Changing Up Headgear

I should have immediately gone to the washroom and got some paper towels not long after Nathaniel walked into the gym.  Nathaniel is becoming more aggressive in the ring (note the punch he gives to Gabriel in the above photo), but still getting hurt during each sparring session it seems.  It looked like Nathaniel also took some hits to his eye, which caused him to stop the sparring near the end of the third round that he and Gabriel were in the ring.

Gabriel was dancing around Nathaniel a lot and just popping hits out.  Nathaniel took some hard punches to his face, but Gabriel was paid back with a few hits.  It couldn't have been easy to get those in, because Gabriel has very long arms.

Kenny was complaining that his neck hurt.  It was probably from hits he took the last few times he sparred.  Some fighters have strong necks that can withstand punches that turn others' heads around backwards.  For those who don't have such necks, they can be built up via exercises that specifically work those muscles.  I have an neck exercise buried somewhere in my apartment, but when it was out where I could see it, I still wasn't using it as much as I should have.

Alan took this photo of Nathaniel and Gabriel shortly after they had finished sparring.  Nathaniel was rubbing his eyes, trying to see straight.

Sarah and I sparred, and I tried to use my left hook more.  But every time I tried to aim a left hook at Sarah's head, one of her long arms would block it.  I got some left hooks in on the body, but I love the right hand too much, so I was using that more.

Instead of using my own headgear, I tried out the umpire's mask type headgear that Kevin left behind in my locker a few years ago.  "You're not going to like that headgear," Alan told me as he put a pair of sparring gloves on me.  He was right.  The headgear made it impossible for me to talk because of the way it bumped up against my chin.  My peripheral vision was blocked to an extent, and on top of that, the headgear kept slipping.  It protected my face from a lot of Sarah's strong punches, but when she connected, the headgear got twisted around.  When the first round ended, Alan took that headgear off of me, and put one on me from the community ones on the rack in the gym.

Alan commented that Sarah and I were banging on each other while in the ring.  It did turn into another mini-war during the last round.  Sarah clocked me with a slapping right punch, and I kept coming in and ducking down to get direct body shots in.  

No Dante tonight.  Alan told Kenny that Dante finally signed up for Barry's boxing class, which was a good thing.  No one really minded Dante coming around, but Mary would have raised sand if he kept showing up in the adult class.  

Currently, my back is bothering me a little, and both knees are sore.  I slipped and fell while trying to catch Sarah with a right hook to the body during the last round of sparring we had.  I laughed at my own clumsiness.  But I'm paying for it now.  There's not enough Epsom salt left because I used that the other night in an attempt to nurse my left knee (which is still acting up on and off).  The Mineral Ice or Ben Gay will have to do in order for me to get a half-way decent night's sleep.

Spiderman and Gloves

"Just the little man I wanted to see," I said to Justin when he came in with his dad.  I presented him with the Spiderman action figure I found within a bag of toys that had been donated to my church the other day.  He played with it for part of the evening.  Justin showed it off to his dad, too.  "Did you say thank you?" Carlos asked him.  "Thank you!" Justin told me.

Carlos and I sparred, and I got caught with a jab to the face.  I was able to get him with several well-placed left and right hooks.  We only did one round, and I was beyond pooped out. 

While putting on gloves before I got into the ring with Carlos, I noticed the bag gloves did not have extra covering that comes down over the velco strap.  "Ah, that's one way to tell the difference between the bag gloves and the training gloves," I thought.  It also occurred to me that it has taken me several years to figure that out.  Yes, I can be a little slow on the draw, and that was long before I started taking hits to the head in boxing gyms.  Bag gloves are designed to go on and off easily.  Twelve ounce to twenty ounce gloves are common for training purposes.

Eight ounce and ten ounce gloves are used more for competition.  However, different sized boxers and boxers in different weight classes need different sizes of gloves. There are still not a lot of variety available for women who box.  Hopefully, as the sport grows more among females, there will be more gloves to choose from.

I invited Pastor and Virginia to come to the gym on any Monday, since they won't be able to go to my match in December.  Hopefully, when they do come in, I'll be sparring with someone so they can see me in action. 

Elvin and Chris sparred last night, and Elvin caught Chris with a huge punch to the face.  Chris fell back into the corner, and I saw that he tried to shake the cobwebs out of his brain.  "I saw where he got you with an uppercut while you were in the corner, too," I told Chris afterwards.  "An uppercut?  I couldn't tell. All of the punches felt the same to me," he said.