Round after round after round

As always, this session came round a lot quicker than the two days since the last one seems.

Guessed I would be sparring free tonight as I had sparred on Sunday and we don't have as much time in the ring as we do on the Sunday.

I guessed wrong !

After warming up and 3 x 2minute rounds skipping, we moved onto bag work with 6 x 2 minute rounds, with some individual pad work, thrown in as well, it was about the third round when Tony pulled me out for pads.
Pad work with Tony, actually made me wish I was doing sparring as he is relentless, it's a constant 2 minutes of throwing combinations, while trying to avoid Tony giving you a quick whack, just to remind you, your guard is down, or up, or open !

I should be careful what I wish for !

After returning to my bag a very tired man, I thought "I'll go easy this round, get my breath back and then step it up, next round"
Just as I was having this thought I heard Alan's lovely tones saying" Craig, go next door and put your headguard, groin protector and gloves on, your sparring"

So through I went, wondering who I would be up against, strangely the next person to walk through the door was Jason, who is well over six foot and built like a brick s...house !!!
Luckily enough, the other Craig walked in behind him.

I have sparred before with Craig, but it was about four weeks ago, so had no idea how he had progressed.
Once we were ready, it was 3 x 2 minute rounds, the same as Sunday, with some advice from Alan and Mick in between rounds.
Craig is slightly bigger than me, which made me a bit wary, but realise, the more people I spar against of different shapes, styles and sizes the better.


The fight itself. was pretty evenly matched, with both of us going off like rockets in the first 30 seconds, but we soon got into a more reasonable pace.
By the time we got to the third round, we we're both moving, punching and blocking a lot better, but it still amazes me how exhausting, 3 x 2 minutes sparring is, we were both wiped out at the end.
Was actually glad to get another sparring session under my belt, the more I do the better I will feel on the night.

Back through to the gym to finish the session, which comprised of the following
we joined in the middle of 10 x 2 minute Bag and pad work session, this was followed by 4 x 2 minute shadow  boxing, where we were all confined in a smallish space, moving round one another, without getting or hitting anyone else, Ben commented that this would of been a disaster in the first few weeks, but now everyone is starting to move a lot better.
We then finished off with 4 x 1 minute bag work, with 30 seconds rest.

I have really noticed how totally wiped I am after these sessions now, not because I'm not getting fitter, if anything because I'm getting more boxing fit, so putting more into each punch, getting more punches in and moving around more, which is all good.

Very sure Thursday will be here before I know and no Ben for a week as he is away to Las Vegas for his stag week (hopefully he'll make it back in one piece)
So Alan and the team will be taking these sessions, I am expecting a lot of guys(myself included) are going to be very very tired in the next week.

Craig :-)