Member Spotlight: David Bailey

David Bailey has been to 487 classes at Title Boxing Clarksville, at least that's what it says on his log. But if you account for the days that he was coming in twice or even three times a day-- that number is well over 500. So, if we’re averaging around 60 minutes a class, that’s approximately 500 hours. You know those three minutes on the clock where every last second is an eternity?--that’s about 10,000 of those--and all total, he has spent nearly 21 entire days of his life knocking the stuffing out of a hundred pound heavy bag.

David is as commonplace in Title as the medicine balls nestled under the Title T, or the 20 oz gloves hanging on the corner of the ring, or the Mohawk running around doing mitts. One of our oldest members, he’s been at the club for over two and a half years—longer than most of the staff. With his Mr. Monopoly mustache and dry humor, he appears like clockwork for the 8:30 and 9:30 classes—wrapped and ready but with all jokes aside once the bags start swinging and the chains start rattling. But before the bell dinged, the dialogue was never lacking.

“Hey David!—Doing the 31 day challenge?”

“Nah, that’s for people who need motivation. I ain’t needin any of that.”

“Hey David! Ever think of taking a week off?”

“Nahhh”

“Hey David!—What’s your deepest darkest secret?”

“Pfft, I ain’t got secrets.”

A Florida transplant, David moved to Tennessee with his wife in 1986—first to Nashville then eventually moving to the Clarksville area and starting a business in his long-time area of expertise: installing drop ceilings. Just like with Title, dogged commitment has ruled his professional life—he’s been working in the same industry for 40 years. A father of three, he and his wife had children young, his first daughter was born when he was just 21 years old.

“It makes you grow up,” he said when I asked him about starting a family so early. “Like it or not you have to grow up pretty quick.”

I asked him if his family had any influence on his commitment to daily exercise. “Nooooohoho,” he laughed, “You couldn’t pay my wife a million dollars to exercise.”

A daily boxer, hiking enthusiast, non-smoker, non-drinker, and now newly-converted vegan—David has made every healthy lifestyle change entirely on his own. “I’ve never been a crowd follower, I can split off from the pack there a little bit and do my own thing—it’s my health so if nobody else is going to do it with me..” he said as he threw up his hands and made a *pppppppft* sound, “…heck, going to do it myself.”

He claims that his vigorous routine is a conscientious effort to ward off his natural tendency toward laziness, although somehow I find that hard to believe. “If I’m not in some kind of shape I’m lazier than crap,” he told me “Now, I can still be lazy if I came to class—plus it forces me to do cardio.”

“It’s kind of like, you get hooked on it; you’re addicted, yea—it’s not like going to the gym where it’s boring,” he told me when I asked if maybe he had a slight boxing addiction. “It just makes you--I don’t know--you feel better, you have a better energy level.”

At 62 years old with nearly 500 classes under his belt, I hoped to glean some nugget of profound wisdom from this veteran Title-goer to help others just starting out on their fitness journey—for those who were unsure of how to find the motivation to make a dramatic change.

“Ok so David—if you had to pick one thing, one code that you choose to live your life by—what would it be?”

“Eh…I kinda just want to be left alone,” he shrugged. “I can’t be involved in everything you know what I mean, so just leave me alone.”

“What?” he said as I tried to contain my side-splitting laughter.

Well, that level of authenticity comes around once a decade I guess. 






Article by Kirsten Hall