Nerdcore Boxing

I’m feeling really good, confidence is at an all time high. This week I’m eager to get in my sparring, show what I can do and display my improved endurance.

Comparing myself now with how I was a few years back before my long layoff, I’m a completely different boxer. My footwork is 10X better, I’m a really good body puncher, I work more angles, my defenses are on another level and I’m in better shape. But I’m most excited about my new left hook, which is a fast, powerful and dynamic punch. I’m going to knock somebody out with that punch. Yes, I’m doing a Babe Ruth and calling it right here.

The only thing I need to regain that I didn’t have before is my counter punching and longer combos. I need to tack on another punch to my combos and counter a greater variety of punches. At the rate of my development I have no doubt I’ll be regaining those in the coming weeks.

Tonight I ran 3.5 miles intermixed with 18 hundred yard sprints. I was worried about my arch, but the rest over the weekend, anti-inflammatories and night splint are healing my plantar fasciitis at a rapid rate. Tomorrow I’m going to get up early and run three 8 min miles to get the blood flowing and work out the soreness.

Tomorrow night my coach, Old School, and I will go over the upcoming fights we can go to before my 35th birthday in mid April. I’m guessing we’ll start showing up to them at the end of March looking for a match.

After gassing during last Thursday’s sparring and ranting on the ol’ blog, my wife pointed out that I was cutting lots of calories last week. I added some back Friday and immediately I felt better and had an energetic workout that night.

While my coach influenced me to up my punch output in training, I was doing less total rounds, and combined with the calorie cutting I wasn’t ready for the sparring. Instead of backing off the plan I’m going full speed ahead with sensible caloric intake and enough rounds of punches leading to sparring.

Saturday was a mess, there were no sparring partners so I did 10 rounds of bag work and ran sprints. My arch is killing me, I can’t run slow or walk without lots of pain. Sprinting, jumping rope and bouncing on the toes are ok. Went to the doc today and he diagnosed me with plantar faciattis or a hyperextended arch tendon. He said it’s very painful but I can work through since it’s just a month till my fight.

Good news though I weighed in at 180, down 3.4 lbs. And when the doctor took my vitals my resting heart rate was 53. Pretty badass for a 34 year old yuppie.

Last night is the scheduled sparring. The prior week I did 3 rounds with 30 sec breaks no problem, then went back for 2 more later in the night. But last night is a disaster. First off an office party interferes with getting over there in time. I have to eat a tiny dinner at 4 before the party so I get something before sparring. At the party everybody is eating nachos and drinking beer, I’m sitting there stomach growling and hating life. Then I take off 30 minutes late and get stuck in traffic, bad traffic.

At the gym an older (well my age) guy has been nice enough to stay around to spar. Mexican Style trainer is the only trainer there. At the time I don’t know this but my sparring partner has  lots of experience, Mexican Style says he really admires his skills. Some notes:

• I get in, he’s going real light and slow, but he’s older and nice enough to stick around so I just match his pace. I kind of feel like he’s letting me hit him, because I’m landing every variety of punch or combo I want, you name it. Great placement of my body punches on the ribs. But he’s landing too.
• This guy is sooo relaxed, it sort of lulls me into not taking him seriously but yet he “sticks on me,” walking through the punches. I’m working hard to keep him off with my feet and jab, I find I’m upping the power no longer matching him just trying to keep him off me. He ups too, no biggie he’s in my weight class unlike the heavies I often get.
• First round is over, then I gas, big time. I have no energy, sucking wind, arms and legs dead. After one round, are you kidding me!?!?
• I used my mobility and was working my lateral movement in the first round, which Mexican Style convinces is me is a mistake, a waste of energy against this guy. This guy has slow feet and just ok footwork and I wasn’t keeping him off anyway. So I concentrate on moving one step and working my jab in the 2^nd & 3^rd rounds – when I get the energy.
• Second round is terrible, he lands more and get’s off some flurries. I’m still landing some when I can muster the strength, but punch output is low. Mouth is open sucking wind, now my jaw is a little sore from getting hit with it open.
• Third round Mexican Style says I’ll get my 2^nd wind, I don’t. I throw little to nothing. He’s flurrying, putting me on the ropes, shining the shoes. Twice I’m stuck on the ropes thinking, “I’m so tired, I’d rather eat this entire flurry than try to punch.”

How can I work harder this week but yet have so much less endurance than last week? I gave Old School trainer the benefit of the doubt, but now I have real doubts. Mexican Style mentions he thought I was overtraining too.

Old School is out of town this week, but wanted me to do a really long run Saturday morning then show up at 11:30 for sparring. Mexican Style says screw the run, do it Sunday. Right now Mexican Style is making more sense, I’m going to stick with him.

Before the lecture Friday coach lays out his simple philosophy:

1. Run a LOT
2. Spar a LOT
3. Train hard
4. Then spar and run a lot more

He wants me to have 40-50 rounds of sparring minimum before this fight. I already have logged 11 and at the rate we’re going traveling to gyms for partners, I’ll make 40 no problem. If we schedule some extra trips I should be able to get 50+.

We’re doing organized sprint work Saturdays and he wants me to do steady runs all the other days but Thursday, where he says I should start building up for the organized hill runs.

I run three 8 minute miles right now, but he wants me to push towards 7 minute miles daily. He says a good boxer can do 6 min miles (personally I’m skeptical at how many could, but I’m all for being ambitious).

Also he wants to organize a few long hill runs before the fight and a 5 mile run. The 5 mile run is to build mental toughness he says. Coach says boxers get up at 5 AM (er well, 7 AM in my case) to run every morning because it builds the mental discipline to get up when you get knocked down in the ring. Sounds good to me.

I have two trainers which has some advantages and disadvantages. The one who’s watched my sparring recently has been very pleased with my progress. But the other one gave me a big kick in the pants Friday night.

The conversation started with him asking me to remind him of the timetable to fight before my 35th birthday (6 weeks out). Then he makes a face, shakes his head and says I need to get moving. He wants to see my weight go down 10 lbs at least and my punch output go up, way up.

His concern is that I’ll fight a taller fighter and I need to outwork him. I’m a little surprised at this because every sparring partner I’ve had in my weight class has been within a few inches, which doesn’t bother me at all. I can’t tell if he’s just a worrier, his concern is legit, or he’s playing mind games to push me harder. Either way I’m just going to work harder.

After the david vs. goliath matchup I heard there was another guy around that was actually in my weight class and the same height. So I asked for a few more rounds.

This guy had 10 fights and he fell for less of my tricks, but I could tell he grossly underestimated me and without fear of the 30 lbs weigh difference I threw down. After the dust settled my trainer said I was actually “more skilled” than him.

Highlights:

Ok, when a trainer hitches a ride with one of his boxers to a gym for said boxer to spar, he shouldn’t tell the story of some dude that had a brain aneurysm and died while sparring. I don’t want to hear that shit before I get in the ring.  Are you f-ing kidding me!

Ok rant over. Onto the action. Got some more of the tall athletic heavyweight:

• Did 3 rounds with the timer on 30 sec breaks. This means I likely have the endurance for competition.
• I went with the approach of staying on the outside, working my lateral movement and waiting for him to come to me. It worked in that I got hit a lot less and utilized less energy. But I felt like I was doing terribly because my punch output was so low. I guess his was lower too though.
• My lateral movement was great. Circle right, abrupt change left, change again, do a stutter step and pretend to change but continue. When he comes forward, one step back and out to the side. By doing all the above I made him “chase” me for 2 rounds. He expended more energy and his feet were rarely set.
• After two rounds of his trainer explaining how I made him chase me he finally started cutting the ring off.
• I realized one reason I got out boxed on the inside our last time sparring: I was dropping down to punch his body and he was killing me with uppercuts. When a guy is 5 inches taller than you, you don’t need to drop down…
• Now that I’m not squatting down on the inside I catch him with body hooks when he exits the side, a lot . Need to follow with hooks to the head.
• Landed lots of body punches. Hooks and straight rights.
• On the bad side, I ate a number of combos and some of my hooks missed so wide it was embarrassing.
• Nose swelled up and bled, big bruise on the bridge and kind of a small knot. Can’t tell if he dinged the hard cartilage or it’s just swelling, unfortunately it takes so long for nasal swelling to subside, and with future weeks of sparring, I probably won’t know for a couple months.
• On one hand I’m pondering my trainer’s decision to continually throw me in with a guy 30 lbs heavier. On the other hand I’m enjoying that he’s forcing me to develop my defenses and toughness, and I do like working with a super tall guy.

Due to my vacation I missed sparring all of last week. Last night my trainer dropped a bomb on me and said we didn’t have a trip lined up to spar at our partner gym tonight. Apparently they couldn’t line up partners for my teammates in the lower weight classes and cancelled.

Of course I freaked out and pushed my trainers to try and reschedule. I can’t miss a second week in a row, this would be disastrous. One trainer said there is a possibility they can make it happen tonight, and I’m supposed to call this afternoon to find out if it’s back on.

I’m crossing my fingers…

I get this high from working out that lasts many hours. Screw coffee, this high is like taking a powerful stimulant without negative side effects, only positive ones. Thus I’ve always admired morning people who run before work.

If I could do most of my workouts in the morning, my schedule would free up so much. I could train hard in the evenings solely in boxing or even add in some weight lifting. When not training for a fight even take on another hobby. Plus I’d get more time with my wife and son.

That burst of physical and mental energy I’d bring to work in the mornings would definitely enhance my productivity and career.

Minus my vacation, during my last two weeks of training I’ve been running in the mornings. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I hope this is the beginning of a long daily ritual that I’ll take with me to old age.

Despite being a somewhat dangerous sport, we should do a better job promoting the fact that the demands of extreme endurance and weight classes tend to give boxers a very healthy lifestyle.