Member-only story
I’m a Housepainter by day and run a Boxing Club by night. It’s a good mix. Painting hones my muscles, and boxing defines the story. I was saved from being labeled a workaholic/lousy family man when I chose a coaching role over a husband/father role. I don’t have to explain my choices — the people who own the houses are happy with my work, and the boxers need a place to train and exercise their inner spirit.
I unlock Diamond Boxing on 22nd and E. Union, Seattle, WA, six nights a week at four PM. I’m closed on Sundays, not for religious reasons but because there might be something to the idea that I will benefit from spending time with myself. I work alone, and though a boxer trains with a coach and a team, he is alone when he steps into the ring with an opponent. Not an enemy, not someone to hate, but a respected adversary with whom to test the training. Every boxer who enters the door prepares for the honor of competition.
Housepainting is a series of small matches. Positioning a ladder against the side of a house is a beautiful dance when done confidently and efficiently. But if my head is crowded with anxious what-if thoughts, I’m apt to be clumsy and inefficient. I always tell the boxers, “Mental Focus comes before everything else.” If a boxer gets mixed up wanting to do things right, he doesn’t get far — there is no right way to box, and one can be a boxer by thinking about it.
I’m not a traditional coach. I believe in the boxers learning to identify their objectives and design strategic drills and exercises to help them reach their goals. For example, the jab is a straight punch delivered with the forward hand, but how the jab is used, whether a whip flick, thudding, falling, or as a measuring device, has to do with the boxer’s style. I ask boxers to bring in footage of other boxers whose style they admire or want to emulate, and then they figure out how to bridge the gap between their level and the skill they strive for.
And they all help each other. Everyone has content, whether it’s experience or natural qualities. Like fidgeting — some label it a disorder and send them to therapy, but I ask the fidgety boxers to deliver punch combinations matching the hyper speed of their thoughts until eventually, they calm down and use the vibration. Blank-faced boxers who mask their feelings might be good at poker, but they have to design drills that help them uncover the repressed energy to harness and channel it into skill.
Boxing is a sweet science, an art form. Footwork is the painter’s brush, the pen, or the musical instrument. Defense and offense movement is a fluid communication with endless possibilities. That’s the kind of training we do at Diamond’s Boxing.
