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.

Monday, October 03, 2016

The Competitive Animal in Me is Being Fed... Monday, October 3


The competitive side of me is definitely surfacing at Clancy’s with me training Team Blue. 

I noticed it really come out tonight when I, without even thinking, looked down from the second floor and yelled out “don’t look at us” to one of the fighters on Team Red. Ouch. It made an obvious surface a little bit later too, when another Team Red fighter walked right into the space we were using. I had Team Blue lined up at the wall and wanted to go over a particular combo I’ve been teaching them when it happened, when this female fighter from Team Red walked in. She was carrying one of the stretching mats and wanted to clean it before putting it away. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, to tell you the truth, but I felt she was lingering a bit and with her being from Team Red I just didn’t want here there. There are times when I don’t even want Coach Rico there and he’s there to help us. Mind you, he’s also there to train Team Red – he trains both teams. So anyways, I started getting easily agitated so I kind of hustled her out of the area via walking right behind her. 

I think the teams are unfairly stacked and I’m not saying that because I think it’s Team Red that is stacked but because initially it wasn’t like this. What had happened was one fighter bailed once the teams were made and then a few other fighters had to be shifted around because of carpooling/co-worker situation that was brought up. Regardless, stacked or not, I do really like my team. It’s anyone’s fight at this point and on fight night it’s going to come down to a multitude of factors and things that are beyond their control and more of who they are instinctively. Don’t get me wrong though, there’s one particular fighter on my team that wants this win like it’s all they’re focused on. I won’t say whether this fighter is a female or male (because I don’t know who is reading my homepage) but will comment that they take direction really well, they show up early, put in the extra effort, and I know they’ve been practicing my tips and pointers at home because you can see their improvement at the following training session. 

I want these wins. I want these wins for my fighters maybe more than some of them want it for themselves. Do I think whether they win or not will reflect on who I am as a coach? No, I don’t. Like I mentioned, I believe it’s anyone’s fight up until the fight actually finishes. But what I do think is a reflection on me as a coach is how hard I can get them to train both in and outside of the ring. 

Plan for Wednesday’s training, change the 2 minute round bell to 3 minutes and not tell them.

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