Workout Recap - Week of May 12, 2024
I got some more compliments this week. It really is a suspiciously frequent occurrence of late. I'm not sure what to make of it, aside from remaining guarded against any attempt at taking advantage of buttering me up.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This class focused on extended offense in padwork. The kru complimented me on two separate instances, and the two people who I was partnered with said that I should compete because I was good enough to tear into pretty much anyone having their first fight (neither of whom were among the other people who have said something like that to me recently). Assuming I can take all those words at face value, they're hints that I'm on a good track with my development, though I still have zero intentions of competing.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was a boxing day, with some knees and elbows mixed in for extra flavor, so I was definitely in for a good time. Yet again, the kru complimented me on two separate instances, although I can probably discount one of those since it happened when we were wrapping up by having some fun with practicing question mark kicks. Even so, this is getting very strange. I am suspicious that I'm being set up for some kind of prank.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This was a head-to-head defense day. We mostly kept things simple, limiting the drills to basic punch sequences that might or might not have a kick at the end. One of the competitive fighters asked me to go lighter with them, which confused me because I'd thought that I was going light already. After a moment, though, I realized what they had actually wanted was for me to go slower. I'm not sure if it was because my snap was putting more sting on my strikes than they wanted to deal with or if it was just that they wanted to be lazy; in either case, I now have a better idea of why they underperformed so much in the fight I watched them compete in, because they're someone who is known to change what they're doing in head-to-head drills without warning if their partner is leaving bad openings, so taken all together, that suggests they're just another bully who is fine with hitting people but deeply uncomfortable with getting hit back.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was another head-to-head day, though it was all light sparring this time. My personal goal was to do at least one round kick at either body or head level with each leg in each round, since I have a tendency to lock in on just low strikes for my round kicks (using front kicks or knees to attack higher targets with my legs), which I believe I achieved. One of my rounds was with a competitive fighter who I didn't trust to go light, and that was a good call on my part because they didn't. I tried to keep my own offense light, though at one point, I tried to snatch their head to pull them into a body knee and they reacted by ducking, which meant they ended up on their ass needing a moment to recover after hitting their chin on my knee. They took their time getting back into the round, and I didn't sweat it when they did a scissor knee at my head in a petty attempt to get some revenge, though I did have to suppress a smile after I caught their leg on a head-level round kick and lifted it up to until they lost their balance, for a bit of low-violence humbling. Aside from that drama, I also did rounds with a couple of other competitive fighters (who did keep things light) who seem to genuinely enjoy working with me now and even gave me a bit of advice each, so all in all, this class was a performance that I should be able to feel good about.
