Tag: box

Half Day By Surprise

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody!

I woke up this morning with three extremely painful fingers, a weak right wrist, lower back pain, and immense shoulder tightness. Wasn’t thrilled. Age is a factor when it comes to training, also my recovery sessions aren’t nearly good enough.

Well, I’ve told you lot before sometimes things just happen for us. I thought today I would have to sit in front of this computer and just sit in this slightly uncomfortable pain all day, but my boss messaged me early this morning.

“Have a good weekend?”

Easily, yes. I did have a great weekend. Not even a question.

He followed with, “Boot camp starts tomorrow, how about you take a half day today?”

Easily, yes. My body thanks you.

Now I get it, this is pure coincidence. “This won’t happen for me.” I can hear you yelling back at me already.

But I bet it does happen for you. Maybe not in this exact way, but the world isn’t out to get you. You might be out to get yourself, but no, the world isn’t out to get you. People might be, but you have the power to change who you surround yourself with, what you surround yourself with, and putting yourself in the right circumstances for good things to happen for you.

That’s what I’ve spent the last six months doing. Putting myself in better places, better circumstances so good things do happen. I couldn’t keep getting stepped on. I couldn’t get kicked anymore. I had to fight back and I had to make changes. I’m happy I did. I’m happy I realized I do have enough strength to beat my depression and anxiety, even if it’s just for a few moments a day.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Solid Sparring Rounds

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody!

Today is a great Sunday. Coach told me to go whoop that ass this weekend at a “rival” gym and that’s exactly what I did, and that’s exactly what our female boxer did to her sparring partner today. We walked out heads held high. I’m surprised we were invited back next Sunday.

I’m proud of my boxer. She works hard. Harder than me. Crazy thing? She’s in the middle of Ramadan. She doesn’t eat or drink anything if the sun is up. So think about that: She just sparred three 3-minute rounds, one with a pro, and now she goes the rest of the day without water or food.

You lot are probably reading this and saying “COACH, WHY ARE YOU LETTING HER DO THAT?”

She knows her body better than I do. And I trust her to tell me when she’s feeling tired. That’s what a good coach does. We don’t set limitations, but we understand them. It’d be counterproductive for me to set a limitation for her. She knows how hard she can push herself. We trust each other.

Good sparring rounds = one of my favorite ways to start the day. Made a couple guys quit today and for me, that’s huge. Last year at this time I was running a mile in 9 minutes and 17 seconds on average. Now I’m running it in 7 minutes and 6 seconds on average. And it’s only going down from here.

I’m working. I’m working towards something. We all should be working towards something. Find something that excites you. Go for it. Even if it means taking some punches to the gut, liver, and nose.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Fighting Your Toxic Thoughts

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everyone!

Hope everyone is havin’ a fantastic Friday. It’s a beautiful day here in the Midwest, honestly it is. I love the Spring months here.

OK, “fighting your toxic thoughts”, what do I mean by that? Well, there’s a specific example happening right now with one of my boxers. As you lot know, I am all ears when it comes to mental health and love when my fighters feel they can express their darkest, most inner secrets. Most of the time it’s one thing they’re hiding from the outside world: their mental illness(es).

It’s crazy to me how people, still to this day, are embarrassed by their mental struggles. EVERYONE struggles slightly with the mentals. Do you struggle more? Maybe, but that’s not the point in this blog or in life.

One of my boxers trained with me 1:1 multiple times, I’m talking countless hours, yet the boxer still comes up with excuses like “Ah, my mind just won’t work today.” or “I’ve just felt like crying all day.” And these are VALID things to bring up to your coach, don’t get me wrong. But the way you attack this as a boxer, as an athlete, as a competitor, as a human, is to understand that yeah, my mind might be a little bitch sometimes, but I can do something about it. Can I change everything about it? Oh hell no, not even close, but I may be able to buy myself some time if I really focus those efforts on what I can change.

Even though we’re all here with mental illnesses, we can’t let that be our shield while getting back into the world. If so, you’re never truly back. We can’t let our mental health be an excuse, although sometimes valid, to not be the best we can fucking be.

Let’s beat this shit, people. You, me, all of us, we can do it. Focus on what you can control. Screw the rest. Know you’re the best. Holy shit, I rhymed right there.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Busy Boxing Day = Quick Blog

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody!

Just got done getting my face and liver hit. Great way to start your day (honestly). Pro tip: Always best to hit your opponent more than he hits you. Today that went in my favor.

I need to hop in the shower. It’s time to go coach the two children classes I teach on Sunday mornings, followed by training my Pops, bringing in my boxers to spar each other, then finish off with some sand volleyball.

It’s a busy, lovely day. Weather is great, too. I don’t really have too much on my mind, honestly. I feel like this week, since I’ve written so much, I’ve been able to flesh out so much for myself.

I’ve told you to try writing, haven’t I? Most of the time I’m writing here, I’m asking myself a question. About halfway through, maybe sometimes a bit longer, I have an answer to that question. That’s what writing does for me. It also slows me down. I write so damn fast that everything around me slows down. My day seems to slow down, too. Writing is medicine for me. I hope you can find something as healing for you along this journey, too. I’m still here with you.

Welp, time to get back to it.

Oh, that’s the 7-day streak, baby. Fuck yeah.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Training To Train

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everyone.

Still weirded out by the change WordPress made. Hopefully I can stop talking about it at some point.

Training to train. Bold title, right? I’m really running out of ideas. I’m just throwing shit at the wall and hoping it sticks at this point. Appreciate you lot for continuing to show support to this blog. Means quite a bit.

Training to train. Let’s get into it. What do I mean?

Well, as you may know since I’ve mentioned in 1,000x on this blog, I coach boxing. I used to compete in the sport, still think about competing, but I’m most likely staying where I’m at: A coach and forever a student of the sport.

I brought a new boxer to a new gym today. A more… dirty, rough type of gym–one in the hood. My coach always told me if the gym we went to spar at had air conditioning or too many fans, we were going to whoop that ass. He was usually right. It was about time to bring this new boxer to a different, less… well-equipped space. However, with that comes much tougher opponents, tougher coaches around, and the sum of it all is the boxer comes out better. The less provided, it sounds odd, the more the boxer gets out of it. Pushing themselves is what a coach needs to see. We can push you while you’re with us, but the goal is to get you to push yourself when we aren’t watching. Training with integrity.

The boxer was thrown off at first. Very different space. But she had some of her best mitt rounds with me in quite some time. That lack of comfort pushed her to another level this morning. She leveled up today. It was really great to see, along with a few other boxers.

But I messaged her after I dropped her off back at her home, “I need to train to train you.”

She replied, “What does that mean? Explain.”

I replied, “In order for you to continue to progress, I need to make sure I’m progressing as your coach.”

Took me a while to realize that. Quite some time. Maybe I’ve always been working to become a better coach, but now it’s a focus of mine. I do want to compete still, but that’ll take the back burner for now. I still have a few years left in my “prime”.

Now it’s about training to train. Progressing to reach new levels. Coaching with integrity.

I guess this is the first time I haven’t really spoken much on mental health on this blog. It’s odd for me, but hey, this blog can really be anything. That’s the cool part of all this. It’s my brain just spewing out shit. It’s healthy for me. I hope it’s healthy for you.

Continue working on yourself, no matter the difficulty.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.