Saturday, May 26, 2007

All kinds of tough.

I have been doing this fight training stuff for 4 years now.

I started with a mostly fitness class in '03. I learned muay thai combos and did some circuit style training that that class for about a year.

The trainer quit that class because his Real Estate business got too busy for him. Enter Brand X. Jeff Martin began teaching the class. He came in and there were about 6 students. The class was really difficult. In place of the circuit work he had us doing push ups, squats, bench dips etc. 15 minutes of "warm up" then he taught us the kicking, punching and foot work for 45 minutes. Everyone commenting that the class was harder than the one our old instuctor had us doing.

The next class there were 3 students. He thought maybe the students felt the class was too challenging, so he made it a bit less tiring. Next time the students came back they said they hadn't gotten as good of a workout.

"First they complain it's too hard, then they complain it's too easy!" LOL.

He taught us for a couple of months and then I went on a weeks trip, when I came back, Jason and Ricky were there. They carried on in the same fashion. Tearing us up on the "warmup" then teaching us technique while we were tired.

I never missed a week. I may have missed 3 classes if I was actually in the building.

I wasn't good. I was slow. I was uncoordinated. I was self concious. They told me I thought about it too much. "Don't think, just do it."

The hook was my bane. It took me a good year to even get an inkling of how to make my body do what the boys were telling me I needed to do. But I learned to punch HARD. The Fighting stance came to me after a while. I loved kicking things and I learned to be ferocious. No matter what they made me do, I did it. I pushed myself. I did the drills with them holding the pads and yelling at me. I glared, I swore, I sweated. They told me I was TOUGH. Persistent.

"Laura you may not be the best but you are the one who keeps coming back. Your persistence will make you better than them eventually."

One of the things we did would be a circuit, one minute of kicking a thai pad, one minute of squats or thrusters and one minute of punching the mitts. Ricky and Jason would hold. One day Jason was holding the mitts and I was punching really hard. His eyes fixed on mine and his face went...blank. I got pissed. He was giving me "the stare." I just gritted my teeth and started hitting harder and I said, you aren't afraid of me? That's not nice! I finished my round and things were over. He said, "You are the only one that doens't get flustered when I give you the stare. You just get pissed! That's cool."

During the year and a half I did get better. I wouldn't say good, but better. The class got canceled because they only had one and two students a week. I would have kept coming even if it were just myself. I did several times as a matter of fact.

It has been a almost 2 years since the class was canceled. Part two later

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