Glasses and Grazing

Janay came in, but she didn't have her form for the Spring session.  I talked to her dad and assured him that she could continue in the class.  But I gave her another permission form to take home so her dad could sign her up for the Summer session which is coming up soon.  

During our time on the punch mitts, some of Janay's punches missed.  My glasses took a hit, and my stomach was grazed a few times.  She hadn't put full power behind those punches, but if she had, my glasses would have been broken, and I would have been doubled over by the body shots.  I told a neighbor of hers who accompanied Janay to the gym:  "She naturally has heavy hands.  It's just a matter of fine tuning her skills."

It had been another long, slow week of very low attendance in the gym.  Shanita had stopped by to say that she had caught the flu.  "I'll be in next week," she said, and I advised her to get some rest.  Her brother, Julius, was not with her, so I assume he'll return to the gym when she does.

One of the younger kids whose name I can't remember. . . ..Kendrick, Kenate, something like that. . . .ran up to me talking about, "I want to be a boxer!"  Just like Terrance, Terrianna, Te'Ria, LaTony, and Kharisma, that kid had been a major problem in the class when he was in there.  "You have to sign up," I said, without missing a beat.  "I am signed up!" the kid replied, and there lies another problem.  Coach James runs football, basketball, and baseball, all seasonal sports.  Kids in those sports just go from one to the other.  It's just a matter of James switching them from one attendance list to the next as one sports season ends and another begins.  He encourages the kids to participate in every sport available at the park.

However, my program doesn't run like that.  Participants have to sign up every ten weeks.  Too many of the kids, and some of the parents, think they only have to sign up once, and they're done.  I'm glad that it is NOT like that because of the real possibility of constantly being stuck with several kids who don't really want to box and/or are in the program for all the wrong reasons.  This way, I get a few new kids every two and a half months with the hope of getting some who will not be dividing their time between boxing and some other sport or activity.

I told the kid he had to sign up again.  "Oh, I do?" he said, before sprinting back outside into the park.  The kid had a basketball in his hand.  If the kid really wanted to come back to the class, he and his parents/guardians would have made more of an effort to make that happen.  Unfortunately, that's not the only kid who keeps talking about boxing but never making a commitment.