<h1>"Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face" </h1>- Mike Tyson

Boxing is OK. The problem is, I am not very good at it (well, I am better than 50% of the boxers ... the 50% that are in a higher PD stage than I.) Some of the participants can hit the heavy bag, when I am holding for them, so hard, it knocks me back a couple of steps. And fast! They're two times as fast as I am. It is a tad frustrating and demoralizing.

Who knew the sport was so complex! Each session we practise combinations. To be effective, and not look like an enfeebled, unathletic, lacklustre, bozo, these combinations have to be automatic. Not for me! I tell my brain, "it is jab, cross, side hook, upper cut". Sometimes my brain will co-operate, but more often, it replies something like "jab, cross, damn, I don't remember the next move!"

Have you ever tried hitting the small speed ball. Never going to happen for me. Talk about discouraging! That thing is impossible and yet about 50% of the class is proficient at making it dance.

However, all I need to know is it helps slow the progress of PD and is a good workout.

"Hague (an original founder) says while it may seem counterintuitive to think that boxing would be good for someone with Parkinson's, research has shown that any sort of forced activity is good for the brain. Every time members throw a punch or learn a new set of punches, Hauge says they are building new pathways in their brains that allow them to work better.

'First of all, we don't hit each other,' he says. 'We do a lot of stretching and we're making our brains work differently again as people with Parkinson's tend to curl up and stop moving.'

For Hague, a former nurse of 21 years, the program provides something essential for its participants.

'I see all of these people, a lot of them who were not exercising and suffering from depression, now finding friendship and camaraderie,' he said.

"They're fighting back against this disease."

I would like to show this disease who is boss....but perhaps by some other method.

My father was a boxer. He was an excellent athlete. He won some kind of boxing championship in the Canadian army. I can still see him sitting in his chair, pipe in hand, and ducking and weaving as if he were both boxers in the fight he was watching on television. He would be disappointed if I quit and so, I will carry on and hopefully get better.

I always thought of boxing as a primitive sport. I don't anymore. It is symbol of masculinity that has been lost over time. Two gladiators fighting for the prize and doing it with practised excellence. What a picture!

I am just glad we don't hit each other.

readers might notice the change in similes in paragraph 2. A reader, a good friend and quasi-editor pointed out that there was something wrong with the phrase "like a weak little girl." There was. It was lazy writing and sexist,