Workout Recap - Week of September 11, 2022
As mentioned previously, this was a light week for me, as far as the Muay Thai training went. It was even more frustrating in practice than I'd anticipated, since I was really jazzed up after Wednesday's training, but that's just part of how these things go. At least this was my next-to-last of these treatments, and I ought to be able to schedule the following work for Saturdays, so this should only be a hassle one more time.
Monday
Muay Thai class
Well, it had to happen eventually, but this class felt like a waste of time. Not because of the class itself; they were good drills, with an emphasis on head movement and level changes during boxing sequences; but because one of my partners for the day was completely checked out mentally and the other was all over the place with somewhat reckless abandon. I don't think I really have the standing to try addressing those kinds of things with the other students yet (seeing as it's only been fifty days since I started training at all), so I took it as a mental challenge for myself to stay engaged and try getting as much value as I could out of the class. I've partnered with both of those people before and not had those issues, so I'm not going to start avoiding them yet, but it'll be something to keep in mind as a potential trend in the future.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
My favorite padholder was back today, and I was very happy to work with him again. I've been getting more comfortable working with his improvisations, so I started adding in some surprises of my own like countering after blocking one of his defense checks (obviously pulling the strike short of hitting him since I don't want to hurt him on accident) or throwing out a jab when I'm holding pads if he drops his guard while still in range. We seem to have a good flow, which makes me feel a little bad about pretty much always partnering with him when we're both there because I'm sure there are others who'd want to work with him as well, but he's always been the one to ask me first about working together, so I'm happy to take the offer for as long as it's available (plus we do tend to volunteer for three-person rotations when someone else is the odd person left out, so it's not like we're cutting off everyone else).
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
It was partnered defense drills for most of the class today, which is always a good baseline to start with in my mind, and we even got to be a little fancier than usual with practicing some punishes after catching a kick, practicing blocking round kicks of random side/height and countering quickly (I struggled with reading the incoming kicks, but that'll improve with time), and practicing spinning backfists. And then there was the real fun of finishing off with a couple rounds of completely open light sparring. It was good to try putting everything together into cohesive use, and while I definitely have a lot I could improve on, I still took it as a personal win for landing both of the techniques that I set as impromptu goals when the coach said to spar (block a high punch>step forward/out to hand trap>corkscrew knee to the solar plexus and drop step to evade a low kick>immediate lead leg round kick to the lower back), and I also like that I was fairly effective at crashing down to clinch without eating extra shots zombie-style (of course, my mind froze up a bit on what to do from there because I didn't want knee the groin without my partner wearing protection or do elbows without headgear to prevent cuts, and it was only when talking about it with a friend afterwards that I realized I should've tried to push to unbalance/angle and attack from the blindside, but as she said, that's part of learning and improving). Really hoping that this will be a more regular feature in the classes, since it does seem like the kru has been gradually increasing the complexity since I've started there (and there have been a few instances of her splitting the class to give something else for the more advanced students, which makes me feel a bit bad if she was holding back the newbie side for me), but it's hard to say if I'm seeing a real pattern without seeing how she'd handle a class with a new student who doesn't have some significant martial arts background (since I think all three people who've joined after me had at least one year of experience with something else).
Saturday
Type: Pass/Fail
Close Pull Ups - 2 sets of 10 (pass) Bridges - 2 sets of 15 (pass)
Prisoner Squats - 2 sets of 30 (pass)
Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 15 (pass)
Bonus: 5 single-leg calf raises (each side)
I was feeling congested since Friday and depressed since Thursday, so this was just something simple to get me moving. I also managed to get a minor strain in my left hamstring on Friday, somehow, but it ought to heal enough to get back to training again on Monday.
