Went to boxing on Saturday for the first time since last year's injury. One of the main coaches congratulated me on making it back. It was cool of him to remember me and my situation.

This class is all about technique and sparring. We were briefly shown a defensive combo of parrying a jab with the right and then slipping the opponent's right - basically, countering a 1-2. My right arm parried fine.

After about 5 minutes we switched partners and sparred for the rest of the class. I didn't think to bring shin guards because it was boxing, but it turned out during sparring we kicked, too. The coach instructed me to just avoid kicking, but my opponent kicked at will. Rather than tell him we're not doing that, I instead opted to handicap myself and only box while he kicked.

The big test was striking with my right. I found this side lacking in power and snap, but at least it was a factor and it blocked a lot of shots. At one point he directly punched my forearm and my bicep hurt a little from the snapback but it was nothing serious. We actually went at it pretty hard and the coach told us to go at it easier. At some point he saw my partner kicking and told it's punches only with me. I will also say this: with the pace we were going at for 3 minute rounds the entire 40 minutes or so, my cardio held up very good. It was hard and my shoulders got tired holding my hands up, but I was able to push through the fatigue the whole way and keep active, while he gassed out near the end. I did get hit with some good shots and my big nose still hurts.

Good to be back.