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!
One of the great mantras of boxing is to protect yourself at all times. That construct proved pivotal to Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” and as every trainer will tell you, never turn your back on a fighter.
The art of the handwrap — while not as dramatic an idea as getting cold-cocked by Lucia Rijker does give a boxer the protection required to keep their hands reasonably safe from chaffing, cuts and broken bones.
My first trainer, Johnny Grinage used to wrap each of my hands with two handwraps, placing a foam rubber pad over my knuckles with the second wrap. This was just short of a “professional wrap” with batting and adhesive tape — which he did for me once or twice and I have to admit it felt great.
In those days, he had me training in 18 oz. gloves on heavy, heavy bags. As Johnny was famous for shouting “I don’t want to see no pitty pat,” this meant that my hands took a lot of punishment – so my protection was to have “mummy wraps” and even then I had a lot of red knuckles at the end of a training session.
When I train now, I use the “Mexican” wraps, extra-long with a little bit of spandex in them. I wrap them fairly snug, but not too tight — and as I train with 10 oz or 12 oz gloves I only need one on each hand. When Lennox Blackmore wraps them, he uses a technique that adds a little extra padding to the knuckles, but I find that I am okay without them. I’ll add that when I do a lot of heavy bag work, I will add a bit of foam to keep the knuckles safe.
There are also handwrap “gloves” on the market filled with foam or gel. I personally find them to be uncomfortable inside a pair of boxing gloves, but will use them for speed bag work or the double-ended bag. These types of gloves resemble MMA grappling gloves and are generally filled with some type of gel solution or foam. The ones I use are made of leather and have thick foam over the knuckles.
Still, nothing beats a professional tape job by a master boxing trainer!
Tomorrow is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The U.S. Congress adopted the day in 1986 to honor female athletic achievement and recognize the positive influence of sports on women. This year marks the 25th Anniversary with the theme of “Play, Believe, Achieve.” In New York City, a commemoration event will be hosted by PSAL (Public Schools Athletic League) at the Theater in Madison Square Garden. Who knew, right?
A coalition of Women’s athletics groups and the Girl Scouts are also sponsoring events around the country. In particular, the Woman’s Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King, and recently joined by new president and boxing’s own, Laila Ali, are key partners in promulgating girl’s and women’s sports participation. (For more information click here.)
Growing up in New York City where a girls sporting event meant running for the bus my exposure to sports or anything related to athleticism was rudimentary at best. Thus the notion of a day to celebrate women’s sports and athleticism truly hits home especially when I see my daughter and her friends take to athleticism with such each. At 11 years of age, these girls are strong, lithe and full of confidence having been exposed to sports and exercise as a regular part of their lives.
The recent Colgate Women’s Games for the girls 11 and under held over the last few weekends was a case in point. Watching these girls compete was truly a sight to behold. Girls as young as 7 ran there hearts out with incredible courage. In particular we cheered-on my daughter’s friends as they completed in the 800 meter having already run the 200 and 400 that same day. These girls showed heart and wore smiles a mile wide as they crossed the finish line. Particularly heartening has been listening to my daughter and her friends trade tips on warm-up exercises and their ab-routines with the same ease as talking about music and dance moves.
If you can, take a moment to think about this tomorrow and while you might not be able to participate in an event, be aware that we’ve got a long, long way to go before girl’s and women’s athletic programs truly live up to the ideals of Title IX.
Dicky Eklund surprised Christian Bale on stage at the SAG Awards 1/30/2011, Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
Congratulations to the cast and crew of the Micky Ward biopic The Fighter for picking up fresh awards from the Screen Actors Guild last night. Aside from Christian Bale who won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for playing boxer Dicky Eklund, Melissa Leo won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Micky Ward’s mother Alice Ward.
Gleason’s own four-time Golden Gloves winner Keisher “Fire” McLeod-Wells (3-1), will be fighting on February 9th, 2011 at B.B. King’s on a card promoted by DiBella Entertainment. This will be Keisher’s first six round bout where she will face off with San Francisco fighter Melissa “Mighty” McMorrow (4-1-3). For tickets and more information about this bout, contact Gleason’s Gym here.
Rock Chicks Live has a piece about it here. WBAN has a piece about it here. And take a visit to Fire’s website here.
The Girlboxing blog is a place to engage in a dialogue about personal growth, courage and the extent to which we can use our physical prowess to affect change in our lives. Given the momentous and historical events unfolding half a world away, it is also our place to bear witness.
In my opinion, the very fact of this blog site and the hundreds of millions of others on the web means that we are all creating a place where information and communications are truly becoming democratized — along with the ready availability of such things as mobile phones, texting and so on.
At this very moment, at Tahrir Square in Cairo, the nexus point of the Egyptian uprising against Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Egyptian F-15 fighter jets are circling the square in ever-lower circles. During each round, the tens of thousands of people in the square have raised their hands towards the sky and erupted in a roar of “get out,” “get out,” “this is terrorism.” The images and accompanying audio are being sent and reported via the Internet – and rather than be intimidated, many of the protesters in the Square are refusing to leave in part heartened by the fact that they know that their message is being seen and heard. As well, others are walking to join the protesters. We are thus privy to the unfolding of these events in real-time — not only “living” history, but experiencing a democratized form of history. One not told from the point of view of leaders shaping the “perspectives” of their people, but from the people themselves as they live it.
I am reminded of civil rights protesters singing, “We shall not be moved,” as they faced down water canons and a phalanx of police — and of watching snippets of these events on the evening news, all of which revolutionized how individuals experienced America’s civil unrest paving the way for the communications opportunities we share and take advantage of day in and day out today. At any rate, it is something to think about.
For real time information on what is happening: Google is here. Live images here. BBC here.
Defying the curfew in Cairo, Egypt, January 29, 2011
Boxers know a thing or two about courage. Walking into the ring to risk injury or worse is never an easy thing. Yet boxers also train long and hard to mitigate the risks of the ring in their favor.
The hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, however, have not trained themselves for battle. Yet, they have risen on mass, young and old, men and women, professional and worker, student and pensioner to demand an end to over thirty years of oppressive rule.
This is one of those extraordinary moments — such as the fall of the Berlin Wall when we must all stand as one to support the courageous people of such places as Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen in their bid for democratic freedom. We must let them know that they are not alone — and that we honor and cherish true courage where we find it.
Information and live video can be found here, here and here.
To tweet encouragement add the following to your message #egypt, #jan25, #jan26, #cairo or #alexandria
We should all help to shine the light on a very dark night of oppression.
Girlboxing 
