A few months ago I started kickboxing in London (terrible website, great people). I go to a great school that meets in various church halls and gyms around central London. It's not boxxercising or tai-bo or whatever, but actual kicking-people-in-the-head kickboxing.
Of course, I don't actually kick people in the head. Unless they are really short. And our school is "semi-contact" – we hit people as lightly as we can get away with.
Some things are harder than I expected, surprisingly so:
- bouncing around on the spot ("keep shuffling!") while keeping guard up
- kicking; it's hard work!
- remembering whether to attack or defend during sparring drills
- fitting all your gear into one bag
- remembering to put your mouth guard in before putting on gloves
- doing your ki-ai through a mouth guard
- untangling hand wraps that have just been through the washing machine
Here's what has been surprisingly easy:
- getting into the training session and forgetting about my day
- actually keeping it up
I've been genuinely surprised by how much I'm enjoying it and how
friendly the teachers and other students are. I'm aiming for my first
belt in December, and have strange mix of fear, excitement and
determination churning around in me.
I'll keep you posted.
PS. Apologies for the long hiatus. Hope I'm back now.