As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Wanting to Get More Uncomfortable with My Training... Thursday, June 26

It's interesting how some call me intense and rather hardcore with my training when in fact if they only knew what many of my professional boxing friends did for training perhaps they'd call my training comfortable and lacking.  Similarly, what's "intense" and "hardcore" for the average person's training IS comfortable and lacking for a professional athlete. I don't want to be like the average person so ya, I want to be intense and hardcore but not by their standards or thinking.  To be different, to excel, you have to do different and you have to go beyond your comfort zone.  I try to push my members out of their comfort zone so that they can excel but lately it's been so hard for me to push myself.  KBC and KBA are still battling it out so I can't even finalize my new contract with my new manager nor can I sign for a fight either.  Now that we're over focusing so much on preparing Kato for his fight, Snickers' can focus in on training me but now I've got an injured wrist.  There's never a right time or a good time, there's always just a less busier time and a not-so-good-but-it'll-have-to-do time.  The doctor says I have to wait it out two weeks but, and keep this on the low, tonight when Snickers stepped out after work, I got in some mean cardio via the rowing machine.  I only did 10 minutes, still struggling to make a fist with my hand, but it was 10 minutes more than I was suppose to do.

Snickers and I have big plans, not only for Hulk's but for our roles as coaches and professional boxers.  Snickers now calls himself a professional fighter as soon he'll be having a fight that isn't in the sport of boxing.  Whereas I'm just happy to change my label as an underground fighter to a professional boxer and that's exactly the label I'll fight to keep.  

Part of our plans will hopefully include a close couple by which our boxing club has legal ties with.  I've spoken of them before -- the Busan couple (both Korean) who are both professional boxing champs, she being in her mid 30's and he being in his early 30's.  Today he had his weigh-in for his fight in Thailand.  He called me yesterday to talk to me and then again today to tell me how his weigh-in went.  He and his wife have what I'd consider my ideal life, that is to say if they didn't have the two kids.  They're both champions, KBC/KBA absolutely loves them as do their Korean and Asian fans, they run their own successful boxing club, and living in Busan means they're ocean side on a daily bases.  I've been thinking a lot about them lately and am considering running a kind of boxing camp with them.  You hear of all the time of pro boxers, and even amateur boxers for that matter, heading out of country or out of town to participate in intense boxing camps so why can't we run our own camp for ourselves?!  Exactly.  

The idea would be for me to go there, to Busan, and her (the wife) to come here, to Cheonan.  Having a female champion at our club would bring about a lot of hype as well as it'd really help Snickers to have an extra Korean on hand for not only padwork but to help with greeting new members.  She's actually bigger than her husband, which I should note isn't really hard to be considering he fights at 52kgs, so her sparring with Snickers would be an awesome challenge for her.  As for me and what I'd bring to their club, hello I'm a foreigner, that'd add an instant hype to their club.  I could introduce them to our crossfit circuit training and help organize starting that up for them to continue.  Plus, the fact that he, the husband, weighs the same as me means he'd be the ultimate sparring partner for me.  Of course I'd never consider me to be on the same level as him but that's just the thing, you don't want to be on the same level as your sparring partner -- hard time now, easy time later.  There is no one at Hulk's that would be a suitable sparring partner for me and so it's so very frustrating.  The closest that would be a suitable partner would be Kato but he's got about 15-20kg on me, plus a good foot at least in height.  He is an amateur fighter that fights in pure amateur style -- fast with multiple hits as opposed to more steady and harder hits.  I've actually been pondering sparring with Snickers.  He's the only one I'd trust bigger than me that'd control himself and not let the energy of the fight or his ego throw me a hard hit using his full power or full body weight.  

It's all just an idea in my head right now but it's definitely a strong one I've been dissecting and over analyzing for some time now.  It's just so hard to want to be pushing forward with my boxing when everyone around me seems to be stepping into the ring to spar and I'm not.  It's the equivalent to blue balls for a boxer.  

A.D.I.D.A.S. -- All Day I Dream About Sparring.  That says it all right there.

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