Made it to Muay Thai this morning. New coach I've never seen before and 2 new people in class with only the remaining person being someone I recognized as an assistant coach. Coach introduced himself to me and said between the 3 other guys he's taught them for a combined 30 years, making me the newbie.

First drill was a simple right low kick to the shield. My partner went first, then me. As usual, my first few kicks were terrible, but by the third attempt I found the right motion. Got corrected on how far I was rolling my ankle. I overcorrected and landed the next attempt with the side of my shin. Need to find a happy medium. Bizarrely, my left kick was far better and stronger. Coach remarked on this. Told him it's usually the opposite.

Another thing to keep in mind is to land on the ball of the foot when push-kicking, not the heel.

Next drill was 2 for 2 combinations with our gloves as mitts. 1-1, duck, 2-3-2. Got told to loosen up. Also to not lean forward so far into my punches and to not stand so low because it's not utilizing my superior height over my partner's. Several years ago in Portland my boxing coach corrected my stance and made me go really low when throwing punches, telling me this is how power is generated. Muay Thai is a different animal, though, and maybe the coaching styles are different as well, but in any case I stood up a little more and dipped straighter down when throwing the right hand instead of lunging way forward.

We finished with several different combos on the heavy bag that the coach would call out, mixed with some easy ab work (10 sit-ups, 10 crunches, repeat until the end of the timer). Again, got told to loosen my shoulders up and not be so tense on the bag.

Loved this class. Really dug the emphasis on technique over burn-out conditioning. Hope I see this coach again.