Summer Continues To Stumble Along

As summer stumbles along, situations in LaFollette Park's boxing gym remain the same.  Jaylen and Damaris appear, for all intents and purposes, to have dropped out of the class.  Damaris' attendance has been spotty since the season began.  Jaylen's attitude wasn't right the last time I saw him, and I had a feeling I wouldn't see him anymore.  Their parents have not contacted me to explain the absences.  The youth class has been empty.

As for the teens - Darnell straight up told me he does not want to compete.  Darnell's parents are more interested in their son getting in shape.  I have been having Darnell do combinations on the punch mitts.  I plan to do that with the participants from here on in because I hadn't been teaching combinations as much as I should have.  Juan wants to fight and he splits his time between LaFollette and a private gym.  Juan is advanced in terms of his skills, so I don't have to constantly watch him.  Sahia gives Juan a lot of drills outside of the ones I have posted on the bulletin board. 

I'm not much in the mood to attend boxing shows this year, but I will have to make some effort for Juan as well as for some of those who sign up for the fall session who may want to compete.  I skipped Seward Park's show.  Jaylen was supposed to attend that but didn't show up regularly to train for it.  Sahia has suggested that Juan should attend as many of the boxing shows as possible.  However, I'm probably going to skip Sheridan Park's show, too.  Sahia has generously offered to go to some of the boxing shows in my place with the youths who want to attend.  I plan to take her up on that. 

Seven Down

So far, so good . . . no major problems in the gym since summer camp began this week.  I haven't noticed any vandalizing of the bulletin boards or equipment.  However, it's early in the season.

Seven kids are now gone from the youth class.  This is only the third week of the session.  Yesterday, a set of twins admitted to their guardian that they were not interested in continuing to take boxing.  They left in the middle of the class.  One of them double backed to me to explain their twin didn't like jumping rope because they couldn't get the hang of it.  "What the . . .?" I thought to myself.  Neither of the twins showed much enthusiasm for anything in class from day one.  The sport is just not a good fit for everyone, no matter how much a parent or guardian may think it is for their kids.

Elijah finally showed up to class yesterday (he signed up weeks ago), but again, there was the issue of not being able to show up every day.  "I'm not sure if I can get him here every day," his mother told me.  He wasn't there today.  One reason I know for the absences is that Elijah attends summer camp, but not at LaFollette.  It takes a while to get over to boxing from that other camp which is a good distance away.   I learned from Elijah that there's no coach at Seward Park now; Elijah had previously trained over there.  Allegedly, Mike resigned right before the summer session began.

Aarav was missing, too.  He can only come to the gym two days out of the week and today was supposed to be one of the days.  Like Elijah, Aarav was training at a different gym, too; he was at Sheridan Park.  I'm beginning to wonder how often Aarav was showing up there.

For all intents and purposes, I have no teen or adult class in operation.  I dropped Kierra after her parents never responded to voice mails I left about her non-attendance.  Savannah has yet to show up to the gym.  The two adults bowed out early.  One of them was Yamira's dad; her mother told me they signed up their daughter for something else, which is why she never showed up for the summer session.  The other guy told me the gym was a bit out of his way; maybe that should have occurred to the guy before paying his money.

None of the kids have been showing up for the past few Saturdays.  That's an issue because sparring is set for that day, and we're in the midst of the weekly boxing shows.  I don't know how the ones who keep telling me they want fights -- namely Damaris, Kayla, and Anayah -- think that's going to work out for them if they don't spar. Elijah and Aarav are already ready out of the running because they can't show up regularly to class.  It looks like Lael will never get a fight, either, for lack of regular attendance, too.

On the upside . . . well, there isn't one right now.

No Sparring For The Coach

Alan arrived at the gym, spotted me and asked, "Are you the only one here?"  "No, Amy's here, too," I answered.  Andres and Paul came in but that was it for Monday evening. 

No sparring took place.  Paul told Alan he forgot his mouthpiece, which turned into a discussion of when and how often mouthpieces should be cleaned.  "I just rinse mine out," Alan said.  "I put mine in mouthwash.  Once in awhile, I take a toothbrush to it," I said.  "Why go through all that?  It's only going in my mouth," Alan said. 

There was a fight scheduled at Sheridan Park today, but it was rained out.  For some reason, it was going to be held outside.  The weather reports indicated rain all day, which was true.  I guess no one at Sheridan Park was watching the Weather Channel.  A rescheduled fight at Garfield Park did take place, but it was on a Thursday, and Andres wasn't able to participate in it because of the change of day.  Andres may get a fight at Fuller Park, which is coming up soon.

In the photo above, Alan held the punch mitts for Paul.  That's as close to sparring as Alan is going to get from here on in.  His right eye was fixed, but now his left eye needs to be worked on.  "I'm done with sparring.  I don't want to be walking around with a cane.  I'll be blind next if I'm not careful," he said.  I can't blame him.  But I'll miss our sparring sessions, and none of the guys will be able to play the "let's get a piece of the old man" game with him anymore.

Alan did work the heavy bags, however.  I held the black bag for him for a minute while he threw some hard hooks at it. 

I got on the black bag after Paul.  Last week, I was standing in one spot in front of the mirror throwing punches.  Alan came over to me and asked, "Where's the dancing?" so this week, I decided to make a conscious effort to move around more.  My lower back was bothering me, and so was the bottom of my left foot, but I pushed myself to keep dancing around the bags. 

There was a woman on Clark Street this morning who looked a lot like Sara, but I wasn't sure if it was her.  I was walking to work when I saw a brunette kiss a sandy-haired guy before they went their separate ways.  She didn't come to the gym on Monday.  I wanted to know if Sara had recovered from that darned I-don't-know-my-own-strength TKO punch I gave her last week. 

Alan and Andres did a burn out on the black heavy bag after Paul and I had did one.  Paul was counting "0, 1, 2, 3, 4" then calling out "Switch!" so the men could change places.  The fast pace tired both Alan and Andres out, and both were throwing hard punches each time it was their turn. 

Later, Alan showed me a picture of his son Matthew, whom I hadn't seen in awhile.  "Wow, Matt is swole!" I exclaimed, using a slang term that means bulked up.  Matt has been lifting weights; his arms were big and he looked good.  "Matt can throw me around the room easily.  But I told him that I have one more good fight in me!" Alan smiled.

Available To Fight

It was raining as I walked to the gym Monday night.  Carolyn was no where to be found when I got there, so everyone had to wait until Alan came in before we could get into the gym. 

Sparring was done between Jacob and Jimmy, Oscar and Jesus, and Sarah and myself.  I did get footage of Jacob and Jimmy, but I left my camera at the gym.  I'll post that up later this Wednesday.  Sparring continues to be a dicey dance because half of the ropes are still down on the ring.  I did do a better job of catching some of Sarah's punches before they reached my face this time. 

There's a boxing show at Sheridan Park this Friday; Alan asked some of us did we want to fight there.  "If someone is available, sure I'll fight," I told him.  That's the key word where I'm concerned -- available.  The guys are usually able to get fights, and some of the women who are younger than I are able to get bouts.  I have some factors that are not in my favor: being female (there doesn't seem to be a lot of women fighting via the Chicago Park District gyms), being short, and being older.  This may be my last year as a competitor, so I'm going for whatever opportunities there may be for me to step into the ring.

Soldier Diva

Alan was telling Josh that he has to decide what he wants out of boxing.  He noticed me holding the pads for Josh earlier.  He suggested that Josh be more focused about executing punches.  Josh has to remember the the numbers of the punches, too, and that does take time.  It took me a minute to remember that one equals the left jab, and two equals the right, and so forth, when I first started.  "Hillari's a good trainer," Josh told Alan.

"She's always willing to spar.  I ask her each time if she's ready, and she always says 'yep'.  She's a soldier," Alan told him.  I have had a few  off nights where I didn't spar because I'm wasn't feeling well, or I was sore from the last sparring session.  But I'd rather spar most times when I'm in the gym.  Not long ago, I heard Alan saying that a person must spar in order to get the technique down.  That is especially true if one plans to compete.  I didn't spar often when Steve was running the gym.  I wasn't getting fights then, but now that I have been, I see the benefits of a good sparring session.  Each time I'm in the ring, I learn that I need to always be in the mode of improving. 

Evangelina and I had a good sparring session last night that lasted three and a half rounds (we started in the middle of the first round).  She got a few good clean rights to my face, and executed some other good combinations to my head.  I did get a right in, and a couple of hooks.  "Does she hit harder than Meg?" Alan asked, referring to the woman I had two fights with late last year.  "No, Meg hits harder," I answered, but Evangelina is no slouch in that department. 

Anthony showed off a pair of new gloves he brought from Ringside.  They gave him a good deal because of some discoloration on the gloves.  After using them to spar with Eric, he said the gloves felt good.

Jamil sparred with Ralphie, and kept getting caught in the corners.  Alan barked at Jamil not to do that, but it kept happening.  At one point, Alan threw up his hands in frustration.  I noticed blood on Jamil's shirt after that, but I couldn't tell who was bleeding.  Jamil joked that it was blood from Carlos (who didn't sign up for the summer session).  "Ralphie whipped me up," Jamil grinned.  

A look at the Park District boxing show schedule listed a show at Sheridan Park tonight, but Alan had plans for some of us to go to Garfield Park next week.  There aren't many women who fight out of that field house, from what I remember.  But I'm sure that a few of the guys can get matched up. 

"You gotta keep Wednesdays and Thursdays open," Paulette told me the other day when I said I wouldn't be attending the church's Family Nights (Vacation Bible School).  Thursdays are when the choir practices, although they aren't doing so now because it's summer.  Maybe, just maybe, I might consider going to Family Nights if it a) was scheduled on another night other than Wednesday and b) it wasn't inundated with kids.  When I miss time in the gym for various reasons (illness, church functions, school, etc.), I feel off that week.  It's true that boxing has an addictive quality to it.