Wednesday Before The Show

Natalia (I hope I'm spelling her name right) is seen here on the red heavy bag.  She told me that she wants to see how the workout goes first before she makes any decisions about sparring.  The guy in the green next to the rack is Marcus, who signed up again for the gym.  Alan can be seen in the background standing next to his desk.

Speaking of the desk, I really took notice of Igor changing his clothes at the desk.  Alan was standing right there, and Igor just took over the space like he owned it.  Before we all got inside the gym, I was at the front desk telling Mary that I wouldn't be able to sing the National Anthem for the boxing show because I was going to be late getting there this year.  Igor rudely interrupted us to get Mary's attention.  She kindly told him to wait his turn.

Tall John and I sparred first, and he wore a body protector to ward off my right hooks to the body.  But the body protector also helped me to focus on throwing left hooks to the body, which I don't do often.  Tall John gave me some very good advice:  I'm always dropping my left hand, leaving myself wide open for incoming straight rights, so I need to glue my left hand to my head.  I also bend down too far when delivering hooks, so that I don't see what else is coming at me.  I caught myself doing that before John pointed it out.  He told me that my strategy should be to lull the other boxer (if I get a fight on Friday, that is) into expecting that I'm going to throw the same punches and combinations for two rounds, then totally switch up my punches in the third round.

Bearded John sparred with Matthew.  I told Alan, "John keeps throwing both of his hands."  "I know," Alan replied, "but John is game. . . .he's hanging in their with Matthew."

It surprised me when Alan told me that George, the coach over at Garfield Park, said he had a female opponent for me.  George seldom has any females over at his gym.  I've only seen one fight between females at a Garfield Park boxing show, and that was several years ago.  George also mentioned that he has some guys to bring over to Loyola as well.

Alicia and a friend of hers came to get a look at the gym.  Alicia works in the office of the foot doctor I used to see back when I used to have health insurance.  She's really been working hard to lose weight and change her eating habits.  She takes an aerobics class at Loyola Park.  Alicia liked what she saw when she observed what was going on the gym.  "I want to sign up!" she grinned.  Her friend seems to be interested as well.  I told them that there's still room to sign up.  Alicia has been talking about taking up boxing for a long time, and I hope she tries it out.

Amy came to the gym to workout.  "Where's Sarah?" Alan asked.  "She still plans to return to boxing," Amy said.  It's always nice to see Amy, but it would also be nice to see Sarah.  It's been a long time since she's been in the gym.

I tried to get as good of a shot of this old newspaper article from the early 1970's as I could.  The headline reads, "Mesa Boxer Back Flips Over Win".  The picture accompanying the article is of a twenty-two year old young man with a full head of hair and very nice abs.  The young man in the picture is Alan.  Alan used to be a gymnast back in the day, which explains how he was able to do a back flip in the ring.  When he taped the article up on the wall, he grinned and said, "I want some recognition, too."

Matthew's getting better in the ring.  He also sparred with Alan.  Now there were a few times when Matthew took some hits because his hands were down, but Matthew returned some good punches back.  Matthew accidentally popped Alan on the back.  I was watching the action.  Matthew caught my eye and said, "Sorry!"  I laughed when I pointed out to Matthew that an illegal punch had been thrown.  Alan had turned at the wrong time, which was why the punch landed the way it did.  Later in the round, Alan was backing up to avoid Matthew advancing on him.  Alan slipped and fell into the ropes.  When Alan recovered, he backed Matthew into a corner with punches, but the younger man spun out of the corner and away from being hemmed in.

I left my gear in my locker at the gym.  There was no need to lug it all home considering the boxing show is on Friday.  I'll just take it home after the show.  Maybe this weekend, I'll remember to wash all of my hand wraps.