Day 8 - Hard Work, Dedication

I sparred about seven rounds, mostly with inexperienced partners, today.  Some of the rounds were three minutes long and others were two.  A real amateur bout will have three three-minute rounds.  It used to be four two-minute rounds from what I've read, but not any more.  My goal had been to be able to go six or seven full bore before getting into any competition.  In that sense I am well ahead of my goal at the start of only my second week.  On the other hand, anybody who has been in the ring knows you expend a lot less energy against an opponent with less experience than you.  They were game, though.

The first, Chris, popped me with a left uppercut that had my eyelid going back into my eye socket (not a pleasant experience).

The second opponent exposed a key weakness of mine.  What he lacked in experience and balance he partially made up for in stamina, work rate, and straight punches.  It is not easy keeping long, athletic boxers off of you without a devastating body game.

I was feeling somewhat in doubt about my body work until I dropped the court opponent like a ton of bricks with a light tapping jab to his guard to distract him followed by a uppercut slash hook up and through his solar plexus that had him writhing in agony on the canvas.  It felt good to put someone down again.  The last time I dropped someone with one punch was a couple years back when I got a tall fighter with a left hook to the head that he never saw coming.  In amateur boxing you have a lot better shot putting someone to the ground to the body than to the head (at least with one punch).  God, I wish I had the camera on me!

This sounds all well and good except that sparring can only take you so far without adequate work on technique.  I am lacking in direction now with coaching changes going on at my gym.  Plus, I just started a new job that has me working long hours, making it hard for me to put long hours in at the boxing gym to work on my technique.  Luckily, I have found time during the day to get some solid road work (boxers do road work not running) and swimming.  I even got some very cool footage of some underwater shadowboxing reminiscent of the iconic Ali photos.