March 8th

‘Sparring Monday’ went well for me, others not so lucky.

Diet
Breakfast: Oatmeal, nuts and sugar
Mid-morning: Tuna, rice cake, apple, boiled egg
Lunch: Chilli, rice and steamed veg
Mid-afternoon: Tuna, rice cake, apple, boiled egg
Pre-workout: Oat bar
Post-workout: Chocolate milk, 2 slices of ham

Got back from the gym after 9pm, so wasn’t particularly hungry. Should have eaten anyway but couldn’t be bothered.

Exercise
Warmup: Shadowing, 3 x2m minutes
Sparring: 3 rounds of 2 minutes, swapping opponents after 1 minute. I fought Chris and Steve.
Heavy bag: Informal/non-timed punching while I watched the other guys sparring
Set 1: 1 sets of 50 incline situps, alternately twisting to left and right.
Set 2: 10 pressups, 10 squat thrusts, 10 crunches, 10 burpees, repeat, rest 1 minute = 1 set. Did 2 sets.
Stretches

I really felt like I’d improved in the sparring, I was nervous for most of the afternoon, which only got worse right up until I threw my first punch! I guess that’s how its going to be for me. It might be like that for everyone and they just hide it well, who knows.

During the rounds I was getting in some good punches and for the most part avoiding the mistakes I’d been making in the past (slow pullback after jab, rushing in etc.) I felt like I moved pretty well, and landed some good combinations like I’d been practising. I didn’t get many comments from the other guys, but Steve and Chris both said I’d improved. Good to hear.

The main criticisms from Alexis and Andy were that I wasn’t throwing my right hand often enough, and that I was dropping my guard, especially my right hand when throwing a jab. Hopefully I’ll get more feedback from Alexis tomorrow at my PT session, and we can work on my faults.

Apart from a very slight pain in my neck and a small mark at the side of my nose I’m pretty much unscathed from the sparring. Its not that I didn’t get hit, its that the combination of the heavy 16oz gloves and us all going at about 50% is supposed to keep injuries to a minimum. That’s the idea anyway, and my group (the lightest guys ~80 kg) stuck to the rules, didn’t get overly aggressive or wade in throwing wild punches. This wasn’t the case with the heavier groups, and last night we had one possible broken nose, and other guys bleeding or quite badly bruised. Don’t get me wrong, this is boxing and the idea is to damage your opponent, but NOT during training and sparring. On the night, everyone should be trying for a knockout, but we’re 5 weeks from d-day, and if you get a broken nose now, you might not get to fight. No-one wants that.

33 days to go...