Welll today was a strange one. Just Jason and me and while I was warming up I very nearly left the gym owing to a the pain in my left buttock that had become progressively worse over the week causing me to limp, and a nagging sore throat. It was a kind of stabbing pain caused I think by lunging forward with the left foot one or two sparring sessions ago. It felt a bit better as I warmed up and Jason straight away put on his gloves and said he wanted to do some “light sparring” with me.
What followed was 5 or 6 two minute rounds of pure punishment. Every time my right hand dropped (usually during a jab) he would catch me with a crushing left hook to the side of the head. He said he wouldn’t hit me hard but at least three of those hooks make me see stars through blurry eyes with wobbly legs. I was so used to just doing pad work with him in the ring, and sparring with the other guys, he caught me by surprise in an unfamiliar situation. I even forgot to put my gumshield in. I was thrown onto the ropes a few times but despite the overwhelming urge to curl up and cover up I tried what I was supposed to do - some toe to toe punching and it kind of worked, moving the fight back into the centre of the ring. A few of my one-two’s got through as well but it was hard not to feel a bit scared of raising the tempo and getting double or more back.
I think it was good training by Jas to pick me apart through my weaknesses, although at the time in between rounds during distant gazes from my corner across the gym I wondered what the hell I was doing. So did some of the other “normal” people doing normal gym things like weights or treadmills, some of whom stopped what they were doing to gawp at my punishment. But that’s what boxing is about - finding the heart to go back into the fight and stick to the discipline of what you’ve learned and try to find a way to beat your opponent.
After the sparring my nose and forehead were marked and there were rings of blood around my nostrils plus my lip was cut inside from not wearing my gumshield. It’s hard to see the outcome in a positive light but I hope in the future some lessons will have been driven home - literally:
STANCE: how many times must I remember this is the root of balance and powerful punching
GUARD: don’t drop those hands. It’s a green light to get a KO hook
DISTANCE: out of range is out of danger, although I spend most of my time “in range”
I did the gym challenge - flip a lorry tyre, jump through it, 5 pressups, 5 dips, run round the tyre, repeating this for the length of the gym then finish with 5 laps running around. Insult to injury came when I did the worst time on record of over 6.30 minutes (Dave did it in 5.48 although he was fresh), and I was limping owing to my half functioning backside... On top of the sparring I found this poor result a crushing blow to my confidence and in the shower afterwards couldn’t find much to positiviely reflect on. Apparently I have to lose a stone in weight as well to get down to a proper fighting weight for the exhibition in August. Great.
A day after, my ribs are agony to touch (after Jason pounded my chest and stomach with a medicine ball saying “this is what Enzo does in the Newbridge gym to learn to take body shots), I can barely walk, my jaw hurts to eat. and flakes of dry blood occasionally fall from my left nostril. I was supposed to be training with Dave today at 1pm too, but decided to cancel. and get some rest.
The only thing is to find positives from yesterday and move on. I went way out of my comfort zone but had the mental strength to go back in again and again and remember my basic boxing skills. I even found that under pressure, even though the instinct is to be scared, I could relax. I accept that my fitness levels and strength need working on too, despite injury I should still do stuff like shadow box, eat less crap, drink less and think about those core essentials: stance, guard, distance and combinations.
