For Joe’s boxing 2020 turned out as good as it could have and in some ways better than we could have hoped for. Unfortunately for us we didnt get one student in open competition in 2020 with the shutdown coming just days before two of our students were scheduled to be on shows. We were shut down for more than two months and in that time we bumbled our way through Zoom classes, some outdoor PT and finally outdoor classes before we able to re-open in June. I took the opportunity to make some changes to our schedule giving more classes for those on the black shirt program membership encouraging more people to stay on after their 100 days and allowing more advanced students opportunity to express themselves. This has been one of the hits this year as was the growth of the womens sparring class Saturdays at 4pm. The intermediate sparring class Wednesdays at 8pm started with a bang but didnt continue so i turned it into a free training time for those on the black shirt program but that wasn’t that successful either so this year 2021 we will introduce a mixed sparring class where men and women can exchange technique. (more on this in another post). I was so happy that we seemed to snap back so quickly and almost better than we previously were. The other highlights for the year was the Jeff Fenech Fundraiser raising $7400 for Giant Steps school for Autism and of course managing to do our Black Shirt promotion with 14 new Black Shirts graded on the night. In past years we ran this night as more of a fight night with refreshments and door sales but we were sailing close to the wind of breaching Combat Sports rules in how it was run so the Covid rules have both forced me and allowed me to change the format and the new format although different will still be a great experience. Justann’s ready to fight course just continues to be the best in the universe. Students that at the beginning of the course are shaky by the time the Black Shirt grading comes around they are rock solid competitors ready to do battle with anyone. I see the school as mature now and moving forward in little steps with small tweaks here and there but keeping the core of our culture and community intact.
