Page 131 - Doug Werner Boxer's Start-Up

Journal

Quit It’s so DIFFERENT with a real person. Who
LOOKS at you.Who BOXES with you. Right there
running in FRONT of you. Who SWINGS at you. Who’s
COMING AFTER YOU.
around,
We dance around too much cause I’m goin’ nuts
Al says. with my feet for some reason. Al stops to tell me
to quit running around (you’re going spastic, he
You’re says.) We continue and he has no problem
going bouncing his jabs off my forehead (we’re sup-
posed to be aiming at each other there). I finally
spastic. get into it and toss a few soggy left hands into his
gloves. I actually hit him once or twice, but not
very well or very hard. He’s actually very difficult
to target as he bobs and weaves all over the place. I don’t move
much and tend to charge into his hitting zone and stay there. I’m a
punching bag,but he knows how to pull his punches so there is no
damage,although he bonks me in the nose once --- a minor wake-up
call.

I get tired because of the previous workout and the fighting makes
me very tense. Al tells me to breathe (I don’t even breathe I’m so
jacked up!).I have to stop to rest once,but when he asks if I’ve had
enough, I say HECK NO! and we go another round.When we finish
Al tells me that I did very well. You didn’t back off, he says. You’ve
got what it takes mentally.

Naturally,this makes me feel like a million bucks,although I feel my
performance was sorta limp wristed. My punches were so weak! Al
says I just don’t know how to throw into live action yet. It’s really
different, but you’ll get it, he says.It looks like you’ve got your first
ding, too.

Sure enough, that little tap on the nose gave me a slight bruise. My
first scar! And I didn’t feel a thing. Can I take a punch or what?

Later we talk about other damage he’s dealt his students (by mis-
take, of course). Once his dentist and he did a little sparring, and Al
broke the guy’s rib. Apparently only 12 pounds of pressure can
crack a rib.The dentist survived, but I have a feeling that it’s Al who
gets worked sometimes. After all, he’s the one catching all the prac-

130