EPTAfter the initial warm up we did some shadow boxing for 10 minutes. Then the coach told us to get with another guy and do short series of punches. Like I stand with the gloves in front of me, the other guy does a jab, cross, hook. After 30 seconds we switch. I got paired with the most advanced dude in the pack because only him and I are doing the south paw guard. I am actually right handed but I box with the south paw guard because of a right hip injury I had a year ago. I don't want to stress the hip with the constant hip rotation in muay thai. So this other guy corrected my every move, my stance even, my punch technique, he told me how to guard from punches. He was awesome. I on the other hand sucked. Like really hard. And I realized I have pretty bad technique. Even my stance is wrong, apparently my feet are too much apart. I apologized that I ruined his training at some point, he said it was fine and he was doing this for years. I do it for the second time. First time actually as the last time I had no gloves.
I felt good from all of this new knowledge. I need to shadow box a lot, record it with the phone, see the clip, correct the technique. Rinse and repeat as much as possible. I will even tie my feet with some rope at the correct distance for the proper stance.
On the bright side I seem to be well conditioned now. For those three weeks in between the gym I did workouts at home, like punching the bag, core muscles training, such things. And today I did everything I was instructed and I wasn't too tired in the end of it.
I don't know when I will be able to go again. There's a training on Thursday, it's going to be on clinching technique which is very interesting to me but I will probably miss it. So I guess next Tuesday again.
Now about how I almost beat a dude. A few days back I was on the bus to work. I am constantly wearing headphones when I am out, listening to music, not paying attention to people's crap around me. But on this bus there was this loud guy. I mean loud as in I could hear him through the headphones while power metal is playing. At some point I had enough. I unplugged my headphones, rolled them, tucked them in the pocket. The loud dude was around 10 meters away. I started walking towards him, with a plan in my head on what to do if he tries to hit me and what to do if he doesn't try to hit me. He was shouting at some middle aged lady. Stuff like "Are we going to talk from this distance, come closer.". One could tell the woman was repulsed but that wasn't the reason I acted, I usually only care about my wife and daughter. And me. I was really annoyed with this man and his shouting. And I was going to make him stop.
So I approached him and asked him politely to stop yelling. Then he pulled a bus ticket, waving it in front of me, saying "I got a ticket, I can do whatever I want!". I replied "Then I can spill your teeth around the bus, can't I?". And I reached with my left arm for his throat, my right arm was in position to hit him with my elbow as a bare fisted punch is too painful for me, I only hit a bag with bandages and gloves. So while holding him like that I told him to shut up and just take the ride. This was the defining moment, I would know if I was going to elbow him or release. And he gave in. He raised his knees, kind of like the fetal position and said he'd be quiet. I released my grip.
Some commotion happened too. People asked for the bus driver to stop the bus until the loud guy is out. He promised to be quiet so they left him in. A few stops down the road I had to leave. When I was out he gave me the middle finger. This just made me giggle though, if he was such a manly man he would have tried to fight, not wait for the threat to leave and give the finger. I just smiled and waved goodbye and went on my way to work.
In the evening I took a test to see if I am a sociopath. It turned out I am not, which is nice. I guess I just have low tolerance for people's bullshit. And I hate when people are bothering others for no reason, I know we are technically a free country but I don't see freedom as the right to do whatever you like, even if it's disturbing to other people.
