Nerdcore Boxing

I’m amazed that everybody doesn’t use this around their eyes and on their nose before sparring. My gym is big on vaseline. Hell, we even put it on our opponent’s gloves. Why? Yeah it could prevent cuts, but headgear already does that well. The real benefit is preventing abrasions, which really mark up your face.

A guy from my gym forgot the vaseline the other night and he’s got this massive abrasion under his eye. I too forgot the vaseline last time I sparred. Looking at him is a good reminder to use vaseline next time.

I’ve now entered the intensive training period to get in shape for my fight, a real sanctioned amateur fight in the next month or so. Unlike my work the last year I’m not looking to tweak anything major except what comes up in sparring. My trainer is looking to give me 50 rounds of sparring before the fight. I’m mainly looking to get in fight shape and remove the ring rust.

Beginning of camp inventory check:

• I’m at 187 lbs, I need to drop to at least 175.
• I’m running 2 miles on a hilly trail 3 times/week, I need to add back in the sprints. Since my coach sometimes makes me do 3 miles on organized runs I might as well work up to it on my own.
• My left rotator cuff hurts as always, but I’m doing my physical therapy exercises and range of motion work to mitigate it. By keeping my elbows tucked in I’ve been doing pain free pushups for the first time in years, which is a major victory for me. I’m confident the shoulder will hold up ok for the fight.
• Recently my knuckles have been hurting, this is a new disconcerting injury,  but it mainly occurs on hard heavybag work, which I can easily limit.
• Overall moral is high and I’m feeling optimistic.

I was going to do a dramatic post about heading into one of the tougher ghettos of Los Angeles for some sparring at an unfriendly gym, but that would be disingenuous because the guys at this gym were cool as hell.

While the fitness crowd often gets the evil eye from boxers, once your willing to step in the ring to mix it up, you’ll find boxing gyms are some of the friendliest places around. It’s a very tight knit community where everybody looks out for each other, at this gym even looking out for sparring partners from other gyms.

I had the pleasure of working with two excellent boxers tonight for 3 rounds. The ring rust was so thick I felt really frustrated upon exiting the ring. But looking back it wasn’t that bad. Here’s the good and bad:

The Good

• My footwork improvements from this past year have been substantial. Even with the ring rust my footwork tonight was 10X better than at my peak 2 years ago.
• I moved backwards smoothly, creating space with a single step back, and switched to lateral movement as needed so they couldn’t catch me.
• I was slipping the first and second punch well.
• I started landing a sweet counter left hook, stepping and leaning back while the guys charged in. This is cool because I never really tried this before. It was one of the major weapons of one of my old sparring partners, he was actually one of my toughest opponents, so this is a welcomed weapon. One counter hook I landed really clean, another I landed just alright.
• My trainer originally said I’d get 2 rounds, but they accidentally left me in for 3.
• I’m still pretty. Not a mark on me.

The Bad

• I was reaching like hell on my punches (throwing them before being in range). As a result I got countered a lot.
• I felt like I could never reach the guys. I’d double or triple the jab, and even if I didn’t get countered they’d lean off to a side and I’d forget to follow with an uppercut.
• One guy kept switching leads and I pivoted out once or twice to my left and ate big left hooks. I need to be careful doing this or lean to my right with my shoulder raised so it slides off.
• I was pretty angry at how much I either closed my eyes or was looking off somewhere, not sure which? I felt like I was starting over a few times completely oblivious to punches coming my way.
• While facing the southpaw, when I couldn’t reach him with a straight right lead I just got confused and pawed his lead hand.
• I ate a big body punch which really stuck with me. Don’t remember the circumstances, but I want to start landing those punches.
• I can never ever get off a lead left hook, I always eat a jab counter when trying. Tried once tonight same result.

I was pretty encouraged by my performance last night, my recent work to get up my punch output and my roadwork is working. My arms and shoulders held up well after throwing lots of punches, my legs were strong and my cardiovascular system was sound. I’m getting the snap back in my punches and my foot speed is returning.

Tonight I’m going to be rolling into a really bad neighborhood in Los Angeles to visit a gym for some sparring. Recently all I’ve been able to get is some light situational sparring or just work on my defense, so this is going to be trial by fire jumping back in at a strange gym. Despite the heavy coat of ring rust my main concern is my car being stolen.

I was derailed in my attempt at switching gyms. I called up my leading prospect and in the process of talking to the trainer I found out their guys only compete a few time each year. My current club has guys fighting every few weeks, often every weekend. I guess this is not surprising since theirs is an MMA gym and they’re dividing their resources scheduling fights in several sports. Still I will consider them in the future when I migrate back to MMA, but not right now.

I turn 35 in April, which means I’d have to compete in the Masters division if I don’t fight by then. So this is my last chance to compete in the main pool of amateur boxers. Lining up fights can actually be tough and disappointing if your opponent drops out, so to ensure I can fight by April I need a gym plugged into the local boxing community.

I’m coming to the conclusion that changing gyms is not a good idea right now. I think I need to have “one for the road,” a fight with my current club and then move on. This means I’m going to have to do the travel for sparring thing, and go with my trainer to other gyms for sparring partners. I’m not a big fan of this, because on foreign soil where other guy is not on your “team” it’s sometimes not sparring but an actual fight. Most guys are cool but sometimes your opponent is looking to practice KO’ing strangers with his big right hand.

My trainer is spinning the situation saying the road warrior route helps him train better boxers. He said it toughens us up and shows us lots of styles of opponents. I’m not sure if he believe it, but it’s a good bit of rah rah propaganda nevertheless.

This new gym I found has much nicer facilities than my current local, I could actually do all my strength and conditioning there too. Plus it’s an MMA gym.

In theory I’ve wanted to get back into MMA, but MMA gyms usually offer limited boxing programs and are super expensive. The problem with them is that they need to offer MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai classes in addition to Boxing and Wrestling. This means that they employ 4X the number of trainers, and their boxing classes are usually 1 hr slots 2-3 times/week. This is not enough training time for me.

I hope I don’t piss off the Muay Thai and BJJ advocates with what I’m about to say, and I preface my comments by saying that I’ve been out of the MMA game recently so my perspective may be ignorant. But it seems to me that MMA gyms focus too much on BJJ and Muay Thai classes when in their MMA training they’re most likely to be boxing and wrestling along with MMA specific skills. Yeah there’s kicking, kneeing and submissions in MMA, but those things are far less common than the other components. So why not focus more on Boxing, Wrestling and integrated MMA classes, and make BJJ and Muay Thai secondary?

Well this new gym I’m thinking about takes this Boxing/Wrestling/MMA approach. This is great for me because there’s lots of Boxing classes and people competing in pro/am Boxing to spar with. And there is the additional advantage that when I go back to MMA I already wanted to focus on developing Wrestling skill so I can impose my Boxing. Wrestling, while it doesn’t include submissions, teaches one to control the transition between striking and grappling. Basically if you have superior Wrestling you get to decide if it’s a grappling or striking match.

Apparently I’m not the only guy who likes this approach because 3 former UFC and two current WEC fighters train at this gym. In a week or two I’m going to visit this gym, then if I like it decide when/how to break it off with my trainer.

Some of the boxing bloggers on the net (like Lawyer Boxer and Earning a Nickname) are more open about posting the name of their gyms or sparring partners. Personally I don’t do this because my anonymity makes me feel more comfortable discuss my trainers and sparring partners without it affecting our relationships.

My long time readers know that I never come on here and bash people I train with, so I don’t worry about hurting people’s feelings. All the same it would be awkward if one of my sparring partners subscribed to this blog and showed up to the gym saying, “so you thought you owned me with your jab in the first round last night…”

I made this anonymity decision 3 years ago and I’m convinced it’s the right decision. If I do go forward with switching gyms I’ll continue to post details, but I’m going to withhold the gym name.

I was surfing the interwebs last Friday trying to narrow down the overwhelming list of 30 boxing gyms nearby and found a prospect. I was really excited to stumble onto a gym between home and work that appears to meet all of my needs and offers additional goodies.

Before I began my search, my mental checklist included the following: must be a legit boxing club that caters to amateurs, must be close by, must have training times I can make, and it must be reasonably priced.

This new place trains amateur and pros, and is within 10 minutes of home. I can make 4 training slots/week, which is more than my current club offers. Training fees are $100/month, which is more than the measly $35/month I pay now, but far less than many of the $200+ gyms in my area.

More to come…

I lost 6+ lbs last week. I’m not sure if this is due to being sick, or the fact that it included 3-4 lbs of weight I held for only about 2 weeks. In any case I’ll take it.

This week I’m planning on running, doing 3 sessions with my boxing trainer plus a little work on the side. My goal is to lose another 2 lbs and weigh in at 185lbs.

My little boy is a 3 ft tall Ebola monkey, constantly infecting me with the latest flu virus or cold inducing bacteria. I spent the last 8 years rarely getting ill, now I’m catching 4+ colds per year.

I just got over my latest illness and only have a little chest congestion left. Unfortunately this wiped out 5 days of workouts. I did some calisthenics last night and I’m going to do a mini-workout tonight to gear up for my scheduled Friday workout with the trainer. Friday night is going to suck.

As far as switching gyms I’m not going to do anything for a few weeks. I need to get back in shape and despite the inconvenience traveling to foreign gyms for sparring, it can be fun. Once I’m almost back in shape I’ll make my decision.