"You look like you're a fighter, I don't want to piss you off!" - Week 5

Jennifer is back at the gym after being gone for almost 2 weeks! It was so nice to see her and have her back in usual form (tough). Jennifer was in Korea refereeing at the Women's World Boxing Championship and came back expecting professionalism from everyone.  We all did our best to comply and work our butts off to impress! We started off with 5 rounds of shadow boxing and then focused on bag work for the remainder of the class. Once again, I am amazed at how much there is to learn and remember about boxing. Jennifer was adamant and slightly aggressive in ensuring that every time I throw a punch,  my chin is tucked down into my shoulder. This is a tip/technique that I had never known about and it has changed everything! Focusing on bringing your shoulder up to protect your face kind of feels like you're punching yourself in the face with your shoulder and when I mentioned this to Jennifer, she reminded me that this will be a lot less painful than my opponent's fist to my jaw. This is true. It was also pointed out that I need to put more weight on my back leg when throwing any punches. These are two new and valuable learnings that I am going to remember from here on out. They will only make me a better boxer!

When I got home from the gym that night (Tuesday), I had a "package pick up slip" in my mailbox and I raced to my concierge. My gloves had arrived!!!! I ran upstairs to give Sydney (my roommate) a first look and showed her some of my punches and the new techniques I learned that night- all while wearing my new gloves of course. Sydney also helped me roll up my hand wraps the night before. They had a few wrinkles in them when she was done but it'll take some practice to get the roll up perfect. Thanks, Sydney! :)

Thursday couldn't come soon enough as I was TOO excited to get to the gym and throw on my new gloves and see how they felt. Let me tell you, they felt AMAZING and I think they looked pretty good too! Virgil had us do some circuit training from shadow boxing, to the punching bag, to the head movement bag, to the double end bag and then into the ring to fight against Sean! Betty Ann and I partnered up and made our way through the circuit. When we got into the ring, we were only allowed to use our jabs but we could punch Sean anywhere, while Sean was able to defend himself and throw any punch back but only allowed to hit us in the stomach. It was such a tiring few rounds but I felt good about how I did! (See pictures below)

My favourite part of my Thursday night was when I left the gym and was on my way to my soccer game in Burlington. I stopped at Tim Hortons to get myself a bottle of water. When I got to the window I had my new gloves sitting on my passenger seat and I handed a gift card to the cashier to pay for the water. He let me know that I still owed 48 cents. I repeated back "I owe you 48 cents?" as I thought I had more money on my card. He glanced into my car, noticed my new boxing gloves and said "Actually, don't worry about it! You look like you're a fighter, I don't want to piss you off!" I laughed and thanked him. This was such a great moment for me and it was such an overwhelming feeling. It's crazy how such a small comment can really make someone's day! Thanks, Tim Hortons' guy!

This was another amazing week at the gym! I just can't get enough!

If you'd like to support me with a donation, you can visit my personal page here: http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/pledge/Participant/Home.aspx?seid=9717&mid=9&pid=2005385

Thanks in advance!

PS: Yes, my new gloves are PINK!