Workout Recap - Week of September 10, 2023
There was a big fight event with multiple fighters from our gym on Saturday, so I tried to give them space for their final preparations this week while focusing on working with newbies. It was a good opportunity for me to review my basics and make sure that I was operating from as solid a foundation as possible for my current skill level. No sparring for me this week for the same reasons.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This was a fundamentals review class. I felt like I was getting good crack on the pads even while trying out a few variations from my usual form, and given that the kru called me out a couple of times for doing well, it seems like that was a reasonable self-assessment. That said, there was also one drill opening with a rear straight punch where I had an instance of misjudging my spacing and almost coming up short, but I made enough contact with the target to avoid hurting my elbow, so I can only take that as a learning experience to grow from.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was a head-to-head drill day, and given that the competitive fighters were all either getting ready for the big event on Saturday or helping others do so, I worked exclusively with newer people. It forced me to stay sharp defensively since they were liable to be random out of genuine uncertainty, and moderating my own output to try pressing at the edges of their comfort zones while still keeping them safe was probably a good exercise in working on developing a better understanding of how hard I'm actually capable of hitting. I felt like I kept up good form, too, though it was a relatively chill class for me overall.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
We were drilling on fundamentals again today. I had a few struggles with my stamina for some reason, but I did my best to keep up my pace and hammer things out from start to finish. All in all, it was a good if unremarkable class, the sort that is worth appreciating precisely for how unremarkable it feels now (compared to when I'd started about 400 days ago) and that is a necessary building block for further development.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This class focused on kicks and knees. My low kicks were feeling quite good, especially with my rear leg, though I think my lead leg low kicks are starting to close the gap on the power difference. That said, there was one drill we did involving a rear knee strike > lead overhand punch, which I found to be an awkward transition. The way that it was demonstrated seemed like the key to making it work smoothly is to land forward after the knee and drop-step into a switched stance for the punch, but my muscle memory kept wanting to return to my natural stance and then shuffle forward similar to opening with a lead hook. On the one hand, it's actually kind of a cool sign that my muscle memory is developing to the point where it's tricky for me to do things differently from how I'm used to, but I need to be wary that that doesn't become an obstacle to further learning.
