[Pugilistic]

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.

[viel cazzo]

Good luck man.

[Pugilistic]

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.

[Pugilistic]

Originally Posted by viel cazzo

Good luck man.

Thanks. I've been checking out your log too. Good stuff.

[codysweet02]

Good luck with the training man. Its great how many boxing logs are starting to pop up on here now.

[Liu Jin]

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.

[Pugilistic]

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.

[Pugilistic]

Originally Posted by Liu Jin

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.

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.

[Mr. Sinister]

Those are really the only high profile ones he's ever had.

[GunsforGuevara]

Where do you train in Korea? Enjoy your military service. If your lucky they'll find you an easy position.