Workout Recap - Week of November 20, 2022
I had been planning on going to sparring again this week, but I was very congested on Friday and decided to skip that in case it was something contagious. It was a strange experience, since I didn't really have any other symptoms. In any case, I'm feeling better now, so I'm hoping to get into that again.
Monday
Muay Thai class
We practiced some headhunting today, with a focus on the rear overhand punch and high kicks. One of the sequences involved doing lead hook > lead low kick > rear high kick, and the first part of that was really awkward for me. I asked the kru about getting some help with that transition before warm-ups in my next class, so hopefully that clears things up somewhat for me. I have some feeling for doubling up attacks with the same side (like double jab or rear straight punch > rear round kick), but I was just all out-of-sorts with that one.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
Well, the kru apparently meant that we would do similar transitions as a focus for this class instead of actually helping me understand it one-on-one, but working on that lead hook > lead round kick transition in a few other contexts seemed to help me get some flow with it. Aside from that, this was a pretty fun class, mostly doing long sequences interweaving punches, kicks, and defense to test our stamina. The balls of both of my feet were very sore afterwards, which I'm taking as a good sign that I'm getting weight transfer and solid pivots on both sides.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
It seems like it'd been a while since we did a "fun"/"flashy" class, probably since the last weekend was a major event for the gym with seven fighters competing, but that changed today with some work on Superman punches. My padholder left me out to dry on the last one, which aggravated my elbow, but whatever I did to it doesn't feel serious enough to impact my readiness to train more. Aside from that, we also did some stamina drills with repeated round kicks for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of some calisthenic movement. I feel fairly good about being able to maintain balance and output with my rear side, but lead side gets fucked up whenever I lose my flow. Something to keep in mind for the next time I'm doing free work on a heavy bag, I suppose.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
Lots of boxing practice today, with some intermittent kicks. My stamina held up better than it's done in boxing-focused classes in the past, so that might be a sign of progress. Unfortunately, my schizoid personality disorder was also acting up a bit and making reality fuzzy, so I kept having trouble judging range (and got called out by the kru a couple of times for it, though I didn't mention why it was being such an issue for me). That said, it was a little funny that she was dismissive of hitting the opponent's thigh with the knee, since knee strikes to the outer thigh are an effective technique for breaking down the leg (in fairness, she was dismissive of hitting with the knee on a round kick, so she was right to criticize; it's just amusing to me that the real mistake there was extending the attacking leg instead of tucking it into a fleshy battering ram).
Friday
I was feeling (potentially) too sick to risk going to sparring, but I wanted to still do something kickboxing-related, so I worked through the audio reflex drill video Gabriel Varga posted recently rather than just doing a general strength workout. I feel like I was able to follow it pretty well, but I definitely made some mistakes, especially in the second half when he switched from the sounds signifying different limbs to signifying defending or attacking. Still, it felt like a useful drill to shift from thinking through each technique to chunking the execution into muscle memory, so I plan to do it more often (as long as I don't get so familiar with it that I'm anticipating instead of reacting).
