I Am Southpaw, Hear Me Roar....With Pain As I Just Got Punched In The Head!

An artist's depiction of me....they got fired!

Welcome to Fight Club

On Tuesday 12th July 2016 after a months delay, I finally found the wardrobe.  This wardrobe, much like the entrance to Narnia is the gateway to a whole new world for me, the world of competitive boxing.  Gathered around this portal were around 70 competitors of different sex, shapes, sizes and motivations.  Some to get fit, some to get strong, some to make their family proud and some there to just to rip someones head off.  All however were there to raise some money for charity.

Enter Week 01

Tuesday (Session 01/16)

My god was this a wake up call!  I have been pretty proud of myself since starting my pre boxing training.  Most weeks I have been training in the gym at 7am Monday to Friday, running 5k 2/3 times a week and also throwing in random real life exercise like decorating and training with ex-Marines.  I was pretty chuffed with myself, I had lost some weight and gained some muscle. I thought to myself Steve, you old dog.  You are fit.  You will smash this boxing challenge.  Boy, was I wrong!

It is clear that some folks have already decided that this challenge was not for them as the numbers had dropped to about 50.  Nothing wrong with that as I was about to find out.

Five minutes into the session I was knackered.  As a warm up they started us off on 2 minute rounds using High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).  This was to simulate how it would feel to make it through a bout.

30 Second Star Jumps

30 Second Spotty Dogs

Repeat

30 Seconds Mountain Climbers

30 Seconds Plank

Repeat

30 Seconds Burpees

30 Seconds Running and Punching

Repeat

After one minute of rest we got into footwork drills.  How to stand, move and walk like a boxer.  No, this does not mean a swagger like Prince Nasem Hamed nor does it mean skittering along like a crab.  This is something I felt I was struggling with as it really does not feel natural.

After 20 minutes of bashing into one another we switched to learning to jab and cross, again with arms flailing in all directions it looked like a scene from The Beatles' Octopuses garden....

Finally to finish off and to give everyone an idea of what the last round of the fight would be like we did another set of HIIT.

With everyone gasping for breath during the warm down on the floor we were all reassured not to worry as there were still 8 weeks of training left.

I spent the next 45 minutes after this session wondering aimlessly around the chiller aisles in Morrison's pondering the up and coming weeks.

Thursday (Session 02/16)

This session started with the trainer reminding us that after today we were only left with 7 weeks of training and that we really needed to make the most of it as it would soon be fight night!!!!

Much the same as the Tuesday session we began with more of the ever so popular HIIT.  This then changed up into basic pad work and foot drills.  The frightening thing is that it is not the punch that was the most difficult, it was the holding up of the pads.  By the end of the session I felt certain that the gateway to the center of the earth (or hell itself) had opened up right smack bang in the middle of my shoulder muscles.

At the end of this session I made the conscious decision to employ the services of the lead boxing trainer for 1 to 1 coaching.

Saturday (Private Boxing Session 01)

I set a record that morning for the fastest time before I regretted getting out of bed.  I wasn't holding the stopwatch but I believe it was around the 2 minutes 33 second mark as I was just starting the next set of bear crawls along the mats.  But, I sucked it up and dragged myself along, through the drills, then into the realm of delusion as I went past the empty indicator on my gas tank as we headed into fitness and conditioning at the end.  The sadism of crash mat sprints left me with goose pimples (and concrete legs!).  All in all it was a great session.  I will leave you with my comments that I posted to the closed forum I am part of with my fellow trainees:

"Just to say a big thanks to Nayan for the early 1 to 1 session today. I want to say it was easy but I can't lie to you, it was tough. As much as I started to wonder after 5 minutes whether I should have just stayed in bed it was worth it a million times over. I thought after a bit of pre training before this camp it would be a walk in the park...however this week was a real eye opener in that I am nowhere near where I want or need to be and it will be a long road ahead. Nayan's session was hard but fair. He pushed me when I didn't think I had any more in the gas in the tank and encouraged me to keep pushing and made me realize that you can always achieve more with a bit of faith and grit. He gave me some great pointers on my stance and footwork and didn't get frustrated when I kept making beginner mistakes. It was nice to have that personal element to the training to work on your own weak points so you know where to put the practice in. I could not recommend Nayan's sessions enough. Do yourself a favor and get ahead with some 1 to 1s. Thanks again. (A very knackered but proud) Steve

PS I have never had such fun in my life when Nayan introduced me to crash mat sprints....if you take a training session ask for many minutes of this. 60 seconds is not enough fun"

So in summary, the first week was tough.  Very tough.  It left me feeling very under prepared.  As much as I enjoyed some of it, I could not help but to be brought back to times growing up when I was learning something new and challenging.  There is a certain amount of fear that comes with this territory as it is all very strange with a dose of danger and risk for good measure.  I find it very comparable to learning to drive.  You are multi tasking, using your limbs in an unnatural ways and there are constant dangers and distractions all around you.  But as with driving I am sure the payoff will be just as sweet at the end. (I fought really hard there not to make another comparison...those of you with a blue mind will probably have already made that connection ;-) )

Every time it gets too much and I am close to quitting and walking away, I just remember that for those individuals unlucky enough to be diagnosde with the terrible disease we are all raising money for, they must fight on.  You cannot walk away from cancer, you must walk on and forward and fight.  That is enough to make me feel ashamed of even considering quitting and motivates me to stare my (in comparison) tiny fear demon straight between the eyes.

Thanks for reading my latest take on life!

Steve

P.S I made Top fund raiser this week!  Thanks all!

P.P.S It turns out that I fight Southpaw.  Hopefully I can use this to my advantage ;-)