Workout Recap - Week of October 16, 2022
Well, as before, plans changed again, so I didn't have to skip a day of training last week. Wonderful, wonderful. Less wonderful is that there were some minor drama flareups towards the end of the week, but that's bound to happen when I spend too much time around neurotypical people, so I'm just glad that it seems unlikely any of them will lead to long-term issues (and even if they do, at worst, my membership at this gym is expiring in a few months anyway, so I can just go elsewhere after that).
It's currently looking like I'll have to skip a day this week, and I would actually like that to happen (the reason for the potential skip would be something I'll enjoy), but given that plans have shifted around the last two times, maybe it'll be for the best to stop mentioning that here.
Monday
Muay Thai class
I had a chance to work with someone who I hadn't partnered with since maybe my second or third class. At that time, the person had complained that I was too slow moving the pads and so they were having to slow down their striking sequence to match my speed. This time, I was moving the pads faster than their strikes, but they were still taking their time with it. They also don't seem to understand how to simulate an opponent when holding pads, either, since they kept moving into me between strikes. It's good to have confirmation that I was correct to try finding other people to work with after that first complaint.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
The coach said our fighters get flack for not doing enough knees and clinching, so that was basically all we drilled for this day, though she did reward the grind by having a round of doing fancy stuff like flying knees and scissor knees at the end. Frankly, this seems to do more than anything else to explain why I seemed to have an unusually high rate of success with my knee strikes and grabbing in sparring. I should moderate those tactics in the future, to give my sparring partners enough to highlight potential weaknesses without turning them into crutches for me.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
Honestly, the thing that stood out to me the most about this class was having a lot of music playing that I enjoyed singing along with. Not that there was anything bad about what else we did, but at some point, I suppose things were bound to start becoming somewhat routine. That said, I definitely still have things I could improve with even the most basic stuff (like being more consistent about planting firmly for power punches or working in more preemptive head movement with my offense), so "routine" in this case is more a matter of not discovering any new points to improve rather than thinking I'm good enough to coast.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
It'd been a while since I was in a class of head-to-head defense drills, so getting another one of those was a treat. I finally got to work with a competitive fighter who wasn't the first to slow things down after we got into a flow of rapid exchanges, too, which was a further treat. Granted, there was a little drama that came up afterwards involving me and a couple of other regulars, but I honestly don't think it's anything serious; just a bit of friction between the politeness expected by society as a whole and my tendency to approach interpersonal communication with all the subtlety of an axe to the face, but I was only derogatory towards myself, so hopefully I didn't ruffle any feathers that won't smooth themselves over on their own.
Friday
Muay Thai sparring
While it proved to be a mistake to have an offensive goal reliant on kicking without a backup for pure boxing rounds (because I ended up doing those for much of my time, given that the competitive fighters did their usual clique of incest), I'm happy with having been able to meet my personal goals, even with a couple of my sparring partners deciding that my going light with my strikes was an invitation for them to brush them off while going with some force in return. It wasn't any real trouble, though (one well-timed kick to the ribs did sting, I'll admit, but I worked through it without needing a break, and none of the other shots either of them landed phased me in a meaningful way), and I was surprised at how much better I was at reacting and adjusting my defense this time around (still need to work on also countering, but one step at a time); I even managed to avoid getting baited into opening myself up for a question mark kick against one of the force-users and didn't so much as stumble on two attempts to dump me during clinches (this person had delighted in sweeping me repeatedly during a prior kick-catching drill, which made that success all the more satisfying). I do need to work on mixing in some helmet guarding instead of always reaching out to frame against hook punches, but otherwise, it was a very encouraging day, especially with the confirmation that I have the mental strength to stay focused on what I'm doing instead of taking my "opponent's" bait. Goals for my next sparring: do at least one front kick with a follow-up attack during each kickboxing round, do at least one sequence opening with a lead hook during each boxing round, and helmet guard at least one hook each round.
