Since I have returned to Toronto, I have still been visiting both gyms on a regular basis albeit on a "summer schedule".
I feel that my boxing skills are better than ever, and I have had two more open sparring matches since returning. I have also been doing a lot of soft sparring at both Kingsway and Bloor.
Usually, Thursday is open sparring at Kingsway. Last Thursday I sparred the coach. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. The advantage is you learn a lot. The disadvantage, the coach does not in any way feel sorry for you.
Well, sure enough, he nailed me four times in the solar plexus. Yeah, you'd think that after the first time I would have learned something. Well, what ended up happening is that I had a bruise there. Do you have any idea what that feels like? The solar plexus is where all the nerves from the stomach, rectum and bowels are collected before going back to the spine. They are very close to the surface, and are therefore very sensitive.
I had an extreme stomach cramp for four days! Yeah, it was not the most pleasant thing in the world.
This past Thursday, I did sparring with four of my teammates. Easier? No, not really.
For the most part, even during open sparring, my team usually go fairly easy on each other. After all, it is just for practice. However, open sparring (full-contact) does help you prepare for competition. Think about it, when you are competing, your opponent is not exactly going to be love-tapping you. May as well get used to the hard hits in the gym.
Chris. Yes, I spoke about Chris before. He is one of the ones who does not let-up during open sparring. He always hits full-power.
Chris is a really big guy. He could pass for a professional wrestler. What is also important here is that he is also in my weightclass now. How this happened, I don't know, but I will discuss it a bit later.
The coach insisted I do one round with Chris. I knew he would clobber me, but there must have been a good reason the coach wanted this to happen.
I am not stupid. I remembered last-week's disaster, and was not going to let it happen again. I adjusted my boxing stance, so I am more at an angle. My stomach is now farther from my opponent, and thus, harder to reach. I now drop my left slightly so I can use my elbow as defense. This is a completely new tactic for me, so I was really not used to using it. My main focus was on protecting my body.
Well, it did not take long at all for Chris to notice my weak defense: My head! He ended up nailing me twice in a row. Both sides! How did that happen? All I hear is the coach yelling at me, "Paul, where's your defense?!" Yeah, well if you really must know, its down around my solar plexus where it will be staying right now, thank you very much.
The shots to the head really did not bother me. A seasoned boxer can shake that off quite easily. However, shots to the body are harder to shake, and can cause mush more damage, longer, and will really tire you quickly. This is one reason why good boxing coaches focus on body attacks.
That being said, a punch to the head is a point against you, and can cause you to loose, if it doesn't just knock you right onto your ass.
OK, so now that I have the body defense done, I have to find a way to get the left up to defend my noggin. Something to work on this week.
Now back to my issue about weight. In the spring, I was at the 89 kg class. I had been there for a long time. Then, for some reason, I began to creep up. I am now officially at 93 kg. That means that in five months, I gained 4 kg, or 10 pounds! I know it is not fat. It is definitely not that. I don't know what happened, but I am now in a bad spot, because I am now at the low end of the Super-Heavyweight class. This is very bad, as now I can be matched with any man from 91 kg and up. Meaning, up to...whatever.
My coach is always going on about not increasing to a higher class, and I really tried not to. Now, I have to do everything I can to get below 91 kg. It will be a challenge, but something to work toward.
My next scheduled match: [TBA]
My current division and class: Master's Novice 93 kg [Super-Heavyweight]
My current record (Kingsway): 0 - 0 - 0 //0 (4 Open Sparring)
Paul "The Brick" Brec
No comments:
Post a Comment