While my days of not so long ago use to start on a late note with members coming in so late to train, they now start super early in comparison. Our university students have now returned back to school and our working members are off of summer holidays. Now we have members coming in earlier and leaving earlier. No more training past scheduled club hours or going home after 1am.
We have one member who has been coming in early and often we arrive at Hulk's to him waiting outside our door. He's only 17 but he's already a professional Judo fighter and has reached impressive ranking here in Korea. He suffered a knee injury but has been told by his coach to continue some kind of training while he's recovery hence why he's here at Hulk's. To look at this young guy, you'd think he was a man. With the body of a tank, weighing in well over 100kgs, but the boyish pudgy cheeks of a 12 year old, he's all man from the neck down and he's such a hard worker.
It's pretty interesting, our membership list that is, and today we added another interesting member to our lengthy list. At only age 14, she's now officially our youngest member, beating my Poster Child Girl by just a year, but her energy is so contagious. I don't think she fully understands all that I tell her but she's super smiley and tries her best. I put her through a weight training routine tonight so I'm pretty sure she won't be able to walk down stairs or lift her hands above her head tomorrow -- and that was me going easy on her;)
Out of all honesty, we really anticipated our membership to consist of a higher percentage of foreigners compared to Koreans but it's turned out to be the opposite. And the more and more I try to attract the foreigners and get their numbers up, the more and more I'm attracted to really focusing in on the Koreans, especially the females. Koreans aren't who they used to be when I first arrived, nine years ago, and so it's been interesting to note the differences, especially with who comes out for training and what training they do. Our membership list is now bombarded with more females than males and I just think that's so awesome. Times are definitely changing and the fear of weight training bulking women up and boxing being only a thing for the boys is definitely disintegrating.
Now is definitely the time to be in female professional boxing because the aged-old stereotypes that once surrounded it are being knocked down and challenged. The proof is in the fight cards at weekend boxing tournaments. Now days KBC tries very hard to put a female fight on their fight card as well as showcasing a female champion fight as a main fight.
Five years ago I wouldn't have seen a 14 year old Korean girl joining a boxing club and today's new 14 year old female member was the first time I've ever seen it. I've seen young boys her age and even younger boys join but never such a young girl. It's both reassuring and exciting to see that times are changing. The old Korean thinking is definitely being challenged by it's youth and it's really awesome to see this turn about happen with such youths joining Hulk's.
No comments:
Post a Comment