Went to a Muay Thai class at AKA on Thursday. Really excellent session, left me little doubt in my mind I want to come here more. The coach that evening, Derrick Yuen, actually taught one of my other coaches at XMA, Payam, for his kickboxing fights back in the day. He's a great dude with a stoic patience about the way he teaches. Definitely not the loud OSU-type that wants to hype the class up. I appreciate both personalities.

Got told I'm not rotating my shoulders enough when I kick. Shoulder should block the jaw to some degree. Made an instant correction as soon as I was told this and he said good job.

Most of the session was teaming up with partners and going back and forth between a simple jab followed by a low kick. After enough of this, we took turns push-kicking and batting it away to change trajectory. Really basic stuff but I have never actually learned to parry a push-kick.

Reviewing the fundamentals with a live opponent was a welcome step back to shaking off rust and remembering what it's like to react to a moving target versus the endless bouts of heavy bag work and shadow boxing I've been doing during the pandemic, which by the way have served me extremely well. I could just tell I looked far more polished than the last time I stepped into a gym and I change directions much more fluidly and naturally now when shadowboxing as opposed to just facing the same way.