Nerdcore Boxing Returns!

After more than a year away from blogging, he's back! Woohoo! Welcome back, big guy! It's great to see you blogging again. I'm as eager as ever to read your site. I'm glad to learn things are going well and you're back to training.

To the rest of my readers, I encourage you to read his blog. As you can see from his past blog entries, he publishes a lot of useful content and logs his experiences, which seem fairly similar to my own adventures in the sweet science.

Hat tip to Marc at My Boxing Blog, who keeps punching as the Australian winter sets in.

A Training Update

On Sunday, I attended the workout at GoTime. I got in four rounds of sparring. It went pretty well. I'm thinking of ways to get some of the guys from my former club to join us; that would be fun and would provide a greater variety of training partners.

Here's the roadwork recap for this week.

Sunday: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Monday: 47 minutes
Wednesday: 1 hour and 1 minute
Thursday: 34 minutes

Not terrible, but not ideal. I'm planning to get some gym time Friday morning, and do some cycling before this week is over.

Monday's Roadwork

Today's training was a long walk along the beach on Lake Michigan: 2 hours and 4 minutes.  I kept up a pretty good pace and it was great to walk on the sand in the early evening sunlight.  The cold water splashing on my feet was invigorating.  Ah, great stuff!

Back to Blogging: Coming Out Swinging at Sunday's Training

Wow.  I must have blinked.  It has been over a month since I posted here.  I knew I had been busy, but not that busy.  I'd like to say I have been so busy with training that I haven't had time to blog, but that isn't exactly true.  I've been occupied with other things: work and family stuff, mostly.  I trained well last week, but I haven't written about here, so I am not going to risk further delays by trying to catch up now.  Anyway, enough with the excuses.

I had a really good session at the gym today.  Just Glen, our coach, and Eric were there, so I got tons of focused attention--and, of course, that means tons of nonstop working hard with very few breaks in the action.  Indeed, those few breaks were very short, too, so it was a great workout.

I got to spar a lot with Eric today.  He and I work well together, and it was good, tough work.  In each round, we started at a moderate pace, but were really going at it when Glen called time to end the round.  Great stuff.  Thanks, Eric!

Slow Progress

Not a lot to report. Work has been keeping me busy and I'm behind schedule posting some content I have for this site (including the first guest posting). I'll get that up soon. Back to the gym today!

Alive and Well, Writing and Boxing

I haven't blogged much because I've been under some pressing work deadlines. Nevertheless, training continues; I'm hoping to get some good sparring on Sunday. I'll have more to report in a day or two, as well as some links to some interesting content I have found online. Stay strong and positive!

I'm Still Here and Punching

Work has been nuts (do I say that often enough?).  We didn't have our usual Sunday workout this week, so training is all on our own until next Sunday.  Thats fine since I'm a little behind on a major writing deadline and need the flexibility of the time to get back on schedule.

I'm supposed to get together with some of the boys later this week to have dinner at one of the guys' offices (which I am told is huge) and then attend some of the Chicago Golden Gloves finals.  I am looking forward to that.  Otherwise, regular training continues, albeit at a somewhat more "flexible" schedule.  Nevertheless, it's going well overall so I have no complaints.

Busy Week at Work

It has been a hectic work week. I guess that's a good thing--or will be, if all of these leads turn into paying clients.

I'll be back to more regular blogging soon. For now, a brief update. I had some good sparring on Sunday and decent training during the week. I spent the evening with some guys from the "fight club" by having dinner at the Terragusto Cafe. The food was quite good, but there was really too much served (I don't even remember how many courses there were--it was insane) and the price was a lot higher than I had expected--about a week's grocery bill for me. It's a good thing I don't eat like that regularly; if I did, I'd have to train 6 hours a day just to keep the extra weight off.

After dinner, we headed to St. Andrews gym to watch some of the preliminary bouts at the Chicago Golden Gloves tournament. A good time was seemingly had by all and it was fun to have a guys' night out with the new friends I'm training with on Sundays. It was also a nice break in the action of a really busy work week.

Sparring Improvement

Work has been nuts this week, but I'm still managing to fit in some training.  Sunday's "fight club" went well.  We had a smaller group than previous weeks, so we had the chance to do more rounds of drills.

I sparred 3 good rounds with Eric (not the Eric I have been sparring with during past weeks, let's call this one "Eric 2").  It was a tough sparring session.  He pushed hard and so did I.  We have similar styles--more aggressive, moving forward, and pressuring the opponent.

It was a good workout.  I got to practice some defense and I got my jab working well: two or three jabs in a row.  I'm polishing my footwork and moving better.  Let's see how it goes next Sunday.

Update on Sunday's "Fight Club"

As I mentioned last week, I've attended the boxing group at my gym the last two Sundays. It's fun. It's all midlife guys who have about the same level of boxing experience. It has been informally called "fight club." The coach is Glen Freedman, the head boxing coach at East Bank Club. I first met Glen several years ago when I boxed in a charitable fund-raising event for the DuPage County Bar Association called the "Bar Bouts." Glen was in my opponent's corner, and we stayed in contact after that. It's good to see him at GoTime for an hour or two each week.

The workout was a pretty standard boxing training session. Here's how it goes.

During the first part, we do a warm-up and then practice several rounds on all the bags (heavy, speed, double-end, uppercut), jump rope, and do shadowboxing. I almost always do some easy stretching after I break a sweat; I want to remain flexible and avoid injuries. This first part is the least structured; there are about 12 guys training in the gym at these practices, so having some time to get into the routine on our own is helpful.

While all the individual work is happening, Glen calls each of us into the ring to work one round on the punch mitts with him. We get just one round of this, because of the number of guys present, but if a smaller group showed up on any particular day, I think Glen might do more rounds with that. I felt a lot better this week working with Glen. Since the time is limited, there's an added sense of urgency to stay focused and mentally present during the round, in order to squeeze the most benefit out of it.

My round went well. My "finisher" right, which had been a bit sluggish last week, flowed easily as I threw the combination: left jab-straight right-left hook-right cross. It was good to have some power on that last punch without sacrificing speed or accuracy on the first three.

The next part is contact sparring drills. Because we're practicing punches, we wear headgear and mouthpieces and 16 oz. gloves. We start by working on the basics, such as left jab (so far, there are no southpaws in the group), one-two, and so on. As round follows round, we work at more complex combinations, defense, adjusting stance and balance as needed, and counterpunching. This is very helpful to me because it is realistic and lets us practice the fundamentals a lot. (I don't think any athlete can ever spend too much time practicing the basics of his sport.) It's safe and fun, but the guys punch about as hard as they do in sparring, so using defense is an important part of the practice.

Next, we have sparring. The drills and sparring are at a fast pace and Glen keeps everyone moving. There's a lot of rotation, so everyone gets some experience practicing with all the other boxers. I like the quicker pace and it allows us to practice with more of the other boxers. For example, this Sunday, I sparred four rounds with three different guys and had the benefit of practicing with their different styles. What worked well with Mark didn't work so well with Eric, and my two rounds with Brian had plenty of challenges.

(Mental note: I need to move more when sparring with Brian. I could easily see him and me standing toe to toe and trading huge bombs. There is definitely a time and place for that, but I'm trying to avoid developing bad habits, or, as the case may be with my willingness to get into a slugfest, to avoid sliding back into old bad habits.) The pace and power were perfect, too; no one is trying to take anyone's head off, but the guys do push each other and encourage one another to improve. There's a camaraderie--even a team spirit--in this intense, most individual of sports. For example, Eric commented that my jab was working a lot better this week, so it was good to see some of that ring rust falling off.

After sparring, we do some abs work. It's a straightforward routine, but beneficial, and you can work at your own pace in an encouraging environment. The medicine ball gets to play a part, and I always feel especially alive when I get that lactic acid burn as I push myself to do yet one more crunch.

Finally, we finish strong with "30s"--three rounds of punching the heavy bag as hard and as fast as we can for 30 seconds, while a partner holds the bag. Then we switch with our partner and he punches for 30 seconds while we hold the bag. That goes on until all the guys have done their three speed rounds. Final stretching and cool down is on our own.

Visiting Some Boxing Blogs in the 'Hood

There are lots of blogs online; who can keep up with them all?  Even with my best efforts and (what I think is) my skillful use of my RSS reader/aggregator, I know I can't read everything I want.  Nevertheless, here are a few posts by my fellow boxer-bloggers that I've enjoyed, and I hope you will like them, too.

First, the tenacious Marc reports that he is back in training "again...again."  Way to go, Marc!  Keep up the fine work.

Next, the author of Toe to Toe (sorry, I don't know his name and couldn't find it on the blog) has a bout coming up on March 20, 2009.  Please join me in wishing him much success.

Last, Jonathan Moreland continues his process of Earning a Nickname and recounts the highlights of his recent bout.  Congratulations, Jonathan, and good show of sportsmanship in the match.

I'll have an update about my own training soon, maybe even later today.

Back to Blogging; Busy Weekend; Training Hard and Enjoying It

February was quite a month. I've been away from the blog, mostly because I have been busy with work. It's an interesting challenge to balance all of these activities, but I am definitely learning a lot from it. Although I haven't posted any training updates, my training continues and is going fairly well. It could always be going better, of course, but I'm a perfectionist, so my attitude is permanently oriented toward improvement.

Here's a recap of what has been going on lately, in work, life, and boxing.

• In my defiant approach to the economic recession, I have been hustling to get some new clients. I have two new prospects and one to contact tomorrow. I am not being naive, but if the basic laws of chemistry and physics still apply, matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus, in the aggregate, there is no less matter or energy in the universe today than there was a year or two ago, so we haven't truly "lost" anything. The matter and energy may have changed into different forms, but they still exist. As a practical matter, this means that the opportunities are still available, but we will have to be more persistent and imaginative as we look for them.
  

• Life continues to send its nonstop series of ups and downs. I'm enjoying my new neighborhood--and am confident I'll enjoy it even more once spring arrives with some consistently warmer weather.
  

• I helped my good buddy Mark move his home over the weekend. He's in the same building, but has moved to an apartment two floors above his former unit. I'm thrilled for him. He's still relatively new to Chicago, so I am glad he's getting settled comfortably in his new place. Mark is one hell of a great guy and a really good friend. Unfortunately, he recently lost his cat, Fritz, so it's a difficult time for him.
  

• Training got an added boost on Sunday. It was my first time attending the Sunday "fight club" (also known as "Small Group Boxing") at my gym. I was there in a group of about 12 guys and Glen, the trainer, who runs the 2 pm Sunday gathering. It was a great time and I look forward to attending the practices regularly. In addition to the shadowboxing, work on the bags, abs training, punching-and-defense drills, and work on the punch mitts with Glen, I got in some good sparring, too. (Thanks to Jim and Eric for pushing me hard and making me work!) It was a blast. Since all of the boxers are midlife guys--basically late 30s to late 50s in age--the group might offer some good business networking opportunities, too, as well as the chance to make some new friends. After all, some of my closest friends are guys I have punched in the face. I'm hoping my buddy Mark will attend some Sundays.
  

That's the update for now. I'm planning to get more content on this blog, including links to various articles I've found interesting. For now, thanks for reading, and stay strong!

Simple Training Update

Not a lot to report, but I have been keeping up with roadwork and am planning to get to the gym tomorrow morning. 

Mid-week Training Update

Sunday, January 24

1 hour of roadwork

Monday, January 25

45 minutes of roadwork

Tuesday, January 27

A good gym workout. Here's the report.

• 53 minutes roadwork
  
• 5 rounds on the heavy bag
• 4 rounds on the uppercut bag
• 4 rounds on the speed bag
• 3 rounds on the double-end bag
• 4 rounds of shadowboxing
• 5 rounds of stretching

It was a good workout: 25 rounds plus the roadwork. I kept the pace strong, too. I talked with Ray, my gym's head boxing coach, and hope to be working again with him soon. He also said he can arrange more sparring for me. That's great because more sparring practice is what I really need to improve at this point.

Wednesday, January 28

45 minutes of roadwork

Thursday, January 29

40 minutes of roadwork

Good Interview with Rich Franklin

No, this isn't morphing into an MMA blog. I'm just posting about MMA because I am finding some interesting stuff about the sport.

Here's a good interview with the UFC's Rich Franklin. Franklin is an interesting guy. Before he dedicated his career to full-time pro fighting, he was a high school math teacher.

That career change has gotten me thinking. A couple of years ago, a local friend changed jobs, going from being a patent lawyer to being a high school math teacher. I wonder if my buddy will become a cage fighter next?

Minimal Training Today

As it turns out, I did very little training today. I managed to squeeze in 15 minutes of roadwork. It was cold out there--about five degrees below zero. Even so, it was the time pressures of a hectic work day, rather than the cold air, that limited the amount of time I had. This evening, I did some shadowboxing at home. I don't have a great deal of space, but the shadowboxing was more to be able to say I had done something.

Gary Wimsett's Interview with L. Jon Wertheim

At SportsAgentBlog, my friend and fellow lawyer, Gary Wimsett, Jr., has published a great interview with L. Jon Wertheim.  Wertheim is the author of Blood in the Cage: Mixed Martial Arts, Pat Miletich, and the Furious Rise of the UFC.  I enjoyed reading the interview and now I'm eager to read the book.  In my spare time, of course.

Again, while I don't focus on MMA here, I am definitely interested in the sport.  I also intend to learn some of the basics of ground fighting and grappling.  That will help me improve my overall skills as a fighter and allow me to do some cross-training.

Good job, Gary.  I look forward to reading Mr. Wertheim's book and to more of your writing on SportsAgentBlog.  I hope your training is going well.  If you can fight as well as you write, I feel sorry for your opponents!

Freezing in Chicago

Roadwork yesterday was 35 minutes in some serious cold. I had an appointment that ran too long this morning and have a meeting this evening, so I won't get to the gym today. If I can squeeze it in, I'll get some roadwork in this icy weather. If not, I'll get back to gym training tomorrow morning. The evening is already reserved for a few buddies coming over to watch hockey and have a beer or two.

It's cold outside, but invigorating. The key, I think, is to keep moving. Once I get a warm hat that covers more of my handsome mug, I'll be riding my bike along the lakefront trail again, assuming, of course, that there isn't a lot of ice. I don't mind an intense ride in the cold, but sliding on ice that's often invisible--and possibly falling down hard after sliding--or becoming a human popsicle (aka frostbite sufferer) don't appeal to me. I thoroughly enjoy a good, tough challenge, but I'm not that desperate for fun!

Hey You...Wanna Follow this Blog?

Now you can.  I've set up the "Followers" gadget so you, too, can follow this site through Blogger. It's easy to do.

In the right-hand column of this blog, scroll down the page until you come to the area preceded by the "Followers" heading.  It's between the section marked "Subscribe to Lawyer-boxer's Blog" and the picture of the boxer yakking on his cell phone and his annoyed-looking opponent.

Click on the text that says "Follow this blog" and follow the instructions.

You'll need a Blogger account to follow my blog; if you don't already have one, the instructions will tell you how to set one up.

That's it: so easy, even yours truly can do it.  Thanks in advance.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Have just been doing some roadwork out in the snow.   Had hoped to take a break from work today and go for a bike ride, but it was too difficult to get away.  Here's the recap for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, January 10:  34 minutes
Sunday, January 11:  37 minutes

Back from the Holidays

Happy new year 2009, everyone.  I'm back and regular blogging resumes now.  I didn't "go" anywhere, but with the holidays, two syncopated work weeks, some unpleasant family issues (I'll leave out the details), and I didn't get to blog.  I have kept up training, so more info about that will be here soon.  Thanks for visiting.

Pre-Christmas Workout

Today's training was decent.  I made it a priority to train in the morning and, although making the time for the workout took some extra organization and focus than usual, I'm very glad I did it.  I've decided to renew my commitment to fitness and boxing training throughout the holidays so that I can continue it uninterrupted into 2009.

Here's today's recap.

• 35 minutes of roadwork
• 4 rounds of shadowboxing
• 3 rounds on heavy bag
• 3 rounds of stretching
• 1 round on uppercut bag
• 1 round on double-end bag

That makes 12 rounds in the gym plus the roadwork.  I'm varying the workouts a bit to keep them interesting.  The important thing is consistency.

The gym was pretty quiet today.  There were just 3 other members, but I got to meet another member I didn't know before, so that was good.

The gym will be closed tomorrow, but I expect to be back in action there on Friday.

Today's Picture: December 18, 2008

Used under license from Clipart.com.

The Lawyer-boxer-blogger is Now Blogging at LawyerCasting

I'm happy to announce that I am now a guest blogger at the LawyerCasting blog. Published by eLawMarketing (and edited by attorney/Internet marketer Joshua Fruchter), LawyerCasting covers "'best practices' in online marketing for lawyers and law firms, including websites, blogs, podcasts, webcasts, email marketing and much more!"

It's a real pleasure to be working with Josh Fruchter at LawyerCasting. You may remember that I also blog at JD Bliss Blog, as I mentioned here.

My first entry at LawyerCasting is about "16 Ways Lawyers Can Use Twitter."

Blogging at JD Bliss has taught me a lot and allowed me to connect with some great people and do a lot of networking online. I am looking forward to the same kinds of opportunities in my work with LawyerCasting. Blawg on!

Thursday's Training

Did 1 hour of roadwork this evening. It was pretty cold outside, but happily, the snow and ice and "wintry mix" had not yet arrived. The sidewalks were shoveled pretty well after the snow earlier this week.

Short Roadwork on Wednesday

Just 23 minutes today in the snow and ice.  Work was really hectic today, so even the short training break was helpful to clear my head (and my sinuses).

Monday's Training Update--Highlights

I haven't been updating the blog a lot lately due to work and other things going on. However, training continues. Here's the update for the last week or so. Everything isn't included, just the highlights.

Saturday, December 6

I went for another two-hour bike ride, this time with my good friend, Mark. Riding with a buddy made pedaling the two hours easier. Also, Mark's more familiar with the trail, so I followed him and didn't go off the trail twice like I had done the previous Sunday. Plus, he set a good pace--one that was a little slower than he and I would normally ride, but was manageable and provided enough of a workout. I am still getting used to those moderately longer rides, so Mark would probably bury me in a race. Even so, he's a great guy and it's fun riding with him.

Thursday, December 11

This was a gym training day. Here's today's recap:

• 34 minutes of roadwork
• 4 rounds on the heavy bag
• 3 rounds of shadowboxing
• 3 rounds on the uppercut bag
• 3 rounds on the double-end bag
• 4 rounds of stretching

I like training on the weekday mornings. The gym is less crowded and it looks like mornings may be a good time to get some sparring practice, which is really the missing piece of my training puzzle.

Friday, December 12

30 minutes of roadwork today

Saturday, December 13

Another gym day. Saturday mornings are getting crowded at GoTime. I'm happy to see it, for the owners' benefit, but I like training when there are fewer people around. I might be able to get some sparring on Saturdays, too, but it would probably have to be prearranged since Ray, the head boxing coach, has a lot of individual sessions. Maybe I can work in a session with him and some sparring time with other gym members. I'll have to look into that.

As for the workout, here it is:

• 90 minutes of roadwork (it felt really great to be outside on Saturday)
• 4 rounds on the heavy bag
• 3 rounds of shadowboxing
• 2 rounds on the uppercut bag
• 2 rounds on the double-end bag

Sunday, December 14

A rest day.

Monday, December 15

20 minutes of roadwork. It was short, due to very cold temperatures outside and intense sinus congestion that had been bugging me all day. In the past, I have often sucked it up and fought through that kind of pain and forced myself to do a full workout. However, I found that I almost always ended up losing training time because my sinuses would protest and stay clogged even longer. These days, I rest up and recover and then hit it hard the next time. The training plan calls for a good gym workout on Tuesday, so I want to be rested and ready for that.

Thursday Roadwork [shiver]

Did only 22 minutes today. It's cold out there!

Wednesday's Workout

I had a good workout at the gym on Wednesday.

Here's the recap.

• 1 hour of roadwork
• 5 rounds on uppercut bag
• 5 rounds on heavy bag
• 5 rounds on double-end bag
• 4 rounds of stretching
• 1 round of abs exercises

I am liking the morning training. I'm getting to know some of the morning guys and will probably get some sparring partners from the group. Good stuff.

Helpful Article about Shadowboxing at How-to-box.com

Over at How-to-box.com, Aaron Luhning offers a number of useful tips in his article "How to Shadowbox."

Although shadowboxing is a basic training technique, like any of the basics, I don't think a boxer can practice it too much or ever get so good at it that he doesn't need to practice it anymore.

While you're there, check out the rest of the How-to-box site. It contains many helpful pointers, videos, and discussions. Overall, it's a great site and I hope you'll find it beneficial.