Tag Archives: girl boxing

Getting the jump on those pesky resolutions

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Getting the jump on those pesky resolutions

Yep.  It’s that time of year again — when you need to confront all the coulda’, shoulda’ woulda’s from 2010 to write-up the “list” for 2011.

I will box every day!

In years past, I’ve run the gamut from writing them hung over on New Year’s Day, to thoughtfully considering them for days and weeks before the turn of the year.

To be honest, the New Year’s resolution list is often an afterthought somewhere around the 3rd of January.  By then of course, I’m in a decided catch-up mode which in turn can spiral into a state of New Year’s resolution anxiety if I’m not careful.

This year I’m trying something a little different.  I’ve started my New Year’s resolution two days early — with the goal of doing at least *one* physical thing every day.  Okay, sure, that can be tough, but with a hat tip to Conjuring My Muse, doing one activity — whether it’s one three-minute shadow boxing round in the living room or a full-on two-hour work out at the gym is achievable!  And like doing anything else every day — it’s gets to be a terrific habit.

So to keep true to that New Year’s vow, I threw on my sweats, grabbed my gear (some of it with that new leather smell — thanks, Santa!) and walked down to Gleason’s Gym.  The sweet part was being accompanied by my daughter — and while I must say that the work-out was tough as my latest lay-off has been way too long, I worked out just enough to feel terrific about making the effort. It also helped that she was there to cheer me on, especially when it came to the sit-ups.

I’m heading down to Gleason’s again tomorrow to work out with Lennox Blackmore with the hope that I’ll be able to throw in one or two extra rounds and a whole lot more ab-work.  And though the gym will be closed on New Year’s Day, there’s yoga, fast-walking or dancing to James Brown to keeping me going strong — least ways that’s the plan!

Making it count

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Making it count

 

Brown Belt

 

Having achieved her brown belt, my daughter’s Aikido Sensei gave her about half a minute to rest on her laurels before starting the push towards her next goal.

She is ranked at 2.5 and must reach a 0.5 level before she will be invited to test for her Shidon or first rank Black Belt under the rules of the the Aikido World Alliance, the parent organization for her Dojo.  That will take three to four years, and given her age she will then wait at her 0.5 rank for some time before the AWA confers their invitation.

Her Sensei figures that as she is on her road towards a Black Belt — she is now not only an apprentice trainee with respect to all of the techniques that she must master, but more importantly she must also begin to learn the responsibilities of achieving the rank.  That is all pretty heady stuff for an 11-year-old, and yet, having been thrown to the front of her class to lead the warm-up, she has become cognizant of how difficult it is to command the attention and respect of a group of people long enough to actually get something done.

What she’s also learning is that small things matter.

In Aikido, stance is everything — much as in boxing — and finding the balance means a lot not only to her practice, but in her role as a novice teacher, to those of her students.  Thus she now sees when something is wrong and has begun to correct the tiniest of movements.  This process of breaking it down is helping her to ascertain the faults in her own practice — at least that’s her Sensei’s ingenious plan, though this last is perhaps the hardest to achieve.

Sometimes it is not really possible to articulate what happens beyond the realm of the pure mechanics of a particular set of movements.  In Aikido, that might mean the execution of a series of moves with a partner — pretty difficult stuff in that both partners must also act in a kind of harmony with each other even as the one may be attempting to toss the other to the ground.

Boxing offers something similar — a remarkable improvised dance executed by two well-skilled fighters balanced for ability and for that little something extra that comes from the heart.

All in the family: “The Fighter”

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All in the family:  “The Fighter”

Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund, Tom Herde/Globe Staff/File 1987

I saw The Fighter yesterday afternoon.  The film is a biopic about “Irish” Micky Ward fighting out of Lowell, MA starring Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward, Christian Slater as his brother Dicky Eklund, Amy Adams as  Micky’s girlfriend Charlene Fleming and Melissa Leo  in the role as Dicky and Micky’s mother Alice.  The movie follows some of the formulaic aspects of boxing genre films, such as triumph over adversity, but at its heart the film is about families and what happens when love is applied as an imperfect reflection of how people feel about themselves and each other.

It got me to thinking about why people box in the first place — and the kind of heart and mental fortitude it takes to get kicked down over and over, only to keep coming back; not only to get it right, but to say something about oneself.  In essence, the boxer is there to say, “I matter,” in the world.  Not to say that boxers or anyone who chooses to test themselves in that way necessarily comes from violent homes where “love” is equated with beatings or being pitted against one’s siblings or being taken on emotional roller coaster rides, but it does seem to say that one needs to test one’s inner strength  — and in that affirmation overcome whatever demons large or small may impede one’s ability to feel whole without that sort of test.

As a boxer I know once said, “any punishment I ever took in the ring was a damned sight less than what I got every Saturday night from my old man” — and yet he still found himself playing out his ability to overcome that abuse to come out on the other side as a fully intact human being.

Perhaps because it is Christmas and this is my first holiday season after losing my mother, I feel particularly sensitive to the notion that families propel us to so much of what we do in our lives.  And whether it is into the ring or some other form of physical or mental test of one’s mettle, in the end we do get to not only affirm that we matter, but to say that how we express those feelings has meaning.

This is a long way of saying that The Fighter is a good film worth seeing if not for the star power than for the fact that it attempts and succeeds at telling a very honest story about being human.

Three days until

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Three days until

Okay, I admit it.  I’m an excited little kid when it comes to Christmas.  Given that it’s December 22, that means three whole days until — as well as that “eee-gads” feeling ’cause my Christmas shopping isn’t done.

If you’re in a similar boat, and if you haven’t yet gotten gifts for the boxer in your life (or that special something for yourself for that matter), you just may make it if you put in a super rush order with one of the boxing catalogs — though it’s a long shot. (Check out the Boxing Gear Page for a list of online websites and gift ideas.)

The alternative is to run over to a specialty store — if there is one near you (folks in the NYC can always go to G&S in downtown Manhattan) or you can  head over to a boxing gym for gear & t-shirts, and for NYC area dwellers there is always “Mo’s” for something like handwraps.

If that doesn’t work boxers can always use workout T’s, sweats, water bottles, hoodies, winter running apparel (hats, silk gloves, wicking socks, thick tights) and bags to lug all that boxing stuff in.  One- or two-pound hand weights are also great to shadow box with and boxers can always use a nice mat for sit-ups ’cause lets face it, the ones in a boxing gym can get pretty “funky.”  Those kinds of items are pretty readily available — and you can always head to a Yoga store for nice colors and an island of calm in an otherwise crowded mall.

A free lesson or two with a trainer or paying a yearly locker fee are also amazing gestures that would be very appreciated — and of course, you can always donate to a boxing charity in the name of a loved one (check out the Boxing Holiday Giving post for a few ideas).

Whatever you decide, enjoy your three days of shopping!

 

 

Miles Davis and me

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Miles Davis and me

While I used to listen to my mother’s John Coltrane and Miles Davis records when I was a young child, I discovered jazz for myself when I turned 12.  My grandmother had given me a small portable AM/FM radio and fiddling with the dial I came across the radio station WLIB.  This was 1966 — and at 4:00 each afternoon, Jazz pianist Billy Taylor opened his show with Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage.

What I waited and hoped for each day though was the chance to hear something by Miles Davis.  Billy Taylor usually obliged with tunes from Miles Davis’ ESP or Miles Smiles albums or a song like So What from such newly minted classics as Davis’ Kind of Blue album.

Years and years later training with Johnny Grinage down at Gleason’s, Johnny used to talk about Miles the boxer.  I’ve never really heard the speed-bag in his trumpet, but I still love the thought that the staccato of his solos could have come from his days of training in the ring.

Hopkins v Pascal

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Hopkins v Pascal

Watching Bernard Hopkins fight Jean Pascal last night was reminiscent of an epic battle between two samurai: the one a world-weary older fighter and the other a young prideful upstart receiving his comeuppance.

Bernard Hopkins (right) v. Jean Pascal. Rogerio Barbosa/AFP/Getty Images

That the fight was scored a draw is unfortunate as it was clear that Hopkins had defeated Pascal in spite of the two knock-downs Hopkins suffered in the early rounds of the fight.  More to the point, by the 11th round, Hopkins had taken Pascal’s heart and while the younger man fought gamely on, everything about his defense spoke of his having been shattered by the tenacity and grit of his older opponent.

If those of us of a certain age had all cheered on George Foreman when he returned to the ring, Bernard Hopkins’ insistence on his viability as a fighter has had something magical about it.  Think Nolan Ryan throwing aces at the age of 46 for the Texas Rangers and one can see that it is still possible to be at the very top.  In Ryan’s case he’d adjusted his pitches to give himself the longevity he wanted.

For Hopkins, conditioning is what keeps him viable along with his boxing savvy and the depth of his understanding of the game.  Sure he’s suffered losses, but to see him throw body punch after body punch with the force of a jack hammer against Pascal was to know that he can keep on fighting for a long time to come.  The only question will be balancing his desire to box with the chances he takes every time he receives a blow to the head.

Whatever the case, while he was robbed of a win last night, it really doesn’t matter because we all know that Bernard Hopkins is a true champion.

Recent Press on Women’s Boxing

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Recent press on Women’s Boxing

Jill Morley, "Girl in the Ring"

Lyle Fitzsimmons of Sports Network has written a fabulous feature piece on Jill Morley and her film “Girl in the Ring.”  This must read article published by the Miami Herald  among other newspapers can be found here.

 

Christina Cruz will fight for her 5th Golden Gloves Title. Credit: Goldfield for Daily News

The Daily News featured a piece on Christina Cruz yesterday.  Christina will be entering the Golden Gloves for a shot at her fifth title — as she works towards gaining a berth on the U.S. 2012 Olympic Team.  The link is here.

Mary Kom, Credit: Reddiff Sports

Girlboxing is a proponent of Women’s Boxing everywhere and found this piece on India’s Mary Kom entitled, “Representing your country is such a big thing.”  The article is an exclusive interview with Mary Kom published on Rediff Sports website. The interview can be found here.

My locker

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My locker

I’ve had my locker at Gleason’s Gym for several years.  I used to schlep my stuff to the gym on a daily basis and then hope that one of the loaner “day” lockers was free.   In those instances even if I found a locker, more times than not, I’d forget to bring a lock or forget something at home, say my shoes or gloves or handwraps.  The solution of course, was to make the commitment to get a locker.

At Gleason’s as at other gyms, locker space is pretty dear.  Once I’d signed up to get one, it took several months before I actually got the call to telling me that I’d been assigned one.  Those months were a time of anticipation and frankly, outright jealousy as I’d ogle the lockers of my gym mates overflowing with gear, towels and deodorant.   When I finally did get the call, I was elated — and well, anxious.

What would I put in my locker?  Would it be big enough?  Should I purchase an extra shelf as I’d seen in other lockers?  Would I have enough places to hang things?  Oh, and the lock?  What type?  Would I remember the combination?

Coming into the gym my first day after getting “the call” I felt triumphant.  I had a locker with my last name prominently pasted to the outside of the locker door.  Opening it up, I felt a rush of excitement, never mind that it was exactly like the loaner lockers I’d been using all along, it was my locker, for my stuff; a little part of the world with my name on it that stored my special things.

After several visits to the gym, my locker began to take on the character of all the others I’d seen — overflowing with gear, and hard to close on cold days what with my winter boots and huge down coat.  Still it was mine, and if missed going to the gym for long stretches of time, my gear remained safely tucked in and at the ready for me.

This weekend I cleaned out my locker in anticipation of the area being bombed to kill goodness knows what kind of insects.  One of the last to get to the gym on Saturday afternoon, I felt wistful seeing the locker room so empty.  The treat was being reunited with stuff I’d long since tucked away inside bags or other crevices.  Who knew that I had my own speed bag??  This after just having put one on my Christmas list!  I was also reunited with my favorite pair of socks which I’d assumed had long since gone to sock heaven, not to mention mouth pieces, head gear, my daughter’s gear from when she was 8 years old and used to train a lot, and even my yoga mat.

Hauling my big laundry bag of stuff home, I of course resolved to keep my locker neater as I worked out where to purchase a large mesh bag to store gear so I’d actually *know* what was in there.  Mostly though, I was able to think through individual moments at the gym and came up the big hill on Washington Street with a smile.

Bird

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Bird

 

Charlie "Bird" Parker

I stopped into a shoe store with my daughter on Saturday afternoon on our way home from her Aikido practice when I heard Charlie Parker’s rendition of “Just Friends.”  It got me to thinking about Bebop and the improvisational nature of boxing.  Watch boxing at its finest and one finds not only the dancer’s art, but the improvisational character of a Charlie Parker solo.

For those who may not know, Charlie “Bird” Parker was an alto saxophone player from Kansas City, Kansas who along with Dizzie Gillespie brought a new lexicon to Jazz interpretation called Bebop.  Like many talented musicians of later eras, Charlie Parker’s tenure on earth was brief — all of 34 years, and yet the legacy of his music lives on today.

“Groovin’ High”

“Yardbird Suite”

PS – Catch a young Miles Davis on trumpet on both tracks.

Great night of boxing

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Great night of boxing

Amir Khan v Marcos Maidan. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Last night was a tremendous night of boxing on HBO and Showtime.

Joseph Agbeko-Yonnhy Perez. Photo Credit: ESPN

Showtime’s line-up included the first two fights in their bantamweight tournament. Beginning with the Abner Mares late round victory over Vic Darchinyan and Joseph Abeko’s stunning victory over Yonnhy Perez in a bout that everyone assumed would lead to a repeat of Perez’s victory last year.

Over on HBO, the undercard fight between Victor Ortiz and Lamont Peterson was scored a draw.

The fight of the night, however, belonged to Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana.

For those who didn’t see the Khan-Maidana fight, it fight is worth caching when HBO replays it or when they offer it “on demand.”  To my mind, Khan looked great through the first 9 rounds. What he’s got to work on though, is how to handle getting backed up into the ropes. He took a lot of punishment from Maidana from stiff upper cuts that really hurt him in the 10th, 11th and 12th.  Still and all, Khan proved himself to be a warrior and pulled out a tremendous victory to retain his WBA light-welterweight title.

For a great piece on the Khan-Maidana fight check out the article in the UK Guardian. The link to the article is here.

 

One other fight last night was Girlboxing’s friend Jill Morley’s victory in the Costa Mesa Master’s Tournament.  Jill is finishing up her film “Girl in the Ring” (previously known as “Fighting It”) and true to her subject is “fighting it” in the ring!

Get your tickets!

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Get your tickets!

New York’s own Million Dollar Baby, Maureen Shea has moved on to the promoting side of the business as president of Pandora Promotions.   Her first big venture in association with Global Boxing will be a fabulous night of boxing at Brooklyn’s Masonic Temple featuring WBC Super Bantamweight, Alicia “Slick” Ashley in the main event.  The fight will take place on Thursday, January 13th, 2011.  Tickets are available from Gleason’s Gym and Global Boxing Gym.  Seems like a great addition to your Santa list!

If you’ve never watched Alicia fight, it’s a treat.

Women who box

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Women who box

Nechama Brodie ready for a 'white collar' bout at the Armoury Boxing Club in Cape Town taking it like a woman on Fight Night. (David Harrison, M&G)

Women’s boxing has taken on a global character.  What’s interesting is many of the drivers for women’s participation in the sport seem universal:  empowerment, fitness and a way to get themselves where they want to go.

An article in a South African paper caught my eye this morning.  The article is written by Nechama Brodie.  She has entered the ring as a “white collar” boxer in two fights out of Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

As she writes, even sparring is not for the faint of heart. “‘Get used to it. It’s a man’s sport,’  [trainer] Shayvonne Pattison said to me, when I asked her to stop hitting me quite so hard in the head.”

The allusion to it’s being a “man’s sport,” however, has more to do with the seriousness of the intent during training, something many women who train will attest — so much so, that in my opinion boxing is certainly a “woman’s sport” with all the heart and fortitude that it implies.  As well, with the run-up to the 2012 Olympics, women’s boxing is beginning to engender the respect it’s deserved all along.

Her article is a well-written piece published in this South Africa’s Mail & Guardian Online edition and can be found here.

Getting them to the gym early

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Getting them to the gym early

I live in a two-boxer family and if I count the young-one, we’re coming on three boxers.  As the trainers down at Gleason’s are happy to remind us, my daughter was practically born in the gym.  There are many stories told of how she was passed from one lap to another while my husband or I trained.  Her comfort today is telling every time she walks into the gym.  She’s got folks to say hello to,  her trainer, John “Superman” Douglas to fist-bump, and a general feeling of ease as she watches us workout or works out herself.

When it comes to kids in the gym, I always advise parents that there is no place finer to introduce a child not only to the intricacies of the sweet science, but to the rarified world of camaraderie, focus and importantly, people’s dreams.  A boxing gym provides children with a place where they can experience people working very, very hard to achieve complex goals that range from personal fitness to readying for professional bouts.

The boxing gym is also a place where children can learn great physical skills, confidence and a work ethic that will carry them across a lifetime — and this without ever really needing to fight in a bout.  The boxing work out alone with a skilled trainer or in a group class will provide kids with the chance to develop prowess in the boxing repertoire and for those parents who might object to their kids sparring, pad work and shadow boxing can simulate some of the movements of the ring.  Girls especially get a lot out of boxing training — not the least of which is learning how to physically defend themselves.

There’s also something else that happens in a boxing gym: a chance for people from all walks of life to interact and communicate.  In the over-scheduled world of contemporary child rearing, that sort of experience is invaluable as is the “drift” time that happens as you wait your turn.

For more information on children’s boxing programs, parents can contact their local PAL organizations. Many boxing gyms also provide opportunities for training children individually or in groups.  You can also contact Girlboxing and we’ll be happy to pass on what information we have.

Sites we like about women’s boxing

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Blogs we like about women’s boxing

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!

 

I want to live

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I want to live

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.