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How I (almost) KO'd a 4 Year Old
Several years ago, before I looked like Santa Claus, I spent considerable time with a young woman that had a 4 year old son. The first time he walked into my house he saw a framed poster of Johnny Tapia that I had on my wall and proclaimed that that was his favorite boxer. Couldn't name him, but that was his favorite.
So i showed him some Tapia tapes and he avowed that that was, in fact, his favorite fighter. At the time I had over 100 VCR tapes (this was long ago), many of them unlabelled but he managed to find, within 10 days or so, every Tapia fight I had on tape. (Since he couldn't read, I guess the lack of labels was irrelevant.) Pretty soon I went to the store and bought hi m a pair of "toy" gloves, cut a handwrap in half and got him started.
Now, this young man had serious trust issues. He didn't believe anything anybody told him (many youngsters in my old neighborhood have had upbringings that would lead them to distrust people)but he was real good at observing. We'd watch tapia fights over and over again, then we'd spar and I'd constantly tell him to do what his 'favorite fighter' did.(he's never call him "Johnny Tapia."In fact, he would insist that that was not his name.) pretty soon this tiny 4 year old was working his jab and throwing double hooks to the body.
Now, understand, I never taught him a fucking thing because he would not believe anything anybody told him. In fact he once said that he felt bad for me, because I tried so hard to be a good teacher while he already knew everything about boxing...and he did! we'd spar and I'd put 'punches' out there and make him work. If he just rushed me throwing punches, I'd slap him upside his head and push him down. If he came at me smart, staying lout of range then darting in, making moves, I'd let him hit me and act like it hurt. If he got carelss, I'd tap him so he'd know. Generally I'd put punches out there for him to work off, but sometimes I'd zip one by him, just to get him used to incoming fire.
One day we were 'sparring' and he got close- I was on my knees- and hit me flush on the tip of the nose with a screaming left hook (anybody that spends a minute around me will learn to throw a left hook) that i never saw coming. It hurt; to recover I started making it harder for him to get in and punch me. I'd let him in then turn him, or use my arms to push him away, and all the time I could see him thinking about what he could do to get in and hit me again.
About the time I decided to zip one past his head, he came up with a new strategy. His idea was to try a leaping, spinning, whirling type of kick, which put his head right in the path of my left hand. I really didn't expect him to be at that place at that time, but he took it at least as well as I took the punch to the nose.
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Originally Posted by greynotsoold
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