Well after a good week of training and a half decent couple of runs I am as usual feeling pretty reflective.  You may think by now that I spend a lot of my time dissecting myself week in week out, but being honest I just get my head down and get on with it. It’s far too easy sometimes to get caught up in over analysis and when you start looking at yourself like that it takes the fun out of what your learning.

So this week as usual I’ve been training hard. There’s been a distinct increase of the toughness of the training on some days, but I think that’s because with both gyms I train at there’s quite a few people fighting in a few weeks.The classes here are pretty big  and because of that not everyone that trains there are fighters. I can imagine it’s not always easy for my trainers to give everyone who is fighting a 100% of their time so in that respect, and to be honest just like at my previous gym we’re expected to push ourselves all the time.

The saying that ‘what you do in the gym you will do in the ring’ springs to mind here because it’s very easy to fall into a mindset of seeing bags and pads when your training rather than seeing your opponent, and one of my trainers makes a point of reminding us that especially if we’re fighting we should be treating each round on the bags or pads as if it is a round with our opponent. In other words we have to push ourselves rather than look for two or three minutes of easy options. Just like when fighting we’re always told in training not to give up and to keep going.

And of course, adopting this mentality in training within the gym should reflect in our approach to the fight when it’s time to step in the square ring. Just like with every other element of my fight training I know that adopting the right mental attitude is just as important if not more important than the physical training that is involved too. Stepping outside of your comfort zone is one thing but pushing yourself when your nearly running on empty is another. But  that’s what the training is there for.

It’s only a few weeks now until my next fight, as usual time seems to have flown by but I know that as long as I work hard when I’m at the gym I’ll be ready not just on the outside but on the inside too, and really being prepared means half the battle is won. Have a good week, walk tall  and like last week, I’ll see you on that road.