Tag: rules
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How to Wrap Your Hands for Boxing Competition
When you’re training for boxing, you’ll probably wear regular boxing wraps or gel gloves underneath your boxing gloves for protection and support.
When you compete under the USA Boxing sanction, the rules on what you can use to wrap your hands, and how you must wrap them, are very specific.
Ringside did a particularly good video on this, and it’s well worth watching the entire 16 minute video (and there’s a funny treat at the end). (more…)
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New USA Boxing Rules for Amateur Competition
The scoring of boxing events at the 2012 London Olympics was a mess. Yes, we were thrilled to finally see the ban against women’s boxing in the Olympic Games lifted, and despite heavy inequalities between the number of men versus the number of women allowed to compete, there was a tremendous showing of support. But the outdated, inefficient, and highly-variable computerized scoring rules that have governed amateur boxing for years finally caused enough problems to grease the wheels of massive change in the sport.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA), the body which governs USA Boxing, hammered out several long-awaited changes to the scoring system to bring sanctioned amateur boxing more into line with the way pro boxing is scored. (more…)
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Elizabeth Lambert, Part 2
The Elizabeth Lambert story has captured tremendous mainstream attention and generated some good conversation (and some garbage, of course).
After posting my own response, reading widely and talking intently about the video, I believe that there are two really helpful questions we should be centering our discussion around:
- In this hypercompetitive society, what do we do when someone crosses the line between fair and foul?
- Who will be responsible for enforcing and/or communicating that a player has stepped over the line?
This isn’t a moral issue. The debate isn’t best served by arguing about whether Elizabeth Lambert’s actions or anyone else’s reactions were “good” or “right.” There are rules in our games, and while there is some gray area that our sports allow for, some of Lambert’s actions fell outside those boundaries.
Yes, there is lots of rough play in many sports. I’m really ready for people to quit pointing that out. All of us — male AND female — who compete in athletics understand that. I don’t think you’ll hear any of us whining about a little bit or even a lot of body contact in soccer.
This incident isn’t particularly unusual. This kind of stuff happens all the time. We pursue our sports with a sometimes overwhelming intensity, that’s why we have rules to establish what is and isn’t acceptable. What IS unusual is that in this particular case, we haven’t figured out what the main question is (see first bold paragraph above).
Some of the problem with this incident is due to the spread-out nature of soccer. Because everyone is pretty widely scattered on the field, it may be harder to see all the smaller scenes that are playing themselves out everywhere. Just like in football, hockey, and other similar sports, most teammates, coaches, and refs are watching the ball (puck, etc.) rather than the entire field or backcourt.
It’s also a little bit about gender. For many women, the first thing that goes through our minds in a situation like this is “WTF??” followed closely by “I didn’t come out here to fight, I just want to play soccer.” Men often have a different agreement about a game. They’re there to play, but they also often have an unspoken agreement about protecting the team, and particular individuals on the team whose job that is (the big guys, sometimes, or possibly the better players). I’ve seen this dynamic at work on women’s teams too, but not as frequently.
Men also tend to communicate in more physical ways (pushing, shoving, etc.) where women will use less overt methods. I know I’m painting with a broad brush here, but I think these factors are part of the mix.
Most people agree that Lambert crossed the line. And now it’s a bit of a mess. Yes, she’s apologized. Yes, she’s been suspended.
What I’m interested in is how could this have unfolded differently if it had been addressed mid-game. By a ref, coach, teammate (either side), or fan.
If my opponent throws an egregious illegal punch in the ring, people ringside would likely draw attention to the ref or coach if those people had missed it. Then certain penalties can be enforced.
But sometimes my opponent can do something illegal and I will be the only one who knows it. That’s when it’s up to me to communicate back verbally and/or physically, and if that doesn’t work I can tell an official or a trainer between bells, or even get out of the ring.
And in the end, that’s what’s most amazing to me about the BYU game. There was infringement after infringement and as far as I’m aware, no one did anything until after the video began to circulate.
Here’s to some more well-directed conversation. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Image credit: Jason Gulledge
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You Can Cheat on Curls (and It’s Okay)
Every boxer does bicep curls. Most people who train with weights for a sport do bicep curls. And if you work out in a gym with other people (rather than in your garage or basement by yourself) you’ll see lots of curl cheaters.
These are usually the younger kids in the free weight pit who are trying to curl too much weight. They’ll load up, then stand in front of the mirror and try to sling the weight up to their shoulders, bending their backs and swinging the barbell up in a fairly uncontrolled motion. They let it fall down again, then use the momentum of the backswing to get the weight up for the next repetition.
It’s unsafe, it looks awful, and I cringe when I see it.
But curl cheating can actually be helpful when done right. A slight rocking motion can strengthen the muscles — primarily your back and abs — that support a bicep curl. Every time I’ve seen curl cheating done well, however, the weightlifter was wearing a weight belt for support, and I highly recommend this as a safety measure.
Although I use them regularly, I’m not a big fan of controlled weight machines. They build in so much control that they seem to over-isolate the muscles being trained. This will not help you in your sport, because your muscles function like a team. They are carefully interconnected and need each other to perform at optimum capacity. When you train them in complete isolation, they aren’t as good at functioning together; you see this same effect in All-Star teams when individually good players are thrown together as a team for the first time — it takes them a while to learn to play well together.
So if you are training with machines, be sure to add free weights into the mix and learn to control your weights as you lift them. And if you’re curling with free weights, wear a belt and let your abs and back get into the mix once in a while.
Sometimes it’s okay to cheat!
Image credit: dougww on Flickr
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The overdue demise of Mrs. Nice Freaking America
There are some social rules in sparring that I am trying to absorb, but these rules are competing with 43 years of cultural indoctrination and some days it’s like trying to dig up asphalt with a kitchen fork.
I was actually feeling pretty strong Friday morning, and had planned for a double workout day. My lunchtime workout would be primarily aerobic and interval work, and I expected to be rested enough by evening to do our team’s traditionally lighter workout and sparring. The first part of the plan went swimmingly. I warmed up with 15 minutes on the elliptical, followed that with 10 on the rowing machine, breezed through my upper body weightlifting routine, threw in the obligatory 200 sit-ups, and finished with two solid sets of intervals: 15 minutes of jump rope with sprints, then one mile of sprints and recoveries.
I’m not sure what I ate wrong, but for the next six hours I did time in the women’s room and dosed myself with Pepto and pep talks. By the time I got to the gym I was feeling like a three-day-old french fry in the McDonald’s parking lot. After a rain.
Mistake One
The opening workout with the team felt draining, and when it came time to get in the ring I was whiny, too. I geared up and the trainer told me I would be getting in with Tim, who is a skilled, fight-ready boxer; normally I love to box with him. I slinked over to him and muttered something like “I’m just not up for heat; let’s just work,” but he didn’t respond. Ten points off my grade. Rule one: no whining.Mistake Two
When we got in the ring, he let me know I was going to feel his punches with a few choice jabs and hooks. That was actually invigorating enough that I sucked together what power was left in my battery and tagged him a good one to the head, causing him to stagger. “Damn, that was a good shot,” he said. Whereupon I lost another ten points by responding “Sorry! Are you okay?”I am an idiot! You would think I would learn by now. Tim is by far the better boxer and has absolutely nothing to worry about in the ring from me. He can take my shots round after round and call it a warm-up. I am too damn nice! I am Mrs. Nice Freaking America. It’s time to jettison a truckload or seven of my nice.
I ground my teeth and prepared for war.
Mistake Three
And war was what I got. Tim was relentless, shooting that jab into the middle of my face time after time, talking smack, leaning in for body blows. I was getting killed but no so much that I didn’t want to retailiate. My trainer started shouting advice. “Keep your chin down,” she called. “Change the combination — give me a straight right and a left hook.” I did. Shots landed.Tim grunted and hammered my head with hooks. I stopped to shift my headgear back into place, and lost ten more points. “Stop adjusting your headgear,” Tim growled, “throw punches instead.”
Okay. If your collar is flipped, you fix it. If a button slips loose, you close the gap. If your tag is turned out, you tuck it back in. Boxing without adjusting slipped headgear is like continuing to walk down the office hall with your skirt tucked into your underwear. Mrs. Nice suggests you practice not adjusting your headgear in the ring rather than practice the skirt in the underwear thing.
Mistake Four
By the middle of the third round I was operating on fumes. I took a heavy punch to the solar plexus and suddenly there wasn’t enough air in the room. I sucked for air, swore vehemently and wheezed, “That hurt,” and lost ten more points.Aargh. When you box, you take hard hits and keep swinging, and I’ve been gaining ground on that one. But a corollary to that rule is that you don’t show your weakness. Ever. If you take a shot and see stars and birdies, you remain utterly impassive and send your next combo out anyway. Like Tom Hanks’ character said in A League of Their Own: “There’s no crying in baseball!” Or boxing. If you show weakness, you better believe your opponent will circle in for the kill.
Bringing the F up to a D
I showed up when I was feeling like crap, I worked my ass off, and I got at least one solid, sweet, staggering shot in on Tim. I was only mostly dead. And I have some goals to keep on the post-it stuck to my computer screen: No whining, no apologizing, no adjusting of clothing, and no shows of weakness. Also known as: Be tougher, meaner, and uglier.Let me at it. Consider this the overdue demise of Mrs. Nice Freaking America.
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New Rule: If they tee off on you, you can take their head off
I’m still trying to absorb the unwritten rules of boxing.
Earlier in the week I was sparring in an unfamiliar gym, and I got in the ring with one woman I didn’t know and had not seen box before. We were not a good match (she outweighed me by a good margin and was less experienced), so I tried to set it up so that we would just test each other out a bit.
But whether it was out of fear or anger she tapped me right off the bell with a loaded (and illegal) shot to the back of the ribs that pissed me off pretty well.
I tightened my defense and spent the rest of our rounds furious but contained; she was outmatched and I didn’t want to cause any damage to her or to my relationship to this gym, which I think will offer me some good future sparring opportunities.
Even after we were long out of the ring my anger kept simmering because I had tried to be nice to someone whose one loaded shot cost me some of my training ability for the next two days as the bruise healed.
Later I related the story to my trainer and to Tim, one of the boxers at my gym. And both of them told me told me with some amount of justified swearing: if someone tees off on you, it’s a written and signed permission slip to retaliate in kind. This is how boxing is done.
But this is not how nice Southern girls are raised.
And yet I think it’s something most guys understand from birth. Boys and men (who are innately comfortable with physical communication — this I know from raising three sons) recognize that the feminine mantra “use your words” doesn’t always communicate effectively.
If someone tees off on you in the ring, reason is not necessarily the best response. But a well-placed and weighted punch is clear, immediate, and believable.
Last night I saw this in the ring when Tim got in to spar with a very inexperienced new guy, who outweighs Tim by about 30 pounds.
The new guy got the standard lecture from our trainer about not loading his punches, and about being in the ring to work, not to prove something or injure anyone. He climbed in, the bell sounded, and they began to box. It was only about three combos in that everyone could see that this guy was bringing heat, and Bonnie gave him a verbal warning.
Nothing changed.
About ten seconds later, Tim sent out a straight punch to the face that delivered a much clearer message. New guy staggered back and shook his head to clear the stars. Bonnie shrugged and said quietly, “I told you not to bring the heat.”
And do you know what? The new guy pulled the rest of his punches, and they both got in a good round.
Co-mune-ee-kay-shun. Direct, clear, effective.
In next was one of our young, powerful boxers. This kid hates training, and saves all his energy and anger for the ring. He’s burned through most of our boxers and last night nobody would get in with him. Bonnie looked around pointedly and told him straight: “No one wants to get in with you. But you can box with Nate if you want.”
Nate is a pro boxer, and his looks are incredibly deceptive. He’s about 6’4″, agonizingly thin, and very quiet. He doesn’t look like he could take your head off, but in the ring he lives within a razor’s edge of his power, and sometimes delivers way more than our amateur boxers can handle.
Nate ambled over and the young kid started to backpedal. He’s seen Nate box.
“Nah, nah, I don’t wanna get in with him, man. He’s hard.”
Bonnie didn’t even crack a smile. “Listen, I’ll put Nate on defense only for you. But if you load up, he’s gonna let you have it.”
After some deliberation, he got in with Nate and we all eagerly awaited the bell. Everyone knew the stakes here; if the kid forgot, Nate would not hesitate to remind him with blinding speed, accuracy, and power. And given the kid’s past record in the ring, everyone also knew that Bonnie would probably leave him in the woodshed until she was sure he was clear.
Never had I seen this boy box with such desperate loving care and attention to every move. He could have been boxing in a ring filled with priceless Faberge eggs and sleeping Rottweilers, the way he danced and sweated and precisely controlled each punch. We all hid grins, and Nate stayed on the leash.
When they climbed out I saw the kid smile for the first time ever; he knew he’d successfully navigated a field full of landmines.
And I mentally vowed to etch it into my brain: never set aside your most powerful tools in the ring.
Consider me a little more dangerous.
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Boy House Rules
- One of the Maker’s self-portraits
In 2003 my house was insane. Our boys were 7, 5, and 3. Loud, dirty, and broken was the theme in our little suburban casa.
One day after some routine parenting repeating something for the eight thousandth time, I realized I was becoming a rulebot. I began to form this notion that I could program a machine to say — at frequent intervals — the same set of things and no one would ever know the difference. I hatched an evil plan.
Calling my dear sweet children wretched little urchins together I asked them to dictate the mombot program, thinking I could always upload it to a remote device later. The items below (edited for brevity and clarity) were what they told me were the “rules” in our house:
- Don’t bang on the table.
- Don’t burp out loud.
- Food goes on your plate.
- No gymnastics on the couch.
- Don’t hit the windows.
- Gum stays in your mouth.
- Food stays in the kitchen.
- Don’t blow bubbles in your juice.
- Don’t pour salt on the table.
- No snatching.
- Don’t interrupt when someone else is talking.
- Dirty clothes go in the hamper.
- Bring your plate to the counter when you are finished.
- Don’t demand things.
- Don’t stand in front of the refrigerator with the door open.
- Always say please and thank you.
- Don’t growl or snarl or stomp your feet if someone tells you to go in your room.
- Ask permission before going inside someone’s house.
- If someone gives you something nice, say thank you and don’t demand more.
- Don’t slam the door!
- Don’t climb on the drawers or cabinet doors.
- Eat foods that are good for you.
- Only saw on the wood Daddy gives you.
- Give the cats food and fresh water every day. And pet them.
- Draw only on the paper.
- Don’t mark up the table with knives or forks or scissors.
- Don’t put dirty feet on the walls.
- Get in the grass when a car comes.
- Friday is allowance day!
- We help around the house because we are family.
- Get tissue if you need to pick your nose.
- Don’t wipe your hands on your shirt.
- Don’t yell when someone is on the phone.
- Don’t wake up sleeping people.
- Take small bites.
- If you think you might throw up, go in the bathroom.
- Ask permission before petting a strange dog.
- If you are lost, look for a Mommy.
- No guns in the house.
- Come find Mom or Dad if you find a snake.
- Brush your teeth in the morning and before you go to bed.
- Cover your mouth when you sneeze.
- Give your Mom and Dad and brothers lots of hugs.
