Today, tomorrow and the next day are holidays. Holidays for most that is, not for us boxers or coaches. So, having said that, it was no surprise that the boxing club was open.
I feel for those guys, the coaches, I really do. I really, really, really do.
I've been trying for the past two weeks now to get some of the coaches from Elite Boxing over for a swim at my condo. On the 7th floor there is a beautiful lap pool, a kiddies' pool, and an entertainment room with a ping pong table, darts and video game station. There's also a mini movie theatre and a banquet room too.
I'm allowed two quests but had asked if I could bring five. I was told I'd have to pay for extra, it's not a lot, and I'm okay with that. I made it clear though that they're not to ask me for payment in front of my guests, instead just bill it to my condo unit.
One problem though, the boxing club opens daily at 6:30am but closes daily, 7 days a week, at 10pm. The 7th floor pool here closes at 10pm. Sometimes the coaches are able to close the club a bit earlier though, like shortly after 9pm, if all their clients are done training and have gone home. I've been waiting for two weeks for this to occur and tonight it happened. Tonight was one of those rare nights.
Coach Bogs showed up around 9:15pm and then two other coaches arrived at 9:40pm. They only had 20 minutes left till pool closing but the workers at my condo are very sweet, we're quite comfortable and they all knew I've been waiting a couple of weeks now to have the over so they gave us an extra 10 minutes of fun. Thirty minutes wasn't a lot to play around with but it was fun trying to teach them how to do the front stroke, doing handstands in the pool and trying to see who could float the longest.
The coaches at Elite are great guys. They work crazy long hours, are pushed to physical exhaustion with coaching, some of them only go home on their day off and yet I've never heard any of them honestly complain about their job. If anyone complains, it's me telling them to slow down and not wear themselves so thin. A couple of weeks ago I hosted a little "Boxer Makeover" pop-up barber shop at Elite and tonight I finally got to have them over for a pool party. It felt really good to do these things for them because they really are my life line when it comes to training and that club surely wouldn't be what it is without them. Sometimes I wonder if their manager honestly knows how great of a staff he has.
Oh how I'd love, love, LOVE to hire them if only I weren't making my clubhouse female only with not only the clients but with the staff. I know I'd hire in a heart beat; no second thoughts needed!!!
My next idea is to plan something for them for Christmas, something that the coaches and staff directly are touched by and not the clients or anyone else. I want to give back to them, to the people that day in and day out I see at the club, those who train me and help to keep me motivated and focused -- the coaches, the assistants trainers and the front desk ladies.
I don't know what to do for them, what I could give. I thought about getting my potential suppliers for Empowered to send me equipment but I question whether or not the club would keep it if that coach were to leave, for example. So equipment like new head gear or new gloves, or perhaps even a groin protection (which I should note that they don't have and I don't understand why not), could be an idea but I want something that is a bit more personal. However, there are 9 coaches, 4 assistant trainers, 2 front desk ladies, so it'd be hard to get personal and specific considering it's 15 people we're talking about. Through in the fact that I'm barely getting by with what I'm making and yeah, it's going to be a challenge. This past weekend I tossed the idea out there to one of my Empowered Sisters and she told me that if I needed any help then just let her and her husband know, suggesting that they'd give a financial donation to aid me with this. It's definitely reassuring to hear that others want to get in on this because I know the staff at Elite are most definitely deserving of a merry Christmas. Now to figure out just how to make it merrier for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment