Good after…morn… what ever time of day you are reading this, I hope it is good and amazing. Anyway, Bunches of Punches is not a mnemonic per se, it is more of an alliterative phrase. My Kru uses it to remind us when sparring to throw many punches, knees, kicks instead of just one or two at a time.
Why would you care how many punches you throw at a time?
There seems to be many different opinions on this matter. Surprised that there is a lot of debate about this…I am not. It seems in the martial arts world, nay in any sport, or physical activity there are people with so many different points of view. So let me just wax on about what I know and what I have learned.
Reasons why you would want to throw more punches/strikes then just 1 or 2:
- Throwing one strike is predictable
- Throwing just a jab for instance, your opponent is going to predict that it what you are going to throw and can counter, and return a strike to you. This is not to say that, that singular jab is not a good way to evaluate your opponents response, and or to feint and then throw something else. But in general just throwing a jab out there will not win you any rounds.
- Throwing one and just blocking/waiting for a strike
- Throwing one strike then turtling up, or pillar blocking up puts you on the defensive, you are then just reacting to your opponents strikes. If your opponent is pressing you don’t get the chance to strike back as easily.
- Throwing multiple strikes keeps your opponent guessing
- You could throw jab, cross, uppercut through the uprights, catching them off guard, then when you square up again, jab, cross, over hand… your opponent may be thinking oh I saw them do a uppercut let me dodge, or parry it away. You are mixing up the strikes to keep them guessing.
- Throwing multiple strikes helps you enter striking range
- I am short. I am 5 foot nothing, and my striking range is short range. Against a taller fighter, and lets get real everyone is taller than me. I have less range. So in order to get into range, I will have to crash in. I can pillar block up and crash in, but I am going to take some blows. I want to hit not get hit. If I don’t throw bunches of punches which usually means my hands are in their face, they will hit me. If I do throw bunches of punches, they will not see my leg kick coming till I sink it into their quad.
- Throwing multiple strikes helps you cut the line
- So cutting the line is important. Especially if you vertically challenged like me. I don’t want to be in the front of my opponent all the time. That is where their tools are. Their fists for punching, the elbows, the knees, and kicks. However, if I can cut the line and get to their side, I can land blows, and be relatively safe. They can all ways spinning back kick, elbow, or duck. But I have a better chance of getting in range if I cut a 45 degree angle and get to their side, to do damage. I can throw a jab, cross, hook, and cut the line. The can set me up for an unprotected round house (unprotected torso of my opponent).
- I am not Roy Jones Jr, or Manny Pacquiao, and I can’t bet on a one punch KO in the ring.
- It is possible, though improbable at this point in my career.
This is all great, and easier said than done. However, I hear my teacher/Kru Krysta saying, “bunches of punches Tanya, bunches of punches.” While I am sparring. It is her way of reminding me to do more than just 1 or 2 punches. To fall back on our training. Even when I am tired and just want to throw one or two… throw multiple and get into the fight. Press the attack, surprise my opponent and win the round.
For reference when we are sparring we are not focused on winning we are playing. But that is a whole other topic to write about. We wanna win in the ring at a fight match. We want to play and learn from our mistakes in a sparring round.
Maintenance Week #1
This last week was maintenance week #1.
Looking at these numbers I did not hit my protein goals. I over did it on carbs, but I was feeling the need for carbs… so I had home made pop corn a couple of nights that threw those numbers over. My fats I stayed close to goal.
So this week I am going to have to work harder to get the protein in, and slow down on the carbs.
Man Carbs are so good though.
Good news, I am seeing some body recomposition. I am toning, and building muscle and my pictures are showing progress. Gonna keep plugging along and dialing in my macros.
| MACRO AVERAGES | ||||||||||
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Average | Goal | Difference | |
| Protein | 102 | 176 | 101 | 102 | 98 | 96 | 91 | 109.428571 | 210 | 100.5714286 |
| Carbs | 234 | 309 | 162 | 293 | 219 | 362 | 288 | 266.714286 | 245 | -21.71428571 |
| Fat | 67 | 86 | 98 | 147 | 87 | 90 | 110 | 97.8571429 | 109 | 11.14285714 |
| Calories | 1947 | 2714 | 1934 | 2903 | 2051 | 2642 | 2506 | 2385.28571 | 2801 | 415.7142857 |
Monday 4/19/2021: Workout: 1 hour – mile run, and weightlifting upper body, chest, back, triceps
Guess who’s triceps were sore from Sunday Muay Thai training? Yup mine, but it was upper body day today.
So after a rainy mile run I went to do my upper body workout.
I am still waiting for some dumbbells I ordered to get in so I subbed in barbell inclined bench press over dumbbell bench press.
Also don’t have a cable system so subbed in resistance bands.
Diamond push ups are hard. So I did them standard 3 x each set and then switched to doing them on my knees.
It is always ok to find work arounds if you don’t have the equipment, and or if you need to modify an exercise till you can do it. At least that is what I tell myself. 😊
Workout:
1) dumbbell one armed bench row- reps x 8, 8, 8, 8, 6, 6,
2) barbell dead lift – reps x 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
3) resistance band narrow grip pull down- reps x 10, 10, 10, 10
4) barbell inclined bench press – reps x 8, 8, 8, 8
5) dumbbell inclined chest flys – reps x 10, 10, 10
6) diamond push ups – reps x 12, 12, 12, 12
Tuesday 4/20/2021: Training: 1 hour of Muay Thai
We are working on the basics again. It’s been great I love going back to the 4 counts. I like returning to the 4 counts especially after training other higher level drills. I think of it as re-honing my basic skills.
It also feels good just doing something I know without thinking about how to do.
And lastly you can always improve on the basics. I will always have something I can improve on.
Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for a great class!
Muay Thai:
1) Jump rope
2) plus sign footwork drill, with rear leg kick
3) H’s turn to lead
4) 4 count – right to left- rear kick, hook, cross, lead kick
5) fed pads for H
6) 4 count – left to right- lead kick, cross, hook, rear kick
7) held pads for H
8 )4 count – rear to rear – rear kick, hook, cross, rear kick
9) held pads for H
10) 4 count – lead to lead – lead kick, cross, hook, lead kick
11) held pads for H
Thursday 4/22/2021: Training: 1 hour of Muay Thai
I would not say I completely successfully left my shitty day/mood off the mat this time. But did just sink into the workout.
Thank you Khun Kru Krysta that it was basics again 4 counts and it was nice to just work it and try to forget life for a bit.
Was leaving my foot in the bucket for South Paw stance doing drills, but I was getting rotation and landing my kicks well. Yay!
Muay Thai:
1) Jump rope
2) plus sign footwork drill, with rear leg kick
3) H’s turn to lead
4) 4 count – right to left- rear kick, hook, cross, lead kick
5) fed pads for H
6) 4 count – left to right- lead kick, cross, hook, rear kick
7) held pads for H
8 )4 count – rear to rear – rear kick, hook, cross, rear kick
9) held pads for H
10) 4 count – lead to lead – lead kick, cross, hook, lead kick
11) held pads for H
Friday 4/23/2021: Workout: 1 hour weight lifting and run
Today was lower body legs and abs.
I went on my mile run, did my weight lifting. Then we have celebrations for my eldest son’s birthday.
Yay! Celebration day! And mmmm cake!
Weight Lifting:
1) deficit snatch grip dead lift with feet elevated – reps 8, 8, 8, 8
2) dumbbell glutes bridge- reps 12, 12, 12, 12
3) pause hip thrusters with barbell- reps 10, 10, 10, 10
4) barbell split squat – reps 8, 8, 8, 8
5) dumbbell goblet squat – reps 15, 15, 15, 15
Super set- do all three exercises as a set no rest till one set is done. X3
1) side plank 30 seconds
2) plank stand 30 seconds
3) side plank 30 seconds
Saturday 4/24/2021: Training: 1 hour Muay Thai
Today we worked on Muay Thai, entries on the:
1) cross (parry and return strike)
2) the hook (high block return strikes, and or dumps)
3) the kick (catch kick and return strikes or dump)
We dot to do Silat take down called the Basset Dal, rear facing inside leg sweep. We worked on a figure 4 Leg take down that Jay taught us.
It was a lot of fun today, thanks for the class Khun Kru Krysta!
Training:
1) jump rope
2) cross, parry, cross rear kick plus sign drill
3) opponents turn
4) jab, cross, hook, rear kick
5) fed pads for H
6) jab, cross, split the cross
7) fed pads for H
8 ) jab, cross, hook ( high elbow cover + hit or dump)
9) held pads for H
10)jab, cross, hook, rear kick (catch kick, dump, spike quad, elbow, and or dump)
11) held pads for H
Sunday 4/25/2021: 2 hours of Muay Thai, and 55 minutes of Weight lifting
Training: 2 hours of training Muay Thai
We have our little training pod, where we work together to work on higher level Muay Thai techniques, and sparring on Sunday!
I practice my free feeding and feed back.
I was working on flow, and chaining attacks better.
I was also working on keeping my hand and elbow in.
I was working on landing shuffling out, and the switching stance if need be.
Then sparring with Bunches of Punches that lead into kicks.
We got to do a new drill that was so much fun. Jab, cross, lead kick, slip the cross, hook, rear kick. That was really fun, and you can feel the weight distribution as you drill it out.
Thank you Khun Kru Krysta , Amanda, and H for training with me and helping me learn to clean up my fighting.
Now on to leg day weight lifting. Gonna skip the run today as I think I hit my cardio needs. Lol
Workout # 2: 55 mins- Leg Day quads and glutes
After 2 hours of Muay Thai today leg day was a slog to get through but I did it. I just let my body rest more between exercises. Normally I try to stick to 30 seconds rest but ohh man today I needed extra time.
I also rolled my ankle at Muay Thai and now I am icing it.
Great news is… for the barbell lunges I went up 10 lbs, and for barbell sumo squats I went up 10 lbs. Woot!
Question: do you all get lazy and not take out the smaller weight befor stacking a larger weight? Picture below… when I was switching exercises up to squats instead of reloading largest first to smallest I just slapped the largest weight on the end. 😂
Weight lifting:
1) barbell walking lunges – reps 20, 20, 18, 18, 12, 12
2) barbell sumo squats – reps 8, 8, 8, 6, 6
3) barbell hip thrusts – reps 8, 8, 8, 6, 6
4) dumbbell goblet squats- reps 15, 15, 15
5) hyper reverse frog pumps – reps 20, 20, 20
Super set- do each exercise one after another without rest, rest only after each set of 3 exercises
3x this superset
1) dumbbell Russian twists- reps 20
2) reverse crunches – reps 15
3) dumbbell upper crunches – reps 20
How do you train? Do you train drills with three or more punches?
What do you think? Would you rather just punch once or twice and get out of the pocket?
Thank you all for reading. For those of you who are knew welcome. I am amazed you all read my little journal/blog. If you want to ask me any questions please don’t hesitate to comment or email me. If you want to follow my adventures and know when I put a knew post up right away subscribe. If you liked this post please let me know and hit the like button.
As always, Don’t Photo Edit, Just Go Get It!
Thinks with Spinks 