Hold it now, hit it

[clevermanka]

We finally had another punching day yesterday and it was fantastic! I'm not sure our fellow boxers want to be outed here, so I'll let them chime in if they choose. But I wanted to mention that one of them has been practicing enough that I got to spar with her (I've only ever gotten to spar with mckitterick and that's fun and all, but it's also kind of a drag because he's really fast and strong and experienced and has gorilla-long arms so I very rarely land a punch and only manage a decent block half the time) and it was a blast. I have a glorious bruise on my left outer wrist from blocking, right below the wrap of my glove, and I can't wait until it gets dark enough that I can photograph it to show it off to y'all. Right now it's just a sort of boring pinkish brown.

Next goal: a black eye.

My only advantage in a fight/sparring play is lack of fear. I'm slow, I don't (yet) have the muscle memory for combos, and let's not even talk about my pathetic kicks (right now I only try them on the bag with the emphasis on "try"). But I'm not afraid to get hit or hurt. mckitterick would like to add that I'm also mean.

Comments

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

You are so amazing. Although I wouldn't mind learning how to throw a decent punch, I'm dismayed to find that I'm still triggered by the whole fighting thing.
Doing it for fun? Boggle. :)

(You scare me. You're joking about the black eye, aren't you? Having had a few, they are not fun at all, and can leave permanent damage to the tiny blood vessels)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I've actually had a black eye on three occasions (on one occasion, both eyes got bruised) and honestly I thought it was hilarious. Once I fell, didn't get my hands out in front of me in time, broke my nose and the trauma from that blackened my eye. The other time was when I was in Dean's car, and we were pulling out of the alley on Tennessee and someone came barreling down that hill, hit us before I had my seatbelt fastened (I was just ready to click it) and I knocked the rear view mirror off the windshield with my nose (that's the one that turned both eyes black). The last time was when I had the scope on the rifle set wrong and it hit me in the face. That never went black, but it was a lovely green for nearly a week.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

YOU are hilarious! I do remember two of those. I guess I'm just too sensitive, all my blacked eyes seemed to last for ages and sort of stay around darkish. You're lucky!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'm also lucky that none of those actually damaged my eye. The black eyes were just collateral damage. =D

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

I love that you are the sort of person whose posts include lines like, "Next goal: a black eye."

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned to redheadfae above, I've had three black(ish) eyes in my life, and every time I thought it was a riot. Never had one of the nasty ones that swells shut (I'll give that a pass), but walking around with a bruised eye? Oh, man, I love it when people ask and I say "You should see the other guy."

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I'm finally buying a set of sparring gear for myself this Xmas and getting back to sparring classes in TKD. SO EXCITE. I would *love* to get in the ring with you, and that isn't an euphemism for anything else. :)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Woo Hoo! OMG I would totally fight with you and I'm sure you would wipe the floor with me. But it would be COMEDY GOLD.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Always hard to predict those outcomes. You've got reach on me likewhoa, and I'd hate to place odds on which of us is meanest. :) In any case, SUPERFUN. Glad you're feeling fighting strong!

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

I wasn't bothered by my one black eye. I was hanging out in the grass behind 3rd base while taking a break from a baseball game, talking to a friend, and heard, "Head's up!" I looked up in time to see a ball thrown from 1st to 3rd hit the ground and bounce, and I turned my head so it cracked me in my right cheek. The person who threw it was a neighbor of mine, this absolutely adorable fae young man I had a bit of a crush on. He ran over, cradled my face in his hands, and kept apologizing and giving me little kisses on my check.

A little later he crawled under my car to wire up a piece of my exhaust system with a wire hanger that had been holding up part of his car's dragging exhaust system. I went home and called Justin (we has just started dating) to tell him about it. I ended up with a black eye and you could see the stitch marks of the ball on my cheek.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD.

That is such a great story, too. WOW!

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

So. Adorable. *sigh* I still have a CD he put out, low key indie rock singer stuff (that was actually pretty good). I felt like a bit of a leach as he was around 4 years younger than me.

It was the summer of 2002 when wildfires in Canada made the sky in MD grey/orange colored and everything smelled of smoke, I remember that from standing out in the field.I was terrible at baseball, too, and didn't last much beyond the ball-to-the-face incident.

[msmitti.livejournal.com]

Battle scars!

I've never had a black eye, but I have had some doozy bruises. In college, I had the imprint of a soccer ball on my medial thigh--you could see all the little hexagons.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

WOW. Did you get photos?

[msmitti.livejournal.com]

I probably did (it was spectacular) but who knows where they are now.

[stuology.livejournal.com]

My legs *hurt*

I've caught a softball with my face. That left me with a swollen nose and black eyes.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Hurray for legs hurting! My upper back is telling me I did some work, too.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I miss sparring so much, but I have come to the realization that I can no longer soak hits at all. I have become much more breakable, and I no longer heal up like I used to. Dang.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

That sucks. =(

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]