Finally Getting A Left Hook To Work

Alan observes Fred and St. Louis as they spar in the photo above.  It was a quiet night in the gym, which sorted suited me fine.  It had not been a good day.  I had jury duty at the Cook County Courthouse, known locally as "26th and California".  The County Jail sits next to it.  A cop and I got into it over my kubotan key ring.  For the second time in two years, I had another non-lethal weapon (which is supposedly legal to carry in Illinois) taken from me.  I was even more pissed that not only were kubotans NOT on the list of items not allowed in the court building, but the county cops overlooked the Mace in my purse.  I had told them it was there, and I was prepared to relinquish that (I had forgotten to take it out of my coat pocket before I left home).  The X-ray apparently didn't catch it, and they didn't look too closely inside my purse.  I should have NEVER been able to get into the building with that.  The Mace could do more damage than the kubotan.  Don't worry, I've already written a sarcastic letter to the Court Clerk.  It'll be in the mail tomorrow.

Most of the sparring was done by Sebastian, St. Louis, and Fred.  There was a bit of a scare when Fred was in the ring for a second time with St. Louis.  Fred hunched over and told Alan, "I can't breathe, man!"  He didn't finish the round, and Sebastian stepped in.  Minutes later, I walked down to the water fountain to fill the water bottles, and Fred was leaning over the fountain.  "Are you okay?" I asked.  "Yeah," he said, but it took a little while for him to recover.

Sarah and I sparred, and something happened that rarely does: I tagged Sarah with a left hook.  Most of the time, I was doing what I normally do, which is go for body shots.  Alan kept telling me to bend my knees and get those body shots in.  I got in a straight right to her mid-section, and when she dropped her hands, I came up with a left hook that connected.  "Whoa! Nice! I bet you can't do that again," Alan said.  I was very surprised that I did get it in, and no, I couldn't get in any hooks after that.

After sitting all day at the courthouse, and not getting picked for a jury, I should have had more energy, but I didn't.  I was moving around alright during sparring, but when I was on the bags, I was slow.  When my energy is low, that's a good time to focus on something that needs improvement, like my left hook, for example.  I also worked on my overhand right, but it didn't feel like I was doing it correctly, even when I was looking at myself in the mirror.  People always see it coming from Mississippi when I spar with them.  I either need to improve it or just drop it from my punches.