It was a 12hr workday for me today on account that I had an early afternoon meeting I had to type things up for and then my late night Sushi Crew didn't finish until close to 1am.
In the span of 12hrs at Hulk's, I did the following:
- Had a meeting with Secom Security.
- Had a meeting with a Cheonan City Government Official, regarding the Pesky Parkers.
- Interviewed a guy for a possible additional cleaning/part time assistant position.
- Had a meeting with a parent regarding their child I train.
- Had a lengthy phone conversation with the card machine company regarding how to do a split payment print -- holy instant headache, that's not exactly everyday conversation!!!
- Renamed the "Corner Creep" the "Neighbourhood Watchman" and bought him lunch, to thank him for helping with the whole motorcycle hit and run situation from last Thursday.
- Gave 5 tours of Hulk's to random visitors.
- Corner coached a sparring session.
- Trained 27 Hulkies and dealt with 41 people today.
- Had monthly weigh-in with 8 Hulkies, ALL 8 of which dropped an impressive 2-4kgs of body fat.
- Was visited by four friends/former Hulkies.
- Played kickball in the club for a solid 30mins with some mini Hulkies.
- Received a most precious gift from a Hulkie -- homemade bread.
- Got a thank you phone call from the father of two of our youngest Hulkies and he stated that he'll come in on Wednesday to renew his daughter's memberships.
- Got driven home by the Sushi Crew but first we drove around a bit downtown, blasting DJ DOC and belting out the tunes to my favourite song together.
... and then there were those "interesting moments" of my day where I just had to shake my head and regard them as the "spice to my life" here at Hulk's....
Today's "spices" of the day:
- Watched karma bite today's Pesky Parkers in the butt when 1 of them blocked four and then one scratched another.
- Was shown some very revealing cellphone body shots by a City Government Official who used to do bodybuilding and most randomly decided to show me them on the spot.
- Got punched in the face by a full grown man, accidentally, during padwork.
- Was accidentally head butted in the boob by a mini Hulkie.
- While corner coaching the sparring, I got splash with blood... in my M-O-U-T-H!!!
- Had to mop up blood in the ring... on the floor... behind the juice bar... in the bathroom too!!!
- Took a ball to the head one too many times by the mini Hulkies playing with our new club toy.
- Showed a male Hulkie how to use a women's tampons -- shoved it up his nose to stop the bleeding.
- Arrived home completely exhausted, only to then have to split up a random street fight.
I think my favourite part of the whole 12hr workday was when I did padwork with the Mauy Tai Hottie. He stands in at 178cm, 74kgs and I've seen him for months whaling away on our sandbags -- he's hardcore. Snickers has always been the one to do padwork with him. Tonight, after I just finished padwork with one member, I turned and there he was standing there, looking straight at me with his gloves on. I asked him if he wanted to padwork with me and then he lifted his gloves up and got into starting positing, signalling that his answer was yes. Honestly, I only asked because I was trying to be polite; I didn't actually think he'd take me up on my offer because he's so much bigger than me and there's definitely the potential for him to hurt me if his misreads my commands or hits my mitt too hard. Instantly my heart started pounding. "Please don't hit me with full power" I told him and with that I started the round. I went three full rounds with him on the pads non stop, refusing to let him rest in between the rounds, and I know I left him rethinking his opinion of me as did I of my opinion of him.
A little time later he and WOW started talking about training and I suggested that they step in the ring to spar. The Mauy Thai Hottie has only really sparred once before and I recall it ending with him feeling very frustrated. Working the sandbag and pads are way different than sparring. And, for to a boxer new to sparring, it's just go, go, go. There is no thinking, there's just doing what you repetitively have done on the sandbag. So if you're doing 1-2 only on the sandbag and not doing any defence or combos, than 1-2 and no defence is what you'll do during sparring.
Anyways, so the two geared up for sparring and then stepped into the ring for a few rounds. Their hits were hard, you could feel the intensity of them, and I had to wipe the blood off the face of the Mauy Thai Hottie in between rounds. After their sparring we sat down to discus it. It was more or less just WOW and the Mauy Thai Hottie discussing it while I mopped up the blood in the ring. That's when the Mauy Thai Hottie approached me and started drilling me about his sparring -- how he could improve, what were his weaknesses and what I thought about it. He honestly was eager to hear my opinion and I felt so happy that he was -- I was no longer just the assistant coach to his training with Snickers being his main coach. Tonight I was his only coach and it felt pretty cool. When WOW headed off to the showers, I continued discussing with the Mauy Thai Hottie how he could improve and what weaknesses I'd love for him to really focus on so that he could make his strengths. It's like when Junior Mint used to drill me about my left hook. I struggled for the longest time with my coordination regarding my left hook, it was just so off, but after constant focus and drilling me on it, my left hook is now my key punch.
My favourite part of the entire day was training the Mauy Thai Hottie because I think I really helped him and I really respected his dedication to improving his boxing. I know so many boxers/athletes who stick to training that's comfortable and stick to training with a specific coach. I totally was guilty of this too -- hello 7 years with only Junior Mint. I trained with Junior Mint for years and only him. So if Junior Mint was away on a day I trained, then I trained alone as opposed to training with one of the assistant coaches. I don't want this to happen with our Hulkies because I don't think it helps them to get too comfortable with just one coach. Snickers and I both have very different styles -- he's an outboxer and I'm an infighter -- and I think it's very beneficial for our boxers to test both of us out because we both bring very different styles to the ring. I for one will be the first to admit I don't like training with a different coach but look at me now. Now I'm having to do exactly that and if only I had trained with numerous coaches before, I wouldn't be so closed minded and struggling with accepting another coach's style. I think when boxers, athletes in general, train out side of their comfort zone that's when the improvements and growth really happen, because it's challenging. And tonight I saw this first hand with the Mauy Thai Hottie. Nothing was routine with his training tonight -- he did padwork with me and sparred -- and I really respected that. It's very hard to not only get out of your comfort zone but also agree to step out of it. So whether it's trying a different coach, testing out a new exercise, or stepping into the ring for a first time sparring, the key is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
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