Kicked off the day by paying off all our bills, suppliers and service men. And while it was nice to see that huge chunk of cash, aka our apartment key deposit return, in our bank account for that brief moment it was even nicer to have a clean slate! Now the only money we owe is that for our start-up loan from our sponsors to which I am happy to note I gave them a big chunk of cash today too.
And while today being Free Train Friday meant it was supposed to be a relaxing day at Hulk's with me simply managing the club alone, members left to do their own thing and me able to get in some solid training time in, it was anything but relaxing. The work day kicked off with me signing up a new member and then things suddenly be lost in translation, obviously. I had told him he'd have to do weigh-in on his first day of training, next week, but when I turned to walk back to the juice bar counter there he stood totally stripped down to a tiny pair of undies that he should have been more embarrassed to be wearing them me seeing them. It was definitely quite the sight and I didn't know what to do but to blurt out, "Weigh-in is next week, please wear more man-appropriate panties." He laughed, always a good sign that one got my sarcastic humor, and then got redressed. Note here that stripping down to your underwear isn't how we do in weigh-in, that is unless you're participating in an actual bout and have to make weight.
By 3pm the club was buzzing with high schoolers and one of my sponsors had shown up to watch me do weigh-in. [Enter props to me here for my best weigh-in for 2014!!!] My body fat is officially at the lowest it has been since the start of this year and my muscle weight is at the highest for 2014!!! Surprisingly enough, I have a higher body muscle mass percentage than Snickers! OK, so I only beat him by a measly 3% but it's still 3% more than him! I teased Snickers about this too, suggesting to him that perhaps we named our boxing club after the wrong person... Hahaha
At 7pm we kicked off Sparring Day -- 2 hours every Friday where members are given the chance to step into the ring and spar with Snickers. It's always interesting watching members spar with him. There's always that one or two that think they're going to get in a knockout punch and be the one to beat the obvious odds going against them. I should note here that this isn't exactly a sparring session but instead is a controlled sparring lesson. It's proven to be a much more beneficial experience for our boxers because Snickers is able to guide them within the ring and give them pointers without the risk of their opponent going wild and too hardcore on them. An injured boxer is often a discouraged boxer and we don't want our boxers to be either so while members give it their all in their two rounds, Snickers goes easy on them. The sparring session is for their benefit, not Snickers, and with his size, experience, level of boxing, and obvious expertise it surely wouldn't be fair for him to go full force. That's not to say he doesn't give some blown up egos a much needed reality check every once in awhile though. Tonight was one of those once in awhile moments, where a member specifically showed for sparring, waited till Snickers had gone through 11 other boxers, and then waited till the very last minute to announce he wanted to spar. By this time Snickers had been going for a bit over two straight hours of sparring, fighting one after another and only stepping out once to go to bathroom and drink some water. The weekly sparring session was actually over and Snickers had started to take his gear off when suddenly this member called him out.
I don't doubt Snickers' talent for a second nor do I doubt his dedication to our members and our club, but sometimes I do doubt the respect levels some members show, or don't show as the case in point. The rule of Sparring Day is that only between the two hours of 7 and 9 are members able to spar with Snickers, no more. Snickers often spends a good chunk of his week sparring with many of our more advanced amateur boxers, specifically with Kato and WOW, so Sparring Day, where he has to spar for two hours with whomever steps in the ring, is very draining. Not only draining of his energy but it could also be dangerous and damaging to him and I refuse to risk the safety of my husband for the benefit of feeding someone's ego. If you want to shoot your mouth off and take a cheap shot, then the least you can do is play by the one rule all other members abide by -- sparring with Snickers is between 7-9pm.
Anyways, I knew Snickers wouldn't say no to this particular member when he called him into the ring and I considered it pretty rude of this member to do so, considering. I wasn't impressed. "Give him a bit of a hard time", I told him. "or I'll take him and his ego down by stepping in to fight him, woman against man!" And that's exactly what went down, literally. He went down, a couple of times actually, along with his ego, but not necessarily because of Snickers' punches but because he just couldn't keep up with the fast pace Snickers took the sparring to.
Lesson learnt here: Respect the rules of the club as well as the coaches because they're here to protect YOU -- protect you in more ways than perhaps you know it.
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