Workout Recap - Week of March 31, 2024
This was a big fight week for the gym, so we got a nice grind on to get all of the competitors tuned up and ready.
Monday
Muay Thai class
There were four newbies having their first class this day, so the kru kept it to working on straight punches and round kicks. Unfortunately, it was rather obvious this day that I was the odd person out and that nobody wanted to partner with me, presumably because I'm not skilled enough to be up there with the fighters but I am skilled enough that the newer people are being cowards who're intimidated about working with me. Ended up forcing my way in somewhere with the kru's help, but days like this do make me wonder why I bother. Maybe that's just some depression, though.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was a head-to-head defense day that also had unusually high attendance, so I got to work with a lot of people who had skill levels all across the board. That had me feeling upbeat and energetic, since it's always fun to adjust to each partner's individual quirks as the rounds go on. We finished up with a light sparring round, for which one of the competitive fighters actually asked to work with me (since they were due to compete this weekend and said that they felt good about trusting me to keep it light); unfortunately for them, I had agreed to go with someone else already. I achieved my goals (doing at least three offensive sequences starting off of a lead hook and interrupting my opponent's punching with a counterstrike at least once). New goals for my next sparring: open at least three offensive sequences with multiple lead-side punches (not just jabs), and use footwork to evade at least one punch per round.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This was another head-to-head class with a few rounds of drills but mostly a lot of light sparring; I'm enjoying how often we've been doing that of late. I didn't quite meet my goals from the previous day (had one round with a very skilled competitive fighter who was keeping me away too well for me to achieve my offensive goal), but there were still plenty of good experiences for me to learn from despite that, even if the kru asked me to ease off on how much I was using knee strikes (I was careful about stopping them short of contact since we were doing light rounds, but she said it seemed like I was getting close to hitting people in the groin a few times; probably a fair concern, frankly, since I tend to aim for the bladder when I'm doing them straight down the middle). The competitive fighter checked on me after the class to ask if I had been ok with their intensity level, and I absolutely had been, so I'm not sure why they felt the need to do that; probably just another sign of how much I don't belong.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a padwork burn-out day, with lots of simple but long sequences. I ended up breaking down yet another partner (though I think this time it was due to the person aggravating a preexisting injury, so it wasn't entirely my fault that they couldn't regulate themselves safely). I finished up with doing a couple rounds of freestyle multiple-kick practice with the padholder using a kick shield to direct what to do; those are fun, useful, and a good excuse (when I'm holding the shield) to take some body conditioning, so I hope we get to do more of those going forward, but I guess that'll depend in part on how well the fighters do this weekend.
