First training session at the Exeter Boxing Club in three weeks earlier.  At first I was half not looking forward to it, although I don’t really know why.  But by the end I remembered exactly why I go – Because it’s so damn fun!

We started in the typical way, with running around the gym with floor touches, jumps and direction changes.  This was followed by four rounds of jump rope work – three of 2 minutes, the last one of 3 minutes, the rests between rounds being 1 minute.  This went better than last night’s jumping, although still wasn’t great.  I did some bounce-steps, attempted alternate-foot steps, some speed bounce-steps and tried crossovers again (with no luck of course ).

The entire session was pretty much spent with pad work (although we were using gloves instead of pads, t’was easier).  I went with this guy called Mark, who was the best partner I’ve had there.  He worked hard, but he also liked a good laugh and a bit of messing around.  For example, I kept giving him 1-2-3s, so he replied with the most confusing combinations he could think of, which often ended in me just looking at him perplexed or completely and utterly screwing it up.  Yeah, doesn’t sound like anything special but it was a good laugh.  Don’t let this make you think we weren’t practising skills – We were doing all the punching as well as we could, but we were enjoying it too.  Put simply, he was great fun to be partnered with.

On the pads we were doing just jabs, crosses and hooks, mainly practising on moving in, 1-2ing the pads, moving back, 1-2ing again.  There was also quite a lot of single shots and other combos (1-2-3s, 1-1-2s etc), but the emphasis was on 1-2s and moving.

We finished off the same as always also – A random circuit of bodyweight exercises with active rest (jogging on the spot) between exercises.  I think the circuit this time was: Running on the spot, Knee tucks, Pushups, Situps, Squat Thrusts, Star Jumps, Pushups, Squats.  Something like that anyway.    Then it was simply walking and stretching.

Now for the bad news.  This is the last session this year!  So I won’t have another session until the 4th January 2008, in about a months time.  I’ll keep up my training though, just I won’t have Exeter ABC to go to .

Until next training session (might rest tomorrow, Thursday maybe?), keep commenting and reading!

Just got back from tonight’s boxing session, so here’s a write up of the sessions events.

To be honest, this wasn’t anything special.  We started as always, a warmup involving running and rope work (4 rounds, 2mins work x 1min rest).

After that it was onto the the bags.  We got into small groups (me and three others in my group).  One personwas holding the bag still behind it, while the other person was punching the bag.  The bag-holder had to put out their hands to make the puncher move – For example, putting out their right hand meant the puncher had to circle the bag counter-clockwise (i.e. going to their right).  The bag-holder could also present their hands as a target, which the puncher had to hit.  The rounds were about 2 minutes each, but it was surprisingly tiring!  We rotated each round, so the puncher became the bag-holder, and the bag-holder was able to rest until he was next punching.  You can probably get the idea by now.

When I was punching, the one holding the bag was the one who I last week referred to as a headcase.   He didn’t seem to get the idea of making me move, as he rarely stuck his hands out or moved, however much me or the coach told him.  And not once did he present me a target, even though I told him.  Oh well.  It was still fun, and tiring, and because I wanted to get the most out of it I was moving around the bag anyway (making him move!).  He wouldn’t keep his hands up either when he was the puncher, and wasn’t moving greatly – Again, it was move punch now everything else later.  Well, I don’t want to criticize him, he can learn the hard way if he so desires!

After that we spent around 10 minutes with partners doing the hook.  The parter held is hand up in front of him at a right angle, so his upper arm was parallel to the ground and his forearm parallel to the floor, with his palm facing to his right, horizontally in line with his head (I hope you can visualise this), then the other person simply hooked it.  I’ve never done the hook before, and really wasn’t great at it.  There was so much to remember though!  I could get the feet and twisting OK, but I couldn’t do that and dipping the hand before punching, leaning back, keeping my elbow at 90°, keeping my arm parallel to the floor…You get the point!  But I gave it my best shot (no pun intended), and will be practising it.  By the way, I wasn’t with the headcase (who really is a nice guy) so I could practice fairly well and my partner was giving me some advice.

Then it was the end of the session, so we ended in the normal way – A circuit of various bodyweight exercises in rapid succession.  The order was (if I remember correctly): Knee tucks, pushups, situps, burpees (no pushup version).  After the hooks my left arm had died though, but I pushed through.  Finally I did a cool-down, involving walking around and stretching.

I am going to try and get an extra workout in tomorrow as well, but if not I might not get another post until Friday at my next boxing session.

On a side issue, Ross sent me an email today saying he would ship the DVD/book today.  I’ll probably get it within a couple days.

As always, if you have any comments, any comments at all, please do post them!  I want to see everyone’s thoughts and advice.

Actually, I lie. It was my second time in the ring, although the first time it was body-shots only and it was nothing special. But more on that later!

It started off like all the other training sessions, with the warm-up and rope-jumping. The warm-up consisted of running around the gym and doing the appropriate action when it was called out: 1, left hand touch floor; 2, left hand touch floor; 3, jump; 4, change direction. After that we did three 2-minute rounds of roping, with 1-minute rest between round. As with my home workout, the first round I did the bounce step fairly slowly, the second alternate-foot step and the third bounce step as fast as I could.

After that it was time for the first group to do ring stuff, so we were allowed to do what we wanted. I did a few minutes on the bags, a few minutes shadow boxing, and also watched the sparring for a bit. Nothing major, just a bit of skill work and keeping warm.

Then, the other group (including me) were in the ring. Last time I was in the ring it was body-shots only, but this time it was head-shots too. Great fun, although I don’t think I did too well. I got a few hard shots and a slightly bloody nose, and I don’t feel I got in many decent shots.

I’ll quickly sum up how it went. First time in it was jabs only and second time straight rights only. In the jab-only round, I was against a guy who was taller and stronger than me (yeah, I know it just sounds like an excuse but it was true!). He got in a couple good jabs, and I think I did too. My jabs are damn weak ATM though, definitely need to train them.
Second round I was against what my coach afterwards called a “fucking headcase”. Put simply, he went in punching like mad, and took a lot of punches doing so (he was the first to get a bloody nose). I did get a few in, but I kept looking for a shot, whereas he was punching like mad. He would have won that round methinks.

But hey, it was fun. Bit shook up afterwards, but soon got over it. It wasn’t just me though, a lot of people got a few good shots because they weren’t defending well (or at all!).

I asked my coach what he thinks I should improve at and what I should practice at home…And he mentioned quite a lot! It was fairly obvious stuff though – Improve footwork, especially stepping in, punching and stepping out of the way. He said my punches need to snap more, which I agree with completely as I know mine are fairly slow, especially my jab. He also said just practice bobbing, weaving, ducking, stuff like that. I could also see something my coach didn’t mention, and that was aggressiveness. I wasn’t very aggressive at all, waiting for him to strike first or waiting for an opening which never appeared. I do think if I was more aggressive – stepped in with the punches without fearing stepping into a punch, throwing more punches and generally being more offensive – I would have done better. Something else to improve, eh?

Then we just did a cool-down, packed up and went home.

I don’t have a session next Friday, so I’ll be practising at home instead, and probably during the week too.