A New One On Me

The other day found Rocky and I trying to convince Kishaun to shadowbox.  "It just doesn't feel right," Kishaun said.  "What doesn't feel right?" I asked.  "I don't have anyone in front of me," Kishaun answered.  "It doesn't matter!" Rocky said in frustration.

We still don't have mirrors in the gym, and I doubt there will be any in there anytime soon.  But I explained to Kishaun that shadowboxing is part of boxing training, and it has to be done.  I had never heard "it doesn't feel right" being used as a reason not to shadowbox before.

Rocky took a a seat and grumbled about Kishaun wasting time in the gym.  I was irritated, too, because Kishaun seems to give his all during football practice, but acts lazy in the boxing gym.  "Use your imagination!" Rocky snapped when Kishaun repeated again about shadowboxing being hard because of the lack of having a live person in front of him.  Eventually, Kishaun did do a couple of rounds of shadowboxing, but more should have been done.

Derrick won't be going to Seward Park's boxing show next week because his dad believes he needs to work on head movement and the left jab more.  I'm in agreement with Derrick's dad.  BJ's dad wants him to wait a couple of months before taking a fight.  I agree with that, too.  Tyrone is fairly new, and not ready to take on a fight yet.  Neither is Andre.  Nassir and Little Jordan show up to train on and off, and don't follow instructions when they do.  Little Jordan's sister, Jordana, seldom attends the gym.  Dorian and Trejan don't show up consistently nor train hard enough.  LaKendrick hasn't been in the gym for over a week.  Ashley wants to fight, but doesn't want to spar.  Mya doesn't want to spar or fight.  Guadalupe, Big Jordan, and Tandi seem to have disappeared, and Shanita and Julius quit.

That leaves Kishaun, who's dividing his time between boxing and football, and Carmelius.  The gym is going to be closed for two days due to a gospel fest that I just recently learned about (and I have to be there to monitor the people going in and out).  None of the kids can afford to lose training time in the middle of the park district boxing season, but there's nothing I can do about that.  We'll just have to step up training next week for the couple of days before the boxing show takes place.