Coaching In Two Places

I was coaching more than I was working out at Loyola Park.  Marta needed help with a bobbing and weaving move that Alan had showed her the previous week.  She was a little frustrated with what she perceived as her slow progress, and she wanted to do better.  Marta practiced that move for the majority of the evening.  Alan told her he'd like to get her sparring at some point.

After weeks of mostly inactivity on my part, I was moving better while I was at Loyola.  I spent a lot of time on the double-end bag slipping and ducking.  When I returned to LaFollette Park the following day, I did some shadowboxing during the hour when the eight-to-twelve year olds are in the gym.  A lot of it I was doing to give James an example.  James is doing better, but he still needs to work on his footwork and general body movement.

I had a feeling I should check the class rosters.  Looks like someone slipped another kid into the eight-to-twelve year old class without telling me.  They also disregarded the fact -- again -- that the class was over the established limit of people that should be there.  I was glad that the latest kid didn't show up.  I'm in the middle of preparing whom I have on hand for the boxing shows.  I really don't have the time, nor interest, to deal with another person who is coming into the class nearly a month after it has already started.

The teen class is now full, and hopefully, other staff will respect the class limit (as well as the fact that the class is nearly halfway over) and not register anyone else.  Ben finally showed up to the gym, and brought along two of his cousins, Devin and Lacey, who are now signed up for the class.  Ben's father remained in the gym with them and ran them through a workout.

No adults bothered to show up for their class.  Instead, talky Elizabeth and her older sister Samaia decided to hang out in the gym to kill time until they had to go somewhere else.  Once again, I had to remind Elizabeth that she's not in the class, so she can't use the equipment (a conversation that I'm really tired of constantly having with her).  Elizabeth started talking about signing up for the class, like she always does, but she's not interested in sparring nor competing.  It was established back around the time the spring session began that her mother does not want her in the class.  Maybe Elizabeth thinks if she keeps bringing it up, her mom will magically change her mind.  I don't think that's going to happen.

I can accept the adults telling me they don't want to compete.  Most are just looking for a different type of exercise.  When I hear kids telling me they don't want to spar, they don't want to compete. . . .I'm sorry, but I wonder why they signed up for the class.  That's what the class is designed for -- to give youths the chance to show their skills.  My experience so far is if a kid is in the class for some other purpose other than competing, soon, I will have a bored, restless kid on my hands who won't have motivation to only do the workout.  A kid being bored and restless often leads to them disrupting the class which I'm not going to tolerate.

Maybe I shouldn't grumble.  At least I haven't had to deal much with the summer camp kids this time around, nor the wear and tear those kids had put on the gym last year.  So far, so good.