To Be A Contender...

The Contender, Alfred Brooks
A Child Called It, David Pelzer
Donatelli's Gym in New York

One Day in the state of New York at a small beat up gym called Donatelli’s there was an African-American teenager working out at peanut bag. Around this time the teenager finished his workout and was wiping his face when a little skimpy boy asked him “ Is this Donatelli’s gym?” The Teenager responded, “Yeah. Were you looking to join and workout?” “Yes I was. My name is David Pelzer I heard this is where champions started to box.” “Well you have to become a contender first before you are a champion but anyways my name is Alfred Brooks. Have you ever boxed before?” “Um. No but I would like to start. Could you help me out?” “Sure. I’m always around here just pop in when you want to start and ill show you the ropes around here. First, you need to start running in the morning because the core is key boxing. Is that Ok?” “Yeah I can start doing that. Could I start working out tomorrow?” “Yeah ill meet you here bright and early at 7 a.m.” “Ok. Sounds good,” Replied David anxiously.

“Good morning Alfred. I ran at 5 this morning just like you told me to do” “Good that’s good start as early as you can. Now, the first thing we’re going to try is the big bag. The big bag is to work on your power and to strengthen your arms. Give a couple punches and lets see how ya’ do.” David punched it as hard as he could and it felt like punching a solid brick wall. Alfred starts to chuckle, “Not so easy is it? That’s ok you’ll get it sooner or later.” David thought to himself, “My hand stinks of sweat and leather from punching the bag but that’s what the whole gym smelt like anyways. The gym was always dark because it only had two windows by the front door but there was always a light bulb in the middle of the ring in the gym. You could always see the dust when the light shined through the windows. “This is the peanut bag,” said Alfred interrupting David’s thought, “after practicing you should be able to keep hitting the bag repeatedly to work on your rhythm.” David Watched Alfred hit it. It sounded like a machine gun bouncing off of the wooden board that the little bag was attached to. Alfred stopped punching the bag and said,” And after practicing these two things enough we can get into sparring but you’re nowhere near that so don’t worry about it. Ok, Alfred said exhaling, this is pretty much what you’ll be doing here to work out so if you don’t have any questions for me we can start getting into a rhythm of working out constantly and really start to improve. So... I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Ok. I just have one question?” “Yeah? What is it?” “Were you ever a contender?” “I got close but my coach, Mr. Donatelli, thought I didn’t have the passion of boxing anymore and that I was only going to get hurt out there so I stopped boxing after that and now just workout here.” “Alright well thanks for showing me around I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Alright get home safe.”

“Alright first we start with some push-ups and sit –ups.” So David did as he was told. “Good, good. Now we move on to chin-ups and dips.” David struggled a bit in that workout. “Ok not bad but you’ll improve the more and more you do it. Next we work on strength at the big bag and speed and rhythm at the peanut bag and we just repeat all the workouts again like a rotation. Did you run today?” “Yes,” David said in between punches to the big bag. After one rotation of the workout routine David was sweating more and breathing heavier than he ever had before. After working out for a couple weeks at Donatelli’s David became stronger and stronger as Alfred and David’s friendship grew as well. Soon it would be time for David to start sparring and then he would have his shot to see if he has what it takes to be a contender just like his new best friend Alfred was.