Finally Getting A Left Hook To Work

Alan observes Fred and St. Louis as they spar in the photo above.  It was a quiet night in the gym, which sorted suited me fine.  It had not been a good day.  I had jury duty at the Cook County Courthouse, known locally as "26th and California".  The County Jail sits next to it.  A cop and I got into it over my kubotan key ring.  For the second time in two years, I had another non-lethal weapon (which is supposedly legal to carry in Illinois) taken from me.  I was even more pissed that not only were kubotans NOT on the list of items not allowed in the court building, but the county cops overlooked the Mace in my purse.  I had told them it was there, and I was prepared to relinquish that (I had forgotten to take it out of my coat pocket before I left home).  The X-ray apparently didn't catch it, and they didn't look too closely inside my purse.  I should have NEVER been able to get into the building with that.  The Mace could do more damage than the kubotan.  Don't worry, I've already written a sarcastic letter to the Court Clerk.  It'll be in the mail tomorrow.

Most of the sparring was done by Sebastian, St. Louis, and Fred.  There was a bit of a scare when Fred was in the ring for a second time with St. Louis.  Fred hunched over and told Alan, "I can't breathe, man!"  He didn't finish the round, and Sebastian stepped in.  Minutes later, I walked down to the water fountain to fill the water bottles, and Fred was leaning over the fountain.  "Are you okay?" I asked.  "Yeah," he said, but it took a little while for him to recover.

Sarah and I sparred, and something happened that rarely does: I tagged Sarah with a left hook.  Most of the time, I was doing what I normally do, which is go for body shots.  Alan kept telling me to bend my knees and get those body shots in.  I got in a straight right to her mid-section, and when she dropped her hands, I came up with a left hook that connected.  "Whoa! Nice! I bet you can't do that again," Alan said.  I was very surprised that I did get it in, and no, I couldn't get in any hooks after that.

After sitting all day at the courthouse, and not getting picked for a jury, I should have had more energy, but I didn't.  I was moving around alright during sparring, but when I was on the bags, I was slow.  When my energy is low, that's a good time to focus on something that needs improvement, like my left hook, for example.  I also worked on my overhand right, but it didn't feel like I was doing it correctly, even when I was looking at myself in the mirror.  People always see it coming from Mississippi when I spar with them.  I either need to improve it or just drop it from my punches.

Fighting In Cicero

This photo of Brandy after she warmed up on the punch mitts is from last year's Golden Gloves.  It was held at Gordon Tech High School.  This year, it's at a new venue, Cicero Stadium, a field house that is part of the Cicero, Illinois park district.  Alan couldn't go to the matches last night, but I went because two people I know - Metzger and Eric - competed.

It took me over two hours to get there.  I was poking around at my apartment, and I left late.  When I finally got to Cicero via the Chicago Transit Authority, my poor sense of direction delayed me finding the place.  Cicero Stadium is okay, but it's a little smaller than Gordon Tech's gym.  It's way smaller than St. Andrews' Gym where the Chicago Golden Gloves were held for decades.  I know that parking at St. Andrews was a problem, and that's one reason why the Gloves aren't held there anymore.  They had a small lot, and finding parking close on the street was difficult.  But the atmosphere seemed more charged at St. Andrews than it was at Gordon Tech or Cicero Stadium.  St. Andrews had history with the sport; the other two venues don't.

I arrived just in time to catch Eric's match.  The weight class for his match was in the 112 pound category.  He and the other guy were about even in the first round, with the other guy throwing a few more punches, but near the end of the second round, Eric used his long arm reach to pin the other boxer in the corner.  In the end, the judges felt the other guy was more aggressive, and Eric lost the match.

Metzger had a time with the guy he fought.  The other guy kept banging away, and Metzger had an eight count called on him twice.  The judges' decision wasn't in his favor, either.  On Facebook, Metzger thanked everyone who came out to see his fight.

Most of the trophies and belts were handed out to the winners by current and former professional boxers.  A guy stepped into the ring with a small boy in his arms to give out one of the awards.  The guy wasn't the celebrity.  Instead, the little boy was the focus: the kid was the grandson of Muhammad Ali.  One of his younger daughters, the boy's mom, smiled proudly at ringside.

There were a couple of female boxing matches.  As I watched them, I made my usual wish that I could compete in the Gloves, but I know those days have past.

I saw a lot of familiar faces, including Alan the judge, Celestino who had refereed at last week's Battle of the Badges, Rico, who was in attendance at that match, and Percy, who always works the glove table.  It was a nice time.  The best match of the night was the very last one, the 19th one, I believe.  Those two guys really took it to each other, and they got a standing ovation when it was over.

The Gloves are always a long night.  It took about an hour and a half for me to get back to my apartment.  I got home in time to watch "The Jack Benny Program".  That comes on at 1:00 AM.

Interviews and Rounds

All of the women present in the gym except for Amy, sparred: myself, Sarah, Vachel, and Lania (I still don't think I have the spelling of her name right).  I sparred with Sarah, Vachel, and also with Colonel, who was in the mix.  Vachel sparred with Sarah, and just like me, ran into the two challenges of Sarah being tall and having a long arm reach.  Alan told her that she had to go for Sarah's body, just like I did when I was in the ring.

Lania looked good in the ring against Colonel.  She kept her stance and her hands up the entire time.  "Dad, stop dropping your right and stop raising your feet!" Kenny told him from the sidelines.  Before he went into the ring with Sarah, Colonel told me, "Really give me a critique afterwards.  I don't give a s&*t, because I'm too old to be embarrassed."  Colonel was pawing at Sarah and Lania a lot of times.  Sarah backed him up against the ropes, and Colonel could have got some punches in to her middle, because Sarah's hands were way out.

Louis and St. Louis went in for several rounds.  St. Louis has got some moves like Kenny, and it was no wonder - Kenny had trained him in the past.  Louis would go in on St. Louis, but he'd take his eyes off of him, and not see the quick shots that came back at him.  They took a rest, then went back in.  Vachel commented that Louis looked tired.  It appeared that St. Louis was getting in more punches, while Louis wasn't throwing too many back.

In the above photo, Sebastian runs some drills with Louis using the punch mitts.  Sebastian's brother, Gabriel, is off in one corner watching them.

The gym was pretty busy tonight.  Alan mentioned to Gabriel later that in another week or so, it probably wouldn't be that many people coming in.  Several were not present, including Josh, who true to his word, did sign up for the gym.  I noticed a few people hanging around outside the gym door, craning their necks to see what was going on.  As the weather starts to get warmer, the "looky-loos" show up more often.  One woman had a exercise mat in her hand.  She had a look on her face that said she had wandered into the wrong room; the yoga class meets upstairs in the field house.

I learned that Colonel was also at the Battle of the Badges match last Friday.  He was sitting ringside next to the ring doctor and among the boxing judges and top brass of the police and fire departments.  I don't know how I could have missed him.  "You should have called me!  We could have met up there," he said.

Amy and Sarah had their usual workout with the medicine balls -- something I need to start doing again -- in the back of the gym.  Every time I see the two sisters together, I often imagine what it would have been like if my younger sister had lived long enough. She might have been good at it, but I couldn't see Cynthia actually signing up to take boxing lessons.  She thought I was crazy for participating in the sport.  But she might have visited the gym several times just to see what was going on.

A Television major from my alma mater, Columbia College, came in to do interviews with people.  He had a ten page project to do for a class.  Alan, myself, and Colonel all helped him out.

Alan and I might go to the first night of the Chicago Golden Gloves finals tomorrow night.  The final battles at the Gloves are usually the most entertaining and the most intense.

Pulling Punches and Going Light

Professor stopped in briefly; he's going to sign up for the gym soon.  Others in attendance were St. Louis and Gabriel (the two guys sparring in the photo above), Nathaniel, Igor, Vachel, Casey, Travis, Doug, Lania,  Walter, and Fred.

Vachel asked me to take it easy before we sparred, and I did.  But I still got in some body shots and a couple of hooks.  "Hit her back!" Alan kept telling her.  Vachel did get a couple of good punches to my forehead.  After the first round ended, Vachel told Alan she was tired.  He told her to keep her hands up, but she answered it was hard to do.  We only did one more round.  Casey and Lania watched with interest.

Later, I got in one more round, this time with Lania.  Alan tried to convince Casey to spar, but she said, "No, not until I know what I'm doing!"  Lania and I only went one round, but she hits hard.  She was also very good at blocking my lefts and rights.  Several times, I put jabs out there only to have them be decisively knocked down.  Both Vachel and St. Louis advised her to take things slow.  Lania was not wearing a mouthpiece, so I had to be very careful where I was aiming my punches and go light.

Alan was telling Casey that Vachel didn't want to spar at first, but "now she loves it!"  Most of the women who've been in the gym since Alan took over as coach have tried sparring at least once.  Most of them found not bad at all.  This is how I know that Alan is a good salesman at his day job, because he's had a high success rate of convincing women to get into the ring who may not have otherwise.

I've been losing a decent amount of weight.  It started when I had to take an at-home colon test.  One of the first things those of us over 50 are told to do is to get our colons checked, so I finally took that step. I'll spare people the details of what I had to do for the test -- which I turned in to the doctor's office today -- but I will divulge that I had to watch what I ate while participating in it.  I couldn't have red meat or pork, for example.  I did eat a lot of vegetables, fish and chicken, I drank a lot of water, and as usual, I watched my sugar and salt intake.  The scale read 176 pounds the last time I checked it.  I'm still a bit too hefty for my height, but that's a better number than when I was at my heaviest, which was 210 pounds.  I'm going to try my best to keep the momentum going.

Cops vs. Firefighters

The photo above is from Halloween, 2011, and Colonel is the guy in the middle wearing the suit.  Colonel is retired from the Chicago Fire Department.  He encouraged me to attend the Battle of Badges boxing match, which took place Friday night.  It was held at De La Salle Institute, a Catholic high school on the south side of the city.  "The event is usually standing room only!" Colonel told me earlier this week.  He wasn't kidding.

I got there early enough to get a seat on the bleachers, and to see the under card matches.  All of those bouts featured youths who fight through the Chicago Park District.  Jimmy Ray was doing the announcing.  He named all of the Park District boxing gyms, and mentioned a few times that kids can learn to box for free.  Finally, he mentioned that adults can train at those gyms, too.

The color guards of both the Chicago Police and the Chicago Fire Department were presented before the main event matches began. Bagpipes and drums were played. Posthumous awards were given to several police officers and firefighters.

Ten fights between the cops and firefighters took place after that, and the atmosphere got charged up.  People in the audience took sides.  Cops booed the firefighters and visa versa.   The referees got cursed out, too.  One of them, Celestino, gave a boxer an eight count after what looked like a slip, and most in the audience cried foul.  Most of the fights were wild slug fests, and the rounds weren't more than a minute or two.

One of the loudest uproars took place at the very end.  It was announced that the cops won five fights and the firefighters won five fights, so there was a draw.  Since the firefighters won more fights the year before, the championship trophy would remain with them.

Quiet At The Office, Quiet In The Gym

Normally, I haven't been wishing for work days at church to end quickly, but I did today.  Other than a meeting about identifying what maintenance needs the church has, Pastor and I still didn't have much to say to each other.  After Ken and Burk, who were also in that meeting, left, the church was very quiet.  It was just as well because I needed to think about some other things I need to deal with, at work and at home.

One of the other matters I need to deal with is my habit of being a bit lazy during training at the gym.  I didn't spar today because no one was available.  Alan teased Amy about sparring, Vachel didn't want to, and mostly everybody else in the gym were the new people who are not ready to spar just yet.  I shadow boxed and worked the bags, pushing myself to do a little more than I have been lately.  

However, brothers Sebastian (on the left) and Gabriel (on the right) were ready to go.  They have training in Muay Thai boxing, which explained why they seemed so comfortable in the ring.  

They were talking a lot with Louis, who got into the ring with Sebastian for a few rounds.  Later in the evening, Sebastian was telling Louis that he was about going to college right now.  "I'm 28 years old, and I'm just now trying to get a degree," he said.  "Don't feel bad.  I was 35 when I finally got my degree," I told him.  "I'm serious about getting my education, but in classes with mostly 19-year-olds who don't want to be there.  You know how it is," Sebastian said, and I nodded.  Sometimes, having to coordinate and complete class projects with some younger students whose minds were more on partying and playing around was a major challenge.

It was so quiet in the gym that at one point, Vachel started clapping her hands as she commented on the lack of sound.  "That must mean that everybody is really working out," she laughed.  Colonel wasn't there, so we didn't have his music, so we had to turn on the radio and put up with the bad hip-hop and rap that's played on WGCI.  

Josh came in late, as usual, but he surprised me by announcing that he signed up for the gym.  I know Alan had been admonishing Josh about getting that done for awhile.  He arrived just in time to see Sebastian and Gabriel going another round in the ring, and he immediately took interest.

The Portage Park field house allegedly has a beautiful new boxing gym with new equipment, but no coach to run the program.  I called to see what was up, and I was told they don't want to run the gym with volunteers at the moment, they want the Chicago Park District to hurry up and hire a coach.  Maybe if that gets listed on the job section of their web site -- I haven't seen it yet -- I'll apply for it.  A friend of mine, Eva, stopped in the gym and told me she had inquired about having boxing in the field house over in Willie White Park.  Eva sits on the advisory boards of Loyola Park and White Park.  There's no space for a boxing gym at White Park.  "That would have been great because you could have been over there working with the kids in that type of program," she told me.

Nathaniel (in the red shorts; Casey, one of the new people, is on the right) asked if anyone in the gym was in the Golden Gloves.  I explained about how Andre was going to compete until his first fight was scheduled in conflict with a class he had to be in that evening.  Kevin is also supposed to be competing, but like I told Nathaniel, Alan and I haven't seen him in weeks.

I showed Casey how to throw the jab and the cross.  We discovered she's a southpaw.  I also gave Bean some pointers on the speed bag, and he seemed to pick up the concept quickly.  Lenia (I hope I have the spelling right) and Ashley took one look at the bag and begged off learning it how to use it for the moment.  "We're not that advanced yet," Lenia laughed.  

Doug, another new person in the gym, takes on the heavy bag in this photo.

Here's my newly remodeled office at work.  Today was a secretarial work day, and I was happy, even though I don't have a new desk or file cabinet yet, to stay in my office and away from Pastor.  In case you're wondering, I don't think he reads this blog, but some others from church do from time to time.  Even if Pastor does, he already knows from my demeanor in the office that I'm still pissed, so what I write here won't be a surprise to him.  

This is another shot of the office facing the entry door.  It's going to look very nice once everything is organized.  I've toyed with the idea of putting up boxing pictures like I used to have in my old office at the social service agency.  

Four Rounds, Three People

The beginning of the Spring session saw six new people in the gym.  Don't ask me their names, because I didn't catch any of them.  Maybe in the next post, I will have gotten a few or all of them.

Louis wondered, "Where are the other coaches?"  "Alan's the only coach in here," I answered, which was partially true.  Alan is the only person there who is actually employed by the Chicago Park District.  I'm a registered amateur boxing coach with USA Boxing, but I'm a volunteer at the gym.  Colonel coaches jiu jitsu and boxing, but at other gyms, and Kenny is not an official coach, but he does that job very well.

Colonel and I sparred one round, and he sparred another with Sarah.  Colonel is determined to work his way up to being able to do three rounds back-to-back again.  I suspect that back in the day, Colonel could probably do way more rounds than that.

Colonel was doing a lot of slick moves in regards to avoiding punches while sparring with both Sarah and myself.  I have to admit that was a bit lazy in the ring.  I was a little tired, and I wasn't throwing punches with a whole lot of force.  But I did pressure Colonel a little more, by backing him up into the corners, and I kept trying to use left hooks (to no avail) on Sarah.

I've gotten down to 178 pounds.  I opted to do an at-home colon test (I'm over 50 so I have to do those types of tests now), and I couldn't eat beef or pork for awhile.  The test is done, but I'm going to see how long I can continue to go without eating the heavier meats for awhile.  I'll never be a vegetarian, but since I've seen the weight loss results of cutting down on the meat and pushing the veggies and fruits more, I'm going to keep that going for awhile.

The Colonel and I

I often have my MP3 player on as I walk to the gym.  The song, "Monkey On A String" by Ethel Smith came on, and I smiled to myself.  Those my age and older who grew up in Chicago would instantly recognize the song as the theme of "Garfield Goose and Friends", a popular local kids' show that ran from the mid 1950's to the mid 1970's.  I had never known the name of the song until I heard it played on a program on Loyola University's radio station - "The Comedy Express" - over a week ago.  I found it on iTunes and brought it.  Happy memories of myself and my late younger siblings watching that show daily after school crossed my mind as I made my way to the gym.

The temperatures were a little cool in the gym, but warmer than the atmosphere at church, where Pastor Roger and I are still frosty towards each other.  At least I was able to work in my office, where the walls have been painted, and the floor has been replaced.  It looks very nice, and a lot brighter in that room where it used to be.

Rich came in, and it was very good to see him.  He sparred with Louis, who also hadn't been in the gym in awhile.  Rich looked good in the ring.  But Louis didn't look bad, either.  Rich caught Louis with a lot of shots, but Louis slipped and ducked a lot of the other ones.

I noticed that Louis often got caught up in the corners.  Rich cut off the ring a lot, so Louis had to be creative about getting away from him.

In the photo above, Alan gives Louis some pointers before the bell rang.

I sparred with Colonel for the first time.  Colonel had told me that he wanted me to make him move around the ring by chasing him and staying on him.  I was a bit apprehensive about sparring with him.  Colonel's had some health issues over the past few months, and I didn't want to do anything that would hurt him.  But Colonel insisted he was fine, so we got into the ring.  I got him right on the chin a couple of times with my right.  I kept going for the body, too, but I deliberately did not put full force behind any of my punches.

We did a couple of rounds, and that was enough for Colonel.  He was moving around a lot, and at one point, Colonel did a very slick slip to avoid a right I threw.  I told Colonel that I now know where his son, Kenny, gets a lot of his moves from.  "I didn't hurt you, did I?  I just gave a few love taps," Colonel laughed. He pointed out that he knew that's all I was giving out as well.  "Next time, I really want you to hit me," he said.

Bad Days Made Better Down at the Gym

There are many reasons that people dread Mondays.  I had a few of my own reasons today.  The alarm clock went off this morning, and I turned over to click on the radio.  I turned over again to get a little more shut eye when I heard a horrible news story: a one-year-old in Georgia had been shot in the face because a couple of teenagers didn't get the money they wanted out of the child's mother.  I hear of so many shootings in Chicago that oftentimes, I just shake my head and think, "Here's another one", shrug my shoulders and keep moving.  But that news story disgusted and disturbed me.  I had to get up because I could no longer sleep after hearing that.

When I got to work, a quick check of Facebook revealed the sad news that a friend of mine whom I graduated with from high school had passed away.  Charles was a funny, bright guy who always kept people laughing.  The last time I saw him was at one of the high school alumni holiday functions.  I knew Charles had been ill on and off, but it was still a shock to hear that.  Tears pooled in my eyes as I read the news.

The tears gave way to anger when a disagreement took place at work between myself and the pastor.  One of the heavy bags in the gym really took a beating from me when I got there.  Still, I couldn't completely get my mind focused on the workout because of all that had taken place earlier in the day.  But it felt better to take some of my feelings out on the equipment.  I guess I've been fortunate, if you want to put it like that, that some bad days always seem to happen on the days that I'm scheduled to go to the boxing gym.  I don't kick the bags when I'm there, as I sometimes have seen others do, because it's not a martial arts gym.  But if I could have executed some kicks to the bag I was on, I might have knocked it completely off the chain.  It was that type of day.

Not many people came in. Alan wasn't in because Passover begins today. In the gym was Colonel, Brandy, Momo, Bean, Sarah, and Amy.  Emmanuel stopped in briefly to see if the Park District fight schedule was posted yet.  He wants to get some fights in this time around.

There was a long box laying on the floor in front of the mirrors.  Colonel helped me set it upright so that others wouldn't trip over it.  Looks like it might be a brand new heavy bag.  However, we have four in the gym propped up against the walls because there is no room to hang them.  What is really needed is a new ring. There's tape in the middle of the canvas to keep down a piece of it that is coming up.  The rest of the canvas is frayed around the edges.  Plus, the ring canvas is on the floor.  A regular size ring will not fit easily into the gym, but a smaller one raised up a foot or two off of the floor would work nicely.

Momo's Return

The guy in the photo above is Muhammad, or Momo, for short.  I wish I had been taking pictures when Steve was the coach, because I could have had a 'before and after' photo of Momo.  I almost didn't recognize him!  He'd lost so much weight.  He's happily married now and is the proud father of a boy and a girl.  He wants to get back in shape, so he plans to start frequenting the gym again.

The crowd was very light on what was the last day of the Winter session.  Outside of Momo, Colonel, Amy, Sarah, and Igor were in attendance.  The gym was cold.  It was only about 20 degrees outside.   I guess it wasn't enough people inside the gym to bring the temperature up.

Sarah and I sparred, and I noticed the composure that Colonel always says that I have.  Believe me, that took a long time to develop, because I sure didn't have it during the numerous fist fights I was in when I was young.  I was just go for broke back then.  A lot of damage was inflicted, but I took a lot of damage, too.  I still have the scars to prove it.  Boxing taught me that it is better to fight with a clear head, without emotion.  Sarah threw a lot of punches, but most of the time, I just waited for her to come closer before attacking.

She throws good hooks, but as Alan pointed out, they are usually too wide.  Sarah could put a hurt on a lot of opponents if she shortens up the distance from whence she throws those hooks.  I made a point of keeping my right hand glued to the side of my head while I was standing straight up.  But as usual, when I went in for the body shots, both hands were down.  That gave Sarah great opportunity to bang me upside my head, which she did.  I was able to use my left hook and left uppercut a few times, but I could have used them some more.

I would love to go to the Firemen vs. Policemen boxing show this year, but like everything else these days, I have to pinch pennies to see if I can afford it.  I'm always hearing that many good fights take place during that show.

Just like Sarah and her sister Amy are doing here, I should go back to using the medicine ball more.  There are so many exercises that can be done with the medicine ball to increase stamina and strength.  Here,  Sarah and Amy throw the ball back and forth to each other.

I'm thankful that Walter and Colonel bring their double end bags in so the adults can use them while we're in the gym.  Barry always locks up the one that normally hangs there now.  I've been using the double end to practice on slipping punches.  I thought I did okay with avoiding many of Sarah's punches while we sparred.

I had to put some beefcake pictures up, well because, I like looking at fine men.  Both of these pictures are of actor Robert Conrad, who is from the south side of Chicago.  He's best known for two TV series, "The Wild, Wild West" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep (Black Sheep Squadron)".  I'm guessing the black and white picture was taken during the 1960s.  The second picture shows an older -- but still in great shape -- Conrad in the 1990s.  I've mentioned here before that Conrad had been a boxer for a minute, and the stories going around state that the actor was no joke in the ring.

Alan told Sarah and I that we had some good exchanges while we sparred.  He told me that the both of us were probably going to feel those punches tomorrow.  I believe I'm feeling some of them right now.  Fortunately, I'll have my secretary's hat on instead of my custodian hat on at work tomorrow.

The Ladies and Igor Too

I forgot to bring my camera down to the gym, so I'm improvising today.  The picture above is of comedy team Abbott and Costello.  I don't know if this is from their TV show or from one of their movies.  Costello (wearing the boxing glove) was a boxer for a short time before going into show business.

"Ladies night," I commented to Alan, and he nodded.  But it wasn't completely that way.  Sarah, her sister Amy, and myself were there, but Igor was in the mix, too.  Igor kept putting his mouth on the gym's water bottles, and I kept catching him doing it.  "You're not stupid, Igor.  Don't you understand?  You can't do that when everyone in here uses these bottles to get water," I said in exasperation.  I took a couple of the bottles away to wash them out.  

Sometime later, Igor points to the bottles and asks if he can get water.  "If you want water, get it.  Why are you asking me?" I said.  Alan explained to him again about not putting the opening of the water bottles in his mouth.  Igor grunted an insincere, "I'm sorry", than grumbled under his breath when I kept on him about his behavior.  But he smiled and followed Alan's directions.  Some men will ignore a woman telling them something, but will listen when a man tells them the same thing the woman just told them.

This is Eddie Murphy in a scene from the movie version of the old Bill Cosby-Robert Kulp TV series, "I Spy".  Murphy's character was involved in a boxing match in the latter part of the movie. I've always liked Murphy, but believe me, the TV show is better.

My stomach was acting up, and I had no idea why.  Everything was fine until I left the house.  With each step down the street, my stomach appeared to feel worse.  I begged off sparring with Sarah because of that.  She convinced her sister to spar with her.  Amy did well; she kept her composure very well during the last round and a half, and she got some body shots in on Sarah.  They did not spar hard, but they got in some good work with each other.  

Kenny didn't come in, and we were going to do a sparring drill where we were only going to use our left hands.  So I did the drill using one of the cylinder heavy bags, and the body snatcher bag.  I threw the jab then the left hook behind it.  My arm was a little sore because I hadn't worked it out like that in awhile.  But I need to get used to throwing the left hook more.  

This is Charles Bronson, who always played tough guys.  He appeared on TV a lot in the 1950's and early 1960's before transitioning to movies.  This photo might be from when he played a boxer on an episode of "The M Squad", a cop show that featured Lee Marvin as the lead character.

Barry texted Alan to let him know that he had a couple of his guys in the Chicago Golden Gloves.  I believe one of his guys fought as a novice, but lost.  Alan thought it might have been Nate Jr., whom I haven't seen for a long while.  Looking at the schedule, it appeared to Alan that the some of the matches would be taking place on Sundays.  "They couldn't have matches on Sundays when the Gloves were held at Gordon Tech, and especially not when the tournament was at St. Andrews.  Maybe they've scheduled those because they're at the Cicero Stadium," I told Alan.  From what I've read on Facebook, those who have already been to some of the fights aren't happy about the new location.  I'll have to see the fights there myself to give my own opinion.

I like this shot of Jackie Gleason; allegedly, it was the last portrait he did before passing away in 1987.  I saw him in person once.  He and Tom Hanks were filming the movie Nothing In Common on the street where I was living at the time.  It would be Gleason's last film.  He played a crooked fight manager in the movie version of Requiem For A Heavyweight, alongside Anthony Quinn and Mickey Rooney.

Squeals and A Shooting

 

Andre One (who has trained at Evanston Boxing Gym) was in the gym when I arrived.  Later, Alan told me their conversation had been a little heated before I got there.  Andre One wants to train at Loyola Park, but he hasn't paid the fee.  Alan explained that he just can't him come in and spar, or train for that matter, because of Chicago Park District rules regarding payment and liability issues.

Andre One stuck around for a little while before deciding to come back and pay when the spring sessions begins in April.  Before he left he told me another guy I hadn't seen for awhile in the gym - Anthony - had been shot some time ago.  Anthony took six bullets.  Another guy near him who also took some bullets when the guns went off didn't make it.  Anthony was able to go home from the hospital a few days later; I was glad to hear that he was still among the living.  I'm not against people owning guns, but I wish so many guns were not in the wrong hands.

In this photo, Reygie and Kenny listen to instruction from Alan before their sparring session. Once again, Reygie participated in multiple sparring rounds.

He also sparred with Walter, who had a pair of green boxing gloves on.  I've seen gloves in lots of colors, but never in that bright a shade of green.

Reygie wanted to come in on Monday, but his knee was bothering him after playing a long session of basketball over the weekend.  The only thing he could do was to ice it up.  Reygie's injury reminded me of when Pastor Roger told me why he opted out of playing football as a teen.  The pastor had been around a group of guys who were his age at the time, early to mid 30s, who were already suffering the effects of the bumps and bruises they had sustained from being athletes when they were younger.  Pastor took one look and decided he'd made a good decision not to play on a team.  But, you know, those are the chances those who participate in a sport take.  I may be on a cane by the time I'm sixty, but I won't regret the time I spent boxing.

Vachel and I sparred again, and this time, we went a little harder.  But I let her get more hits in, and I held back on throwing very hard.  The last thing I wanted to do was to knock her out, especially since she is getting used to being in the ring.

Each time I landed punches, Vachel would squeal and retreat.  In between the second and third rounds, Alan told her, "You can't let your opponent know you've been hurt by making noise!"  During the third round, Vachel started squealing again.  "Don't make noise!" Alan repeated.