2011...What A Year!

Hello, loyal followers of "The Brick".
The Holidays are quickly approaching, and there will not be a lot happening.
Stockyards will be closed for the Holidays. Richard is there every damn day of the week, so no one can really fault him for wanting to take holidays off.
I will also soon be changing to "Winter Schedule", which will be posted here once I find out if there are any changes with class schedules at either of the gyms.

This will be my last post in this blog for 2011.
This was a rough year for me. There were a lot of ups and downs. I learned about who I can and can not trust in the world of boxing in Toronto.
Hopefully, I can use this knowledge to my advantage to make 2012 a better year.
My goal is to be competing by the summer.
With my great new coach, I don't think that is an unreasonable expectation.

Stockyards had another great live boxing event this past Friday. Their last for the year. There is another scheduled for February, apparently at a different venue. Rick announced it, but he did not give any details. It looks like he will be renting a bigger place for his next event, but we do not know where. I hope it is not too far.
As for the Stockyards boxers, Junmar won his match, but unfortunately Mikhail lost his after two Standing-8's in Round Three.
Both of these bouts will be posted on YouTube later this week by my production company, D-I-T-O Productions. With any luck, I would like to have Junmar's bout available in 3D. Unfortunately, I have been having problems with the new software, so the 3D may have to wait until next time.
Copies of the event will be available to everyone at regular rates, Blu-Ray $15, DVD $10, Unauthored DVD $5. These will be available in January. Contact me for details.

Moving forward to the Holiday season, I will continue my regular training. As the song says, "In the warrior's code, there's no surrender, his body says stop,  his spirit cries never".
Bloor Gym is open during the Holiday season for members, and you can be sure I will be in there on December 25, pounding away on the bag!

Anyway, another year over and gone forever.
To all my readers, Happy Holidays, whatever Holidays you celebrate.


Paul "The Brick" Brec
Stockyards Boxing Team, Masters Novice Division, Heavyweight (92 kg)

How's That Hook, Bush ?

Hey all, I have to say it has been a very slow week on the boxing front in Toronto. I feel it is going to be this way all month. It is "that time of year", people are "busy" with other things, getting ready for the Holidays, and coming up with every excuse in the book to not want to get to the gym.
I went in to Richard's class on Saturday, and there was nobody there. However, Richard did some work with me. He wanted to see my hook, "How's your left hook, Bush"
I showed him, and he was impressed. Junmar was there and said, "I have tried to show him that for a long time, and he could not get it."
Yeah, like I said last week, Rick has some super-power that allows him to teach things that nobody else can.
Also, I don't know why Rick calls me "Bush". Well, anyway, moving on...

Rick said that he was going to be taking the entire month of January off. That is disappointing. One of the big reasons I go to stockyards is because of Coach Rick. Although, I think Junmar and Tony will still be having their classes, but neither of them are certified boxing coaches. Oh, no. Do you think I can go a whole month without any coaching? Who's going to call me "Bush"?
I guess I am going to have to coach myself, and practice everything Rick has taught me. Keep working on that hook.

Coach has also announced something very special he is planning for the summer. It is so special that I can't tell you right now.  I promised Rick I would not say anything.


In other news from Stockyards, we will be having another living boxing event, this coming Friday. Bouts start at 8:00 PM. Please come out and support our gym and watch some great boxing. Junmar will be on the card, as will as one of our newer boxers, Mikhail. I have sparred Mikhail in the past, and he is pretty good. I don't remember ever seeing him compete before. I think this is his first time.
Good luck to both of our Stockyards athletes.

As always, you will be able to view the bouts on YouTube.

If you are not sure where to find the Stockyards Boxing Gym, it is now pinned to Google Maps. Within Google Maps, just do a search for "Stockyards  Boxing, Toronto", and it will point you to the exact location.
We are located at 215 Ryding Avenue in the Junction, near St. Clair Ave. W. and Runnymede Rd. There is free parking in the George Bell Arena parking lot, or you can take the bus. From Runnymede station, take the 71B or 79 to St. Clair, and walk east along St. Clair to Colbalt Street, then one block south, or take the 71 from Runnymede station, and it stops at Cobalt Street.
The 71 and 71B are every 22 minutes in the evening (alternating every 11 minutes each), and the 79 is every 12 minutes. Visit TTC for the full schedules.

On Thursday, I did nine rounds of sparring with the guys at Bloor Gym. There was also a girl in the sparring class for some reason, but the instructor asked us not to hit her. I would not do that anyway. I had some fun with her. I was moving around and getting some exercise, that's about it. Of course, I take it more seriously with the men.

I'm not sure if Bloor will be having live boxing again, but if they do, I will log it here once it has been announced.


That is all for this Blue Corner Comment.


Paul "The Brick" Brec
Stockyards Boxing Team, Masters Novice Division, Heavyweight (92 kg)

I Did It...I Finally Did It...The Left Hook!

Well, another week of training gone by already.
There was another sparring day at Bloor, and more training with Richard at Stockyards.
The sparring at Bloor was nothing special this week, and it does not help that I can not video record my performance.
However, Coach Rick's class on Saturday was great. He was able to teach me to hook! Amazing! It is! For years, I have had problems with that damn left hook. Many coaches have tried to teach me. Even Junmar tried, and he's a good teacher. For some reason, it is one of those things that I could never grasp.
Well, Coach Rick was able to do it.  Through his amazing teaching techniques and patience he was able to succeed where other coaches have failed.
I tell you, Richard is amazing.
Look out, The Brick has a new weapon in his arsenal, and is not afraid to use it.

For some reason, Coach Rick now calls me "The Bush". What? I'm not even going to comment on that. Very funny Richard. Keep your day job.
What is wrong with The Brick?


Also, Bloor Boxing had some live boxing happening on Saturday, and it looks like it may be a happening more frequently. It has been over a year since the last one.
Mike asked me to photograph the event. The photos can be viewed here:
http://sports.webshots.com/album/581923250NxwsXI

It was a lot of fun, and both Mike and Paul thanked me for helping.
Not a problem. If you are good to me, I don't mind doing extra things for you.

I went to Bloor Gym on Sunday evening, there was nobody there, but I saw this:

No comment.

I won't ask.
Unfortunately, they were all empty. 

In other news on the boxing front: Jennifer Huggins is now a head official for Boxing Ontario. Yes, Jennifer from my favorite boxing gym, Kingsway. She was at the boxing on Saturday.

For the longest time, Carrie Ireland was the head official, and we became friends. She used to be a bitch to me when I first met her, but after we began to work together and understand each other, she turned out to be really friendly. Even though I don't like a lot of the things Boxing Ontario does, that is not the fault of the officials.
I hope Carrie is coming back.
Jennifer spent the whole evening giving me dirty looks.
I think the way she is handling this is childish. I don't like her boxing gym, and I don't like her coaches. Big deal. That is not going to change, and giving me dirty looks is not going to help. It just makes her look bad.
I am going to be involved with boxing for a very long time. I am not going away. She had better get used to me being around. What is she going to do once I start competing? As an official, she can not take things personally. If she screws me over (again), I will complain to Boxing Ontario.
She is handling this wrong. I'm not going into this again, but a lot of this is her fault. Grow up and accept it.

That is all for this week's report.

Paul "The Brick" Brec
Stockyards Boxing Team, Masters Novice Division, Heavyweight (92 kg)