Week 1

I turned up a bit late and had a first look at the rest of the group. There were three other guys - all struck me as Cardiff hard men with no hair and lots of tattoos. Another Nick who reminded me of a fighting dog and looked like he could punch through a brick wall. Ashley - a 6 foot plus muscle man with a diamond earring and another guy who's name I don't remember who was through and through Cardiff lad and said "you knows I'm not gonna be good tonight as I had to bury me dad yesterday, like". The coach is called Jason who has the build and posture of a street fighter and is amazing to watch how light footed and powerful he is when he demonstrates shadow boxing or bag work. He's a top guy and 100% committed to getting us up to a level where we can go and spar with other clubs in the area.

They all turned out the be really nice guys and seemed willing to pass on tips to me and be generally encouraging. I felt foolish telling Jason that I'd done a lot of boxercise classes in the past and after seeing how the other guys moved around I realised I should have said my experience was - nothing. I thought I had a pretty good right punch, but within thirty seconds after I'd learned the correct stance, posture, where to hold my hands etc. I realised this was the complete beginning being built on a foundation of nothing but uncertainty.

I thought we would be in the ring from the word go, but the session involved endless bag work, watching Jason look good and failing to look anything like him. People had billed this as some kind of fight club where frustrated white collar worker go to knock seven bells out of each other after work for an hour or so. The reality was a new and exciting sport of which I knew nothing that combines mental and physical agility with extreme fitness, strength and stamina.

The last 15 minutes were fitness time - (as if what we had been doing for the past 45 was not). This involved relays around the running track doing squat thrusts, pressups and jack-knifes, three times. It was exhausting - plus my knee was still weeping blood from a deep cut inflicted in a snowboarding collision with a buried rock in Switzerland a week before.

For the first time in a long time I felt invigorated, fit, focused and knew that there was a lot more to this than I thought.

If anybody reads this blog and wants to know more about boxing terminology, here is a great wiki page