Workout Recap - Week of October 30, 2022

As mentioned before, I skipped out on sparring this week. I should be back in it next time.

Sunday

Type: Pass/Fail

Pull Ups - 1 set of 12 (pass)

Bridges - 1 set of 20 (pass) Close Squats - 1 set of 25 (pass) Handstand Push Ups - 1 set of 15 (pass)

Bonus: 2 sets of 5 V-ups

I was uninspired, so I just did this maintenance check. No further comment needed.

Monday

Muay Thai class

Very light attendance for class, so we did head-to-head drills, seeming to focus on boxing exchanges. Nothing too fancy, but it's good to work on the basics, and it gave me an opportunity to get some practice with taking angles either on approach or as a disengagement tactic. Definitely feels awkward for now, but I'm hoping to improve at it with more work.

Tuesday

Muay Thai class

More working on fundamentals in this class, building up basic staple sequences. I've been trying to get better at passive chin protection and eye discipline, and these classes where I don't need to do active thinking about the basic execution are good for ironing out those secondary details. In particular, I think I have a tendency to get loose with my neck during round kicks, since it feels natural to drop my shoulders while contracting my obliques to raise my leg, so that's something I need to be more mindful of. Always something to get better at.

Wednesday

Muay Thai class

Today was about extended flow and putting together longer sequences; they may not be the most realistic in their totality, but they're fine for making sure that I'm keeping balanced and in control, plus they push my conditioning. In a very promising development, I also seemed to be getting more consistent snap on my left round kicks. There's obviously still plenty of room to get better at them, but putting together the plant foot pivot, golden kick hip snap, and the timing of switching from a relaxed leg to cutting into the target is getting somewhat automatic and starting to pay off. That was very encouraging to notice.

Thursday

Muay Thai class

Head-to-head drills again today, with an emphasis on defending round kicks and countering. It definitely a weakness of mine in sparring that I tend to get locked into defense-mode (or, at best, retreat to create space after defending), so building some comfort with absorbing a power shot and looking to fire back during the rechamber is something I need to work on. It's not on my list of goals for my next sparring (those are all about working in more movement/footwork), but it's on my list of things to use as future goals, so getting to work with it here was good. I also did a round with the person I'd mentioned in the sparring write-up last week, which was frustrating. The exchange was jab>overhand>lead head kick. I spent about the first thirty seconds helping the person understand how to three-point block a kick because they tried to defend it like a hook punch at first, and I went slow and light with my strikes to give them a chance to get comfortable (I go light on power with strikes to the head in general to help protect my partner's brain, of course, but I digress), and yet they still seemed to be going hard on their turn to strike. The person clearly understands that controlling power output is a thing, but they seem to believe it's just something that applies to other people. Granted, I wasn't bothered by it enough to say anything, but it's just bizarre to me that this is the second time in as many weeks that I'm explicitly looking out for their safety without getting the same courtesy in return. As I said, frustrating, and good cause to try avoiding partnering with them again.