Been a while eh, but no need to fear, Josh is back. You are freed from Daphne's reign of horrendously lame posts with a refreshing change of pace.
You're welcome.
I figured you guys deserve a little insight into our daily lives of boxing so here goes. I'm going to spare you the details of our exercises and shenanigans partly because they are pretty much identical every week and partly because the experiences are painful to relive. Just to give a quick rundown, our weekly schedule consists of various classes ranging from Strength, Cardio, Core, and Heavy Bag. The majority of our class time is spent in the Coed Boxing classes which are basically a combination platter of all the different courses. We start off with strength training with rather light weights with numerous, numerous, numerous (have I mentioned numerous?) repetitions which trails off into slides, squats, shuffles, and more cardiovascular exercises. We put on our latex gloves and venture into the lockers of sweat-filled boxing gloves with the stench of a thousand dumpsters packed into each and every pair and begin the warm ups. The 1-2, the 1-1-2, the 2-3-2 and the works are used to warm-up. The routine after the jabbing warm-up include a few speed punching rounds where two people partner up and one does the 1-2 combo as fast as possible with little regard to form while the other holds the heavy bag and a few power punch rounds where form and power take precedence above anything.
The thing about the power jabs is the inherent danger in its malpractice. Especially for rookies such as 5 high school seniors with limited previous knowledge about how to throw a punch, the 125 lbs heavy bag can be a little intimidating. Once you start to get a feel for the bag, you realize that the punches you throw need to be controlled in a very precise manner to hit the weight at a safe angle. Just a few centimeters too close to the index finger for the impact, and the lasting vibrations travel up and down your bones. One of our members unfortunately found out the consequences of repeated malpractice leading to immense swelling and coloration of her knuckles. The first step to prevent injury is knowing when to stop. Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong and to ignore this pain is not the smartest of ideas. For our member, she continued to persevere through the pain thinking it was just her being out of practice in throwing a punch but her noble efforts ended up with some painful results.
And with that, I leave you with an amazingly powerful scene that I recommend everyone watch at the very least, if not the entire movie. This little snippet can be found through this YouTube video and is a must watch.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that!
An unforgettable monologue taken from Rocky Balboa spoken by Sylvester Stallone.We sure ain't no cowards, and we'll certainly prove it through sticking with this project till the end.
Josh
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