I am completely exhausted and I can only imagine how sore I’m going to be tomorrow. I just came back from my first sparring day and was it ever eye-opening. The good thing is that it was a lot of fun and I’m definitely going to do it as much as I can in the future.

I got to Kombat Arts at 6 and did the warm up - jumping jacks, sideways jumping jacks, stride jumps, squats and mountain climbers - 3 sets of each. Then we split up and started some drills. Our drills today were focused on responding to either a jab or cross with either a short combination or long combination.

We started off responding to the jab with either a jab/right Thai kick or hook/right Thai kick. Then we moved on to blocking a cross, then countering with a cross/left switch kick or uppercut/left switch kick. Once we did both of those we had a third round where the pad holder would mix it up and throw either a jab or cross randomly and we would have to respond.

After that we did a couple of drills with the same idea, but instead of responding with a short combination, we would counter with a longer one. After catching a jab, we would come back with a jab/uppercut/hook/knee/push off/right thai kick. Against the cross, we would come back with a uppercut/hook/cross/knee/push off/left switch kick.

Once class was done, I joined the sparring class. We did a quick warm up and then some basic drills. We then went right into sparring - first starting off with just jabs, then adding crosses, hooks, clinches, knees, lead leg kicks, all kicks. After that we did more freestyle rounds where we would switch partners every few minutes. We pretty much sparred continuously with only a few short breaks.

After the first 10 minutes I was exhausted and I really pushed myself to get some energy together - it was either that or sit there and get hit. Although I ended up getting hit a lot anyway - over and over again. Caught more than a few strong shots too - it’s amazing how quick your mind blanks out when you get hit hard.

Once sparring class was over I did a couple of rounds in the ring with Kru Lee. He gave me a lot of good advice while we sparred and I finally started to feel a little more relaxed.

It was the toughest and the longest stretch of training I’ve ever done, but it was definitely the most fun and something I’m going to keep at. 2 hours of training was tough, but the only way I’m going to get my conditioning better is to work at it more.

Now to see how sore I end up tomorrow morning…