Brooklyn Bridge at Night, 1948 Gelatin Silver, by Andreas Feininger
I managed to crawl out of bed at my usual ridiculous weekday hour in the morning today. My head is still spinning a bit from being tired and I’ve been fighting off waves of didn’t-get-enough-sleep headaches — not to complain, which I’m not, but to state that the inconveniences of those feelings are out-weighed by the suppleness my limbs feel after my third downward dog pose and all the other stretches these creaky bones held this morning.
While I may or may not get to four rounds of shadow boxing when I finish this piece, the hiss of the steam, wanderings of the kitty and the sounds of the house as it reverberates with the slow morning echoes from the street below gives me something else. A kind of serenity as I greet the day before the stresses and hustle and bustle of all the have-to’s begin to settle on it.
When one has a busy life with a tons of constituent parts that demand time, attention and thought, it’s so very nice to have the gift of a few minutes that aren’t in competition. Rather, they’re just for oneself. A little piece of the world one can own — if not quite the room Virginia Wolfe envisioned where one could state, “I am,” this place has more to do with a gift of quiet. And sure, predawn self-ministrations get “old” by Thursday morning when the accumulated hours of missed sleep are wearying, however, the idea of finding a part of the day for quiet doesn’t. I’ve been keeping to this schedule for six weeks now and have to say that occasional grumpiness aside these moments of quiet have truly given me something I didn’t expect: a place of peace that’s a little of my own.
Stepping up to fight against domestic violence plus a Daily News Golden Gloves Week Five Reminder
Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez takes on the challenge of ending domestic violence against women
For the uninitiated, the sport of boxing has become associated with violence of all kinds including domestic violence against women. Boxers know that contrary to its reputation, the discipline and work ethic associated with the sport often curtails the kind of personal explosive outbursts of violence that have come to be associated with it.
That’s not to say that all boxers are necessarily non-violent, but it does mean that boxers are for the most part practitioners of the art of the sweet violence and abhor violence outside of the ring. The exceptions are heartbreaking and the suicide of Venezuelan boxer Edwin Valero last April after confessing to murdering his wife is no exception.
Enter Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez to take on the cause of domestic violence against women. Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KO) who is fighting @ Foxwoods on March 12th in his much anticipated HBO main event fight against Sergei Dzinziruk (37-0, 23 KO) used the opportunity of his recent press conference to talk again about the cause he took up in the wake of the Valero suicide saying, “violence against women is simply unacceptable.” Bleacher Report has a piece about his efforts here.
84th Annual Daily News 2011 Golden Gloves Week Five reminder!
2/15/2011 – Red Hook Center, 110 West 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
2/16/2011- Hempstead Kennedy Memorial Park, 335 Greenwich Street, Hempstead, NY 11550
2/17/2011 – Elmcor Recreation Center, 33-16 108th Street, Corona, NY 11368
2/18/2011 – St. Raymond’s High School, 2151 Saint Raymond’s Avenue, Bronx, NY 10462
For more information and to check on any changes due to weather, please click here.
I had a terrific morning yesterday working out with Lennox Blackmore. We spent four rounds on the focus pads on such fundamentals as clean doubled-up jabs which brought us all the way back to the beginning — the stance. Yep, by sitting lower in my stance with my body angled forward, my jabs were crisper, my slips more economical and rights in the pocket with a nice hard “thwack” sound every time it hit the pad.
Once on the double-ended bag for my second set of four-rounds, I worked more and more on keeping my stance low and thereby really pushed out punches from my core. And that, I realized, is the entire point of the stance. Sure, a proper stance provides a boxer with the right amount of balance, but more fundamentally it allows a boxer to use his or her core energy and strength to throw punches that are swift and sure with an economy of movement that saves energy and shaves milliseconds off the time needed to connect.
Talk about a wow.
And that’s the thing about boxing. Many training sessions follow a rout pattern of warm-up, training steps such as shadow boxing, focus pads, sparring, slip rope, heavy bag, double-ended bag, speed-bag and so on in whatever combination is being worked on that day, however, every once in a while, it all connects and boom — it comes together again in some new more fundamental way.
A lot like life, no? One wanders along doing the same thing day after day and suddenly a thunderbolt hits and the pathway seems clearer. And while it might be nice if every day was greeted with an epiphany of the day, the fact is there’s something down right sweet about finding it buried deep within the work. Leastways, I find it to be the case.
Girlboxing had the chance to sit down and talk with Sonya “The Scholar” Lamonakis (3-0,1-KO) as she readies for her upcoming heavyweight bout against Tanzee Daniels (4-0, 1-KO) @ Foxwoods on March 12, 2011. Recently ranked the #1 women’s professional heavyweight in the U. S. by the WIBA, Sonya is excited about the prospect of fighting on the under card of the much anticipated, Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez vs. Sergiy Dzinziruk bout. The fight card, promoted by DiBella Entertainment will be broadcast live on HBO. This will be Sonya’s 4th professional fight since turning pro in June 2010.
I came across a fabulous book of photographs entitled Women Boxers: The New Warriors, by photographer Delilah Montoya. Containing essays by Maria Teresa Marquez and C. Ondine Chavoya, the book explores the world of women boxers in vivid black and white portraits inside and outside of the ring.
Women Boxers: The New Warriors, Jackie Chavez, by Delilah Montoya
Women Boxers: The New Warriors, Jackie Chavez v. Audrey Vela, by Delilah Montoya
As noted by Marquez in her opening essay written in 2006, “Women boxers do not just fight one another, they fight against the belief that it is unnatural for a woman to be athletic, strong, aggressive, and confident in a sport historically dominated by males.” Those sentiments are not so far off the mark as women boxers continue in their struggle to be recognized on the amateur and professional level.
The book is published by Arte Publico Press and is available from such online booksellers as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Further information about the accompanying gallery show of Delilah Montoya’s photographs is here.
I wish that were original, but it’s not. My brother-in-law wrote it on his Facebook page last night. Given that he is a working musician, I give him his due as it is never easy.
Similar to professional musicians, professional athletes, talented amateurs and even the rest of us mere mortals on the ground — can usually only be sure of something based on the effort we’ve put in to achieve it. For this 50-something body that means I am truly *earning* the increasing tautness of my upper body from all those pre-dawn downward facing dog poses.
Yep, the effort does pay dividends — although I will admit to mornings where the seemingly endless long haul feels a bit discouraging.
And sometimes — the plateau is just that. The top of where you are going to go — say my ability to do a hand stand! To use the vernacular – that ain’t never gonna happen – but, it doesn’t mean I don’t stop the effort to get there.
Okay, I know I’m being Pollyanna-ish again, but this notion that what we have is our effort resonated with me. Perhaps it’s because when the effort is honest and truly your best the outcome is not the issue. In other words, it’s the doing that matters, and while it is great to have a goal — and in fact often the most motivating part of getting yourself to the piano, the potter’s wheel or the gym in the first place, after a while the goal tends to slip away in favor of the doing. We often find that the mere fact of following the path we’ve put in place whether its reps on a machine, rounds on the double-ended bag, or practicing the first four measures of a song for the 15th time, means finding the chance to discover beauty and serenity in that effort. Well, okay, the beauty part might seem a little bit funny in a funky boxing gym — but the point is to not forget the journey, ’cause it might just be what you are seeking to achieve in the first place.
Congratulations to Gleason’s own flyweight Keisher “Fire” Mcleod-Wells for her decisive victory last night over Melissa McMorrow at Broadway Boxing. In truly impressive style, Fire kept her opponent at bay over six rounds, briefly stunning her in the sixth before winning the bout by unanimous decision (58-55, 57-56, and 57-5). Fire’s record now stands at 4-1.
PS – WBAN has put up a nice piece about the fight here.
Boxer Emily Klinefelter out of danger after suffering burst blood vessel on Saturday night
Christina Ruiz v. Emily Klinefelter, Fight News
Super Bantamweight and previously undefeated boxer, Emily Klinefelter (9-1, 3KO) is reportedly out of danger after suffering a burst blood vessel this past Saturday night in Iowa City, Iowa in the third round of her bout with boxer Christina Ruiz (6-3-1, 4KO). Klinefelter was knocked-out cold following repeated blows to the head over the course of the scheduled six-round bout. The Daily Iowan, Klinefelter’s hometown paper, has the story here. Fight News has the story here.
Girlboxing sends our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Emily and her family during this difficult time.
The Fighter an all-Male story?
"The Fighter"
Director Catherine Hardwicke, best known for directing 2008’s blockbuster movie, Twilight has revealed that she was prevented “from pitching to direct The Figher because she’s a woman.”
“I couldn’t get an interview even though my last movie made $400 million. I was told it had to be directed by a man — am I crazy? It’s about action, it’s about boxing, so a man has to direct it … But they’ll let a man direct ‘Sex in the City’ or any girly movie you’ve ever heard of.” Read the full story here and here.
2011 USA National Boxing Championships – June 20-June 25 in Colorado Springs
Queen Underwood and Patricia Manuel, 2010 USA Boxing Championships
The 2011 USA Boxing National Boxing Championships will be held in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the second year in a row. The tournament will run from June 20 – 25, 2011. As noted on USA Boxing’s website, “the six days of tournament action will feature over 300 of the nation’s top male and female Olympic-style boxers, culminating in final round action on June 25.” This year’s competition will be particularly important with one year to go before the qualifying bouts for the debut of women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics. With such nationally ranked fighters as Queen Underwood, Cashmere Jackson and Andrecia Wasson in contention for championship titles in their respective weight classes, this year’s bouts should be particularly exciting.
I admit to being somewhat of a Mac head … meaning that I am all Mac’d up with an iPad, iPhone, Mac Book, numerous iPods not to mention an iTouch. I’ve also come by all this Mac stuff somewhat honestly in that I also still have — and will occasionally use — my original Mac SE with all 4 MB of RAM! That old museum piece has a small black and white cathode ray tube for a screen (that’s a small TV!) and a sleek (for then) all in one body. We are talking 1986 when I first got mine — and what an amazing beauty this bad girl was for her time what with her 20 MB internal hard drive!
So fast forwarding to my 32 G iPad — I am truly in techie heaven what with the world literally at my fingertips as long as I can find 3G or internet, and if not, I can dig deep and find all of the stuff I’ve got loaded up including books, movies, and those blessed apps!
This week I’ve been discovering fitness apps — in my world that means I found a few and have been sticking to them. My two favorites are the My Boxing Trainer app (available as an iPhone app, but terrific on the iPad) and the Pocket Yoga app (available in iPad and iPhone versions).
The My Boxing Trainer app contains a terrific series of “how to” videos on such topics as boxing safety, hand wrapping and the boxer’s stance on through boxing tips for the ring including a video of Floyd Mayweather boxing “in the pocket.”
The other cool thing about this app is it contains a workout section that allows you to sequence your own training or follow a series of pre-defined training regimens. Once you select a sequence, the user clicks a timer button to set the number of rounds you want for each part of your training, as well as the the length of each round and rest period. The app also contains a straight boxing timer if you just want to use that. For the end of your workout there are some pretty nice boxing conditioning videos — everything from ab exercises to tips on stretching, using a medicine ball and keeping your shoulders in great shape. This app costs all of $1.99 and is highly recommended!
Pocket Yoga - iPad App
My other favorite app is Pocket Yoga. This app has three general areas: practice, poses and history. The practice portion has 30, 45 or 60 minute classes or two sun salutation sequences that allows the user to program the number of reps from 2 – 30. As a further refinement, each class and sun salutation sequence can be selected for a beginner, intermediate or expert level.
Once you choose a class type — the class or sequence you follow is animated with voice over narration. I followed the 30-minute beginner class this morning and had quite a workout. One other nice feature is the history tab. It will keep track of your yoga practice listing the date, sequence/class you used and the level of difficulty.
While this app doesn’t exactly replace a live-action class, it can work well in a hotel room, during a break at work — or even at the boxing gym if you want to follow-up your training with a little yoga. The app itself is $2.99 or $3.99 for the HD version and to my mind, well worth the cost.
Women’s boxing results plus a Daily News Golden Gloves week four reminder.
“Lethal” Lindsay Garbatt vs. Jelena Mrdjenovich
Philboxing.com is reporting that this weekend’s title rematch between Lindsay “Lethal” Garbatt (6-3-1) and challenger Jelena Mrdjenovich (26-6-1) for the WIBA Super Featherweight championship took the fight of the night status and is the kind of match that *should* be on a PPV undercard. Garbatt won the fight with a unanimous decision (95-95, 96-95 and 96-94).
Through ten rounds of hard boxing at the WCP Superbrawl held in Barrie, ON, Canada, both women reportedly boxed their hearts out. Writer Rob Cruz compared the fight to the “female version of the Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez war in the ring.” Click here for the full story.
WBAN has an article and terrific photos of the fight here.
84th Annual Daily News 2011 Golden Gloves Week Four bout reminder!
2/7/2011 – Mount Vernon High School, 100 California Road, Mt. Vernon, NY 10552 (New date & time due to last week’s winter weather cancellation)
2/8/2011- Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 275 North 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Joe Frazier (left) and Mohammad Ali, Madison Square Garden, 1971, Hurley/News
One of the key things about boxing and life for that matter is figuring out one’s optimal distance from all manner of experiences. Fighters learn early on that distance is the key to a successful bout not only in terms of establishing range, but in allowing a fighter clean shots, good defense and not to be underestimated, a way of psyching an opponent out.
Best way to frustrate an inside fighter … you got it, stay on the outside, but being careful to get inside just enough to keep the fans in the fight because an even worse sin is when one fighter creates too much distance by rabbiting around the ring. On the other side of it, stay inside long enough and you end up in a Micky Ward/Arturo Gatti duel that while great for the fans is tough, tough, tough on the body.
Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward
And that’s the key isn’t it: creating an optimal space. A place where your jab is perfect and the hook off the jab puts you in a terrific position to counter-punch for the upper-cut; where your punches connect enough to give a great show, but where your understanding of maintaining your distance from your opponent gives you the advantage and ultimately the win.
In life, say with your eleven-year-old daughter who isn’t in the mood to hear Mom chide her about whatever topic of the moment Mom feels insistent about … there’s not a lot of difference. We can pray for the bell and go to our corners, we can tussle in the middle and both get hurt, we can parry and thrust and hope for the best or one of us, hopefully Mom, can know enough to go her third-way to find the perfect distance until the storm washes over us both enough to re-engage.
PS: Girlboxing friend, Margaret Reyes Dempsey of Conjuring My Muse has nominated Girlboxing for the coveted Stylish Blogger Award. Girlboxing stylish, hmmm? Well, why not! Thanks Margaret! In order to be considered for the award the following four tasks must be completed:
1. Present seven things about yourself
2. Name about a half-dozen bloggers you think deserve the award
3. Contact those people
4. Create a link back to the person who gave you the honor
As for the first task, here are seven things you don’t know about me:
1. The closest I ever came to Muhammad Ali was in September 1991 when I stayed at a tiny beach hostel name-sake in a small village on the Red Sea called, Dahab, Egypt. The town is best known as a demarcation point for Red Sea scuba diving — although I didn’t go there to dive, rather I was there for the fun of it. My space at Mohammad Ali’s had a sand floor, concrete walls and a ceiling made of palm fronds loosely layered on top. For my $1.00 a night I also got a candle (no electricity) and an insect repellent incense coil. The best part of Dahab was listening to Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” wherever I went.
2. The first dance I ever learned (aside from the hokey-pokey) was “The Wobble,” to Little Eva’s “The Locomotion” (and not to be confused with the current line dance, and not to confuse my “Wobble” with the dance “The Locomotion”). I was eight years old and was playing on the sidewalk in front of my building on East 12th Street. A girl named Lydia and her older sister Anna taught me the dance when the song came on Anna’s AM transistor radio.
3. I discovered the delicious flavor of Nutella in 1991 while on board a vessel in the Eastern Mediterranean traveling from Rhodes, Greece to Limassol, Cyprus. I spent the night sleeping on the top deck of the ferry and traded Turkish baklava from a bakery in the Old Town of Rhodes with the coveted Nutella sandwich on freshly baked bread.
4. I hate lists even though I use them all the time. The problem is I write them down, start to follow them and get bored. ‘Nuff said.
5. I met my husband bar-dancing at Puffy’s in Tribeca on December 6, 1996. We both loved James Brown and Salsa music. In other words, kismet! For our first date (two nights later), he wore a red sweater and beige jeans — and looked like the Nautica man. We ate Vietnamese food for dinner and walked along the Hudson River sitting at the old dock on Pier 26 for a while to watch the water.
6. My uncle taught my brother and I how to box when I was 12 — well sort of in that he only taught us how to turn a jab. And while I may have written about that, what you don’t know is that he taught me how to box southpaw.
I kept my southpaw stance until I started boxing at Gleason’s when I took up boxing at 42! Every so often, I will find myself in a southpaw stance, but having not practiced that way for a long time, I feel very uncomfortable.
7. It took me 37 years to graduate college! I went to a total of four colleges over that period of time (1971-2008) and finally got my degree in History from Empire State College.
Thanks again to Margaret at Conjuring My Muse for giving me this chance to spill my guts in public! But now comes the fun part, nominating others! Here goes:
1. The Glowing Edge – Talk about stylish, spend a minute on the site and you’re instantly calm! Aside from which Lisa Creech Bledsoe is a true woman warrior! As she says of her own blog, she is “speaker, writer, media ninja, live music fanatic, boxer chick. Online a bunch. Otherwise in the gym. Or possibly at a gig.”
2. Beats, Boxing and Mayhem – This blog has it all, terrific posts on boxing, hip-hop music and culture, plus some serious politics mixed in.
3. Inspiring Sports Women – She’s got that right. Lovely, inspiring writing about women’s athletics.
4. The Sweetest Thing – Inspired blog about the personal side of being a boxing woman.
5. My ish wish dish – Now this blog is truly stylish! My ish wish dish blogs about home style, cooking and life with two small boys on a shoestring. This blog has terrific recipes too.
6. Girl in the Ring – This blogsite is not so much for a stylish blog, as a website to help publicize Jill Morley’s much-anticipated documentary about women boxers.
I’ll add that this whole thing feels a bit like a chain letter, but what the heck! I love publicizing blogs I like! Enjoy!
Saturday gym time I had a great workout today though I have to admit I am tired, tired, tired, with deltoids that are craving a warm bath and a swim in the waters off Maui. Oh well … back to reality in Brooklyn. Gleason’s was really hopping which helped to up my energy whenever I felt as if I was flagging.
The best part was running into Keisher “Fire” Mcleod-Wells who is getting ready for her fight on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 @ B. B. Kings promoted by DiBella Entertainment. This is what she had to say:
Fire’s got five (5) tickets left — and will love your support. For more information call Gleason’s Gym @ 718-797-2872. Tickets can also be purchased at the door on fight night.
Ukrainian Women Warriors, photo by Guillaume Herbaut
It seems that there’s some press around lately on the theme of “getting real” when it comes to fitness. For our friends in Chicago, Chicago Now has a piece about the Warrior Fighting Sports & Fitness gym and its affiliated Knockout Boxing Club in Downer’s Grove, Il.. As the author put it:
“What I was looking for: – I didn’t want to join a large gym and do a cardio boxing class. I wanted the real deal, the same workouts fighters do. – I refuse to wear makeup or dress up for the gym. – I don’t want to be treated like a girl.”
What she found was an environment of hard work, sweat, and the inspiration of watching a group of highly skilled, ranked women fighters across a spectrum of disciplines from Boxing to MMA to Kickboxing. Article link here.
New York City has also seen press lately about the idea of the urban warrior. In a recent article in the local Chelsea Now paper, women’s boxing is touted as one of a select group of “alternate activities to stretch your mind and body in more dynamic ways,” the others being target shooting and rock climbing. Article link here. I know from my own experience I didn’t walk into a boxing gym so much for fitness as to engage in a physically demanding full-contact sport.
When I search around for women’s boxing news, I inevitably find some press related to new boxing or MMA classes and programs for women every few days. That coupled with the upcoming debut of women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics the sport is building a lot of momentum not only in the United States, but globally.
Andrecia Wasson
What’s cool is while I didn’t walk into a boxing gym until my early 40’s, girls like my daughter know the camaraderie and hard work of the gym starting as young as 8. Detroit fighter, Andrecia Wasson is a case in point. She first walked into the Warriors Boxing Club at the age of 12 and now as an 18-year-old Women’s Middleweight World Champion is starting her quest for Olympic gold.
The thing of it is, go to Gleason’s Gym on any Saturday morning and what you’ll find is a group of dedicated women boxers of all skill levels and ages plying their craft with heart and a lot of positive attitude — and then realize that those kinds of scenes are repeated all over the United States. Then consider that it’s also repeated in places like India, China, Jordan, Zambia and Afghanistan. That’s pretty heady stuff and something to feel very proud to be a part of.
Girlboxing is having one of those busy days! Too much work, too many obligations, not enough time! To pep it all up and to remind us all that Spring *will* come — here are some secrets on how to perfect your Jab from across the pond!
Girlboxing 
