Willie took the assignment quite …

Willie took the assignment quite seriously from the start. Each morning he would bang at Jaylen’s bedroom door at 7:30 a.m. and tell him it was time to work. As the days passed, he became more lenient with start times, but not with the training sessions. He’ll hold up boxing pads as Jaylen pounds them with his gloves. He’ll have Jaylen jump rope, or carry 5-pound weights as he sprints up and down the street in front of his home. They do resistance-band, body-weight, and core exercises. Jaylen thinks he’s in the best shape of his life. “He has me doing a lot of things I’ve never done before,” Jaylen said. “It’s the old way of training. Everything he does is kind of a throwback, but it’s good. He’s never been stagnant, and I got that from him.”