No Strike, But Plenty of Misses

The Chicago Park District just barely avoided dealing with a strike.  Unfortunately, the Chicago Public Schools did not; their strike has been going on since last week.  Usually, the park district gets an overflow of youths needing activities to occupy their time while school is not in session.  However, the field house has been quiet and attendance in my boxing program has not gone up.

There was another sign-up yesterday, but I'm not sure what to make of that.  Amy is a 16-year-old who signed up for exercise purposes.  She's in a program at her school where she'll receive a good grade if she can show that she completed 50 hours of a fitness program.  This is the seventh week of the fall session.  Amy doesn't realize that she is not going to get all of her hours done before the session ends at the end of November.  I'm not keeping the gym open during the long break before the winter session begins in January.

Caiden still can't shut up when needed, and Keon and Keith keep allowing themselves to be distracted by their cousin.  I'm also tired of Caiden pestering Ivan to spar with him, something Ivan is not interested in doing.  Hamlin Park's boxing show is this week.  "Those kids at Hamlin will be ready for you all.  Y'all have to be ready for them," I told the boys.  Keon made a statement that hinted that doing a boxing match may not be something he can do.  Keith hasn't really shown much enthusiasm about the boxing show.  Caiden keeps thinking that street fighting skills are going to transfer into the ring.  I have a feeling that Caiden is going to lose another match.

I've given up on Ivan.  Now he's telling me that his swimming class only meets once a week.  Ivan has to leave in the middle of the boxing class to go to the pool.  But that does not explain Ivan's other absences from class.  Two of the staff members gave me funny looks when I got on Ivan about his attendance, but please - I'm not studying that, as my paternal grandmother used to say.  For any of the park district programs to work, people need to attend them on a regular basis.  Besides, Ivan doesn't have much interest in the sport. 

David and Vanessa keep strolling into class late.  It doesn't matter so much with Vanessa, as she has said she doesn't want to fight.  She also misses one day out of each week due to a swimming class, and she's absent often due to school activities.  It still ticks me off that her people pushed for her to be registered in the class knowing that she couldn't fully participate.  David, on the other hand, never does a full class because of leaving early every day to do competitive swimming.  Here lately, David keeps asking about sparring and appearing in boxing shows. I remember that David's dad doesn't want his son to fight.  David keeps forgetting that.  I informed David that fighting is something he'll never get to do as long as he's doing twenty minutes of my program and running off to the pool.  If his dad changes his mind, he'll have to personally let me know. 

The teen class is now full - at least on paper - with the addition of Amy.  The younger kids' class has seven kids, but only four of them show up.  Five people are signed up for the adult class, and Alex was the only one showing up.  But Alex has not been there for over a week.  I don't believe that Alex will be there anymore.

Sahia has been MIA, as well.  I don't have a cell phone plan with unlimited minutes, so I make very few calls.  An email was sent to her some time ago, but I've heard no news. I can only hope that all is well.

Trash Talking and Registration

There are plenty of professional female boxers that The Ring could have put on its front cover, not just this year, but in years prior.  Laila Ali, Ann Wolfe, Ana Julaton. . . .the list goes on and on.  Instead, Ronda Rousey, a MMA star, gets the cover because she's popular at the moment, and she's interested in boxing.

But then she faced Holly Holm, a former professional boxer who switched over to MMA, most likely because of more pay, and hopefully, more recognition.  Rousey lost in a stunning upset in the second round.  Rousey's usual trash-talking apparently did nothing to intimidate Holm.  I'm not here to bash Rousey.  She is good in her sport of choice.  But most MMA fighters don't have a good hand game or good ring generalship, both of which Holm has.  I'm hoping The Ring magazine -- which has hinted that they may "open the door" to more MMA coverage -- thinks long and hard about giving press to a sport that has nothing to do with boxing.

Now that I have the correct dates for the winter boxing classes, I will put in a request for a flyer to be made.  I'm going to include a line that states I will not take any new students once the winter session passes the halfway mark.  This current fall session is the last time I'm dealing with those who wait several weeks before deciding to sign up.  The less disruptions I have to deal with in the gym, the better.  I'm not a Chicago Public Schools teacher; I don't have to alter my lesson plans to allow students who are behind in their grades to play catch up.

In the case of the adults, it even makes less sense to allow someone to pay their money for a class that is halfway over.  The cost of the class will not be prorated, and the adults will have to turn around in a short time to pay the fee again for the next session.  I'd rather not have to deal with grumbling adults about that.