Hey Everyone!
We’ve said before that the purpose of this blog was to find
new directions for our lives, to try new things, and welcome new hobbies (not
that we would ask too much out of an internet forum). I am a firm believer that you can always
learn new things about yourself if you give yourself the chance to look. For example, I have been kickboxing for a few
months now (our first experience was detailed in a different post), and even
though I knew before that I was a competitive person, there was no way for me
to know how competitive I really am
until I signed up for those kickboxing classes.
Here’s the story:
I was standing at my usual bag wrapping my hands before
class (that’s right, gloves and wrap; my life is pretty hardcore), getting my
head in the zone. The usual 7:00 pm
class people were there, chatting, stretching, and doing the same mental
preparation. That’s when a new girl
walked into class and took up camp at the bag right in front of me.
I have to step away from the story to detail a few
things. The gym is set up with rows of
bags in front of each other. The two
rows are connected to the same framework.
Therefore, the boxers face each other when working out at the bag. So even though we don’t have any actual
contact with the person in front of us, it gives the illusion that we are
punching the same bag. Also, to fully
appreciate the story and my attitude about the situation, I’ll have to describe
myself for you all. I stand about 5’7”,
about 120 pounds. Basically, I’m tallish
and lanky, and not surprisingly, pretty clumsy as a result. By appearances I don’t look super
athletic. Like maybe I could pass for a (slow)
runner, but I’m certainly not going to be bench pressing any impressive amount
of weight. And while I’m proud to say I
can make it through most of the class before feeling like falling on the floor
and giving up on everything, I still get that feeling of falling on the floor
and giving up on everything.
Now back to the girl.
This girl was about 5’9” or 5’10”.
I couldn’t guess her weight, but her abs looked like they were trying to
jump out of her tank top. Her hair was
in a perfect ponytail. Basically, she
was kickboxing Barbie. She walked
straight up to the bag in front of me and got out her gear (This is an
important note: She was new, but had her gear readily available). She had this bored expression on her face and
wasn’t particularly interested in any of the chatting going on around her. Then, while we are all lounging around and
stretching, she just starts doing pushups.
For fun. That’s when people
started taking note of her presence, and she was aware of it. She got up from her pre-warm up-warm up and
looked straight at me. I even think she
did one of those menacing I’m-going-to-destroy-everyone half-smiles. And we both knew. Today was a battle, and only one of us could
walk away victorious.
Then class started. As
it turned out, we were pretty evenly matched.
We were punching at about the same speed, kicking at about the same
height. She was killing me in pushups,
but I definitely had her beat in squats.
All was going well, until there were only about 15 minutes left in
class. Both of us were pretty worn
out. We expended all the energy we could
up to that point. We were punching and
kicking so hard the bags threatened to fly right off the hooks. We recognized the fatigue in each other and
were starting to call a truce. But then,
the instructor called for an attack round (a round where you do anything you
want, any kicks, any punches, whatever you can throw in the time allowed) and
neither one of us wanted to be one to back down. We stepped up to our respective bags and the
fight began anew. She came out of the
box much stronger than I did. There was
a wave of fury beaming out of her face.
She was in this to win. And right when I thought she had, her legs
betrayed her and she started feeling weak.
In the last 10 seconds of the attack round she slowed down to break and
I knew that was my moment. I gave
everything I had left knowing it was only 10 more seconds to victory. I punched harder than I had ever punched,
kicked higher than I have ever kicked.
And when she paused and stepped away from the bag, I knew than I had
won. And with that victory I threw one
last glorious punch… missed the bag and uppercut myself right in the face. I guess you could say we both won that one.
So now I know, I will literally punch myself in the face
before stepping away from a battle. It
seems pretty ridiculous (and embarrassing), but it did help me realize that I
can push past limits that I thought existed.
So many of the things we tell ourselves to keep from failing are
completely made up in our heads. Sometimes
we just need a punch in the face to get some peace of mind. Lesson learned. And of course, I encourage all of you to go
out there and challenge yourself. Push
past your limits and learn something new.
It’s totally worth it, I promise.
Also, try kickboxing.
It makes you seem so badass.
-Alice
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