A critical hit! (Coach G-Force Part 6, Draft)

Image from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
"A critical hit!" from Pokémon FireRed Version
This is what happens when I hit a weak point

Day 9

Mom unbanned me from Gold's Gym (I still wanna take revenge on you with a hug), and I desperately needed training because I felt weak at the time--I didn't have a lot of stamina, and I couldn't lift heavy objects easily. I asked for a training session as soon as Mom, Coach G-Force, and I found a viable time slot.

To be honest, there is hardly anything to talk about this session. I didn't have any unique drills, and I forgot to ask for sparring.

In fact, I hardly remember anything about this session, other than me responding to the long combos a bit better than before, and knocking off the mitts twice.

Day 10 (also the day when Mr. Juan Martinez became viral, fun fact)

Remember that woman I mentioned in Part 4? Well, coincidentally, I started training at the same time as she did, even though I was late. (I blame Mom for lining up at the bank a few minutes before training. She deserves another revenge hug.) But I'll talk about my fellow trainee later.

Coach G-Force trained both of us in an alternating way. While I was shadowboxing or lifting weights, for example, Coach G-Force gave Muay Thai mittwork to the other trainee. (I need to make up a fake name soon; this is starting to sound unintentionally offensive.)

When it was my turn for the mittwork, Coach G-Force asked me to try a bit of Muay Thai training, starting with a middle kick with the shin. Instead of hitting the mitts, though, I lost balance and hit Coach G-Force cleanly on the abs using my toes, and he got knocked back. NOOOOOOO!!!!! WHY DID I DO THAT!?

Instead, he asked me to do elbows and spinning backfists. Ironically, I wasn't as fast as my fellow trainee because I focused on accuracy over speed, and I was new to this kind of mittwork.
After a while, I added loud martial arts grunts when I did each move. It's like I'm trying to smash a wall.

We had sparring again, but I think there's nothing special about this one except being similar to my previous sparring--lots of clean hits on his abs, and only one "partial" hit on me.
Besides, I can't remember what else happened on this day.
(I hate doing things for my family sometimes.)

I chatted again with my fellow trainee after she left the gym. Here's how I remember it (with inaccuracies):

*"sneaks" up behind her*
"Uh, hi there. How was training?"
"It's okay. I'm tired."
"I see you're getting stronger and faster."
(Can't remember this part)
*broken combination of Filipino and English* "Sorry, I don't speak Filipino well. I'm better at English. I hope it doesn't sound weird."
"It's OK. I studied tourism, so I'm good at English. I have to talk with the tourists, after all. What's your course?"
"Multimedia. I study at UP."
"Anyway, how do you go to Gold's Gym?"
"I walk from home to the mall."
"Oh, where do you live?"
*CENSORED; let's just say it's a 15-minute walk* "How do you go here?"
"I use public transport. Oh wait, I'm gonna take a jeepney now. See you."
"Oh well, see you next time. I'm walking home now." *sprints away*

Day 11

I'll admit, the main reason I went training on this day is because my fellow trainee said to Coach G-Force near me that she will train again on this day. But, if I had to give a secondary reason, it's because I'm feeling extra pumped for battle, and Coach G-Force was okay with this day.

This wasn't a good day to train, to be honest, because of what I like to call the "revenge of the rain", which I think is caused by the southwest monsoon, and because my big brother was coming to my house with his super cute 3-year-old daughter. She always looks for her "Uckle" (Uncle) when I'm not around.
But, whatever, beating Coach G-Force up and analyzing my fellow trainee's moves outweigh the risks.

Again, we took turns training, but this time, Coach G-Force exploited my original shadowboxing practice and put hand wraps in an X-shape around the posts surrounding the "strafe cone", like this:

So creative; 10/10
(Boulder and Coach G-Force tried to photobomb after I took this)

The way this works is, whenever I want to strafe or avoid an imaginary punch, I'd make my head go under the hand wraps and follow up with my own punch.
(I tried going through two "lines" in one strafe, and it was a challenge.)

Coach G-Force has figured out my fighting style, and is now regularly using feints against me by faking a punch to the head and actually aiming for the body. I'll admit it's bamboozling, but I usually block the real punch anyway...except two hits on this day, one which was clean. Oh well, good game.

I maintained consistency with my fighting style, as with my previous sparring rounds. I continued to spam or feint on the face and actually hit the abs, while also faking attacks to the abs rarely. I didn't dodge any attacks, though--I got lazy and tired.
For some reason, my clean hits had a much bigger effect on Coach G-Force than usual. Each one knocked him back very hard, with a matching grunt followed by a playful laugh from both of us. Heck, on the last few seconds of the last round, I used feints to shift his attention to protecting his head, then landed a huge cross punch on the abs that knocked Coach G-Force back so hard that he used his knee to break his fall.
Eh, that's the closest thing I got to a knockdown, and I'm impressed with myself. (RIP YoSquid.)

When it was my fellow trainee's turn to train, Coach G-Force ordered me to do a bunch of different weightlifting exercises.
I got very tired. Nothing much to say here, to be honest, other than Coach G-Force remarking to another trainer how good my footwork is.

Also, remember what Coach G-Force said to other trainers about me being strong and fast?
He said on this day that I'm also "matigas" (Filipino: hard), referring to my sturdy defenses. Hooray, I've got high stats all around! Now I just need to work on my Logic skill and Magic stat--I need more Khan Academy.

Coach G-Force is thinking of having my fellow trainee do sparring with him or me, but she said no. I said, "Come on, you got this! You hit hard and fast!" But I'll respect her decision--she's only here to lose weight. (I'm here to become the strongest warrior I can be so I can work harder and fight crime.)

Speaking of my big brother's daughter, I enjoyed playing with her, even though I got short of breath while she was still full of energy. She got entertained whenever I pretended to get zapped by touching her big cheeks, and when I acted like a zombie when I was tired.

See my Christmas inactivity post for the gifts I got from my big brother. Thanks again, and eat my fat hugs!

Day 12 (Day 6 of infection)

There's a lot to talk about the things that happened before training.

First of all, I got infected with cough and colds back on Day 11 of Coach G-Force. It was very tolerable at first, but got steadily worse after my training and during my niece's visit (but still not obvious), until the evening when the infection manifested obvious symptoms and I had to go to bed urgently.

Second, I forgot to give Coach G-Force the Christmas gift that Mom wanted to give on my previous training. I brought it this time, though, plus another thing Mom gave--I'll explain both later.

Third, I was trying to train at the same time as my fellow trainee...but she got infected as well and can't train until January 2019.

I still needed to train on this day to deliver Mom's gifts. Coach G-Force won't be available until January 2019, either.

Remember when I said that I normally go to Gold's Gym by walking?

Not today, and I don't like it. Mom and Dad needed to do other stuff in the mall at the same time as my training, so, since I got my driver's license on mid-December, I drove for Mom and Dad, with Dad guiding me while driving since I'm not used to driving yet.

Not only did I not get a warm-up for my body, but I'm actually scared to drive. BAD DRIVERS EVERYWHERE!

Coach G-Force asked me, "Do you want to do a sparring-only training session?" I said yes, even though I told him I was infected, because I want to see how I survive. Besides, I want to be ready in case I get stuck on a 12-round fight...and I don't like fighting more than 6 rounds.

To warm up, we did the typical mittwork first, for two rounds. Despite my colds, which drastically lowered my stamina, I still hit as hard as I could, but got bamboozled by the increasingly difficult defensive practice.

Oh well, driving to the gym wasn't a big deal thanks to these rounds.

I got confused, though, because we had two rounds, not one. "I thought this was an all-sparring training day?" I asked. Coach G-Force replied, "Sorry, I forgot. Let me get my gear." He then went to the trainers' equipment room and changed from pants to shorts, and got his boxing gloves. We then got started with the first round.

The first round wasn't very different from my previous sessions, other than me getting hit on the abs yet again, which never happened before on the first round. My clean hits were still there.

As the rounds went on, though (total of 7 rounds), I lost more and more stamina, and my back was more and more bent while trying to resist both physical and biological attacks on my body. While my air flow was restricted, Coach G-Force fired back with feints, combos, and spamming the left jab to keep me at a distance. I couldn't keep up with his speed this time, so I think I got hit by 11 clean hits in total, 3 of which were part of a single combo.

Fortunately, I hardly flinched due to the impact of those hits.
At the end of one of the rounds, Coach G-Force jokingly did an MMA takedown and lifted me into the air. I shouted a loud "OH MY GLOB!" He gently let me down afterwards, though.

I didn't count the number of clean hits I got, but, like in other sessions, I mostly got them on the abs and on the first round. Funny thing is, I was mainly aiming for the head this time because Coach G-Force knows that I aim for his body, but his head defense is so solid that I only hit him once on the temple (side of the head), and once on the face. Each clean hit still knocked him back more than I expected.

Boulder arrived at the end of our training, and Coach G-Force invited him to spar with me, and he willingly accepted, while wearing a Gold's Gym tank top that exposed his shoulders and bulging biceps. Combined with his speed when he interrupts my self-training, he was terrifying to me.

Funny thing is, while he spammed jabs like Coach G-Force did, I think he got no clean hits--almost everything was blocked completely. I retaliated with feints in order to get 2 clean hits on his abs. Boulder then got terrified at the end of the 2nd round and quit.

The other trainers, who have also heard about Mr. Juan Martinez the bully, remarked that I'm not easy to bully, and I can put up a really hard fight against such a bully.

(I swear, if my mom reads this, she'll say I'm not ready at all because of my "underdeveloped social skills.")

After the sparring, we did a drill where one of us does a "plank" exercise--"standing" on the floor with forearms and toes on the floor, while the other does burpees while jumping over the guy doing the plank.
Burpees were TOUGH AS NAILS for my infected lungs. The American trainer who was watching us, while he applauded my work, remarked that I "almost landed on [Coach G-Force's] back."

Anyway, that Christmas gift Mom gave?

It's brownies from our store...and a bottle of wine.

At least Coach G-Force was okay with the wine, and the mall security guards did not stop me for carrying wine.

 DRINK RESPONSIBLY 

After training, I told Coach G-Force that I will train again next year because I will be on New Year vacation. He said, "Let's train at January 5."

NOOOOO!!! THAT'S WHEN SCHOOL STARTS! I FREAKING HATE ACADEMICS! But I reluctantly accepted anyway.

I wanted to spar with another boxer because I wanted to test my skills against a variety of opponents after beating Boulder, but I thought to myself, "I should focus on sparring my trainer." So I told Coach G-Force, "I promise to knock you out next year."

Well, after my New Year vacation, I'm gonna load up on health food and brutal training to "prepare for war".