Tuesday 17th of July

Morning jog - a bit over 5 km. No pain. Wasn't hard. Still aiming to increase cadence. This time average was 84 and max was 91. This is a slight improvement but one I have to think about still. My goal is over 100 which will take a while to achieve since it's over my max now. I'm not trying to run fast yet so I guess when i feel ready to pick up the speed with my knee my cadence might rise a little automatically (fingers crossed).

Cycled home

Boxing at night - another 1.5 hour session.
2 rounds shadow and then did rest of night sparring with coach Arthur.
Arthur is very stocky and short for his weight. It suits him to defend with his hands on his head rather than slipping or parrying and countering a lot. He wants me to do the same and it just feels WRONG!

I don't know if I'll ever get it and it frustrates me to have such a big emphasis placed on this one thing which feels so unnatural to me. I want to attack more and work with a higher tempo. I want to cover up as a last resort if someone gets through my punches rather than going into my guard and taking punches on it before i really need to. i feel it just puts me off balance and makes me feel vulnerable to a follow up attack. Arthur is my height but 25 - 30 kgs heavier. He can walk through a lot of my punches which makes them less useful defensively but I doubt another girl in my weight division could to the same degree.

One thing that dawned on me while discussing it with him was that he's trying to get me to just practice the guard first but since I like to punch defensively it might actually suit me to learn it backwards - ie. work on the angles and counter punches out of the guard as I'm learning it. i already like to slip and counter so potentially it will feel less foreign to me than going into a shell, bracing myself and not coming out until my opponents arms get tired or worse - mine are knocked away and I'm off balance.

Poor Arthur is also trying to adjust his style to suit sparring with me more too. He walked through my attack less tonight. I also caught him holding my left arm as soon as he gets inside and hooking me with his left. He didn't even realise he did it but did it 4 times tonight. This is illegal as far as I know in amateur boxing so learning to deal with it is not a high priority for me right now. It just reminds me that he's heavier and POs me!

Arthur's whole style seems like something that would suit a pro fight more than amateur. I hope we can find a middle ground on this guard issue!

Was a bit bad with food today - am in a workshop for uni this week and they supply food. I get hungry enough to each a sizable lunch around the time we have morning tea. They bring out cakes and biscuits for morning tea - not good!