State Street Boxing Club

For those of you old SSBCers following the old page, here’s the latest SLC gym buildout update: bathroom framed, electric roughed in, ceiling painted, HVAC ductwork hung. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a few more steps closer to opening SLC Boxing Club. Still hoping to see a few of you out here once we open. Also, just so you know, the new gym’s IG page is . Like the gym itself, not much to look at yet, but it’s coming.

Here we go! We were afraid to post anything until we got through the plumbing (and thankfully all that was underground was dirt), but here is one of the first pics of the new gym. We cannot express our thanks enough to all who contributed to the GoFundMe - we seriously could not have made it past the hurdles with the City. It’s still slightly terrifying, but onward we go 💪🏼. The new Instagram is up if you want to follow the progress. We’ll do a live class for all of you once it’s completed. 🥊

Dear SSBC Members,

This email was sent out several days ago, but some of you opted out of receiving emails, so this was unable to reach you. I hope this finds the majority of you who did not initially receive it. So here goes.

I have some rather big news for you. Some of you have already heard this news through the grapevine, but for most of you it will be a surprise. In the next month, the gym will be undergoing some changes, the primary of which is my departure. After 20-plus years of devoting myself to this gym and to all of you, the time has finally come for me to move on. The gym, however, is going nowhere. It will remain right where it is, but under new stewardship. The classes and class schedule will remain largely the same, with the possible addition of some classes. Some of the instructors you’re already familiar with, some will be people I’ve trained over the years, while some no doubt will be new to you. The main thing is that you will continue to receive the same high level of coaching you’ve come to expect, with the same focus on teaching genuine boxing technique and a genuine fighter’s workout.

Brian Sawicki, the owner of Key2Fitness, the gym two doors down from us, will be the new owner of the gym. I know he already has plans to make cosmetic improvements to the gym and to add some new fitness equipment. In addition, and most importantly, members of SSBC will now have full access to Key2Fitness with their membership, at no additional cost, and, like Key2Fitness, SSBC will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In the next day or two, Brian will send you an email welcoming you and further outlining the benefits you can expect from the new arrangement.

For those of you who have been sparring or have an eye toward sparring or competing in the future, the contact work will be supervised by Manny Raya, a local coach who began boxing with me years ago. Manny is a good guy – knowledgeable, dedicated, reliable, and a man of his word – all qualities any coach, in whose hands you are putting your safety, should have. Did I not feel Manny was equal to the job, I would never have asked him to step in to fill my shoes. Doubtless his coaching style will be different than mine, but you’ll adjust to that soon enough and may even prefer it. Again, the main thing is that he will be giving you the real deal and you can rely on what he tells you.

Regarding the payment of your gym dues, we will be sending out instructions on what you’ll need to do to ensure a seamless transition. We will make this process as simple as possible. Once that’s done, you’ll be given a code or a digital key fob that will enable you to access both gyms 24 hours a day.

Lastly, I want to express what I cannot express, which is my gratitude to all of you – those who’ve been with me for more than 20 years and those of you who’ve been with me 20 days. This gym, its members, my coaching, have been, trite as it sounds, so much more than a job. Humble an accomplishment as it is, it has truly been a life’s work, and it is not with ease that I let go of it or of all of you. Those of you who know me well, know that I’m not much given to sentimental effusions, and I won’t indulge much in them here, but I feel it’s important to let you all know what an enormous place you have occupied in what passes for me as a heart. Whatever small satisfaction or gratification I’ve been able to bring to you over the years, I assure you, all my incessant crabbing and sarcasm notwithstanding, you have given to me threefold. I will miss all of you. I hope you will all stay and carry on the good work.

Many, many thanks,
Josh

Nature. Yup. Grass. Trees. Fresh air. Come join us in it for an hour of sweat in the sun (or shade, seeing as there are trees). That’s tomorrow, Sunday, August 9th, at 10am, at La Mesa Park. It’s a plyometric party. Bring a mat unless you like being really close to the earth. And, of course, don’t forget your mask. **kcovid19 💪🏻👊🏼🥊

You can do this workout in your yard, apartment, home, on a boat, wherever

Greetings all SSBC members, former members, and those of you who've had some (hopefully positive) experience of our gym. I'm writing today to thank the many of you for all your good wishes while I was down with the old Coronavirus, and to say that I am thankfully just about fully recovered and back at bossing everybody around; the one thing I'm really good at. Everyone should be so lucky as to find their true calling. So, thank you everyone for your good wishes. I hope to see each and every one of you back in the gym before too long.

Next on the agenda, as always I'm late to the party and discovered only today that it is the last day to vote in the SB Independent for your Santa Barbara Best Of. They don't really have a category that suits us exactly, so it looks like we'll have to ride with best Martial Arts. If you're so inclined and feel we deserve it, would you please take a minute and vote for us. The online link is independent.com/bestof2020. Now I realize that to be the best of 2020 so far is proving to be a pretty low bar, but if you could help us clear it, it could be a great help to the gym.

Any of you who know me even passingly well know that I absolutely abhor self-promotion. I've never advertised, and to say I'm no salesman or businessman is, well, an understatement at best. That said, what with the virus and the shutdowns and the consequent loss of business, I find that perhaps now is a good time to go against my instincts and ask people to cast a vote for us. Obviously, you have to believe we're worth your vote. If you do believe that, please take a minute and vote. If nothing else, consider it a You Survived Coronavirus Prize.

Again, all jokes aside, my sincerest thanks for all your good wishes. Now we just need to make sure the gym survives so I can continue with my life's mission to browbeat and badger you into skill and fitness.

Best Of Santa Barbara® 2020 Readers’ Poll For more than 30 years, Independent readers have voted for all things they think make Santa Barbara the best place to live in the world. Each year we celebrate your choices — the businesses, places…

This. Yes. This. Listen up all State Street Boxing Club members and all who would like to enter there: if you are not wearing one of these when entering the gym, you will not, I repeat, will not be allowed inside. I want to be absolutely clear about this. I don’t care what your feelings are about it. I don’t care what your political affiliation is. I don’t care if you feel that wearing a mask is going to send you sliding into lifelong slavery to an all-controlling government or that your civil liberties are being trampled. I don’t care if endless hours of social media have made you an expert who miraculously knows more than those who’ve dedicated their entire lives to slow careful study in a chosen field. I don’t care if your dog told you not to wear one. I don’t care if you just plain feel foolish in one. I don’t care about any of that. If you feel, for whatever reason, that you simply cannot wear a mask, then you are free, in this great free land of ours, to patronize a non-mask-wearing gym. Period. Enough is enough. People are still getting sick - I am a (luckily) living example - and I want to keep both the gym open and its people as safe as possible under the circumstances. So, masks on when you enter the gym and at all times when you are not actively training. That means while you are putting on your shoes and wrapping up, masks on; anytime you are closer than 6 feet to someone, masks on; once you’re done training, changing, and leaving the gym, again, masks on. I want people to feel and to be as safe as we can make them, for the gym to be a haven, not a place to have to worry. Using masks, keeping apart, washing the gear and our hands will all go a long way toward both. So, be respectful. Be responsible. Some day, we hope soon, this will be in the past and we’ll all be able to throw our masks in the rubbish and sneeze and high five with impunity. That day is not today. Bear with us. Be strong. Don’t whine. Here endeth this public service announcement. Hope to still see you in the gym. 👊🏼💪🏼🥊

Come box with us at 4pm today. Live or in the gym. Sign up on Vagaro app.

What is this?! It looks like the secret formula for tomorrow’s conditioning workout. The only ingredient missing is you, either getting your butt into the gym or signing up on Vagaro and joining in online at 10am sharp for an hour of Sunday plyometric paradise. Want to get saved? Then come to the First Church of Conditioning at State Street Boxing Club, where you can literally save your ass from its own unsightly form of perdition. We are here for you. The question is, will you be here for yourself? Sunday. 10am sharp. Don’t make excuses. Don’t be late.

We’re back!

Walk-ins are welcome if there is room in the class, you can text coach or check the class count on Vagaro. Vagaro is a free app to help us monitor class size right now, stay safe and keep people comfortable. We all want to get back to our old normal, not the new weird normal. Until we are 100% out of it, we are doing our best to keep us, and you . 👊🏿

We’re back! All members should create an account with Vagaro (it’s free). If you have an existing membership, we will have to transfer you over when your renewal is due. You can create an account now, so you can sign up for classes. We’ll allow walk-ins if there is space, but with limited class size and the health order, it is best (and recommended) to reserve your gym spot online. The site will show available spots left for in studio classes. Online there is no capacity for class size.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE GYM AND SMALL BUSINESS 💪🏻☺️🥊

All right. Here's a long-ass post for you to wade through. It looks as though we’ve finally made it to the other side and will be reopening our doors for classes Monday, June 15th. With that opening, for your safety and to satisfy the city’s public health requirements will come several schedule and cleaning modifications and protocols. Read on to find out what those will be. I apologize ahead of time for the distastefully dry prose.

Class Schedule: Please check the website for the specific class times. The main difference is that all classes will be one hour long with 15 minutes between classes to provide adequate time for cleaning and for people to leave the gym before the next class comes in. The idea is to keep the gym and equipment as sanitized as possible and to cut down on traffic during the transition between classes.

Class Size: For the time being, classes will be limited to no more than 12 people per class. This, again, is to cut down on crowding and to help maintain proper social distancing. We will be implementing online software for signing up for classes. If it isn’t completely in place upon opening on the 15th, it will be soon.

Online Classes: We will continue the online boxing classes Monday through Friday at 4pm and the conditioning classes every Sunday at 10am. Those classes will also be available for attendance in the gym. Along with implementing online software for signing up for classes, we will also be developing the means of buying online classes either on a class-by-class basis or a monthly membership. Obviously, if you are already a paying member of the club, those classes will be included in your membership. Until we have that system in place, the online classes will continue on Instagram Live and will be stored on IGTV for those unable to make the live class. If by chance those of you who are not gym members feel honor-bound to contribute, we certainly will not refuse your contribution. If you feel moved to recompense us for these classes, you can email or DM us for where to send that payment.

Cleaning: This is where things are going to get, I won’t say sticky, as that would be antithetical to cleaning, but somewhat arduous and annoying. All bags and equipment must be wiped down by whoever’s used said equipment after every class. No exceptions. We will have spray bottles of disinfectant, disinfectant wipes, and towels strategically placed around the gym to facilitate this. We will also be mopping the floors and disinfecting the commonly used surfaces throughout the day. While we are all too aware of what a pain in the butt this is and apologize for it, it is, for now, unavoidable.

Gym Traffic: Again, for the time being, we need to make every effort to restrict the number of people in the gym at a given time. Essentially, what that means is, if you’re not in the gym to work out or coach, then you should not be in the gym. Most of you usually want to get in and out as fast as you can anyway, so this, for the most part, should present no particular inconvenience or hardship. What it does mean is no parents or friends will be able to wait in the gym while their children or friends train. Unless you are bringing your child in for his or her trial lesson, please drop them off and pick them up outside the gym. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Open Gym: While in the past I have been lenient about letting those with Open Gym memberships train on their own during classes or for their preparation time to bleed into class time, for the at least foreseeable future, that will not be the case. Those with Open Gym memberships will need to do their training strictly during non-class hours and time both their entrance and exit preparation, such as getting dressed, wrapping up, showering, etc., so that it does not cross over into the scheduled class times. Again, the idea is to limit the amount of traffic in the gym, both so people feel safe and to satisfy the city’s public health guidelines. It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway, Open Gym members are required to follow all the cleaning protocols as those taking the scheduled classes.

Masks: It is beyond me how, but somehow the wearing of masks has become a point of contention. I will not be tendentious, or only a little, regarding the use of masks and its attendant controversy, but I will say this: the city’s requirement regarding the use of masks is that you must wear one upon entering the premises, may remove it while you are doing whatever business you may be doing within the premises, and must again don it to exit the premises. That is the city’s requirement, and far be it from me to doubt the wisdom of those entrusted with our safety.

In Conclusion: This is clearly all a giant pain the ass. Those who know me well, know just how much I resent and resist any form of change. I still do jumping jacks and toe touches. That said, I am a boxing coach, and whatever opinion I may have regarding public health issues in general, let alone dealing with a specific virus, pandemic, what have you, is, well, worthless. So, in all sincerity, in an effort to do what’s right and best for all, and not simply what seems convenient to me personally, I am willing to be dictated to by those who know more than I. The next couple of months are going to require an adjustment and some patience and forbearance - believe me, no one needs more reminding of that than I - but we came through the lockdowns and are now at last able to get back to some form of business. With any luck, a few months will see us through this latest phase and a return to all our more normal and beloved daily aggravations and pleasures. Bear with us as we fumble our way to making this next phase workable. In the immortal words of the great Mills Lane, “chin down, hands up, and keep moving forward.” Thank you.

No conditioning class today, as we’ll be finishing getting the gym ready for Monday’s reopening. Here is the new class schedule, slightly modified to allow for cleaning time between classes. As you can see, only the evening and weekend classes are affected by these changes. For those of you who are nervous about training in a public facility, we will be continuing the online classes for as long there is sufficient interest. The online classes will be included in the regular gym memberships and we will also offer an online only monthly membership as well as the ability to pay per online class. In an effort to disperse attendance throughout the various classes, the online classes can also be attended by members in-house. We’re in the final stages of setting up the means of signing up for classes through Vagaro, whose app you can and should download for free. Once that’s in place, people will need to sign up for classes ahead of time. This will help us control occupancy until it’s determined such management is no longer necessary. There are some new cleaning protocols and class size restrictions, all of which will be posted on the website soon. Please check the gym’s website for further details. No doubt it’s going to be a bit bumpy initially, so bear with us in this long-awaited but somehow still hectic return to business. Feel free to ask any questions you might have. We can’t wait to see you all back in the gym. It’s been far too long. And, please, be smart, be safe, be considerate. We may be reopening, but that doesn’t mean things are back to normal. So, all of that said, we’ll see you in the gym soon! 💪🏼👊🏼🥊

State Street Boxing Club updated their phone number.

LIVE Boxing today at 4pm with this kid. check out his amazing track suit 😍🥊

We are back! Well, almost. The SBHO allows us to open with guidelines on Friday. We will reopen the gym on MONDAY, JUNE 15th. Details will be posted on Facebook, the website, and in the gym. Thank you to everyone that hung in there, and made reopening the gym possible.

🤞

Not sure if this is going to be the last online YFB class or not. Still working out the logistics of resuming regular classes and what that will mean for the online stuff, BUT, regardless of the future, be sure today to join Becca and Christina in the comfort of your own living room, porch, rooftop, whatever, wherever, for another installment of Yoga for Boxers. It’s the perfect addition/antidote to a week of aggression-inducing, muscle-shortening - no, not national news - boxing workouts. So rise up, tune in, and hang out for an hour with your Omies. Then I’ll see you at 4 for some good old-fashioned fight fun. Peace.