Female boxer: It fits her like a glove
Portrait d’une jeune femme sportive.
SEATTLE — Vanessa Rojas knows what you think. “Apparently, I don’t look like a boxer — however, I feel like a boxer,” said Rojas, 20, of Seattle. On a recent evening, she was the only woman practicing at White Center PAL Boxing Gym — although that’s not always the case.
2. She started learning to box at Sea Mar Youth Boxing in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle while still in middle school. Her parents were not initially on board. “They just see it as your gender. Sports for boxing, is normally for men,” they told her. “After I tried out for gymnastics and I tried out for softball, I told them that I didn’t feel comfortable with it, and I feel more comfortable with boxing.”
TRAINING
3. She joined White Center PAL Boxing Gym a few years ago. It’s a community youth boxing gym started by the Police Activities League in 2004, and now coach Tony Rago runs it out of the old handball courts at Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center with fellow coach Keith Weir.
4. “Her style is more of a straight-up boxer — she doesn’t do a lot of fancy footwork, not a lot of hot doggin’; she likes to stay right up in your face, and box with you,” said Rago. “She’s got all the punches down, she’s got all the moves, but she needs to learn to keep her head up,” said Rago. “She tends to dive in with her head first and then that’s when she gets hit the most.”
THE COMPETITION
5. Rojas prepared herself quietly with a little jump rope and some light shadow-