me their moms had basically told them the same thing.

The younger girls left after awhile, and Nay-Nay, a teenage girl that I hadn't seen in a few weeks came in for the 13 to 17 year olds' class.  She brought her mom, her older sister, and her five year nephew along.  Her mom was especially impressed with how Nay-Nay was throwing her punches during the punch mitt drills.  I was impressed as well; Nay-Nay has some nice, hard and solid punches.  It's is just a matter of teaching her how to throw them properly for the most effect.
Nay-Nay and I went through an entire workout that involved using the heavy bag, the uppercut bag, slipping drills, and floor exercises.

Barry gave me a call at the field house, and I'm so glad he did.  There isn't a boxing show at Eckhart Park in February.  It's actually a program meeting.  I have to let others know during that meeting when I want to have a boxing show at LaFollette Park.  I'm thinking about late summer, and perhaps staging it on the outside.  If it can't be done during the warm months, then there is a possibility a ring can be set up in the auditorium.  I'll have to talk to the field house supervisor to coordinate when would be a good time to have the show.

A sigh of relief came over me, as now the kids still have several more months to get it together so they can compete properly.