Went to boxing tonight and had a lot of fun. Less time spend on conditioning than Muay Thai. It was entirely technical drills and sparring. We immediately partnered up and took turns doing a 1-2 with the other person parrying the jab and dodging the right. Next, we added bodyshots after the 1-2. My first partner was a guy who has several months of experience at this place, which made a big difference in Muay Thai when we sparred but nada here since I've trained boxing in Portland. The second partner was a short rotund fellow who punched in slow motion. I treated him as a beginner and eased up, but still hit him in the face and forehead to let him know that there are consequences for keeping an open guard.
From there we just rotated partners and sparred. First I went up against a girl who was hitting way too hard. Seriously, she was throwing leather. Her strikes were easy to dodge, though. She also got winded several times so we'd stop and wait for her to catch her breath.
Second partner was the guy who had several months under his belt. He seemed to know what he was doing, but he headhunted a lot. I mixed it up by throwing a body jab and a rabid face jab right after, which Ali used to do a lot. I focused extensively on mixing things up in general and throwing combinations, not just single punches. One thing that wasn't going through were my uppercuts. To this guy's credit, his guard from below was right, but then I'd just transition to throwing straights over his gloves right after (left uppercut to right overhand worked really well on him).
Next was the biggest guy there who wasn't me, which I really welcomed going up against. Through his mouthpiece he indicated that he would not be throwing headshots but I could. I tagged him several times but I took the opportunity to really work the body. He was slipping strikes more than the others, predictably.
Finished off sparring the first chick again and she was more tenacious than ever. I was pretty much hitting her at will so I focused more on practicing my bobbing and weaving under the pressure she was exerting. After the bell rang the coach laughed and said she was bullying me, which I found funny but thought she might think that to be kind of condescending. I try not to treat women in class any different, even jokingly - to me, she is the same as a smaller male at that weight.
Class had just ended and I decided to strike the heavy bag a bit when the big guy from earlier beckoned me toward the wall. He wanted me to strike him while he dodged with his back to the wall. I did this for about 5 minutes.
Had a great session and it was nice to give my lower body a break from MT in time for squat day. Conditioning and cardio held up great.
From there we just rotated partners and sparred. First I went up against a girl who was hitting way too hard. Seriously, she was throwing leather. Her strikes were easy to dodge, though. She also got winded several times so we'd stop and wait for her to catch her breath.
Second partner was the guy who had several months under his belt. He seemed to know what he was doing, but he headhunted a lot. I mixed it up by throwing a body jab and a rabid face jab right after, which Ali used to do a lot. I focused extensively on mixing things up in general and throwing combinations, not just single punches. One thing that wasn't going through were my uppercuts. To this guy's credit, his guard from below was right, but then I'd just transition to throwing straights over his gloves right after (left uppercut to right overhand worked really well on him).
Next was the biggest guy there who wasn't me, which I really welcomed going up against. Through his mouthpiece he indicated that he would not be throwing headshots but I could. I tagged him several times but I took the opportunity to really work the body. He was slipping strikes more than the others, predictably.
Finished off sparring the first chick again and she was more tenacious than ever. I was pretty much hitting her at will so I focused more on practicing my bobbing and weaving under the pressure she was exerting. After the bell rang the coach laughed and said she was bullying me, which I found funny but thought she might think that to be kind of condescending. I try not to treat women in class any different, even jokingly - to me, she is the same as a smaller male at that weight.
Class had just ended and I decided to strike the heavy bag a bit when the big guy from earlier beckoned me toward the wall. He wanted me to strike him while he dodged with his back to the wall. I did this for about 5 minutes.
Had a great session and it was nice to give my lower body a break from MT in time for squat day. Conditioning and cardio held up great.
