A little over 3pm, I posted this on Facebook as my status update:
It's now 3:19pm, we've only been opened an hour, and 4 Hulkies have stopped by so far -- one to take a shower and watch UFC, one to drop off 60 eggs and help with laundry, one to return my knee brace, and one to simply say hi.
...am I the only one who is going to box this afternoon?!
The day had started out strangely amusing -- the first four members that came to the club today didn't train at all. I was curious as to if this would continue so when the fifth member for the day arrived, I perked up and awaited what strangeness would greet me. The fifth member leaned over the juice bar counter, showed me all his pearlies with a big smile and then handed me an envelop. "A gift for you", he told me. Inside it was money. He owned me his first month's membership but in between yesterday's first training and showing up today, he had decided to bump up his membership from one month to three months. Sweet.
Today's attendance for Free Train Friday was as expected -- attended by the expected die hard regulars who come everyday and attended by those new members who are exceptionally eager to drop body fat and sport buff, hot, health bods. I joined a few of them for training in the late afternoon so I cranked up my playlist of old school hip hop -- Notorious BIG, Puff Daddy and 2Pac.
I was quite pleased with our attendance for Sparring Day and how everyone who was present between the hours of 7-9pm stepped into the ring to spar. Participating in Sparring Day is an option for members but Snickers likes to give them a little extra push because sometimes members want to try but second guess themselves. I say the only way to see if you like it or not is to try it. If you really don't like it after trying then at least then you gave it an honest attempt and now know. I personally think one of the reasons why so many participate in our Sparring Days is because it's Snickers they're going against. Thus it's somewhat of a controlled exercise in that they know he won't go full force on them and they won't get hurt unlike if they were to step into the ring to spar with another member. An inexperienced boxer going against another inexperienced boxer has plenty of potential for it to get out of control and for injuries to happen, like when feelings of frustration override the fighter or illegal punches get thrown. That's not to say that such things can't happen when Snickers spars with them but at least when it's him sparring with them, half of the fight is controlled -- Snickers' half.
We've been really focusing in a lot on the social morale of our club these past couple of weeks and the success of our amateur team at this past month's tournament has really helped many members to bond not only with us but other members and our club as a whole. I'm very curious as to if others will be joining our amateur team for the next tournament so we've got about two months to build up the confidence and skills of other potentials. I'm very eager and optimistic about getting a female fighter on our amateur team and there are two female Hulkies in particular that I have my eye on. Both are very dedicated to their training and I see first hand just how focused they are when they train. They have the drive and the dedication, we just need to help build up their confidence and skills.
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