Workout Recap - Week of February 25, 2024
This was a pretty unremarkable week, perhaps aside from a rare opportunity in there to spend a class partnered with a competitive fighter who was getting ready for a match. That I was more or less able to keep up and push them was a nice sign of development, I guess.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This class was for reviewing some basic form and reflex training, in "honor" of correcting some of the many mistakes one of the fighters who lost last weekend had made. Technique aside, the kru was upset with them for not listening to her during their match and so was in a mood to criticize everyone strictly, though all I got was a compliment. I'm not sure if that meant I was performing well or if she just didn't want to be too harsh on someone who wasn't there for competitive purposes, but considering she had been open to criticizing me before, I'm taking it as the former. I feel like I also did quite well in the reflex-testing drills, which is a nice if little confidence-booster as I aim to return to sparring soon. All in all, it was a good class for me.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
We did head-to-head defense drills this day, which it felt like I haven't done in a long time, so that was a welcome return to my training regime. There were a number of newbies, so I did a lot of light rounds trying to focus on rapid exchanges, though I did get in a few harder ones with some of the fighters. It was a fun class. I'm hoping to get these more regularly.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This was a day for grinding, and I got to partner up with someone who's planning to fight in a couple weeks, so we pushed each other nicely; a welcome change of pace after so many recent classes of working in trios with newbies. I kept up well with the defensive checks that they mixed in, aside from one time that I misread the start of a front kick as a round kick and so only brought my raised leg across to block instead of evading or parrying it more effectively. Still, I enjoyed it, and I think I did well by the standards that I'm holding myself to.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This class was almost all about knee strikes and front kicks, plus a greater amount of calisthenics than usual. I felt like I was thriving on all fronts on this one, including having my usual fun with making my padwork partner regret wearing a belly pad for my knee strikes despite using their arms inside it to soften the blows. Maybe I'm a bad person for enjoying that so much, but I prefer to think of it as a good sign that I could really damage someone in an actual self-defense situation.
