Training After Memorial Day

The gym was closed for Memorial Day, so we only had one day this past week to get our boxing on.  In the above photo, Alan spars with Kenny.  Alan has continued to use the headgear that Kevin left behind.  He's always good about wiping it out and down before giving it back to me to put away in my locker.  He asked if I wanted to wear it.  Maybe the next time I spar, I will, even though that headgear seems to be more claustrophobic than the one I normally use.

Sebastian came back to the gym, and he told us that the hospital procedure on his finger was successful.  But still, he has to be careful with it for the next several weeks.  The finger was dislocated while Sebastian and Emmanuel were wrestling in the ring.  Sebastian had Emmanuel in what looked like a rear naked choke, but Emmanuel knew how to get out of it.  Unfortunately, Sebastian's finger was injured in the process.

Sebastian did some light sparring drills with his younger brother Gabriel, as seen in this photo here.

Kenny, the guy standing in the middle in the dark shirt, gave the brothers some tips as they worked on the drills.  Kenny and I have yet to do the sparring drill where we only use our left jabs and hooks.  Either we don't get to do it because time slips away quickly, or Kenny is not in the gym that day.

Kenny was moving rather quickly during his time in the ring with Alan.  Both of them had to watch out for the middle of the canvas.  That line on the canvas floor in this photo is actually duct tape that holding down the part of the canvas that is coming loose.  The duct tape is not going to solve that issue for very long.  People keep tripping over it every time they spar.

Alan kept noticing that while Sarah and I were in the ring, she held her hands down.  Not all the way down at her sides, but down enough that her head wasn't protected most of the time.  Alan told me to jab my way in, then let loose with hooks.  That was easier said than done.

I took a hit to my right eye during one of the rounds.  There's always that moment while my eye rolls around and tries to readjust to seeing clearly.  Well, clearly enough without my glasses.  I remembered to keep my hands up after that.  Many of the hooks I threw missed Sarah completely.  She had skipped away long before my punches got halfway to her location.

After two rounds with Sarah, Alan had me come out of the ring, and he put Lania in.

Lania has some solid punches, but she turns her head away when a punch is thrown back at her, as seen in this photo.

I got back in the ring to spar with Lania, and I seriously had to watch it.  Lania's hard punches landed mostly in my face on my head.  She continued to turn away every time I threw a punch whether it landed or not.  Lania began to tire out, and her hands dropped.  Both Alan and I encouraged Lania to finish out the round.  I eased back on throwing punches.

Emmanuel came in with his adorable daughter Enjoli.  She's sitting on the rail in the background of this picture.  I was a little surprised to learn that she's nine years old.  I remember when she was the cute baby that her father used to bring with him when he visited the gym.  Emmanuel is giving a kickboxing class in June, and I'm planning to attend.

Speaking of cute babies, there was one such baby I remembered seeing 27 years ago while I stood with my late sister in an adoption agency.  My sister had signed the papers, and as the years went by, my hopes of seeing the child again dimmed.  But I never forgot about her.  Over the Memorial Day weekend, I was reunited with her again via the magic of Facebook, and the help of my sister's other daughter (who had also been given up for adoption).  One of the first things she noticed when I friended her on Facebook were the pictures I put up.  "Wow, Auntie!  You box?  That's cool!"  she wrote.