Workout Recap - Week of July 2, 2023
There was some confusion at the end of this week, too, but it just ended up with me being in a class for kids instead of not being in a class at all. Hardly an issue since it was all bagwork and solo exercises, anyway, though it seemed to amuse the kru for some reason (even though she was the one who told me the time for the class to begin with, because I'd asked her to avoid a mix-up like the previous week, but I digress).
Monday
Muay Thai class
This was a fundamentals-focused class, working on three-strike sequences with a kick as either the second or third attack. The short nature of things set a fast pace fairly naturally, so it also felt good for pushing stamina. Given that the lengthy calisthenic set we finished with concluded on a three-minute plank that I was able to hold successfully, I'd say that I kept up well enough, though it's always a little hard to judge how well stamina in drills translates to stamina in actual sparring/fighting.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
It almost didn't matter what the class was this day, since the combination of a heat advisory in the city and the gym's air conditioning being offline meant it was brutally hot, and I was even more soaked in sweat than usual from just the warm-up. That aside, though, we did work on fitting round kicks into sustained offense, which included a couple of washing machine sequences (that is, opening stuff into lead hook punch>rear round kick>lead hook punch>rear round kick or opening stuff into rear straight punch>lead round kick>rear straight punch>lead round kick). Good drills for working on keeping up good weight transfer and hip snap through multiple consecutive power strikes, I'm sure, but the heat conditions made it a struggle to keep up much of anything.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This class was all boxing, and I got to work with one of the gym's unofficial sub-coaches (as in someone who the kru trusts to work autonomously to get fighters ready while she runs the overall class). It was my first time partnering with them for a full class (we'd crossed paths a few times on days where we were switching around partners constantly). The kru kept the drills simple, but we flowed naturally into working in some defense, movement, and reaction work to make things more fight-realistic, and it was heartening in retrospect that she didn't ask us to stop doing that considering that she said towards the end of the class that she'd intentionally left out doing any slipping or similar evasion because she'd been annoyed with people going overboard on how much they were moving their heads for that in sparring lately. Also heartening was that, after a few drills, my partner said they had no technical criticisms for me and would just suggest working on being lighter with my footwork (which is a fair statement, since I tend to be very rooted/plodding, albeit intentionally so since I'm training to potentially defend myself in an unknown environment, but I could benefit from being less stiff and tense about it at the very least).
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a general basic offense day, with a slight emphasis on different types of kicks. I made an effort to be more square in my stance since I felt like I was tending to get more bladed than I'd like to be, and it seemed to pay some dividends; my lead hooks felt better with that change, and my partner said I was doing well with my lead leg low kicks. During our calisthenic finisher, one of the competitive fighters noticed that I keep my knees straight for leg raises and complimented me on that, which was nice to hear, though I did have a laugh about how long I'd been doing leg raises to get to that point.
Friday
Muay Thai sparring
I went in to this class with two goals per round: have at least three instances where I faked a straight punch to incite a reaction that would let me close for a hook (which I met) and have at least one instance where I used footwork and head movement to avoid a strike after blocking something (which I didn't). I think my issue with the latter was mostly a matter of overthinking things instead of trying to just push a little beyond what I do on reaction. That said, I did have one round with a fighter who tried to do a few knee strikes on me that I felt I was very good about stiff-arming back out to a long guard during their approach, which is something that I haven't gotten to work on much before, so that was a nice little sign of defensive progress. Afterwards, that fighter said that they had been able to fend off most of my offense since we'd sparred often enough that my basic strategy was predictable, so I do want to think of how to work in more feints to address that. However, they also said that the times I did manage to land something on them hurt, which is honestly a little concerning because I wasn't trying to go hard on power, so I'll need to dial things back more in the future when I do lighter rounds, but it was also nice to get feedback that my technique was improving enough to deliver impact without needing full power.
Saturday
Muay Thai class
Things worked out elsewhere to let me attend an extra class this weekend, and while it did end up being a kids class due to some scheduling confusion (and my willingness to go along with that in order to be less of a distraction for the others), it was also a good bagwork session. Overall, it was actually quite intense and tiring since the whole thing was constant work without the breaks to hold pads for someone else or the natural little breaks to catch your breath during sparring. I don't expect to make this into a regular thing, but I enjoyed it.
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