February 17th

Big day today, we started sparring. Its so different from the rest of our training; Imagine practising golf by swinging a club but never hitting a ball, and the difference between that and 18 holes of matchplay. Also imagine that whenever you mess up a shot you get punched in the face.

Diet
Breakfast: Oatmeal, nuts and honey
Mid morning: Tuna, ricecake, boiled egg, apple
Snack: 4 chicken nuggets
Lunch: Butterbean stew, steamed veg
Mid afternoon: Tuna, ricecake, boiled egg, apple
Snack: 4 chicken nuggets
Pre-workout: Oat bar
Post workout: Ikea currypuff, strawberry milk

Won’t be having the nuggets again, they’re horrible cold. Dinner was crap because I went straight to Ikea after the gym and didn’t have time for anything better. Also chewing was difficult after getting punched.

Exercise
Warmup: Bit of skipping, stretching, bit of jab and parry practice.
Sparring: We were split us into two groups, small guys (including me) went first. Eight guys in the ring at once, two fighting, the others waited in the corners with gloves, headguards and mouthpieces in and ready to go. The first guys fight for 60 seconds, then Alexis swaps one of them out for one of the guys in the corners. Another 60 seconds, and swap again. So each person fights for 2 minutes before being swapped out. That matches what we’ll be doing on the night, except that during sparring we got a longer break between rounds.
Circuit: 15 pressups, 15 burpees, 15 squats, 15 crunches. Repeat.

The sparring session was incredibly intense. Everything happens very quickly, and for most of us, things like footwork and proper punching technique went straight out of the window after the first few hits. By contrast the guys with some sparring experience kept their form during the rounds, looked far more in control, landed a lot more punches and got hit much less.

What I learnt: Relax and don’t rush; throw punches and move like we’ve been shown; If you take a few hits, get your guard up and move away.

I came out of the ring pretty demoralised; I felt like I didn’t land a punch, and my opponents hit me every time. Speaking to the guys afterwards, a lot of them felt the same way about their fights, and the guys I fought told me I caught them with some good shots. I spoke to the guys watching, and they reckoned I was about even in the rounds, moved well, and landed about as many punches as I took.

What I learnt: From inside the ring its almost impossible to tell how well/badly you’re doing, or what your tactics should be. Someone honest on the outside to break things down for you is essential.

For my weight/group, I’m quite tall. This means that I have more reach than some of the other guys, but I’m less muscular and powerful. Because of this, Alexis’ advice was to use my jab as much as possible; hit and move away. In my rounds I often found myself leaning forward with my jab, going off balance, and getting counter-punched hard. A few times I ended up on the receiving end of a 4 punch combination for the error of missing one punch. Sometimes though, things went right and I’d land 4-5 unopposed jabs in a row and the guy wouldn’t get close.

What I learnt: Don’t over-reach with punches; stay balanced all the time. Being off balance means you’ve got less power, your guard is open, and your movement will be compromised.

Even with over 5 minutes break between rounds, by the third set of 2 minutes almost everyone was showing signs of serious fatigue, and I was no exception. My guard was shabby, I was moving more slowly, everything was just poor. Seems to me that on the night, with 60 seconds between rounds, conditioning is going to play a HUGE part in the outcome of the match.

What I learnt: Fighting technique will improve through sparring, which I guess we’ll be doing 3 times a week from now on. However, conditioning work at Vanda has all but stopped, and is going to come down how much effort each fighter puts in between sparring sessions. I need to build up stamina in my arms, and my cardio in general, so in the final round I’m still moving well and throwing hard, accurate punches.

Damage (new section!)
Grazes and bruises on both forearms from taking punches on my guard
Painful jaw (took a cracking punch from Lee in my first round; everything went slightly green/grey)
Slight graze on my right cheek.
Right foot slightly painful, but feeling better
Back still aching

52 days to go…