My Pugilistic Adventure (Boxing)

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Pugilistic

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Reading other people's logs inspired me to do this. Seems like a good way to keep track of your work outs and progress.

Some info about me.
I'm 22 and I used to go to a university in the states but I had to come back to my home country of Korea for my military service. It's gonna take a few months before they decide where to put me so I'm gonna use this time to train my ass off and learn as much as I can.

I have some judo and BJJ experience and dabbled in Hapikido, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Muay Thai and Fencing. I first tried boxing about two years ago and fell in love with it. I trained for little over a year before going back to school for another year. I haven't trained formally during that time due to there being no gyms in the little town I was at. I'm still amazed at how there can be not one boxing gym in a town where there's like three McDonalds and a huge Walmart.

Boxing is my favorite martial art so that's what I'm gonna focus on.

Plans
I'm 5'5'' and 163lbs. I stand orthodox. As far as fitness goes I want to get back in shape after my one year hiatus and go down to a weight so it would be easier for me to cut to featherweight. I'm planning to try my hand at amateur competition.

I have a more specific goal in terms of improving my game. I'm more of a boxer despite my height. I absolutely suck at infighting so that's what I'm gonna focus on. I have a good one-two and been told I have a decent lefthook and a straight to the body. I want to develop my jab a lot because I feel its the most important punch in boxing and I suck at it. I also want to work on throwing combinations in higher volume and mixing in different punches, especially body punching.

I also plan to get a lot more sparring in. I sparred maybe once a week when I first started training mostly because I went at a time when there wasn't a lot of people. This time I'm gonna try to spar 3-4 times a week. My trainer says I have good technique but I need more actualy fighting experience. Overall I'm gonna train 5 days week. Six if I'm feeling good.

Since I just got off the plane wednesday night and because I haven't been working out in months, I'm gonna take it slow and easy for the next two or three weeks before I get rid of the jet lag and I train like I used to.

I'm going to train in about an hour.
 
Friday May 16th, 2008

I completely collasped after I got back from training so I wasn't able to update til now.

I went there around 10:30 am so I was the only one there except for this guy who helps run the gym. He's a pro with a 1-0 record. My trainer wasn't there yet because he had to go run some errands.

I start with some stretching for about 10 minutes
A light 10 minutes on the treadmill
3 rounds of skipping rope
5 rounds of shadow boxing

3 rounds on the heavy bag
The gym now has a new heavy bag. I'm not sure how heavy it is but its huge. Worked a lot on my straight right. Also tried to change angles after throwing combinations like Margarito. It's harder than it looks.

3 rounds on this bag that's fixed to the wall.
Its a heavy bag that has its lower end tied to the wall so its slanted and looks like a guy who's slightly leaning foward. This seems like a common practice in Korea; don't know about else where. My trainer tells me to use this for bodyshots and uppercuts and to some extent, headmovement. Worked a lot on body shots.

3 rounds on the double end bag.
This is the first time I seriously used the double end bag. I didn't suck at it as much as I thought I would. One thing I realized is that I can hit it easier by controlling its position with the jab. Just like a real opponent. Was a learning exprience for me. I liked this bag a lot because it made me jab a lot.

2 rounds on the speed bag.
I really suck at this one. I was laughing at how much I sucked while doing it.

I finished off with some stretching and sit ups. My trainer wants us to finish with 2 rounds of rope but I have knee problems so I don't think I will do this until my knee gets better.

Evaluation.
I was really rusty. I got tired and had to take little breaks here and there. I also kept losing balance after some combinations, especially to the body. I had this problem before but its worse now. My combinations were slow as well. I felt all my punches kinda sucked but my uppercuts and jabs were the worse.

I did do good with mixing in body shots with head shots in my combos and ending them with jabs, even though they were crappy jabs. I also moved my head regularly which is good because I had a problem with using defense. Overall I just felt good to be back in the gym again. Tomorrow my trainer will be there and hopefully he'll fix some of the problems and let me spar.
 
Good luck with the training man. Its great how many boxing logs are starting to pop up on here now.
 
Yes, definitely good to see another person dedicating to Boxing. I'd wish you luck but luck is for pussies...just kick ass, you certainly do have a Countryman predecessor who is a personal favorite of mine, and Korea has a legacy of having Boxers that can best be described as too tough for their own good.

BTW, In Jin Chi was a MASTER of in-fighting, he'd be excellent to study.
 
I haven't updated since my first day of training. I've been wanting to but sometimes I'm not in the mood to sit down and type for a extended period of time. I have been training though.

I've been doing the same things I've been doing since my first day back except my cardio has been getting a little better. The most memorable day is definitely Tuesday May 20, since I got to spar.

I went three hard rounds with a bantamweight who's got his pro-license but never actually competed. Nevertheless he still has a lot more experience than me and as expected, I got my ass beat. He jabbed me and countered me the whole time. I realized I developed a lot of bad habits during my year off. I blinked and flinched a lot as well as dropping my hands. I forgot to move my head and circle. I was, however, impressed by how I was able to go the body. I hardly got any clean shots in, but I used to have problems getting body punches off in the first place. Now I can at least get them off. I also hit him a lot with my straight right. I did a good job of working the jab on the offense but forgot to use it for defense.

The biggest problem was my cardio. I was so tired that I could only defend the last round. My partner caught me with a real good left hook to my body that I contemplated for a split second about taking a knee. He saw me in pain and stopped the sparring session. I wanted to continue but I was so tired I just said ok. It was a good learning experience.

One of the pros who was watching compared us to the Mayweather vs Hatton fight. Me being Hatton. Short guy trying to go inside on a superior boxer and gets beat up both outside and inside.

Cooled down a bit and hit the bags.

This guy who looked to be in his forties kept pestering me for some reason. He kept giving me advice and almost sounded mad while talking to me. Like I got my ass beat because I didn't listen to him. I wasn't sure if I should be listening to this guy since I never even seen him before but I stopped listening altogether when he told me the double end bag is useless and that American boxers don't use them anymore. In my head I was like, "You should tell that to the world champs who use them."

Realized I forgot to do my situps while I was in the shower.
 
Liu Jin said:
Yes, definitely good to see another person dedicating to Boxing. I'd wish you luck but luck is for pussies...just kick ass, you certainly do have a Countryman predecessor who is a personal favorite of mine, and Korea has a legacy of having Boxers that can best be described as too tough for their own good.

BTW, In Jin Chi was a MASTER of in-fighting, he'd be excellent to study.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Your log is the best one here. I check that one regularly.

I would like to see more Chi, but I don't where to find his fights. Only ones I could find on youtube were the Lopez and Brodie(second one) fights and I saw the Morales fight on a Korean site.
 
Those are really the only high profile ones he's ever had.
 
Where do you train in Korea? Enjoy your military service. If your lucky they'll find you an easy position.
 
Tuesday May 27, 2008

Today I decided to add in some road work
11 am
Jogged for 3km which is a tad less than 2 miles
Sit ups
One minute of burpees

Training at 5pm
10 minute Stretch
3 rounds skipping rope
5 rounds shadow boxing
3 rounds heavy bag
3 rounds "wall bag"
3 rounds double end bag
2 rounds speed bag

The guy I sparred last week came in while I was on the double end bag and asked to spar. I said ok even though I was dead tired.
3 rounds Sparring.
This time we went lighter and I worked mostly on defense. I did terrible. I didn't use my jab much, didn't move my feet, didn't throw combinations. Only thing I did good was move my head. The other guy started turning up the heat a little bit and I didn't know how to respond other than by turning it up myself. But I still have a problem with using controlled aggression.
 
Wednesday May 28, 2008

No road work since it was raining and I have qualms about getting hit by toxic Seoul rain. But that's just an excuse. There are ten year olds in cuba tougher than me.

Training at 6pm
10 minutes stretching
3 rounds skipping rope. For some reason my feet hurt like they never hurt before so it was a half assed rope session.
2 rounds shadow boxing.
3 rounds light sparring. My best sparring session since I got back even though I felt like crap. I moved my head and feet. Jabbed up and down consistently. Played around with the Philly Shell a little bit and even though it was the first time I used it, I did better defensively with it. I realized one of the reasons I suck on the inside is becuase I have a hard time getting leverage with my punches up close. I end up pushing with my punches if I don't have range. Gotta work on that.

One thing I've been able to do at times was connect with a lead right hand. I don't know how I did it, but when I did get it, it felt different than when I didn't get it. I think it has something to do with my footwork but I can't pinpoint what exactly I'm doing.

5 rounds heavy bag
2 rounds "wall bag"
Felt like crap the entire time. My left arm was so tired I could barely muster out a jab by the end but I kept battling through. I worked on getting more leverage on my short hooks and found out I hit harder with my palm facing me. My trainer likes us to throw hooks with palms down though.

3 rounds double end bag
2 rounds speed bag.
Stretch
Sit ups

Overall pretty half-assed training despite having a good sparring session.
 
GunsforGuevara said:
Where do you train in Korea? Enjoy your military service. If your lucky they'll find you an easy position.
Click to expand...

I train in a gym near Hong Ik(spelling?) University. Haha I find nothing enjoyable about being forced into conscription. I don't like being forced into anything much less the freaking military.


Liu Jin said:
Cuban Juniors > you.
Click to expand...

I know. Those ten year olds could probably kick my ass.
 
Friday May 30, 2008.

Training at 6pm
Same as always
I'm getting less tired during my bagwork and I'm getting better at the speed bag.
A guy who came in while I was finishing up said he wanted to spar so I did one more round of bag work while waiting for him to get warmed up. Worked on combinations and changing angles.

4 rounds sparring. Moved my head and jabbed a lot. Put together three-four punch combinations instead of pot shotting. Stayed on my toes and and moved around but had trouble maintaining it. My right hand seems to be getting better. Its been my most successful punch in all my sparring sessions. I buckled my sparring partner in the last round because I put more power in it than I intended too. He said, "You mad at me or something?"

I did really bad whenever the guy let his combinations go. My defense is crap on the inside. I realized I suck fighting backwards and against volume punching. I was proud that I was able to adjust somewhat by throwing more jabs and uppercuts to keep him off. Want to work on getting off bigger combos. I'm really susceptible to lefthooks to the body and head although I did do better of blocking body shots. My balance is utter garbage as well. I got wobbled with a lefthook because my balance was off.

Overall I think I'm getting better. I'm doing less of that putting my head down and covering up bullshit. I'm reading my partners a bit better and seeing openings for countershots although I don't always get them.

Finished up with some sit ups.
 
Monday June 10, 1008

I haven't been training as regularly as I planned. Trouble with my knees, feet and occasional case of vaginitis.

Road work at 10am
3 km run
Sit ups 100 reps
Leg presses 4 sets of 20 reps
Run up 11 stories back home

Training at 5pm
10 minute stretch
3 rounds skipping rope
5 rounds shadow boxing
3 rounds of sparring. First time I sparred a southpaw since I came back to Korea and the fourth time I sparred a southpaw ever in my life. Needless to say, I'm confused as hell against lefties. I was taken back because the guy said he wanted to go light when he asked me to spar. So I deliberately hit him on the arms and gloves then all the sudden he cracks me hard in the face. So I started hitting him back.

My jab was almost useless and he defended against my straight rights really well. What worked for me was my left hook, straight to the body and sometimes the right hook to the body. They worked even better if I put them together. I got him with a really hard lefthook which I apologized for. I have trouble controlling my power during sparring; I either punch too light or too hard.

Because I felt like my jab wasn't working I couldn't really set up my shots and started swinging a lot. My cardio went to shit and my form went with it. I took a lot of shots but I do think my defense is getting slightly better. I think this was my best performance against a southpaw but I think it was mostly because it turned into sloppy a brawl.

5 rounds bag work. Couldn't put as much work into it because I was so damn tired.

Another guy asked if I wanted to spar so...4 more rounds of sparring. This time it was a one-sided beatdown and I was on the receiving end. This guy is orthodox and it confused me t spar him right after sparring a lefty. I was so damn tired that I could barely muster enough strength to defend let alone attack. My jab was shit and all my punches were slow. I don't think I got one clean hit on him. He almost took off my nose with a lefthook. The biggest problem I've had was the volume of his jab. He threw a lot of jabs and I didn't know what to do against it. I also have this bad habit of looking down a lot when being attacked.

2 rounds speed bag. The gym got a new one and I need some time getting used to this one. It's smaller and harder.

Sit ups 100 reps.

My trainer gave me a lecture about defense and he told me I need to use my jab and circle out more. I have a habit of just standing there with my guard up. He said the best defensive tactics in order is to:
1. Throw counter shots when the opponents comes into attack
2. Move your feet
3. Move your head
He said I should try to move my feet more since countering takes time and refinement to master. In order to move my feet I need conditioning. He also said conditioning comes before technique. All this time I thought it was the opposite.

My trainer told me I have pretty good punching power but I need more hand speed to deliver that power.
 
Been a long time since my update (like 3 years). I've forgot about I had this going until I logged on to Sherdog today. A lot happened since then. I post poned my conscription until late 2009 for various reasons and before my entry I became more focused on my training. I entered an amateur tournament in Feb of 2009 and placed first in my weight class. I also got my professional license. I'm not sure if I'm ready to fight pro but my trainer thought I should take a shot at the annual rookie challange. I plan to try it out next year after my discharge.

After the tournament I was really surprised by how much my game improved. I'm not sure what it is (confidence? experience?) but after winning my fights, I was able to put better combos together, had improved handspeed, and most impressive of all (to me) was my ability to think mid-rounds during sparring. If I was getting my ass kicked, I was able to make adjustments. This something I was never able to do before even against less skilled guys.

I'm a corporal in the ROK Army now (I make SGT in a few weeks) and have about 4 months left in my discharge. The little time left in the army has relit my fire for boxing (it has never died but it was really depressing not being able to train or even watch it for close to two years) and I'm using the internet to at least re-educate myself in theory.

These days I'm doing some strength training and cardio since I can't actually box. My unit run 2-8km depending on the day. I lift some weights (I mostly work out my abs, back, and legs) and skip rope. It's all I can do right now but I'm also starting to change my diet within the confines of a restricted army diet in order to lose fat. All I can really do in terms of diet really is eat less white rice (half of what we're given in a meal) and drink more water.

I'll start to update more regularly after my discharge when my I really start training.
 
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