The last 2 days have been great at Destiny's Gym. On friday I got a chance to do some light sparring drills with a few different guys. I felt great. I probably didn't LOOK that great actually but I felt great. In the hour, if I had to guess, there were probably 200 punches thrown at my head and I blocked every single one of them...with my face. It's true, I'm a decent puncher for sure but my defence is terrible. There is no easy way to put it. If you threw a beachball at me from 20 yards away I think it would find it's way to my face. The good news is I took the shots well. Although, we weren't sparring to kill each other, the guys I was up against were bigger and stronger than me and I took the punches well, my head feels fine as does my neck. It wasn't a frustrating experince really, I know I am rusty I haven't sparred since November. My arms were a little sore and lazy from throwing so many jabs in the last few days and were down much of the time, allowing the guys to land some nice clean shots. I landed too, but I wasn't too concerned with doing that. It just felt good to get in there and take some punches again. I got a long way to go there is no doubt, and I know that Syd won't let me fight until he feels that I am ready, I'm sure he wasn't too impressed with what he saw on friday, but hey, like I tell everybody, I box yes, but I never said I was any good at it! Saturday I would have another one-on-one session with Syd, maybe I can show him something...
My main goal on a day-to-day basis is to improve, especially in areas that Syd has gone over with me. I know Syd probably has an idea of the pace that I will improve at but he doesn't really know how hard I will work. If he asks me to practice something 50 times, I will practice it 500. If he tells me to work on my footwork for half an hour a day, I will do it for 2 hours. He's seen and heard it all before I'm sure. So the only way I can show Syd how serious and dedicated I am to my dream, is to improve at a rapid pace. The only way to do that is repitition. Repition equals hard work. In my mind I knew this from the start of my journey. Everyone, absolutely everyone is younger, quicker, more experienced and skilled than I. There's only one category I can win cleanly at, the effort category. I have to work harder than anyone. I have be more dedicated and determined than any of my competition. I've always known this. I know that may be the only advantage I can get. Anyway, it was very encourging when Syd told me that I will be ready for my first fight much sooner than he anticipated! This due to the amount of work I've done since our last session and the improvements he saw. To be 'fight' ready my footwork needs to be at least an 8 out of 10. Syd puts me at about a 4 right now. So overall, I'm happy, I know I will continue to improve at a rapid pace, so the 4 doesn't bother me at all, who knows, we might be a 10 by the end of the week.
So the last 2 days were great, I can't wait until I'm there full time, everyday. I can't describe the feeling of being there. And when I step into the ring to do ANYTHING, drilling, beatdowns, shadowing, footwork, sparring, it doesn't even matter, I feel like a different person, I feel completely happy. I have no worries, no demons, no stress. I feel like a kid whose only concern is to run ouside all day, and play.
