It’s funny: I could have picked up this book new at the mall after watching The Mask of Zorro (which I did see in the theatre with my beautiful girlfriend or beautiful fiancée–the film came out a couple of weeks before I proposed, so we probably saw it right around the day of the big question). Although I get the sense that this book might have had a more regional reach than national distribution–the author has (or had–lord, that was almost 30 years ago now) a boxing gym in Washington.
As the cover might atest, the everyone in the title might be more aimed at women than men–not only the pretty woman with makeup and earrings and boxing gloves, but also the new-fangled-then URL www.girlbox.com (not an ongoing convern, it seems). The book emphasizes that women can box, whether to compete or just to improve physical fitness, just like boys can. So in addition to chapters on proper alignment/balance, guard stance, basic punches, working the heavy and the speed bags, skipping rope, shuffling (called slide-and-glide here), stretching, adding strength, sample workouts, and listening to your body, you also get some reassurances geared to women–several times, it mentions not worrying about how you look. Although, to be honest, this also can apply to men as well. I know the first time I put on a gi and stepped onto the mat, I thought I looked funny, but mostly I looked like everyone else there.
So I’m not sure who is the target audience, though. It’s not detailed enough, I don’t think, to be something to remind you of techniques or things to try if you already know something of boxing. Perhaps geared toward someone interested in the sport who is thinking about joining a gym. So maybe it did have distribution outside the boxing gym of the author.
Still, I found Boxer’s Start-Up: A Beginner’s Guide to Boxing and Boxing: The American Martial Art to be a little more relevant for me. But if you’re thinking about starting boxing in 1998 but have not yet made the leap, I guess this could get you started.
