Winter's Full House

In this photo, Alan stands in the middle of the ring as he shows techniques to the new people on the first day of the winter session.

There were the familiar faces like John, Paul, Lauren, Reif, Robert, Connor, and Kathy.  There were people who hadn't been in for awhile like Gabby and Erica.  There were a lot of new people including Andrew, who contacted me via this blog to get an idea of how the class would be. The place was packed. Robert asked me, "Is it always like this in January?" I confirmed that it was so.

I did a workout as much as my lower back would allow me.  During the last half of the class, I spent time with some of the new people like Sarah, Stephanie, and Kat, answering questions and helping out where I could.  I also listened closely to what Alan was telling the new people.  Sometimes, I feel I don't explain things well to the youths at LaFollette Park, so I try to pick up on better ways to communicate concepts.

Alan told some of the new women that they could spar with the other women in class including me.  But until I find out what is going on with my lower back, I'm restricting myself from sparring at Loyola Park for a while.  I'm not going to spar with the kids at LaFollette anymore, period.  They need to spar with those closer to their ages and speeds, and I don't need to take hits from the youngsters.  I just hope that Donovan and Maz don't start pulling a lot of disappearing acts this session, especially since at the moment, Ariel is the only girl in the teen class.  She's had the least sparring experience of all three, and she needs to have more.