March 4th

Woke up feeling pretty well rested, no aches after Wednesday training.

Diet
Breakfast: Oatmeal, nuts and a little sugar
Mid-morning: Tuna, ricecake, apple
Lunch: Chilli, rice and steamed veg
Mid-afternoon: Tuna, ricecake, apple, boiled egg
Pre-workout: Oat bar
Post workout: Strawberry milk
Dinner: Lots of steak, lamb, chicken and salad at a buffet

It was the last night with Kirsty’s parents’ visit so we went to Carnivore. Great buffet and I tried to keep it healthy by sticking to meat and salad.

Exercise
Personal training session #2 with Alexis. Worked hard with him pushing me along, but I still need a lot of work on my fitness and technique.
Set 1: Shadowing, 5-6 rounds of 2 minutes, 60 seconds between rounds. Concentrating on moving forwards while punching and throwing longer combinations of punches
Set 2: Heavy bag, 4 rounds of 2 minutes, jabs, right, combinations. Concentrating on punching power
Set 3: Speed bag, 3-4 rounds of 2 minutes, concentrating on getting my hands back to guard quicker after each punch
Set 4: Wall bag, 3-4 rounds of 2 minutes, concentrating on longer combinations of punches, up to 8 in a row
Set 5: Focus pads, 4-5 rounds of 2 minutes, working on punching while moving forwards and backwards, as well as the combinations from the earlier sets

General points

• I think he’s happier with my fighting stance now, and was correcting me less. My left hand is lower and I’m standing more upright and side-on
• Alexis seems to have also noticed that I throw too many individual jabs, hence the focus on combinations
• He also seems to agree that I’ve got to concentrate on getting my hands back to guard a lot quicker after punching. I think it was Steve who first mentioned this after sparring. It’s a big deal; if my hand is back I don’t get punched, if it’s not I get a hard right to the face.
• I’m sometimes lifting my back (right) foot slightly when I throw a punch. I think this happens when I try to reach too far forward, and I’m sacrificing power and balance when I do it. It’s a fine line between a pivot on the ball of your foot and going off balance, but this is definitely something I need to work on
• When I throw a right hand I sometimes “open up”. As a rough idea, The correct way to punch is something like holding your right elbow against your ribs and straightening your arm. What I sometimes do is bring my elbow up to shoulder height, at a right angle to my body, then straighten my arm. Not a great description I know, but the upshot is that I’m throwing a slower punch that puts my body out of position and leaves my head wide open to a counter-punch. All round bad
• My observation, not Alexis’: For the first 30 seconds of each focus pad round I was throwing hard, accurate, quick punches, moving well and keeping my guard up properly; after that I got progressively and markedly slower and less accurate until the end of the round. Okay, so I’d been throwing punches for a continuous 45 minutes already, but the message is clear; I need to work on endurance in my arms. If I can do the full 6 minutes on the night like those first 30 seconds, I’ll be happy

So those were bad things, among others. I did get some compliments when I did things right, and Alexis seemed to be mildly impressed with my punching power, saying I’d be “fine” and “surprise” whoever I end up fighting. I have NO idea what to make of that! Best just keep training!

In any case, The next group sparring session is Monday, and I’ve got a PT session booked for Tuesday. My hope is that Alexis can pick up things I need to work on from the sparring and we can work on them the next day.

37 days to go...