The Little Fighter With A Big Heart

You know I normally start off these blogs by telling you all what a great week of training it’s been and how most things are always a work in progress. I guess this is something that never changes as every time I’m at the gym I like to think I’m always doing my best to improve my technique, my mentality and everything else that’s associated with fighting and training  in general. What I’ve found over the course of time I’ve been doing this for is that self improvement is an ongoing process. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a bad training session. As long as your learning and taking something away then your making progress.

For me, the same rule of thumb applies to fighting. I’ve watched my last fight several times now, and although ultimately I was pleased with the result it’s good to know that I’ve improved since then and of course as always, I’m always learning. Something I’ve taken the time to do recently is watch a couple of fights I lost and interestingly enough I think it’s true when they say that you learn more from losing a fight than you do from winning one. Of course I don’t let myself dwell on the negatives if anything it reminds me that I’ve made real progress, but I’ve found that it’s also a good way for me to tighten up those areas that need improvement.

This week I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on the basics. At points it’s gone right back to the fundamentals of breaking the technique down and doing my best to correct simple mistakes that have become long term bad habits. This isn’t always an easy task but when it comes down to fighting I think it’s an essential one. One of my trainers this week reminded us all that under pressure, the basics are what will see you through and what you will remember when your in the ring. As well as doing my best to build on what I know, the one thing I always enjoy working on is the simple things in life, so I’m going to spend a lot more time sharpening up a couple of things for April.

When it comes to putting the basics into practice I’ve found that simple drills work the best for me in training.  Although keeping it varied and keeping busy is important when your fighting,  keeping it simple should be the order of the day. I’ve had a couple of fights before where my opponent has just been ‘on it’ right from the first round, and although in a ideal world i’d always like to be able to take my time in the first couple of rounds of a fight, you really don’t know what’s going to happen until your in the ring. Again, I think drilling the basics enough to make sure you respond rather than panic and react in these sort of fights will see you through.

I think this is the second time now that I’ve brought up the subject of practicing fundamentals but the more I train the more I understand that to build and develop a set of skills  that will last a lifetime, you need a strong solid foundation that can weather the storm.  Let’s hope the hard work ahead pays off.  Until the next time, I’ll see you on the road.