Head Case

It's a good thing I didn't write when I got home from sparring last night. You would be reading my big elephant tears. This week's been pretty demanding in terms of work and I'm really staying at my allotted calorie count which means I'm probably malnourished for the amount I work out. Adding all this up... it puts some serious dampening on the emotional stability. 

Words of wisdom from John Snow (paraphrased) after my three rounds sparring:  

"Erin, there's only room for three people in that ring - you, your opponent and the ref. I can hear your brain going 'why did I miss that punch', ' i saw that one coming', 'need to move to the left', 'i should've moved my feet more', Sound familiar? You've got to block all that out and just see and react. Train your body to react to the situation so you don't have to think." 

I think at this point, I wanted to dissolve. He's so right and I don't know how to make it stop! 

I talked to him about afterwards and said "When I try not to think, my mind goes completely blank. I just feel like there's a disconnect between where I am and what I need to do". He corrected me, "Not what you NEED to do, but what your CAPABLE of doing."

Oy, isn't this what I'm reading about in my twenty something crisis book? Holy cow, I feel like a complete head case. 

So the remedy, according to John, is shadowboxing so that my reaction in sparring becomes immediate. For instance, when I touch something hot, I move my hand away. When someone hits me in the face, I don't move back but I slip to the right and under, then body shot. One of the other trainers taught me two specific combinations that I'm going to do over and over and over until Saturday sparring.