Just got home from tonights training.
The last few months, I’ve really been going hard with the whole Martial Arts thing. I’ve been training up tp 12 sessions a week (yes, 12, that’s 2 a day for 6 days of the week), not constantly 12, but between 8 and 12 sessions a week.
I’m having the time of my life.
For a couple of weeks now I’ve been slacking a lot though. I’ve had impetigo, which is a skin infection that has limited my training severely.
It’s gone now, but for two weeks I haven’t been training or eating properly.
At training tonight, my instructor informed me that I had been offered a fight.
“Hell Yeah!!!” I thought.
There’s one slight catch though. The fight is in less than one week
You don’t take a fight with one weeks notice, especially not when you’ve been slacking for two weeks. You just don’t.
But I did.
I thought about it for about two minutes, then I signed.
And I acctually feel good about it. I feel confident, I feel excited.
The fight will be in the W P T C-series (World Pro Taekwondo Champion). WPTC is a small organization that arranges matches that are different from normal ITF-rules. This is similar to Shootfighting or C-class Shooto. It essentially means that you fight with grappling gloves, helmet and foot protectors. Punches, kicks, elbows and knees are allowed to the whole body (except groin). You are also allowed to do takedowns, and once on the ground, the rules are similar to Submission Wrestling (no punches on the ground, just armlocks, leglocks and chokes).
I don’t know who my opponent is yet, but WPTC uses a ranking system, so my opponent is supposed to have a similar fight-record to me.
So, now I have 4 days of hard work. 3 kg to loose, and I need to get back into shape as best as I can.
I’m questioning my own judgement right now.
All kind thoughts, well wishes, etc are more than welcome.
Henke, it isn’t whether you win or lose, but how you fight the fight. It’s the process, not the end goal that matters. Go for it! Make an effort, but don’t obsess over it.
Sometimes, a few weeks’ rest is a good training ploy. I’m sure you’ll discover that you’ll come back better than ever.
Oh, and unless somebody is going to be weighing you, don’t do something silly like dieting.
If they’re going to be weighing you . . . well . . . stop eating NOW and hit that sauna!!!
Henke, Henke, Henke, what are we going to do with you? I do wish you luck. I also wish you were here so I could give you good talking-to ! Losing 3kg (about 6 pounds) in four days—is that the way to treat your body? I hope you will not do this again. I may have to fly over there to scold you!
While life itself is not a zero sum game, a tournament is. And yet is not at the same time. You either win or lose, but if you win at the expense of your honour, you still lose. If you lose in order to maintain your honour (and such is not unheard of) you still win. The true fight is internal; the match is but one manifestation of the true fight.
(I’m starting to sound like my sabunim.)
I will not wish you luck; luck runs out…it’s not reliable. Don’t trust to it.
I shall instead wish you success, in every sense, in your fight.
And ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. With the judges score 4 to 0. It’s a win for “Iron-chin” Heeeeeeeenkeeeee!
(okay, Iron-chin is not really my nick, I just made it up)
It was a really bad fight honestly. I preformed quite bad. No speed, I was ready to throw up a couple of times. But I still dominated.
Just took it easy, went for a few take-downs. Got in the best possible top position one time and landed punches until the referee stoped.
In real Vale Tudo, this would have meant instant victory, but in W P T C, you can’t win before full-time. But those were the things that eventually made me the winner.
The opponent was quite bad, but a win is a win anyway.
Looking forward to a better opponent, and a lot longer time for preparation the next time around.
Interesting. One reason I stopped boxing training was that
I was concerned for my hands. We wrap our fists and wear
gloves, but banging away at bags very hard does have
its costs in pain and bruises. As a musician I didn’t
want to take chances.
Jim, I haven’t had any problems yet. I make sure to wrap my hands good when I do punching excersises. Also, we don’t have anywhere near as much bag training as boxers do. In Taekwondo there’s hardly any of that. In Shootfighting there is some, but as there’s so much other stuff we do, it’s not a problem.
Yeah, forgot to mention. The rules were a bit different from what I thought a week ago. I got an update last wednesday. Punches, elbows, knees and everything was allowed in groundfighting as well. But you were not allowed to knock the opponent out. The referee stopped the fight and awarded points if you got up to a dominant position and started pounding. Also, the helmets you wore provided lots of protection, so the ground ‘n’ pound wasn’t as devastating as it is in real Vale Tudo.
Strange but pretty good rules I think. Definately a good introduction for me into Vale Tudo fighting.
With proper punching technique, proper hand wrapping, proper gloves,used on proper equipment (properly filled bags), hand injuries from bag work are nearly non-existant. Wrist, and shoulder injuries are not out of the question however.
Damage to Boxer’s/Fighter’s hands themselves, usually occur from punching another fighter in the head, elbow, or other boney area. This is why fighter’s wear gloves, to protect their hands, not for the benefit of the person being hit, gloves actually do virtually nothing to soften the concussive effect of punches, in fact, by protecting the hands, which allows figthers to punch harder with hurting their hands, gloves actually contrubute more to the brain injury that occurs during fights, than they do to prevent it.
Were they actually allowing foot, ankle and knee locks as well? This would really surprise me, since the rate of serious injury due to heel hooks and the like far surpasses that of taking a few blows to head face, yet they made you wear headgear. Curious.
One of my university instructors who subsequently became a friend told me a story when I was out-of-commission due to broken ribs:
In the early '60s in New York, ‘Danny’ was playing a lucrative club gig with Shorty Henderson. Dan was a newlywed with a child on the way, so every night playing with Joe’s band was essential money. Dan and Joe had joked that, both being pretty little guys, they’d cut and run quick if any violence broke out in the club.
Well, it happened. A small riot from the street migrated into the club, and the pair ducked out into the alley, but they had to fight their way out with their instrument cases for protection. Shorty’s tenor sax was dented a bit, and Dan’s lip was cut really badly.
Dan couldn’t afford a doctor, so he got the local veterinarian to sew and glue his lip back together. He played the rest of the week, then brought a big roll of cash and a very infected face back to his wife.
He grins and jokes as he tells the story (I’ve heard him tell it about nine times, and it keeps getting better), but he never mentions how his wife felt. Doesn’t matter; he’s on wife #5 now. Horny old devil!
! Losing 3kg (about 6 pounds) in four days—is that the way to treat your body? I hope you will not do this again. I may have to fly over there to scold you!
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