Wednesday, April 12, 2017
A City-Wide Mix Up
Yesterday, Ariel asked about signing up for the Chicago City-Wide Tournament. "The registration has passed," I told her. Besides, Ariel hadn't been around enough so we could make plans to sign up. Ariel didn't come in today but was hoping that Porsche will come in soon. Ariel wants to spar on Thursday if Porsche shows up because she's going out of town on Friday. So it looks as if she'll miss a week of training which is not a good situation. I have yet to see Porsche spar or fight so I don't know how she'll stack up against Ariel.
Today, Fermin, the coach at Harrison Park, called me, wondering why one of my fighters didn't show up for a match with one of his fighters at the City-Wide. I believe the fighter was Anthony, who is not one of my fighters, but one of Derek's North Lawndale Boxing League kids who signed up at my gym. For some reason, I had a feeling that something like this would happen. "I don't have Derek's phone number, but call Thomas (the head of the boxing program). He might have his number," I told Fermin. I was a little irritated to think that people down at the City-Wide probably assumed that one of my own fighters had backed out of a commitment.
Abraham and Itzcoatl have not shown up to the gym since last Friday. Alyssa and Mia have been gone for longer than a week. David was the only one who showed up. He wanted to spar but that's not possible when other kids don't keep their commitment to show up to class. I'm glad I didn't give any mouthpieces out because that might have been a wasteful thing to do. I've given out mouthpieces to those who dropped out of the class right after they got them. I've made the mistake of giving mouthpieces to those who said they were interested in signing up and did not, like Jayla, for example. Now I wait a couple of weeks into the session before I give mouthpieces out. But even that is no guarantee anyone is going to follow through with the class.
Monday, April 10, 2017
LaFollette Walkovers and Open Doors
Thomas emailed out a list of youths who signed up for the Chicago City-Wide Tournament (which takes place this week). Two of the kids signed up at LaFollette who are with Derek's North Lawndale Boxing League -- Blake and Porsche -- were listed as walkovers. They didn't get fights, so they won by default.
If Ariel had shown up to train more often, she could have been paired with Porsche. That ship has sailed, along with my chance of seeing any part of the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament this year. This was the first time in about 14 years that I missed going to the fights. I never made it to either John or Michael's bouts (and unfortunately, they both lost), and I had no one in the competition from my gym. Hopefully, the Chicago Park District boxing shows will turn out better.
In another bid to keep the destructiveness of the summer camp kids from touching the gym at LaFollette, I sent an email to Steve today requesting that the kids go to another room to get their snacks while camp is in session. I'm still trying to put together a senior aerobic boxing class for the summer. The last thing I or the seniors need is summer camp kids ripping and running in the gym and trashing it. The boxing program has been running for nearly three years now; it's long been time for the summer camp kids to stop using that room.
Late last week, I found my office/equipment room door standing wide open. No one knew who had been in there. In the email, I also asked Steve to remind those who have keys to that room to keep it locked. Summer is coming and brings a lot of people into the field house who are just roaming around. I can't run the boxing program if a majority of the equipment comes up missing.
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
Four For Spring
Abrahant and Itzcoatl showed up about twenty minutes late on this first day of the spring session. The two brothers and their father said the bus bringing the boys home was late. "Okay, I understand being late. What I don't want is people showing up one day then missing the next several days," I told them. Alyssa and Mia were late, too, arriving with their mother about ten minutes after the boys did.
Despite that, the class was pleasant. The kids seemed eager to learn, and I made the decision not to show them everything on the first day. Today we went over the one-two combination (jab, right) and basic footwork. Tomorrow, I'll introduce the hooks, and the day after that, the uppercut. No sparring until next week and the kids will have to buy mouthpieces unless I either find some in another storage room in the field house or the ones I requested to be ordered come in.
I distinctly remember telling Ariel that today was the first day of the spring session after she erroneously showed up last week. Considering that Porshe can only come to the gym one or two days out of the week, neither need to miss out on catching each other. No teens showed up today. Ariel and Porshe don't know it yet, but unless some more teenage girls sign up for the class, they are going to have to be each other's main sparring partner for the entire session.
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