Always Improving

Image via WikipediaDuring the last few days, I've been doing about an hour of roadwork each day, in the blustery weather. It hasn't been anything fancy: just long, slow, distance, a few sprints to spice things up, running sideways for short distances, and running backwards when there are no people, cars, or dogs nearby.

Why do I do it? I want to improve. I know I am building and maintaining a foundation for endurance, but I want my training to be comprehensive; I want to be a complete boxer. I've gotten wiser in my training. In earlier days, I'd be at the gym 5 or 6 days in a row, in the middle of sweat-drenched August, doing intensive workouts and sparring on at least 4 of those days. While I could often see my speed improving, notice my punches having greater power, and my defense protecting me more effortlessly from my opponent's blows, I frequently sensed that I was putting out a lot more than I was taking in.

I could call it over-training, and perhaps on some level it was, but that explanation was too facile for my taste. Others over-trained. I engaged in some more exotic behavior that defied labeling. No, "over-training" could not explain what I was doing. I was somehow immersing myself in an angst worthy of Kierkegaard, using that angst as a platform for my practice and development as man, as free agent in the universe, and as boxer.

For now, I continue to work on improvement each day. There's some Zen dying to leap out of the shadows and illuminate the nature of improvement itself, but it will have to wait.

Sunday "Fight Club"

Image via Wikipedia

Sunday's workout was a good one. I got to work lots of drills with Howard and Jeff. Howard is a southpaw, so I got some needed experience with a left-handed opponent and sensed I was learning a lot.

It seemed like we did an unusually large number of drills on Sunday, but we can't have done many more than usual because the workout lasted the usual duration. I'm getting a lot more confident with the "3-punch answer-back" drill. Here's how it works.

DO WHILE practice round continues

• Boxer A throws a quick left jab, right cross, and left hook at Boxer B.
• Boxer B slips (or blocks) the jab and right cross, and blocks the left hook.
• As soon as "B" blocks the hook, and preferably before "A" is back in a safe guard position, "B" quickly launches his counterattack.
• Boxer B throws a quick left jab, right cross, and left hook at Boxer A.
• Boxer A slips (or blocks) the jab and right cross, and blocks the left hook.
• As soon as "B" blocks the hook, and preferably before "A" is back in a safe guard position, "B" quickly launches his counterattack.

ENDDO

After practicing this drill for several rounds, I tried my 1-2-3 combination in sparring and it was a lot faster and smoother. As with any of these skills, the key to improvement will be to practice them hundreds of times so that I can get to the point where they flow with the greatest of ease.

I got in two good rounds of sparring, one with Howard and one with Jeff. It's good practice to work with them; we keep it fairly intense, but not so intense that we forget to practice and tune up our skills. After sparring, we did our usual rounds on the heavy bag, abs, and "30s."

I did 30 minutes of roadwork after the morning gym session. It was a good day of training, and I'm grateful for it.

Come On, Tell Us How You Really Feel!

Whoa!

I was startled to read this article quoting World Boxing Council president José Sulaimán expressing his distaste for mixed martial arts. Here are three choice quotes from Mr. Sulaimán.

• "I oppose 100 percent this ultimate fighting. It has taken boxing to the era of the caveman and the Roman circus."
• "These are not ancient times. This fighting is fed to those fans who like aggression, blood and illegality. They are not boxing fans. Boxing fans have class."
• "There should be more control over these [MMA] fights, they should not be accepted. They are intended crimes accepted by bloody people who love this savage fighting."
  

Yeow. Savage? Aggression? Blood? Illegality? That's some pretty strong language to describe MMA. He could have just said he didn't like it. He didn't have to say it was "savage." On the other hand, at least Sulaimán doensn't leave us guessing about his opinion.

I have mixed feelings about mixed martial arts. I think MMA is fine as long as it's kept safe and the fighters aren't exploited by people out to take advantage of them. It's not my first choice of sport, but I would like to learn some good grappling and ground-fighting techniques to complement my skills as a boxer.

As for taking "boxing to the era of the caveman and the Roman circus," I respectfully disagree. Mr. Sulaimán is certainly entitled to his opinion, an opinion that is based on a hell of a lot more experience and knowledge about the sport than I have. Even so, boxing certainly had its share of problems long before MMA began its ascent as a popular sport. Ironically, Sulaimán himself has been instrumental in resolving some of those problems. Of course, he has his critics and one can certainly debate whether some of the changes he has effected are truly reforms. Nevertheless, the problems existed before and independently of MMA.

Regardless of whether one likes MMA or dislikes it, I don't think it's fair to blame boxing's problems on the newer sport. During the last year, I've read countless articles and debates about how MMA was going to eclipse boxing, while various enthusiastic fans predicted gleefully that boxing would simply fade into oblivion. I haven't seen that happen, and I don't think it will happen. MMA's organizations are experiencing difficulties, just as boxing's organizations have. Each sport needs to clean up its own house and there is no reason for blame; both of them can coexist without a problem, in my not-so-humble opinion.