In-House Fight Night - Dec 7th

[WonderMonkey]

Tonight I commit to our in-house Fight Night. Same type of thing many places have. I wanted to do the event the last time they held it but an ongoing calf issue made me drop out early into the training sequence.

The only thing holding me beck is the before mentioned calf/leg thing. I'm attempting to get smarter on how I train, but at times it's a bit unpredictable. If I have to drop out again, I'll get it off my mind and just use boxing for fitness.

A bit about me. I'm 50 yrs old, in decent shape for the typical dad walking around, which doesn't get me much. I've been up and down on my weight over the years. It's all my fault when you get down to it but I've spent so much time on ballfields, in gyms, at college tryouts, etc. that I would take the easy way out and not do well with my nutrition. Here and there I'd get on a kick and drop about 30-40 lbs and then when the season would start I'd put it back on again. Just this past Friday we dropped my last child off to college, and no longer coach (except for one player that I've taken on) so I have the time. Again, I feel my only hindrance is my calf/leg.

I like to do physical activities. The pain of effort doesn't bother me. I'm working on pushing further through this to get more out of my sessions, but it's a process I like.

As I've put in other threads, I'm changing how I exercise to allow my calf/leg to come along for the ride. I'll get into that later.

So .... off I go.

[WonderMonkey]

I'm currently 260 lbs, at 6' 2". That's certainly higher than a human needs to be (generally) and I know the extra bodyfat both slows me down and saps energy. Additionally, as someone pointed out in another thread, it certainly can't help my calf/leg thing.

I've been cleaning up my nutrition, and it's in a good direction. Like many people, my downfall is weekend social events. I have to attend regular functions for work and community, and I need to do better when I'm there. During the week I do well, at these things I falter. It's a decision, of course.

Two years ago I got down to 222lbs, and I felt great. I thought I probably had 10 more lbs to go and then see what the mirror told me. If I can keep my effort up (leg, etc) then I'd like to think I can be in the 230's by the time the fight rolls around. I'll have to see what the balance of cutting unwanted bodyfat versus energy to train will be.

[WonderMonkey]

The goal that is going to be on my mind is conditioning. Certainly, all the aspects of boxing need worked on, but the longest journey is the ability to get through the fight in reasonable shape. I know I can do SOME type of jump/rebound activities, like just a bit of skip rope, I can't do most of the typical things that are done to get in shape. I'm going to go walk and then run stairs to see how that goes. I may have to spar or work mitts to fitness. I'm working on it.

[WonderMonkey]

This morning I went into the gym at 5 am and went through my prep to start at 5:30 am. I shadowboxed to get a bit of sweat going and then did some activation on the heavy bags. When I felt I was ready to go I did 10 one-minute rounds on the heavy bag at a moderate pace. I did this to get a baseline of where I was at. The Fight Night is three rounds, at either 2 minutes or less depending on the pairing. I know the heavy bag isn't a good simulation, but it's what I have in the mornings so I'll use it.

I've put notice out that I'm looking for some mitts partners to get in some morning work. We shall see how that goes.

[Redd Foxx]

Cardio, cardio, cardio. That's going to be the major obstacle for any mature fighter. Some guys try to overcome it with technique or power, but the foundation is your stamina. Technique and power disappear when stamina is gone.

3, two min rounds doesn't seem like much but 90 secs in you will feel it. Bag and mitts are good for technique but you need sparring partners to stimulate the exhausting parts, the fact that people are moving while you're punching, knocking the wind out of you. Missing tires you tremendously too. You need someone to do a lot of light sparring with.

Best of luck.

[WonderMonkey]

Cardio, cardio, cardio. That's going to be the major obstacle for any mature fighter. Some guys try to overcome it with technique or power, but the foundation is your stamina. Technique and power disappear when stamina is gone.

3, two min rounds doesn't seem like much but 90 secs in you will feel it. Bag and mitts are good for technique but you need sparring partners to stimulate the exhausting parts, the fact that people are moving while you're punching, knocking the wind out of you. Missing tires you tremendously too. You need someone to do a lot of light sparring with.

Best of luck.

Thanks. Yes, cardio. I'll need to get creative so I don't provoke my leg/calf and have to shut it down.

I agree, it's easy to get winded and tired early in. I also have a problem where I hold my breath, which doesn't help any. I'm working on that as well. I'm attempting to do the best I can with mitts, etc. but I do know sparring will be my key. I'll describe the gym and people there in my next post.

[WonderMonkey]

The gym I go to is owned by two guys and was started just over a year ago. One came from the sports performance and powerlifting side, and the other from the martial arts angle. The gym is top quality for that. They also offer fitness boxing, which is a great workout. In these fitness boxing classes they don't try to pretend it's actual boxing, but they do work with you to get improve your technique to a certain layer. Beyond that is not the purpose of the classes. One of the fitness instructors does a mitts class on Tuesday that will get you sweating pretty good and the Thursday class will put a hurting on you if you work hard enough.

Not long after they opened an actual boxing coach with a small stable of fighters stopped in and spoke to them about basing out of there. It worked with their objectives and off they went. They already had a boxing ring, heavy bags, mitts, etc. for the fitness classes. Of course, the boxing coach didn't need those mitts and such as he had his focus mitts and his fighters had their own stuff. From that sprang the standard in-house fight nights. His fighters didn't participate but many in the fitness classes wanted to. They found a few programs that did this and based what they do off that. If you commit, it's an 11-week program where you are required to put in a certain amount of effort and attend the Friday sparring sessions. They want good fights, not brawlers.

So ... even though this isn't a "real" boxing gym, you can do well there if you want. I'm just doing the in-house fight, so the facility is all I ever need. The only thing I want extra is people who want to meet and work on things. I don't want to do the fitness boxing classes as those are meant to get you a workout. Technique suffers due to the volume over time. "Give me 100 straights, 100 hooks, 100 uppercuts!" They don't complain if I just work with good form, but it's not what the class is for.

I hope that at tonights "Info and signup" session I can get a few people that want to work mitts. I know it's not sparring, but it's a good something. I'd try and make the mitts "as good as possible" to get something out of it.

[WonderMonkey]

Cardio, cardio, cardio. That's going to be the major obstacle for any mature fighter. Some guys try to overcome it with technique or power, but the foundation is your stamina. Technique and power disappear when stamina is gone.

3, two min rounds doesn't seem like much but 90 secs in you will feel it. Bag and mitts are good for technique but you need sparring partners to stimulate the exhausting parts, the fact that people are moving while you're punching, knocking the wind out of you. Missing tires you tremendously too. You need someone to do a lot of light sparring with.

Best of luck.

I sparred for the boxing coach to evaluate me recently but that wasn't full on sparring. When I was going to do the Fight Night last time we did full on sparring. My first time was chaotic. I was very excited to be in there and my adrenaline got the best of me and I was wide-eyed and all over. Not sure if I breathed the whole time. Technique? Gone. Plan? Whatever.

[WonderMonkey]

Also something I mentioned in another thread, but I'll put here just to contain it.

I met with the boxing coach from they gym. I wanted to work with him to make sure I did the best I can do for the Fight Night. Though I've did small group (open times) sessions with him before, this time was put aside for him to evaluate me and then move forward. That happened and his comments were accurate from my point of view. We are both working on things to do to get me in shape because of the calf/leg. The "normal" things he has his fighters do isn't necessarily smart for me because of it. What I like about him is he has all kinds of alternatives and we just have to find what works, by eliminating what doesn't.

As I also like to study, we are going to find some people to watch and study that come as close as possible to what I'm going to train to be.

[WonderMonkey]

Waiver signed, proof of insurance attached, and everything handed in. Official sessions start on Sept 24th.

In order to participate the sessions need to be attended and additional work put in. If the work isn't done or sessions not attended, you are not allowed to participate. This is how they put on a quality event.