Essay 2 for Portfolio

Heather Howard

Essay 3 Final

Rush of Boxing

Everyone has something that they are passionate about and addicted to. It varies from performing physical sports to playing a video game every day. Growing up as a tomboy I have always been into sports and the outdoors. Starting as a young girl I have played softball, basketball, intramural soccer and volley ball. Not until I was a junior in college was I introduced to a boxing club. This was interesting to me at first due to the fact that I had always watched the UFC fights and had been watching wrestling every Monday night for my entire life. It all started when a good friend of the family had saw me one day and told me to come check out the boxers at the gym just to see how it was. So, that first night I stepped into the gym I immediately had that desire to box. So, three nights a week for three hours at a time I was focused on learning and performing the different techniques of becoming a boxer. I was hoping to represent South Paw Boxing Club in Owensboro, KY by doing the best I could and hopefullyhaving my own matches. http://www.southpawboxing.org/

I started about two years ago and absolutely loved it. It gave me an opportunity to get out of the house, lose some extra pounds that I had put on, and get all of my anger out. I would leave the house about five at night and would have these strenuous sessions until eight thirty PM. When I would arrive, I would get prepared by wrapping my hands and pulling a mat out do my work out. After the work out I would go through various stations and then spar after the stations to get prepared for the big fights.

The workouts at the beginning of class would consist of doing some hardcore Abs, pushups, leg lifts, and different exercises to build every muscle in my body. The trainers take this very seriously, so there no room for taking a little rest while everyone is doing the pushups or abs because they are walking around and pushing you to work yourself harder. This warm up would last about thirty minutes and get your heart rate up and adrenaline rushing to move on to the stations.

These stations would be about consist of bag work, mitt work, jump ropes, and round and rounds in the ring. There is always one trainer at each of these stations to direct you and motivate you to do better. At the punching bags the trainer would yell out different combinations to perform on the bag. For example, a one, two, three, would mean that I automatically knew to throw a jab, a right hard punch, and a left hook to the body of the bag. These had to be quick hard movements and it took a lot of practice to get this down. It is non-stop punching combinations for about fifteen minutes straight. I remember my very first day of coming to boxing class and having to do this. My arms were getting very tired and the next day when I woke up I knew that I had worked them out. They were extremely sore and I had never felt any pain like that in my entire life. This bag work gets your mind focused and you are able to just release any anger that you have on it. They would sometimes tell me to think the bag is someone that has made me upset so that I would throw my punches faster and harder.

The next thing would be the mitt work. This is where the trainer would put on a pair of the mitts that had big white circles in the middle to help you with your punches and stance as well. Doing this I could throw different combinations, foot work, and bobbing and weaving. This was probably my favorite out of the stations. I got to do my jabs, shuffle my feet, and duck when the hand was coming right for my face. I had to learn these techniques real quick because if I didn’t move that head to the side or duck, BOW, was the noise the sound of the hand made when it hit my face. Just to let you know this does not feel too good at all. It would definitely prepare me for what I needed to look for in my opponent.

The jump ropes was my next stage to go to. These ropes are quite heavy to work with. This station was designed to help getting your heart rate up and to get some blood flowing through the body. This was my least favorite station because I was just standing in one place for fifteen minutes and jumping. My calves would start to hurt after a while. There was a certain way of jump roping, that is called the “boxers jump”. It requires some switching up and hopping on one foot.

Then the ring works is where you get in a squatting position and cover your face with your hands and go round and round. The bell starts and there is no resting or stopping. When the trainer told me to go the other way Iwould have to shuffle my feet really fast. When he says in, I had to throw a jab and a right punch. This definitely got my legs toned up real quick. I liked it for the simple fact that it was fast paced and got my legs really toned.

Sparring made me and a lot of other amateur boxers real nervous. Before stepping into the ring I would have to put my head gear on along with my gloves. Then, another person would grease them up with Vaseline to make the punching go through smoother. I believe the part that gets me most is that everyone is watching me and talking about mymovements and whether they were good or bad. I always stepped in and waited for the, DING, DING, DING, to sound. Then the match was on for three rounds and when I was done I sure was worn out and ready to get out of there. It takes a lot out of you in which I didn’t expect since there are only three two minute rounds of sparring. I always sparred guys because there was only one other girl boxer and she was in the low one hundred pound weight range. Just because I was a girl they didn’t take it easy on me.

At the very end of the night we had what they called squat thrusts. This was very hard to do because it worked out my whole body and I had to put my all into it or the trainer will yell at me and call me names. There were sometimes up to twelve rounds of it. I believe that this was the hardest task to perform because I was already tired.With boxing, I could do something that I love, take my anger out on the punching bag or the person in the ring and get fit at the same time. My trainer worked me very hard and always told people that would come to watch, “I guarantee you that she can hit harder than most of these guys in here. She’s got a mean right arm.” These were the things that helped me to keep going, not give up, and to feel like I was actually decent at boxing.

Well when my freshman year of college came I had to quit boxing because I moved up here to Indiana and had classes, homework, and work. There was no time to do the one thing that I was happiest doing. Coming to college was definately a sacrifice that I had to make on this. I look at it like I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. As well as the feeling of rush, control, and ease all at the same time. It is an experience that I would hope that everyone would get one day whether it is some other activity that is loved. For me, boxing made me stronger and some how more persitant with everything that I do. Eventually one day, I hope to go back and perform in the ring.

I walk into the classroom where English 101 is about to start. I sat down in my comfortable fluffy seat and sign my name into the laptop that is built into the desk. The professor rolls in which is Mr. Smith. He projects the objectives onto the board which is now a television screen with his arm. There is no scamming this new professor because the robots can outsmart the humans now. This is how it will be in the year of 2107.
Right now we have human beings that are professors but now in the year of 2107 professors will have to be a robot. The only human authority is the Dean and a few of the other high up people that work at the University of Southern Indiana. These robots are extremely smart but are a lot tougher than the professors that we have now. They have everything in there head and when papers and homework assignments are due you have to send them straight to their email address which is figured and done in their software saved in their hard drive in their head.
Parking in the USI parking lot is just ridiculous and dreadful to even think about. If you are a commuter you have to drive through rows and rows of parking places to finally find one in the back which is the farthest away from the school. Then as you get out of your car and check your self phone you realize that you are five minutes late to class already. Not to mention you still have to walk all the way through the parking lots to get to the building to where your class is. But now in the year of 2107 you will no longer have to worry about that difficult parking because now cars are hovercrafts and you can park right up front without any delay to your class. There is even robots that are like valet parkers that way if you are a little late to class then you pull right up to the building you need to be at and they park your for you. Very bizarre I know but true.
The campus right now as we know it has very bright scenery with lots of landscaping like trees, flowers, fountains, and concrete sidewalks. This is a very amazing campus compared to a lot of different universities. I feel so comfortable walking from class to class. In 2107 the campus will be covered with a bubble to protect it from the outside world. There will be a thick plastic covering over all the buildings and parking lots of USI. There will be only three entrances to get in and out of the campus. The once great filling of the wind when you are sitting outside a building on a bench is gone. It is like you are inside everywhere you go. This is not a very good feeling at all. Plus it is costing a lot more money to keep this bubble cooled and heated. It also costs a lot to keep it lite up during day and night.
Inside of the buildings now have stairs and elevators. They are very cozy and have a little bit of computers available to you. There are some rooms that are smaller than others. There is also beverages and snacks in every building to help you get through the day with your classes. Class sizes range anywhere from twenty five to one hundred people. Now in 2107 the buildings will be totally different. All will be operated like you have to have an eagle access card to even get into the building. It will just take a swiping of your card to the door. Inside each building there will be elevators only. No more stairs that most people take to get to their classes. In every classroom their will be at least one hundred twenty five desks. Each desk will have one high tech computer built into it for note taking and for turning in assignments. No more small class sizes. From now on each class will have to have at least one hundred people attending. Now there will be no more of the students getting on the internet and goofing off during lecture because now the robot professors will be able to detect when someone is not paying attention. In each building there will be double the amount of beverages and snacks. They will now be served to the students by a robot machine. The food will also be better.
The university center now has Burger King, Pete’s Arena, Sub Connection, and the Loft. It is all alright and tolerable food that can sometimes take forever to get if you come to get food right around lunch or dinner time. No one wants to wait that long for their food, especially when they have class to attend soon. So now in 2107 there will be new and improved restraints that will be ran by robots as well. There will be a total of fifteen different places to choose from now so that it cuts back on you waiting time. Not to mention the robots will be so much faster to get the food out.
Security is a big ordeal and they like to drive around in there SUVS protecting the students that live on and off campus. They are not so bad at what they do but at the same time they can’t be everywhere at one time to make sure that the campus is running smoothly. In 2107, security will be robots walking around with badges and guns. There will be approximately fifty on duty at a time. They so not need to drive because they are powerful robots that can walk forever without getting tired. There will also be cameras set up everywhere. Robots will also be watching the cameras and if they see something wrong going on they will teleport it to another robot by transferring to their hard drive in their brain. So now nothing bad can happen because USI is now in a bubble and also has robots on duty at all times to ensure safety.