sourpuss's training log

[Sharla]

You training hard for when we spar?
WAR

Bring it on Donny!

Right now I'm gymless but doing plenty of cardio work so at least I'll be able to run away if need be -

Also my bro - despite being ill the psycho - wants me to do stick fighting with him when i go up to visit.

Apparently the plan is to just put on a lot of protective gear and then bash the shit out of each other.

Plus there's a boxing gym near him so I'll see if I can go visit it sometime.

[donnydarkoIRL]

You training hard for when we spar?
WAR

Bring it on Donny!

Right now I'm gymless but doing plenty of cardio work so at least I'll be able to run away if need be -

Also my bro - despite being ill the psycho - wants me to do stick fighting with him when i go up to visit.

Apparently the plan is to just put on a lot of protective gear and then bash the shit out of each other.

Plus there's a boxing gym near him so I'll see if I can go visit it sometime.

Running is my trick, so it may be reduced to a staring competiton from opposing sides of the ring LoL

STICK FIGHTING!

That reminds me so much of when I was a young id! Oh that sounds like so much fun!
(DonnyFact; In training Israel Vsquez has his trainer beat his naked body with a 24 inch long piece of wood in order to harden his body and mentally prepare himself for punishment. Manny Pacquaio has since adopted the tactic.)
Wow, I'd love a stick fight!

I'm sure you'll retain a lot of your sharpness, simply because you train so regularly and keep yourself fit.

[Sharla]

You training hard for when we spar?
WAR

Bring it on Donny!

Right now I'm gymless but doing plenty of cardio work so at least I'll be able to run away if need be -

Also my bro - despite being ill the psycho - wants me to do stick fighting with him when i go up to visit.

Apparently the plan is to just put on a lot of protective gear and then bash the shit out of each other.

Plus there's a boxing gym near him so I'll see if I can go visit it sometime.

Running is my trick, so it may be reduced to a staring competiton from opposing sides of the ring LoL

STICK FIGHTING!

That reminds me so much of when I was a young id! Oh that sounds like so much fun!
(DonnyFact; In training Israel Vsquez has his trainer beat his naked body with a 24 inch long piece of wood in order to harden his body and mentally prepare himself for punishment. Manny Pacquaio has since adopted the tactic.)
Wow, I'd love a stick fight!

I'm sure you'll retain a lot of your sharpness, simply because you train so regularly and keep yourself fit.

Well the Donny fact is scary - wood would splinter too - imagine how evil that would be on naked flesh! Ouch!

I did ask my bro if I have to carve my own stick from a tree and defend myself with a twig in the meantime but apparently the sticks and protective equipment have been prearranged.

I think stick fighting my 6 foot 4 bro with his long arms will keep me pretty sharp!

To be honest though sometimes my best training happens when I come back from a break. I seem to be able to get more out of myself when i'm mentally and physically fresh.

I should add that if it comes down to a staring competition i think i'll win!

Perhaps you'll feel better about your training after a bit of a break too Sourpuss.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Bring it on Donny!

Right now I'm gymless but doing plenty of cardio work so at least I'll be able to run away if need be -

Also my bro - despite being ill the psycho - wants me to do stick fighting with him when i go up to visit.

Apparently the plan is to just put on a lot of protective gear and then bash the shit out of each other.

Plus there's a boxing gym near him so I'll see if I can go visit it sometime.

Running is my trick, so it may be reduced to a staring competiton from opposing sides of the ring LoL

STICK FIGHTING!

That reminds me so much of when I was a young id! Oh that sounds like so much fun!
(DonnyFact; In training Israel Vsquez has his trainer beat his naked body with a 24 inch long piece of wood in order to harden his body and mentally prepare himself for punishment. Manny Pacquaio has since adopted the tactic.)
Wow, I'd love a stick fight!

I'm sure you'll retain a lot of your sharpness, simply because you train so regularly and keep yourself fit.

Well the Donny fact is scary - wood would splinter too - imagine how evil that would be on naked flesh! Ouch!

I did ask my bro if I have to carve my own stick from a tree and defend myself with a twig in the meantime but apparently the sticks and protective equipment have been prearranged.

I think stick fighting my 6 foot 4 bro with his long arms will keep me pretty sharp!

To be honest though sometimes my best training happens when I come back from a break. I seem to be able to get more out of myself when i'm mentally and physically fresh.

I should add that if it comes down to a staring competition i think i'll win!

Perhaps you'll feel better about your training after a bit of a break too Sourpuss.

Vasquez trains scarily hard - and one of the reasons I admire him so much is because he smiles through it all, even his caning!

I too would favour you in a straight staring competition, so thats why I'll adopt certain surprise tactics - such as mumbling Anti-Aussie racial slurs and throwing my boxing boot at you.

You raised an excellent point there Sharla!

Sourpuss, have you ever tried any sports psychology?
It can do wonders for getting back your hunger and your drive.

[sourpuss]

I'd love to go to a sports psychologist if I could afford one. Know of any good books? Maybe they could figure out why I'm such a slow starter, it's like I have to be losing to really let my hands go.

Sparring last night went a little better. I tried to explain to Zack that he's 50 pounds heavier than me and he can't just go ape shit on my brain. But he's just a kid and I don't think he gets its. He lightened up on his jab for a bit but I don't think he's experienced enough yet to have more than one speed or intensity. Hopefully he'll figure that out in the next month or two.

[Sharla]

[quote=sourpuss;569898]I'd love to go to a sports psychologist if I could afford one. Know of any good books? Maybe they could figure out why I'm such a slow starter, it's like I have to be losing to really let my hands go.
[quote]

Freaky! I have exactly the same problem!

It's almost as if things need to push you beyond a certain intensity to fully engage some aggressiveness and switch off from the point scoring mentality.

It's as if all your subconsciously formed automatic reactions don't come into play before then and the little tappy tappy things girls score points with don't even register!

Perhaps because bigger people naturally have heavier hands so the force we might feel from a direct jab from an opponent the same size is more like what we notice when our guard gets hit by someone bigger?

Perhaps also it's a habit from sparring heavier people to go light when you want them to go light because you know especially against relative beginners or in your case youngsters if you put pressure on and fluster them - even without hurting them - they can easily respond by lifting their power.

Do you think that's it?

[donnydarkoIRL]

I'd love to go to a sports psychologist if I could afford one. Know of any good books? Maybe they could figure out why I'm such a slow starter, it's like I have to be losing to really let my hands go.

Sparring last night went a little better. I tried to explain to Zack that he's 50 pounds heavier than me and he can't just go ape shit on my brain. But he's just a kid and I don't think he gets its. He lightened up on his jab for a bit but I don't think he's experienced enough yet to have more than one speed or intensity. Hopefully he'll figure that out in the next month or two.

Its funny, the guy that I fought two weeks ago is actually the best sports psychologist over here. I'll be going to him before my fights from now on.
I'll enquire from him as to some good books and I'll get back onto you.
Also after he gets back from Beijing I intend on asking him a number of key questions and then posting them on the training board.
I start slow also, but now I just jab, simple as that, rather than start slow I make a commitment to throw 10 or more jabs in the first minute.


I still cannot believe guys with that much of an advantage are allowed to go all out in sparring.

[Sharla]

I'd love to go to a sports psychologist if I could afford one. Know of any good books? Maybe they could figure out why I'm such a slow starter, it's like I have to be losing to really let my hands go.

Sparring last night went a little better. I tried to explain to Zack that he's 50 pounds heavier than me and he can't just go ape shit on my brain. But he's just a kid and I don't think he gets its. He lightened up on his jab for a bit but I don't think he's experienced enough yet to have more than one speed or intensity. Hopefully he'll figure that out in the next month or two.

Its funny, the guy that I fought two weeks ago is actually the best sports psychologist over here. I'll be going to him before my fights from now on.
I'll enquire from him as to some good books and I'll get back onto you.
Also after he gets back from Beijing I intend on asking him a number of key questions and then posting them on the training board.
I start slow also, but now I just jab, simple as that, rather than start slow I make a commitment to throw 10 or more jabs in the first minute.


I still cannot believe guys with that much of an advantage are allowed to go all out in sparring.

Great Idea Donny!

I'll be keen to read what you find out

In my case i don't think it's a case of most them deliberately going all out all the time - just the occasional slip.

I mean if they were actually trying to kill me unless they are much less experienced and within say 15 kg then i think they would kill me.

It's a case of them misinterpreting pressure thats tempo or speed or just timing for power.

I guess if you're the same size it evens out but if you time something well against a bigger person and they think - "shit i just got nailed - need to make it up" they might be so eager to make up lost ground that they rush to take an opportunity when they see it an unintentionally follow through with more power.

Other times they try not to underestimate you and push you but it really takes experience for them to have a sense of how to push you with tempo and skill and timing but not power and they need to be comfortable enough in the ring to observe you and how much pressure you're under while sparring.

I had a coach (coach Arthur in my log) who was great to spar with most of the time but i did get a couple of black eyes from him also. When under pressure he would hold illegally etc and not even be aware her was doing it.

He's my height and despite being at the gym for many years has only had 3 amatuer bouts so i guess sometimes he used power under pressure without thinking. Like i said though most of the time he was great and better than i could expect sparring a beginner.

I think ultimately to be fair we're very difficult to spar because its just not going to be natural for a bigger person to maintain speed but keep power down. Force = mass X velocity.

Really this is why i think interclub sparring is so key. Smaller guys are soooo much better to spar with - their power advantage is much, much less. I'd say with guys my weight it's tempo and explosiveness rather than force alone i register more. That can just mean you get a whole lot more benefit out of fewer sparring rounds though!

Again why i think interclub sparring should be promoted more because even if the guys don't really like being paired with a girl - if there are a few of them it really doesn't need to take long to include us. I'd travel an hour for 4 rounds sparring with someone my size - especially a guy who has some basic skills!

[donnydarkoIRL]

I'll get to work on that as soon as he gets back from China.

I hear what you're saying about sparring.
Myself and a good friend spar regularly and often before hand we say "we'll take it easy." Whether it be competitivness or just pressure we always end up tired out and battered afterward.
Its just a natural progression when your opposed by a physical challenge.

I think that also supports the theory that you should spar with your own weight alone.

I spar a lot of bigger guys and although I'm seriously proud of my chin I've been hurt on more than one occasion.

[sourpuss]

Good point everyone.

On the slow starting thing, I was talking to a coach from another gym and he said a lot of his guys have the same problem. His theory was that we're always sparring at the end of the night after we've done a workout and all the drills and we're good and warmed up....and tired. So our bodies are conditioned to think that you go hard when you've been sweating and working for two hours prior.

So now he and his son warm up really hard on the mitts about an hour before the bout for 15-20 minutes and then just stay warm and move until the bout to try to get started earlier. So far it's been working pretty good for him.

[Sharla]

Good point everyone.

On the slow starting thing, I was talking to a coach from another gym and he said a lot of his guys have the same problem. His theory was that we're always sparring at the end of the night after we've done a workout and all the drills and we're good and warmed up....and tired. So our bodies are conditioned to think that you go hard when you've been sweating and working for two hours prior.

So now he and his son warm up really hard on the mitts about an hour before the bout for 15-20 minutes and then just stay warm and move until the bout to try to get started earlier. So far it's been working pretty good for him.

Yeah having thought about again after reading your log I do remember starting a thread on this.

I'm thinking that because Donny's suggestion of starting with a jab helped mentally and technically but i guess i still didn't get into the full swing of throwing hard punches that perhaps this problem can sometimes be multifaceted.

Perhaps it is the mental thing of knowing how to start without overcommiting to a potentially risky flight plan and having time to observe your opponent as Donny has explained to me and also about the correct physical warm up like you've described above.

Heres a link to the thread:
http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfor...pressions.html

[sourpuss]

Thanks Sharla, I'll give that thread a read.

Did the 5k yesterday. It was my second race ever. I'm beginning to like these races, they are a lot of fun.

I took 25 seconds off my time and I placed 14th out of 82 in my age group and 83rd out of 430 total females. So I'm happy with that considering how hard I've been training for this tournament and trying to lose weight again. I'm excited to see how well I can do when I can go into one of these races at 100%.

We're half way to Kansas City now and tomorrow we have about 7-8 hours drive then we'll be there. Depending on how many gals show up in my weight I will most likely be fighting on Thursday.

[wesrman]

Congrats on the race and good luck in the tourny.

[sourpuss]

I'm at the Ringside tournament right now. I actually thought I had a good chance this year. I've been to 4 major advancing tournaments prior to this one. Every single one of them I've gotten the toughest draw my first fight and been eliminated. Without fail.

On Tuesday evening they had the coach's meeting and said there were 4 boxers in my category. So I wouldn't be fighting until Friday. Then I find out at 10 pm tonight that a gal registered late and I'm fighting tomorrow. So that last bit of weight I was going to lose tomorrow, I have to lose tonight and before 7am.

Of course, I get matched against her. (the other three in the group, I'm pretty confident I could beat) Turns out she's the Canadian National Champion and just beat the 5-time US Champion at the Pan Am games. Our champion scored 1 point on her in a four round fight.

Just my luck. And I drove two f*ing days to get here. I just can't catch a break.

[Youngblood]

Hey you get positive, and now. For sure you aren't getting any luck with draws, but you got a fight first thing in the morning...so start visualizing scoring those points! Oh and get some sleep!