{"id":292823,"date":"2025-11-18T15:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292823\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:13:13","slug":"photo-essay-the-women-of-seattles-nomad-boxing-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292823\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo Essay: The Women of Seattle’s Nomad Boxing Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I got punched in the head, I was surprised it didn\u2019t hurt. I was stunned, but I wasn\u2019t in abject physical pain. I remember noticing this as my nervous system, on the other hand, spun out of control. Frantically trying to process what happened, my brain decided that simply freezing was the best course of action.<\/p>\n

It was not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emily hit me again. This time, with a straight right to the middle of my forehead. She was moving at warp speed, and I was trapped. My feet were lead and my gloves were superglued to my face. My brain, sluggish and overwhelmed, was unable to control my body. Emily landed a quick double jab to my head and a blow to my stomach. Then I heard Coach Manny reminding me to breathe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Liann Yamashita believes getting in the ring requires confronting the truest and rawest parts of oneself. That\u2019s hard and, at times, painful work, but she keeps returning week after week because she gets \u201cto be in this with a greater community of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nomad Boxing Club<\/a> is a scrappy local gym in Ballard<\/a>. Heavy bags sway from the rafters, and it smells faintly of old socks and disinfectant. Most of the fights showcased in the newspapers, photos, and posters that paper the walls feature men\u2014Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Muhammad Ali\u2014but it\u2019s the only boxing gym in the region that offers weekly opportunities for women to spar with other women.\u00a0Some of these women are on Nomad\u2019s boxing team and actively train for USA Boxing\u2013sanctioned fights. Others, like me, simply show up for the challenge of it and the fierce bonds that form after repeated bouts in the ring. As my fellow Nomad boxer Neal Haley (who’s here battling with Liann Yamashita in the top image, which Manny Dunham watches from the corner) likes to say, \u201cThe punching-each-other-in-the-head-to-best-friend pipeline is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After Coach Manny\u2019s reminder, I took a deep breath and tried to ground myself in my body. Sweat pooled on my forehead and what didn\u2019t get absorbed by the headgear trickled down the side of my face. A few drops found their way into the corner of my right eye, and it started to burn. But I heard Neal cheer when, finally, I managed to evade a punch by stepping and then pivoting in the opposite direction\u2014a move I\u2019d practiced a lot and was now able to perform on instinct.<\/p>\n

In feedback circles at the end of each night, Coach Manny emphasizes the fundamentals: \u201cRepetition, repetition, repetition,\u201d he reminds us. Repetition bakes the movement into the bones and allows the body and mind to work together so smoothly, the boxer almost doesn\u2019t have to think\u2014the moves just happen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Breathing connected my brain back to my body. I landed a solid straight right to Emily\u2019s head. She paused, absorbing the punch. Both of us gulped lungfuls of air. When the bell clanged, I hugged her and laughed at the relative absurdity of it all. She was strong and fierce, and I loved her for that. Sparring, after all, isn\u2019t about knockouts or winning. It\u2019s about reciprocal teaching and learning. A punch to the nose isn\u2019t personal. It\u2019s feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am not a natural in the ring, but I keep coming back. Boxing, more than any other sport I\u2019ve tried, challenges me to regulate the flurry of emotions that flood my nervous system, and shows me how to use my breath to slow things down so I can respond, rather than react. When I can harness this energy and apply it, both inside and outside the ring, boxing becomes a superpower.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to panic when I get punched in the face. But once the two-minute round is up and I can step out of the ring and watch other women spar, I realize there\u2019s more to it than mere surface-level violence. This is one of the reasons I keep coming back. One of my fellow fighters, Liann Yamashita, tells me it\u2019s helpful to think of boxing as \u201ca sport of artistry and science and technique. The really good boxers are the ones who are controlled and the ones who are measured. The ones who can rein themselves in and release themselves in the right direction.\u201d It\u2019s a great goal, but, for me, merely staying present (and keeping my eyes open) continues to be challenging.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jen Oishi (in Title gear) and Rhea Shinde gear up for sparring. When Oishi first started, she felt like she \u201cgot in her head too much\u201d and the bad days in the ring made her want to quit. But she kept coming back and learned that staying loose and playful is key: \u201cInstead of taking [getting hit] as, Oh my God, I\u2019m horrible, I take it as this is a lesson and remind myself I\u2019m learning something right now.\u201d She says that joining the Nomad team was one of the best decisions she\u2019s ever made.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Neal Haley (above) started boxing eight years ago for fitness. Then, about two years ago, she started training consistently with the team. She also serves on the board for the nonprofit arm of the gym and teaches classes. Sparring nights are still challenging for Haley, too. The ring is a panic-inducing space, and she admits that when she first started sparring she was just \u201cgetting beat up for a year.\u201d But when she thought about quitting, teammate Peiji Wang took her aside and asked, \u201cWhat happens if you just stick with it?\u201d Like Oishi, Haley realized getting frustrated doesn\u2019t help. Since there\u2019s always more to learn with boxing, she focuses on fine-tuning her technique. \u201cExecute the movement, not the opponent,\u201d Coach Manny reminds the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

During feedback circles at the end of the night (pictured below), Coach Manny asks the boxers to share what they noticed about each other\u2019s technique in the ring. The conversation is a mix of pointing out what worked and what didn\u2019t. Billie Thorndycraft (pictured above) believes boxing is a sport that requires this kind of vulnerability. \u201cYou don\u2019t get good,\u201d she tells me, \u201cunless you accept that you suck.\u201d She thinks this is especially hard for women to accept: \u201cThere\u2019s lots of reasons there\u2019s no women in this sport, but a big reason is men suck when they come in and they learn because they\u2019ve been given permission to learn. But women come in and they suck and they think that it\u2019s some failing of character, as opposed to an opportunity to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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