Workout Recap - Week of July 9, 2023
I'm back to just five training sessions this week, which is probably for the better because I definitely felt the extra recovery necessary after that sixth one last week. At any rate, I've been finding myself in an odd situation lately where I've been at this gym for almost a year now (and am also among the oldest of the regulars there), so I seem to have a bit of veteran status there, but I also still notice regular reminders of how much there is that I could be better at, so I feel like I'm not far off from being a newbie. Then again, I do seem to trend towards imposter syndrome, so maybe it's just another facet of that.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This was a stamina burn-out class, focusing on doing extended sequences. Unfortunately, the person who I partnered with wasn't good at holding pads, so while holding for round kicks, they kept angling the pads in such a way that they didn't mimic the human body's surface. This was most pronounced when one drill involved doing a low kick, and not only did the way they were holding for it make it impossible to get perpendicular impact with sensible body mechanics, but my shin kept deflecting down the surface after impact until I finally ended up hitting their elbow on accident. They changed how they held the pads after that, though it was kind of funny at the same time since, having been on the other side of getting kicked in the elbow on a few occasions, it didn't bother me at all aside from getting a minor bruise. The person also advised me to do less head movement while punching, which was puzzling since I feel like I was keeping it contained in my hip frame, so I wasn't throwing myself off balance with it; I'm inclined to give more credence to the feedback from last week that footwork and predictability are my main flaws.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
Things were pretty packed in the gym today while we did a class brushing up on a variety of techniques. The focus wasn't so much on what we were doing but on how we were doing it, with an emphasis on striking through the target and engaging the hips/torso to generate power. I felt alright about how I was managing that, but I think I'm still tending to overrotate during the recovery from round kicks, especially lead leg kicks. Actively thinking about it did help somewhat with controlling it, but it's definitely an area I could improve at.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This class was back to burning stamina, this time with more strike variety as well as some mid-sequence defense. My transition from rear straight punch to lead leg low kick was feeling awkward and weak, so I should take some time to work on that in shadowboxing. I also had a few stumbles with tacking on a rear round kick after a series of straight punches, but that drill was towards the end of the class, so I think fatigue was where most of the issues came from. That's still certainly something that can be improved, but overall, I feel like my performance was reasonable aside from that one awkward flow.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This class worked on a couple of lesser-used punches: the lead and rear uppercuts. I feel like I was generally doing well with keeping the arm movement tight and relying on my legs for power, which is a focal point for me on any sort of round punches where it's easy to get power by taking a wild swing that leaves yourself wide open. The kru also called out a couple of times that I was looking good, which was nice to hear given that she had some harsh general criticism about "everyone" in between a few of the rounds. I also got a little ego booster when we finished with a couple rounds of doing flurries of hook punches into a belly pad; my partner decided to just tank the punches without putting their elbows inside the pad to relieve some of the impact, and I left them drooling and regretting that choice by the round's end.
Friday
Muay Thai sparring
Three goals per round this week: incorporate footwork to get advantageous angles mid-offense at least twice (which I did), keep my core braced against potential body shots (admittedly did get caught loose once, but in the overall scheme of things, I'll take that as a conditional pass), and three-point block at least one head or body round kick per kickboxing round (which I did). As chance would have it, I was partnering up mostly with either newer people or children, so I kept things light in terms of power and tried to be a productive bully. Overall, I think I did decently with that, and while it wasn't an explicit focal point, I also feel like I did a little better with varying my opening strikes when initiating offense. In short, it was a good session.
