Attention and Attendance

Ah, Michael. . . . such a likable kid, but it seems he wants attention all the time.  I wondered if Michael was an only child, but I remember him telling me that he does have at least one sibling who is younger than he.  We went through the usual back and forth about his hand wraps, which the boy still can't seem to to learn how to use.  Every time the wraps came loose, Michael was next to me, pestering me to fix them.  He was also asking me a thousand and one questions while I was trying to concentrate on the kids who were sparring.  Michael scooted out of the gym as soon as he learned the game room was open.  

A check of the attendance lists shows that I have thirteen kids in the eight-to-twelve year olds' class.  That's too many, in light of the fact that the park district has said that none of the classes may have more participants than is stated.  I suspect that other staff at the field house signed up those extra kids and just overrode the class limit on the computer system.  I also believe that one of the kids is not actually signed up as their parent told me.  I re-printed the attendance list for that class a second time to better reflect who is in the class.  That kid's name didn't show up.  That is now a sticky situation for me. I don't want to create conflict with the parent.  I may have to let that kid in to ease the situation.

Dan Jr.'s father showed up to ask if there was any way I could fit his son in the class.  One of the staff gave me the impression that he had shown up a few days ago to attempt to register.  I asked the staff member to let the dad know the class was full.  I had extensive conversations with Dan Sr. before about registration times and the importance of signing up Dan Jr. as soon as possible.  People are busy -- I get that.  But I don't understand what parents don't understand about deadlines.

I also don't understand what some parents don't get about making sure their kids are in class on time.  Tardiness throws off the schedule, especially on the days when sparring takes place.  There has to be enough time to warm up and shadowbox beforehand.  Both Earl and Tyrone were late, so all they had time to do was a quick warm up.

Tyrone proved to be a scrapper when he was sparring with Earl.  I would have let them go three rounds, but Earl would not come out the corner when the bell rang. His parents and I kept asking him what was wrong.  Earl kept shaking his head.  Finally, he spoke up and let us know that his nose was hurting.  Tyrone had caught him in the face.  There was no bleeding, fortunately, but Earl was down about having taken the shot.  Earl was done for that day.  He put his coat on and sat in a chair until class was over.

Now I have five adults in the adult boxing class, but only one, Bridgette, showed up to train.  She had been missing most of last week; work was to blame. Marisha hasn't been coming because of work, either.  I see where Dan (another Dan) signed up again, but it's doubtful that he's going to participate this session, either.  A pair of brothers signed up, too, but they didn't make it in.  Another person, Benny, told me he was going to sign up.

Then there's Kody.  His mom knows the eight-to-twelve class is full, so there's no room for her son.  Kody, like Michael, is another likable kid who just won't do what they are supposed to do when they are in the gym.  I had communicated that to Kody's dad some time ago.  However, it looks like both parents still want him in the class.  Kody will not be thirteen until the summer.  His mom explained again that Kody doesn't get out of school until later, so he would not be able to be on time to the earlier class anyway.  I proposed that she enroll him in the teen class.  If there is a problem, I can override the system to put him in.

However, I continue to have concerns about Kody playing around and interfering with the other teens who actually do train when they are there.  Kody has not indicated that he wants to compete.  Fine, but I don't want the other teens being distracted from their goals of winning fights.

Found out yesterday that my flyer for the boxing class is finally done.  I put in the request back in the middle of November, and the winter class has already started.  Steve has to make copies, however, because whoever made the flyer didn't do so.  They just emailed him the finished product.  Sigh. . .it doesn't take much for me to become irritated.