Okay, Ow. First two hour session of boxing today and suddenly that praise from last time isn't meaning so much.
There were only about fifteen of us this time. We did the warm ups like usual then the coach propped two mattresses against the wall. These were our makeshift punching bags and my group went over and hit them 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, etc up to twenty then back down. Then he said to repeat that three times. Jesus that's hard. And all of the times I lost count and redid a number, I must've hit the thing a thousand times. I just did the math, 1260 times and then add in my unnecessary repetitions. The coach came over and held his hand just under where I should be hitting to force me to keep my right hand up. He'd forgotten that he had praised me before, and I probably should have too. Wouldn't want to be too confident.
Then we switched with the other group who had been holding the pads and one person would hit 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, etc up to twenty then back down, then the two switched. This seems like a pretty standard workout, but I was paired with a girl and a rather small one at that. I couldn't hit hard. It's not a sexist thing. She's just small and thin and I don't want to hit the pad then have her hand fly back and smack her in the nose. That'd be bad!
The coach would come over and steal one of us to hit the pads with him doing different combos. I always thought I was next but I never was. So I did the pad hitting with a partner two more times, except I got a new partner. He was stocky, about my height but with a lot more power. When I hit the pad, I was actually going backwards. Most people don't have sturdy arms so the pads always flailing. When he hit the pad, I was backing into the wall.
One of the experienced members dragged me away from my water bottle to teach us some advanced blocking, more like parrying. But when you block the cross the way he showed us, it leaves the body wide open. It seems like bad practice. Anyway, I wasn't too good at it and we only practice for a minute or two then the coach gathered us and taught us basic blocking. I was even worse at that. I was paired with Jim and we were told to hit four times mixing jabs, crosses, hooks to either body or head then we switched and I blocked while he punched. He was another beginner and I only got three or four hits on him in the entire ten minutes we did this. He was good defensively, or I was just too slow to be a threat. But every time he threw his four punches, at least one would land. Usually the left hook to the body. I could block the straight punches (jabs and crosses) but the hooks always came as a surprise and I was flailing about trying to guard.
But only two or three of the shots hurt. One to the body, one to the head (both left hooks) and one to the nose (a jab in the beginning).
We did groundwork after that. Squats, squat thrusts, squat jumps, wide arm push ups, regular push ups, step ups, jumping, flutter kicks, leg lifts, and a slew of other things that I can't name and couldn't do too well. But everyone was exhausted by then.
And we watched sparring again and it was pretty basic except Steve got cut in the first round he fought. Kevin had a bloody nose against Patrick. And they were supposed to be keeping the power down but Kevin smacked the tall kid good and the tall kid, who usually dodges everything, got fussy. Kevin is asian, and short, and small and the tall kid is TALL. They nearly got into a real fight then and it was a big to do.
Afterwards, I paid my club membership and promised to bring my AU card next time and left. I tried finding the path through the forest that Jessie had showed me last week, but I was a bit lost until who did I see? ADAM! Another American who is in my Outdoor Pursuits group and who did boxing with me last Thursday. He had a soccerball and found another on our way back. He showed me the way I should be going because I was just headed back to the road.
