Fighting at 70%... or less

  I didn't win my fight on the weekend. I'm disappointed but not that upset. I was fighting sickness for a few weeks leading up to the fight, normally something that would have made us post-pone it to a later date, but since I needed one fight before Provincial Championships at the beginning of March, we decided to go through with it and just see how I could perform.

  I slept all day Saturday leading up to the 6 p.m. weigh-ins, trying to recoup as much energy as I possibly could. The fights started at 8 and as my opponent had a long drive home after and it was snowing, they moved us from the 7th bout on the card to the 2nd. I know some people prefer to be early on fight cards, get the fight over and done, not too much time to over-think and then psyche themselves out, but I like being later on a card. I use the time to shut the world out, concentrate on myself, get in touch with how my body is feeling and map out a fight plan accordingly. This time I obviously wouldn't have a chance to do that, so I adjusted. I scarfed down a peanut butter sandwich, let it settle for half an hour, then began my warm-up.

  As I skipped and started shadowboxing, I could feel my body was not at 100% and I communicated this to Horace as we started doing some pads to sharpen the muscles. He adjusted the warm-up accordingly and went over how to fight when your body isn't feeling the best. For any competitive athlete, it's a truth we all have to get used to - your body can not feel 100% every time you compete. So if this is simply a fact that one must accept, it means adjusting your performance and your mental state to be ready for this once the bell rings. Just because my body wasn't at it's peak, didn't mean my mind couldn't be. I was up against a boxer with almost three times as many fights as me, she knew how I boxed (I had beaten a teammate of hers 4 times previously, so I'm known pretty well in that gym), and she probably was feeling 100%. I walked into the ring aware of these factors but then difference was that they were all dwarfed by something bigger - I knew I was the better boxer. End. My defense, my timing and my brain could make a difference in this fight, the only unknown was how my body would hold up.

  The first round I realized it was going to be a rough fight, she was someone who wasn't going to let me box, she was going to push and clinch at every engagement, try to brawl rather than box. Annoying, frustrating, but a smart plan against a boxer. I went back after the first round already drained and there were still three rounds to go. The second round was more of her pushing, holding, the ref stopping us and warning her and me just trying to figure out how to control the fight without burning out. The third round I started to figure things out much more, using my jab then slipping and counter-punching her when she tried to come in a grab me. I started stepping around her and kept punching when she would grab me. As I started boxing better she started fighting dirtier, wrestling, elbowing, shoving me away with force. By the fourth round I was completely out of energy but used my timing to box smarter. I had seen her pattern and started using it to my advantage, missing her punches but hitting her cleanly. She stopped wanting to come in. This is when I should have picked it up, started pushing the fight a lot more. I could hear Horace yelling at me to step at her and press the fight, but my body just couldn't do it. The ref warned her twice more for wrestling and pushing my head down, I thought she was finally getting a point taken off but he instead just warned her corner to be quiet (note to fighters *never rely on the ref*). The final bell rang and I went back to my corner. We knew it was close but Horace was confidant I had pulled off the victory. He was probably more upset than me when they announced her as the winner. I knew I was the better boxer, she had just shown her experience by stifling me and throwing more punches.

  So that leaves me a week out from Provincials. Not happy with the fight because I know she's an opponent I can beat but wasn't able to on that day, but understanding the circumstances is a huge part of boxing. Things can be off any day you compete, do you get down on yourself, hold on to the loss, or do you move on and train harder so the next time you fight, there's a better chance you'll be "on"? I chose the latter. I was back in training on Monday, working hard this whole week, have three hard sparring sessions to push myself and train for fight pace, making sure my energy is peaking by my next fight. Oh, and I'll be looking for a rematch from this fight as soon as I can.

Getting ready to fight

  I have a fight on a club show this coming Saturday, a tune-up bout before Ontario Open Championships two weeks later. After taking a winter break, I threw myself back into full training to get back into fighting shape in time for this fight. A full training camp for me involves:

-Running 4 times a week, including sprints and stairs
-Boxing 6 times a week, pads and heavy bag work each day
-Sparring 2-3 sessions a week, building intensity towards fight-pace
-Hot yoga 2-3 times a week for sweating out acid build-up in muscles and stretching those tight muscles

  But as I get closer to the fight, training changes up a bit. The idea of a training camp is to peak, be at your strongest and quickest around a week before the fight and use those last few days simply to stay sharp and recharge to be at full energy for the actual fight. This schedule has taken a while to figure out, but between my coach knowing the general structure of training camps and me listening to my body and adjusting things to fit my own needs and past performances, we've gotten a really good system figured out. It still gets adjusted for each fight, depending on my health, schedule, weight, etc. This week's training has looked more like this:

-Running 3 times a week, nothing past Wednesday. No stairs, sprints kept to very beginning of week.
-Boxing 4 days, to finish on Thursday. Session are kept shorter, focus on sweating, not hitting hard.
-Sparring 1 session, kept close to the beginning of the week.
-Hot yoga 2-3 times still, last class on Thursday. This keeps my weight down and my body limber.

  All weights are taken out of training the last week. The focus is to keep the muscles fast rather than strong. The weeks in the training camp are for building the muscles, making them as strong as possible, the last few days are simply to keep reminding the muscle what it's meant to do, muscle-memory at it's finest.

  The last two days are spent doing the training that some fighters have the hardest time with - rest, rest, and more rest. For the last several weeks you've been working as hard as you can almost every day and now suddenly you stop. For myself, this doesn't just mean not going to the gym, but actively working on rest - putting aside the desire to run all errands that could be run with sudden "free time" I don't normally have, to cook up a few meals for myself and my boyfriend, to visits friends, but that defeats the purpose. Rest means sleeping as much as possible to re-charge the body, and if sleep isn't possible, laying down and reading or watching a movie. Anything to keep the body still and, if you're like me, to keep your mind off all the food and liquids I can't have until after weigh-ins! I personally avoid thinking about the actual fight too much, or if I do it's more about what I know, at what I'm good at, at what my body is ready to perform. I don't think about my opponent, because that's just a bunch of "what-ifs", anything can happen in ring, and it's up to me to adapt and adjust. That can be the difference between the win and the loss - how quickly one fighter can adjust. And that's a lot easier to do when you are rested and sharp.