Second Day: First Class after Work

I can tell you, after chasing around a group of small, screaming kids while trying to teach a lesson you sometimes want to hit something after work. This is perfect because this lesson was the first time I got a lot of heavy bag work and also my first time with padwork at all.

I met K, who had agreed to stay late every Monday and Wednesday to give me private lessons so I could train (my work schedule prevents me from joining all but the Saturday regular class). It's dark by 19:00 now, and only half the lights were turned on which meant it was a lot cooler than my last lesson at 14:00 on a sunny day; sadly this did not reduce the amount of sweat that poured out of me at all.

After a quick review of the guard, movement, jab, teep and 1-2-3 combo K gave me a pair of boxing gloves and put on a pair of boxing mits. We practiced movement, timed strikes, combinations, I learned the hook and uppercut and made combinations with them. Movement and a weak jab plagued me today as I got tired quickly and started to let my guard drop.

After padwork K brought me to the heavy bag where I did a few teeps then was just told "okay, do the round kick". I was a little stunned, having seen enough muay thai on TV I just decided "what the Hell" and after he did a couple of kicks to make sure I knew what he was talking about I gave it a shot. While the teep is a fun little kick that makes the bag swing nicely, the thud and feel of a swinging round kick smacking into the side of the bag just feels amazing. All the kicks were with the foreleg and I was seriously winded by the time he told me "Okay, last ten!" which I stumble-sped through as best I could.

After that he showed me how to do a few blocks from punches to the face with the left and right arms, and then against teeps from both sides. Both inherently involve side-stepping to the outside of the attack while making the block.

Completely exhausted and barely able to raise my arms, the lesson finally ended and I was allowed to relax. We talked a bit afterwards as I cooled/dried off and then it was back home to shower, eat and sleep. Overall, if my classes keep going like this I'm going to both have an amazing time training here and also loose a tremendous amount of weight (which would be nice).

Oh, at the end K told me I'd be fighting on Koh Phangan (a nearby island) in two or three months. I can't tell if he was joking or not...