Nerdcore Boxing

In L.A. when you stand someone up the generic excuse is, “I flaked.”  Well, I flaked last night, I didn’t do squat but eat too much pizza. Oh the shame!

Today I woke up bright and early, got work out of the way, and hit the gym. Did 40 minutes of cardio, lifted weights and did 3 rounds of shadow boxing and 7 rounds of bag work.

After the guilt of slacking yesterday subsided I decided I’m going to become a morning person and do my cardio right after I wake up. This is going to free me up to spend some more time in the evening watching film, working on my week points, and hopefully will allow me to go to class 3 times/week consistently.

I was really sore from yesterday. Upping the intensity on the treadmill and elliptical walker along with lifting weights did it’s toll on my legs. Unfortunately I only squeezed in 20+ minutes on the elliptical walker today. Later tonight I’m going to do some shoulder rehab and take an ice bath.

While watching the fights on Sat night it occurred to me why my footwork looks a little off when I rapidly step to the left. I don’t “open up” my hips (or spread my legs far enough) and as a result my knee bends slightly awkwardly and I don’t get my left leg out as fast as I’d like. I suspect the reason for this is a lack of flexibility.

I love it when I figure out something like this, it’s usually followed by a marked improvement in my boxing. You can never have too good of footwork or be too mobile in boxing. I’m excited to do some targeted stretching and to see how this impacts my mobility.

I enjoyed the fight. I’m still pissed off that the only sports bar nearby charged a $35 cover to get in to see the fight, but I was desperate.

Mayweather has better defenses than anyone in boxing today. Admittedly it takes an educated eye to appreciate him rolling off DLH’s punches, but the fact he could get in with DLH for 12 rounds and only eat 4 or so clean power shots is impressive.

Oscar looked great. Like everyone else I have to wonder what would have happened if he stuck with his jab. I would love to find out in a rematch.

1. 45 minutes of cardio.

2. Lift some weights.

3. Twelve rounds of bag work. Going to work on punching fundamentals (reach, not telegraphing), moving to the outside and slips/parrying/covering.

4. I’ll add in two new polymetric exercises to increase foot speed and explosion. I’ll post about these later.

Weighed in at 181 lbs today, which is a pound down. I was hoping to be more like 179-180, but it’s alright. Based on the body fat I’m holding, I still think I can get down to 175 in the month of May.

After trading tips on workout regiments last night I realized I’m not doing enough cardio. Starting today I’m going to up the intensity on my cardio and go for 45 minutes instead of 30.

Last night I decided I am going to stop being so critical of myself. Getting to the level of a good amateur boxer is a process . While I go through this process I’m not going to get down on myself.

I got in 3 rounds of sparring with my trainer. My face is marked up with a few abrasions, good thing I’m working from home tomorrow. Some observers said I improved over last time but I think they were trying to cheer me up after seeing how dejected I looked.

Some thoughts:

1. My conditioning is terrible, I was sucking wind at the end of the 2nd round and the whole 3rd round. I’m rethinking my 30 minutes on the elliptical walking machine. I need to crank up the tension and intensity big time.
2. I know a normal punch landing percentage is about 30%. It felt like I landed 10-15%. I don’t recall landing any really solid punches, which I think was the most discouraging.
3. I need to see the punches coming and work on slipping them better. If I spar with somebody really good, then when they come in attacking I spaz out, bob/weave, v-slip and/or pivot out. During this process sometimes I get hit, but I rarely see punches coming or know why I got hit.
4. The headgear I use looks like it gives a lot of protection, but it also inhibits my vision. Trading vision for more padding isn’t smart. I’m going with thinner more minimal headgear on Friday.
5. I’m not Pernell Whitaker. Right now I get discouraged as if getting hit is a testimate to my defensive ineptitude. I need to accept the fact that I will get hit as a normal course of sparring.
6. I need to come in with authority and follow my jab with a straight right. On the sidelines they kept telling me the right was there, but I kept hesitating.

I got back to training today. Did 30 mins of cardio, a little weight lifting, shadow boxing and shoulder rehab.

I’ve been dogged by rotator cuff issues for years and the situation has just been slowly deteriorating over time. My left shoulder always feels “loose” as if there is extra play in the joint. I haven’t gotten insurance clearance to see a physical therapist yet but I’ve been doing the exercises I found on the internet each day. I was pleased to see that my shoulder joint felt “tighter” today. If it keeps improving I am going to be a real happy guy.

Uhhhh, I have to go. My wife just walked out in a sexy outfit…

Sparring keeps you honest. You can be a little off throwing punches on the bag. If you’re training partner isn’t watching close, you can throw them wrong on the mitts. But when you start sparring with good boxers they will exploit those holes.

I haven’t been squeezing all the reach out of my jab and straight right and my arm trails my shoulder in my hook. As a result I’ve been having trouble “reaching” my sparring partners and I have difficulty landing my hook.

I’m still working on ironing out these rough spots, so we’ll see how sparring goes tomorrow night.