This day of training was wonderful and terrible all at once. I woke up tired and just stayed that way all day. I was able to push through it and surprised myself in training, discovering little things being technically better than days when I’ve had more energy: keeping my torso straighter on the repeated 20 kicks to start each round, for example.
This is my 5th round in afternoon training with Den. My first few were much better, but I’m still happy with the changes I see coming out in my padwork lately. Balance and reaction to pressure are big ones.
Den likes to punch my stomach every chance he gets as a way to drain my energy and I’ve learned to just take it. Trying to block it or avoid it is just as useless as it is difficult. I’m trying to block kicks more, but when I catch them in this round I am able to shove him back into the ropes and follow it with a strike – something Kaensak worked with me on. I gotta keep my hands up better, but that’s a work in progress. And Den shows me a new move of stepping forward with my right foot to deliver a left elbow, followed by a left knee and sometimes another left kick. Turning your front strike into the back strike is great.
