What is the craziest thing you’ve done for fitness? Ran a marathon? A triathlon? Exercised in the dark/rain/hail/blizzard?

I punched other women in the face.

It all started innocently, at a cardio kickboxing class. (Watch out, Linda!) For six months I stood in front of a mirror with the rest of the class, jumping around and punching the air. My air punches were getting pretty good, but they were still air punches.

This was in 2001, before there were accessible non-scary boxing gyms on every corner. I whined to my husband about how there was no place a clueless white girl like myself could learn how to actually box, and he finally pulled out a phone book (again, 2001) and pointed to the number for a place called The Boxing Club five minutes away from our house. Oh.

I spent the next six months taking boxing classes and learning how to throw jabs, rights, uppercuts, and hooks. I even got pretty good at the rapid jump rope thing you see boxers in movies do. But I’d see those people in the ring, working out with a trainer and even sparring, and wonder if I could do it. I figured I couldn’t, that it was something only men or ridiculously butch or athletic women could do. Once again, my husband gave me the push I needed. That year for my birthday he gave me ten private training sessions with a boxing coach. That’s how I met Tony.

Tony is an ex-boxer and Muay Thai (that’s kickboxing) fighter. He’s trained a lot of pro boxers and kickboxers, and also happened to train the few female amateur fighters at the gym. Tony led me away from the bags and held up focus pads, yelling out combinations: left, right uppercut, slip, slip, right. At first my punches were slow and awkward, but after a few sessions they started to flow. Once I had gone through all of my training sessions, Tony suggested I get in the ring to spar with one of the other women he trained.

I have never been more terrified in my entire life than that first time I stepped in the ring to spar another woman. Well, except maybe the third, the fourth, and the fifth time. Here’s the funny thing about boxing. No matter how much experience you have, no matter how many times you’ve sparred or fought, getting in the ring with someone whose goal is to punch you in the face is unnerving. But when you land a solid punch, or finish a round without major injury, the exhilaration is total. For the first time in my life, I was completely committed to the sport and getting better each time. My improvement was dramatic and easy to measure. When I first started sparring I’d end each session with a bloody, sore nose. As I learned to keep my hands up and throw a constant stream of jabs, I kept my opponents from getting in close and I rarely got injured. Of course my team members still got in good shots that made my head ring, but I learned how to use that to my advantage, and play off their punches, instead of freezing like a cornered rabbit. I continued working with Tony, sparring with other fighters, until one day Tony said I was ready for an actual amateur boxing match.

My first fight was with a woman who was similarly inexperienced, and to my astonishment I won. The match wasn’t pretty. It was clear both of our minds were completely blown just by being in the ring with judges and a referee and an audience. Somehow, I landed more punches and scored more points. At the end of the three, two-minute rounds, the referee held on to both of our glove-covered hands and raised mine into the air. I won a boxing match. I won a boxing match!! It was unbelievable.

From there I went on to win my next two fights, and I was named the Southern California Regional Champion (which is not as impressive as it sounds, given how few women were actually doing the sport at the time). I lost a few matches, traveled to Miami against my better judgment to compete in the 2003 USA Women’s National Amateur Boxing Championships and got eliminated in my first bout. The wins and losses didn’t matter—I loved the camaraderie of my sparring team, the feeling that I was learning a skill rather than putting endless miles on a treadmill, and the thrill of a solid punch. I continued to spar and work out with Tony, even after the birth of my daughter in 2005.

My second pregnancy and the birth of my son in 2008 temporarily put the brakes on my boxing career. Now I’m back where I started—punching the air in a cardio kickboxing class. Once I’m ready, I’m going to give Tony a call and get back in the ring. However, in the meantime, I jump rope better than anyone in the class, my punches are crisp, and I know that if I had to, I could kick some serious ass.

– article by Hilary Achauer. Hilary is a freelance writer (and former amateur boxer) who lives in San Diego. She can be found at flickr, and at her website.

Tags: boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Exercise Articles, Moves, Busted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.