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.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Training Buddies Venture Outside the Gym... Wednesday, October 14

Every Wednesday is Ice Cream Wednesday and tonight I had the pleasure of heading out to celebrate this much anticipated, much needed "holiday" with one of my boxing buddies, Double J. Double J is a Mauy Thai boxer whom I train with at System. I see my fair share of boxers and boxer-wanna-bes at System -- members who simply hit the heavy bag and have little to no training to back up their punches that leave me rolling my eyes and shaking my head. Sometimes they drive me mental. Members who have no idea of the importance of wrapping their hands and insist that hitting the heavy bag with unprotected hands is just a mind over matter thing. No it's not. Trust me, when you snap your wrist or injure your knuckles, you're going to whine like a little girl and regret not protecting yourself. "Amateurs", I joke all the time to Double J. There's a lot of damage that can be done if you don't protect yourself with the basic needed equipment, like handwraps and proper gloves, and you definitely need to know the fundamental punches before you start whaling away with full force on the bag -- a concept I see every week, time after time, being ignored and pushed aside.

But I'm not here to judge.

I'm here to do my own training.

This doesn't mean I can't intercept though and try to offer my advice to them. I don't want to see people get hurt, that's not cool. I want them to train hard and I'm all about them jumping into boxing with their training but they need to know the fundamentals first or they're going to get hurt. I offer a lot of advice though and more times than not I find myself stopping those on the heavy bag to correct their form or simply show them how to properly throw a one-two or a basic jab.

But Double J, he's legit. He's the best boxer by far that I've seen at System.

I'm trying to get him to go to Cabbagetown boxing, to make the switch from Mauy Thai to traditional boxing and then getting him to compete on an amateur level. Boxing is so very different than Mauy Thai and the thing that many find difficult with such a transition is the footwork.

Anyways, tonight Double J and I took our training buddy friendship outside of the gym and enjoy Ice Cream Wednesday. It was kind of funny to see each other outside of our grubby, sweaty gym clothes. He laughed at me wearing heeled boots. "They're so feminine", he told me. Yup, I clean up and I'd like to think I can clean up good.

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