I blame the explosive plyometric training we were doing mid-week in class. The wide stance squats were an absolute killer and my glutes and groin were miles from recovered. I tried stretching, linament oil and foam rolling but i still felt a little tight and off sorts. Leg and hip dexterity was low.
Class went well. But I wasn't particularily aggressive, felt better working at lower intensity and not going in for the kill. Quite the change from the previous week. I was first to disengage if we clinched or if we banged up against the gym wall. I was stopping combinations rather than finishing when i saw my opponent freeze and turtle up, dropping my hands turning and walking back to the centre of the room to re-set.
And in there lies the lesson.
I got paired with a guy who has only been to sparring class a couple times. He has a very lunging style and seems to find it difficult to control power because of this.
He jumps in like a fencer with his jab stretched out, which is fine. But the momentum and the following hook or over hand tend to be a little wild.
But thats fine, you just ramp up to match the intensity. If that jab felt a little too stiff, the resulting leg kick would have a little more sting in it.
He landed some good shots and exited just as quickly as he had got in. Much like a point fighter. He had success like this given the room to pan around and dart in. But under pressure his guard lacked slips and there seemed to be no confidence to reach out and clinch to avoid the aggressor teeing off on him.
Problem came once we had ramped up to the 80% power level. Before we started he asked me if we could chill and just go 50%. He said he would prefer to work lighter, focus more on movement and avoid injury.
I was absolutly fine with that. He had good movement and it was a puzzle I wanted to solve. We start and after a couple of outside exchanges i find myself backed up into the glass wall that seperates the dojo and overlooks the swimming pool.
When my back makes contact with the glass I start to drop my hands to re-set back to the middle of the room and the guy lunges in with the jab extended and his head and eyes down.
The jab goes to the left of my body but the following overhand left comes steaming in and his wrist crunches down on the bridge of my nose.
I hear the pop and crackle of my nose breaking and my eyesight blurs.
I continue to step off the same way i was previously stepping, walk to the corner sit down next to my towel and catch the ensuing rush of blood.
Pinching my nose with the towel seems to have settled my nose relatively straight. I wasn't sure if I had broken it but Paul took a look and said "you haven't seen it".
Needless to say i was extremely frustrated. Both at myself for dropping my guard when i thought we had disengaged and also at the situation.
Knowing that i will most likely miss next weeks sparring class because of this is a real shitter. It's my last week and was going to be my goodbye session. Now it looks like i'll have to sit it out or have a 'no head shots' session. Which is a waste of time as I'll likely still bang my face in the clinch.
Hopefully it's just the cartlidge and the healing is quick. Right now the swelling and bruising is not bad at all. Fingers crossed it feels solid by next week.
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