If you’ve never boxed before, one of the hardest things to overcome is understanding that it’s okay if you don’t know how to box! Let’s face it, that’s why you are walking into the ring in the first place.
The great mystery for me when I got started was how my body could stay centered, balanced and move as a coordinated unit while attempting to throw a jab. I must have thrown thousands before I figured out that “less is more,” and even then it was sort of an accidental discovery. The main point is, do not despair, you will get it!
There are many patient, talented trainers who will be more than willing to share their knowledge of the sweet science with you as long as you come to it with an open mind and the commitment to work hard as you learn the basics. Where you go doesn’t matter so much as finding a trainer you feel comfortable with.
Don’t worry about gear either, the gym usually supplies the basics as will your trainer — whether your taking a class or working one-on-one with someone. The main thing is to relax and have fun — and remember that it really is good to hit things!
At this time of year, when I’m asked “what do you want for Christmas?” I pretty much “cut to the chase” and hand over my list of items large and small. Specific to boxing, Christmas (and Hanukkah for that matter) is a great time to give and receive fabulous boxing inspired goodies.
As you build your list, you might want to take an inventory of the things you do have so that you can sort out what items to add. A biggie is checking out the state of your handwraps. Boxers are usually very persnickety about which handwraps to use — to include color in some cases. They’re also a pain to buy because they are not available at every gym and require a special trip to places like the Sports Authority — and even then they may not have what you want. The alternative is ordering from one of the major boxing catalogs. If you’re anything like me you hold off because the order is too small and there you are, two or three years later with the rattiest looking wraps you’ve ever seen.
From there it’s time to peruse the online catalogs and dream.
Do you figure it’s time to start using your own speed bag or double-ended bag and not your trainer’s? Do you need a better quality jump rope? Are your boxing T’s too funky for school? Want to start using your own water bottle with a spout rather than spending a small fortune on bottled water? How about other little stocking stuffers — new mouth guards, adhesive tape, boxing books or the “speed bible” DVD?
Then there’s the matter of getting yourself a pair of real honest-to-goodness boxing shorts — yep, with your name on them, or a boxing robe, or some other tangible symbol of all of your effort this past year.
It’s also a great time to trade up on your boxing gloves, or to get a pair of specialized gloves for hitting the bag. You might also think its time to invest in your own headgear or other boxing protective gear — or a really nice new boxing bag to haul your stuff around in.
When it comes to gloves, however, you might want to consider having a pair made just for you! This can come into the category of something you splurge on for yourself, have someone buy for you — or something you might purchase for someone else. There are two specialty places that I know of (see list below) or the folks in your gym may have some tips for you.
Purchasing boxing T’s say from Gleason’s or some other boxing gym are also fun gifts to give. I cherish the “Lonsdale” T-shirt my husband got me, sort of what Everlast is to the US, the Lonsdale brand is to the UK.
The main thing is — don’t be afraid to ask for what you really want along with the website URL, size, color and brand name of the item.
If you are looking for blogs by women who talk about the sweet science from the perspective of hauling themselves to the gym, here are a few Girlboxing has found around the web you might enjoy.
Girl.Boxer.Southpaw: Girlboxing enjoys reading this blog. It offers insightful and inspiring pieces on what it means to get up and train. The link is here.
The glowing edge: Terrific blog that mixes boxing news, personal boxing stories and the daily stuff about life. The link is here.
The Sweetest thing: A view of women’s boxing from Australia with a lot of salient points on the difficulties women face in the ring. The link is here.
Binnie Klein: Binnie Klein is a women after Girlboxing’s heart who wrote “Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed my Mind.” The link is here.
As for straight-up news about women in boxing WBAN – Woman’s Boxing Network is worth checking out. Do they report on all the regional fights or have all the latest news all the time – not necessarily, but given their focus WBAN does a good job of keeping women’s professional boxing in focus. The link is here.
PS – Please pass along any blogs you like about women’s boxing in the comments field!
A dear young friend of Girlboxing has been diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer. Barely 30 she is facing the kinds of challenges and life or death decisions that no one should ever have to face, never mind a person as vital and full of life as she.
It reminds me that all of us face deeply troubling and difficult problems that can be as debilitating emotionally as they are physically or quite frankly, the other way around, wherein feeling crippled by loss or depression can lead to a physical manifestation of suffering.
Cure alls for these sorts of troubles are near-on impossible, but there are ways of coping that can help find a place for laughter and smiles along side the hugely daunting task of getting through a difficult time.
So of course you know where I’m going with this in the sense of “working it out on the bag,” but more so, finding the “daily something,” the space that’s yours and yours alone can be a source of inspiration and hope to keep you going.
My Aunt was just such a person. She had every serious and debilitating disease one can have including four different cancers (one breast each and two lung cancers), two heart attacks, three strokes and kidneys that managed to function despite no registry on her blood tests, oh and the diabetes she managed to “cure” through changes to her diet.
Her philosophy for coping was simple. She’d wake up everyday and tell herself “I want to live.” This became her mantra: “I want to live.” She said this often and always, and most particularly to her doctors who got to thinking that she must have inherited the spirit of several cat colonies because she kept using up lives and coming back.
With each new diagnosis, she’d yell it louder: “I want to live.” And the same with each day after radiation treatments, chemo treatments, blood transfusions, midnight schleps to the hospital, or day-long waits in the ER. “I want to live,” she’d call me and say as we worked through the choices she had to face – all the while never missing a hair appointment or her weekly manicure. And taking care of those details, walking into her doctor’s as decked out as she could muster gave her something to twinkle about – and that made it infectious. Her doctors took on her mantra saying, “She wants to live,” thus rallying around her and giving it their best to ensure that she’d have that chance.
When she did finally pass I felt a deep and abiding sadness, but knowing that she had pushed herself to the limit of what her body could take and then some gave me a peaceful sense that she was ready to be where she needed to be. I also understood that her “daily something” was her effort to stay alive; to give herself the energy and pluck to fight each and every round to its fullest.
As well, I know that we all have that in us. It’s just a matter of finding that one space that helps us work things through no matter if it’s a potter’s wheel a double-ended bag or a simple one line statement. So whatever it is: writing a journal entry, walking a mile, learning something new or throwing nothing but lefts at a punching bag getting ready for the Golden Gloves; while your daily something won’t cure you, it sure will help to see you through.
What with Thanksgiving last week, Hanukkah celebrations this week and Christmas looming it’s the time of year when many of us can get hugely over-anxious and stressed out! Sure some of us manage to get through it all with great joy in our hearts and nary a hurt feeling to consider, but many of us experience other emotions and have moments when we’d like nothing better than to chuck it all for a week in some other part of the world, preferably one without phones or email!
I’ve found that making the commitment to work out is a particularly helpful way to cope. Whether it’s boxing, dancing, aikido, kickboxing, swimming, running or spinning for that matter — pursuing an active, physically engaging activity can provide a terrific way of getting rid of all the toxins that inevitably build during the countdown to the “holidays” and not just from all that overeating.
I like to think of it as working it out on the bag. I take the plethora of “stuff” that inevitably gets kicked-up and give it a place to go.
Working it out on the bag means that you have a chance to chuck those things out of your body as a means of ridding yourself of the emotions that may otherwise be difficult to cope with. And while I’ve found that the physical sensation of extending my body and hitting things gives me the chance to release a lot of “stuff,” any active physical experience of pounding something gives the sensation of pushing your body to its limit, such as the feel of the pavement when you’re running or a gym floor when you’re jumping rope.
The point is, these next few weeks are fraught with the pitfalls of a lot of heightened expectations including your own. Perhaps the best present you can give yourself is the chance to work it all out on the bag long before you get to the point where you want to scream, cancel Christmas or take to your bed for days and days in the hopes that it’ll all end soon.
I get annoyed at the notion that women’s boxing is some sort of “novelty.” Boxing is tough both mentally and physically and anyone with the temerity to get in the ring deserves our support. My “beef” is in trying to find boxing results for women’s bouts the morning after! They are hard to find, WFAN excepted, though they may not have them on an “up-to-the-minute” basis. What really steams me is when the results from the card are posted “absent” the women’s bouts.
Okay, I’ll get off the soapbox and show you a short from one of the thousands shot by the Thomas Edison Company in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s). This “novelty” film of the boxing Gordon Sisters was shot on May 6, 1901. The women were advertised as “Champion Lady Boxer’s” and had a boxing vaudeville act for several years. If you are interested in more information you can find it here.
PS. Girlboxing offers a shout out to heavyweight pro Sonya “The Scholar” Lamonakis for her win last night as part of Broadway Boxing’s fight night card at B. B. King’s. With this win Sonya improves her record to 3-0.
Update: Nice piece about Sonya from Boxing 24 News.com here.
“You know what a champion is? A champion is someone who’s ready when the gong rings – not just before, not just after – but when it rings.” – Jack Dempsey
The Times of India is covering a story on the 11th Women’s Boxing Championship that will be held in Thrissur, India. Participants have started at their training camp in preparation for the first round of bouts on December 4th. This championship shall set the stage for selecting the Indian national team that will go on to fight in the 2012 Olympics.
Many young Indian women are finding their way into boxing as a means of elevating their status — and getting themselves and their families out of poverty. This is not so different from the reasons many young men and women have found their way into sport in the United States. And let’s face it, while we think of it as a sport, in my opinion boxing is much more than that. It is about heart and facing the kind of fear that can otherwise cripple a person.
A champion in the ring is a person who understands that and overcomes it. Win or lose the mere fact of getting in the ring counts for something. So, if you are fighting today, think about what Jack Dempsey said and be ready when the bell rings.
The New York Times wrote about the phenomenon of women’s boxing in India here. It is worth the read.
Seattle based 2012 Olympic hopeful Queen Underwood who recently won two title fights at the first Women’s International Dual Series held in Oxnard, California is profiled in this piece. The article was written by Alan Abrahamson and is published on Team USA’s boxing site here.
A terrific article about personal trainer Lada St. Edmund, who started boxing in her 50’s and is now getting ready to take her exams to become a boxing referee. The piece was written by Brian Heyman for the New York Times and can be viewed here.
The New Zealand Herald has an article by Dana Johannsen about New Zealand’s boxing champion Daniella Smith who recently won a ten-round fight in Berlin, Germany over Jennifer Retzke to gain the vacant IBF women’s welterweight title. The mother of two began boxing 12 years ago and turned pro in 2005. The article can be found here.
This piece in the LA Times written by Nate Jackson is about the organization KnockOuts for Girls (KO4G), a not for profit “boxing charity that specializes in training, fundraising and providing scholarships for underprivileged girls.” The group recruits amateur and professional boxers as well as active models with an interest in the sweet science to help support the organization’s many programs. The group’s website is here. The article can be found here.
Over at Maxboxing.com, Ryan Maquinana has a written an article on the dearth of women fighters on big-name fight cards. Referring to WBO super bantamweight champion, Ana Julatan, Maquinana makes note of the fact that her half-time visit on the court of a recent Golden State Warriors-New York Knicks game caused pandemonium in the stands. His point is if she is such a crowd pleaser, how come Julatan and other terrific women fighters are nowhere to be found? This piece is well worth reading and talking about. The link to the article is here.
I’m at the age where missing a day at the gym, never mind a week or two really hurts. This weekend was a case in point. I had a paper due (today) and aside from a couple of walks in the cold and some crunches, I was pretty much attached to my laptop. And yeah, it feels good to have completed the work, by my body is an aching, creaky mess from spending hours at a time curled up on the couch with bad posture. For breaks, I cooked meals, helped by daughter with homework and talked over the points of my paper with my husband, but I was pretty much engaged with writing for two days.
And the reckoning? Aside from an extra pound on the scale, I’m faced with that “starting-over” feeling!
Solution? Sun salutations, lots of stretching, really gentle shadow boxing and a brisk walk! Abs can come later. This sort of unfold-the-bones workout can be really helpful whenever you’ve been through a period of shall we say intense cerebral activity, aka, lying in bed watching TV, after a brief illness, or as in my case, when you’ve been on a deadline in a work or other context and have needed to type on a computer for long periods of time.
The point is not to despair — but to work it out. I always find that a couple of days of modest meals also helps. Not to the point of hunger, but just enough to feel as if I’ve given my body a real shot at dropping that extra pound before it gets to happy hanging around with all those other extra pounds.
Maybe it’s the sudden onset of cold temperatures in Brooklyn (albeit still above freezing), but I don’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything, even though I’ve got a huge list of chores to take care of. On those sorts of days, the only thing to do is to give myself permission to spend some extra minutes under the covers before putting the steel rod in my spine and lots of layers on my body as I head outside for a brisk walk.
I have to admit those first chilly intakes of breath make me want to run back inside, but after the first few minutes, I really do feel a whole lot better.
There’s a great new park only the Brooklyn waterfront just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. The wind can be a bit bone-chilling, but there is nothing prettier especially as the city begins to wake-up on a Sunday morning.
By the time I get home from these sorts of brief walks, I’m ready to face the day, knowing that whatever else happens, I’ve already accomplished at least one thing, and believe me, that can really help oneself get through the rest of the day.
The great woman’s boxer, Lucia Rijker is quite the warrior. The following clips are from the film “Shadow Boxers” by Katya Bankowski. I watched them this morning doing crunches.
Google video has a streaming version of the film here.
Boxer Uprising: China sweeps gold for women’s boxing at 2010 Asian Games
Chinese boxer Ren Cancan gained one for the history books when she captured Gold for China at the Asian Games — a fabulous first as Women’s boxing begins its rounds in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.
Winning in the 52 kilogram (lightweight) division, Ren easily handled Annie Albania of the Philippines. As quoted in the Taiwan News, Ren said, “Female boxing wasn’t in the Asian Games or the Olympics before, so it wasn’t so popular. Now people will pay more attention.”
Annie Albania received the silver while India’s storied Mary Kom and Japan’s Aya Shinmoto shared the Bronze.
The games will continue today with the final bouts to determine the bronze, silver and gold for the Flyweight and Middleweight divisions.
UPDATE: Other medalists:
Li Jinzi, China, Women’s Middleweight, Gold Medal
Dong Cheng, China, Women’s Flyweight, Gold Medal
Undram Erdenesoyol, Mongolia, Middleweight, Silver Medal
Tassamalee Thongjan, Thailand, Flyweight, Silver Medal
Saida Khassenova, Kazakhstan, Middleweight, Bronze Medal
What?!? I’m off from work and the gym is closed?!?
How often have you asked yourself *that* question on a holiday when you’re itching to get out of the house and you’re overcome by the sudden onset of your exercise “mojo”?
Funny how that always seems to happen at 8:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning or better yet, at sometime around 2:00 PM on Christmas day. And oh the shock and surprise when you remember that the gym is closed! You’d think that there had been a murder with all the carrying-on that happens. The “oh man, it’s closed? But I *really* want to work out *now*!”
It reminds me of speaking with Rabbi Richard Chapin formerly of New York’s Temple Emanuel about the meaning of faith. He talked about the religious experience as more than what one often feels are mandated appearances on High Holy days. Rather, it is the sum total of all of those Friday night services and the attendant repetition of ritual that can give one the chance to glean meaning. And so with boxing or running or yoga or aikido or any of the host of activities one does at a gym or dojo or on a running track. It is not the ritual “appearance” on a holiday that give meaning to work and sweat, it’s the every day. The daily something. The things we repeat over and over as a mantra to the places we want to go and the person we want to become.
As an advocate for boxing, I’ll always talk about the ring as a place to take care of those sorts of longings, but really it doesn’t matter. The point is to find those things have meaning to you and to give it a whirl in a way that makes sense and is achievable. And no, you don’t have to go 15 rounds your first day or promise to run 12 miles or do 200 sit-ups or 10 sets each on every apparatus in the gym. Nor do you have to suddenly remember that you haven’t been to the gym in a while (shall we say weeks or months?) and figure the best day to start is at 7:30 AM on New Year’s Day.
So enjoy your Thanksgiving Day — and if you really feed the need to move around, I’d suggest dancing the Superbad Slide (and because it’s James Brown it’ll link you back to You Tube).
Championship boxer Christy Martin was allegedly stabbed and shot by her husband, Jim Martin on Tuesday evening and taken to a local hospital near her Florida home. Known as the “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Christy is an important pioneer in women’s professional boxing.
The LA Times is reporting that she was shot in left leg and stabbed in her torso and is also reporting that the police had been called to their home earlier in the day on Tuesday. The LA Times has the story here. Fox News has it here.
Our prayers should go out to Christy for her quick recovery.
For information on domestic violence click here. And if you or any of your friends and family are victims of domestic violence, you are not alone — you can seek help from the many wonderful organizations that support women in their efforts to free themselves from abusive relationships.
Today would have been my mother’s 75th birthday. As one of those landmark birthdays we figured on having some sort of party to mark the event. That was not meant to be, but in reflecting on the woulda, shoulda, coulda’s of life, the mother of my imagination would surely have been a spry warrior with an undiminished twinkle leading everyone in song at her birthday bash. She’d also have been happier, healthier and more certain of herself at the pivotal decision points in her life when making choices that made sense counted for something.
All of us have those moments where the fork in the road leads left or right. Sometimes we don’t choose per se, but rather stay stationary in the hopes that the wind (“fate”) will nudge us along in one direction or another. Generally we make the choice that feels best at the moment and it turns out to be the “right” choice. Sometimes we don’t. Whether those decisions impact us positively or negatively they ultimately lead us on to more choices, more decisions and so on.
Our lives are thus a series of these points on the line. And the decisions are ones we live with for good or for ill. Strength of character, faith and moxy carry us through the tough ones plus a lot of humor — something my mother had an abundance of. It did not, however, stop her from smoking, a decision point that lead to lung cancer and from our point of view her death, way too soon.
Having smoked myself, I feel as if I’ve played roulette with a wheel of awful outcomes. My hope of course is that I quit soon enough, and having had a family later in life, that the decision to quit (albeit late in “pack years”) will not mean that I’ve robbed my daughter of her mother too soon. In my case — I had my mother for a long time; in my daughter’s case she’d still be awfully young.
As decisions go, quitting smoking was a great one; as is exercising, keeping your weight trim enough not to cause health problems and as my favorite internist espouses, playing the numbers game meaning getting annual physicals, taking the big tests at the scheduled times and doing *everything* in moderation, including in his mind exercise.
My own health scare 14 years ago is what brought me to boxing in the first place — a decision I cherish even as I struggle to keep it as a part of my daily life. The point is to be mindful of how things go and not to be afraid of the decisions that will ultimately have deep and perhaps painful effects.
As a women in her fifties I’m mindful of mortality and time in ways I never, ever imagined. Coupled with losing my mother this year, I’m cognizant of how one can go along and forget that life really is short. In that vein, I shall toast my mother with my daily something, a good cry and the biggest smile I can muster to greet the day.
Girlboxing 
