Clumsiness Is What I Do

Stephanie (in the light blue top) and Dallas face off during a sparring session at Loyola Park in the photo above.  Dallas wasn't bad.  She's good on the long jabs and rights.  Stephanie was game for action, but she was covering up and backing up a lot.  Her punches need to be fully out there more.

I took a tumble to the floor after tripping over Drew's foot.  It wasn't his fault.  I was headed to Alan's desk.  Drew was working on a heavy bag and moving around.  I wasn't watching as he moved around the bag.  It took him, Matt, and Gabe to pick me up off of the floor.  Clumsiness is one of my traits.  I'm surprised that I haven't had more injuries at both Loyola and LaFollette because of that.

Alan informed everyone about a boxing show that will take place in Libertyville on the 25th of this month.  "It will be a nice tune-up fight for those who plan to compete in the Chicago Golden Gloves," he said.  The registration for the Golden Gloves takes place the weekend before the Libertyville fight.  So far, Gabe, Ben, and John have expressed interest in competing.  I hope Rojan is planning to compete, too.  As usual, I have no one who qualifies for the Gloves.  The teens I have aren't old enough, and I'm not expecting any sixteen and seventeen-year-olds to sign up for boxing lessons anytime soon.

In fact, I think the youths I have now are it for this winter session.  The kids' class is full, but only Tyler and James show up regularly.  However, those two continually show off their poor training routines.  Jada can only attend the class on Saturdays, so she can't participate in sparring nor will she be qualified to compete in any of the boxing shows.  Maz continues to be a no-show, and Ariel and Davante have been missing too many days also.  Donovan's schoolwork is threatening to take him out of the gym completely.  It looks as if it is not worth my time to promote the Chicago City-Wide Boxing Tournament anymore to the youths at this point.

Yesterday, I completed my boxing coach's certification online.  Alan was amazed that it took me less than a half-hour to do.  He actually went up to Sam's boxing gym a week or so go to sit in a certification clinic.  That took three and a half hours to complete.  It was so much easier, as well as efficient, to do that online at USA Boxing's web site.  People had been requesting to have the ability to do certification that way.  I'm glad that it is finally available.

I'm still a little bleary-eyed as I write this entry.  On Tuesdays, I've been attending a small group Bible study that meets at 6:00 AM.  The other small groups are meeting at times when I can't go, so that particular group was my best option.  Last night, I told Alan I had to go to bed early so I could get up on time.  "What would Jesus do?" he said, shaking his head.  I had to laugh.