I started boxing in November 2008. It wasn't a dare or a quarter-life crisis. Rather, I've always wanted to learn how to box. One of my favorite movies growing up was the Rocky series. Something about a man who was never really given a chance at anything or taken seriously by his peers overcoming the greatest challenge ever presented to him is something that always appealed to me for obvious reasons. In 2008, I watched Rocky Balboa and decided I would put something to this dream. I went out and bought a free standing punching bag and tried to work out with it. Eventually, due to lack of guidance, the punching bag became another fixture in my garage that got little use.
One day in November '08, I went across the street to my neighbor's house to chat. Somewhere in our conversation, I mentioned that I'd always wanted to box. My neighbor Lee kept asking me why I wasn't doing it and said he wanted to do it too. He said if I did it, he'd do it. So I agreed to look up some options and get back to him.
A week later, Lee and I found ourselves at the Abilene Boxing Club, checking out how the gym worked and whether we'd actually do this. I had talked to the head of the club, Coach Rivas on the phone for about 30 minutes. He had talked about what amateur boxing was, how long he'd been coaching, his principles on boxing and how he'd work us at a pace we could handle and not throw us into anything too quickly. The other club I called didn't seem too interested in us being there and didn't have a lot to say about the sport itself. Rivas really impressed me with taking the time to clarify things and seeming to actually want us to be apart of it all.
The exercises they were doing to warm up seemed unusual. The only thing I recognized were the stretches and pushups. But everyone seemed to get along pretty well and the teaching by Coach Rivas wasn't restricted to just boxing. I found him talking a lot about life and how boxing is a great picture of what life is like with overcoming challenges.
Lee and I started at the gym shortly after. It took me a while to get adjusted to what real boxing was. I moved really slowly. I had no rhythm in my movements or my punches. I would move to one side, wait and then throw a weak jab followed by the hardest right hand I could muster. It was all really weak. Coach would get on me about moving so slow and not having a good jab. He kept trying to show me the importance of being quicker. Finally after many months, it started clicking. I got faster, stronger and began to understand the mentality of boxing and how to fight.
Lee stopped coming with me in April, but through the summer I continued attending two to three times a week. In the summer, I sparred for the first time against Rudy Castillo, a 13 year old with 9 amateur fights to his credit. He tore me up. I thought I would be able to keep up with him but as we were fighting, I ended up thinking too much about what I should be doing instead of responding to what he did. He ended up hitting me way more than I got close to him. My neck and nose were sore for the next few days. Coach said he had been nervous about sparring me because he didn't understand why I was doing this and didn't want me to quit. I wanted to tell him that quitting isn't in my vocabulary. But I know he hears people say stuff like that all the time and I don't want to be another voice that says something. So I'll let my actions speak for themselves.
Last week, I had this idea of doing an NPR like journal of my experience as a white collar worker who boxes at a local gym and talk more about Coach Rivas and the lessons he's providing for the guys and girls in our gym and his philosophies on life, boxing, and how the two are linked.
One big lesson last week had to do with distance. Coach said the main thing in boxing is distance and keeping a healthy distance between you and the other fighter. When your opponent comes in, create distance by moving away and still throw while you do that. Don't stay in front of your opponent. We learned how to turn the opponent by stepping out with a shot up the middle and turning at a 90 degree angle and coming over the top with a cross or hook. Coach said we should always be the instigator, always create an action that causes a reaction and we are to react to that action. We always have to be first and last. This controls the tempo of the fight and puts the control of it in our hands. We must control the fight, and not let someone else decide the tempo.
Last week Coach also talked about faith. He said that he has faith in God, and for him, that faith has led to a better life for him and his family. He said God wants us to succeed, but He won't keep us from challenges. We have to decide how we're going to face challenges, but we have to do away with fear and doubt. If we trust God and let him deal with our fears, we'll succeed. It was good to hear Coach talk about faith. He doesn't preach at us, and he doesn't Bible thump anyone. I think that gets through to people better because he's more real in his presentation. It's a more honorable way to bring convictions and faith to the table then other forms I've seen in my experiences.
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