May 10 22:54:31 107 PA - Building from boxing fundamentals
From Chronicles
Logfile from Rifts.
The current game time is: Wed May 10 22:54:31 107 PA.
US Pacific Time (server): Sat Jan 16 13:03:31 2010 Greenwich Mean Time: Sat Jan 16 21:03:31 2010 Sydney, Australia: Sun Jan 17 07:03:31 2010
Kingsdale - Harry's Gym
The Sparring Ring of Harry's Gym is even more spartan than the rest of the facility. It is geared towards non and lightly augmented individuals as Harry's is by and large a family facility. Nonetheless, the walls here are chemically treated and renforced and many cameras keep a watchful eye on the goings on. The actual 'ring' is a boxing ring, complete with ropes and nearby is a large open area with mats to practice martial arts and other hand to hand techniques. Of real note is that there are two armed guards here at all times -- and the place seems to ALWAYS be in use -- and a nurse's office is located nearby in the case of injuries. Apparently, Harry takes the safety of the public quite seriously.
Players- Objects- Exits- Erica <O> Out
Having arranged a time to meet, Sage makes sure that she has everything with her in a bag that she carries as she wanders over towards the boxing part of the sparring area. She's dressed in her normal workout clothes.
Erica walks into the boxing area of the sparring room dressed in her usual grey gym clothes. Spotting Sage she give the other woman a warm smile before walking up to Sage. "Hello Sage? Ready to teach me some more?"
Setting the back down in the spot she'll set up in, Sage turns towards the familiar voice as a smile takes her lips. "Hey..." She replies, "Now that depends... have you been working out on the drills that I showed you from last time?" She asks softly, before reaching into the bag to toss the other woman the boxing gloves she'll need for the continued lessons.
Erica nods her head at the question and smiles again. "Of course. I think I have shown some real improvement as well." She says as she catches the boxing gloves and pulls them on to her hands before tying them tight. "So what am I going to learn today?"
A lightly mischievous look comes to Sage's features, "Then, we'll finish off with those drills when you're not fresh and see how well you do." She comments, before pulling out protective headgear used for people training in boxing. She walks over to the other woman with a slight smile. "Today, we're going to learn about learning ways to avoid being hit and work on your punches at the same time." She comments as she settles the headgear onto Erica's head and fastens it into place. Once satisfied she walks back to the bag to pick out to gloves that are more like small punching pads rather than sparring gloves to put on her own hands. "You may throw punches at the pads and not myself. The trick will be that I shall occasionally try to hit you with the pads... I expect you to either block ..." She demonstrates by moving her arms from a protective stance in front of her face outward as if defending a hook, "Or, moving yourself out the way... remember that boxing is ultimately about knocking your opponent out by striking the head. So, keeping an active head motion..." She demonstrates with moving her head around in short movements sometimes combined with shoulder movements as well, "can keep the opponent from being able to do that easily. Notice that I never looked away from where my opponent would be the entire time. But, for the purposes of this drill, it may be best to simply duck under the pad or move back. Do you understand?"
Erica winces slightly at Sage telling her when they will try the previous drills. She giggles slightly as she holds still for the other woman to put the head gear on her. She nods her head as Sage tells her what this drill is all about and holds up her gloved hands up so that she protects her head and face. She tries moving and bobbing her head to get used to the constant movement. "Yah I think I get it." She says as she keeps moving her head getting used to the movement so she'll be able to do it while throwing punches.
"It gets harder the longer a fight goes..." Sage comments, "Typically you will not be able to keep your head moving while throwing a punch, however. The movement helps make your opponent miss and open an opportunity to exploit the hold in their defense." She explains before she holds up the two pads attached to your hand. "Now, try to remain light on your feet and don't be afraid to throw any kind of punch you want at the pads... it'll get you used to how open you make yourself when you punch certain ways.
Erica stops bobbing her head for a moment to nod her head towards Sage. "Sure, I think I understand. " She says as she starts moving her feet and then head. She takes a few moments to get used to moving all about like that. After a few minutes she seems to start to get used to all the various movements at the same time and tries throwing a quick jab at one of the pads. Her jab is more a quick punch then anything with power behind it. Her arm quickly moves back after the jab to protect her head and face.
Watching the other woman move, Sage can't help but look faintly amused. She remains patient for the woman to be ready for the drill. She raises a brow at the woman's quick punch. "Don't be so timid... worse thing that happens is I bop you on the side of the head and you have padding. If an opponent doesn't respect your punch... he's going to be all over you like... well, Sebastien on most women." She doesn't try to counter for now. "And, I want you to get comfortable throwing punches before I start mixing in things to defend yourself against."
Erica sticks out her tongue playfully at Sage when the other woman looks amused. She throws another punch at the pads this one having a lot more force behind it. It smacks the pad with a good smacking noise and she smiles briefly at the sound of the impact. Her hand moves quickly baack to protect her head and face while she throws a follow up punch with her left hand, this jab also having a good amount of force behind it.
"That's it." Sage comments approving as the woman begins to put more power into the punches. "These pads are Sebastien and they want to get with Erica..." She taunts teasingly as she wishes the woman to get into a rythym. Once the other woman gets a few more punches in without being molested, she starts mixing in the occasional swipe from either the left or right.
Erica laughs softly and shakes her head slightly at the taunting but she doesn't let it get to her and she throws another punch this one a cross hook with her right to hit the pad on the left. Concentrating on building a rythym the first swipe from the pads tags her on the head and she grins, bemused at herself, and she starts paying more attention to the swipes from the pads, and she manages to dodge the next swipe while she keeps throwing punches.
A small grin takes Sage's lips as the other woman reacts to her taunt, but she doesn't feel the need to correct Erica on defending herself from the pads. The other woman is a fighter by trade and it was only one hit. She'll wait to see if the other woman just simply loses concentration instead. She'll mix up the swipes to keep the other woman guessing and reacting to the attempts whether they are a couple in rapid succession or a sneaky one that seems to come out of nowhere. "Good." She comments when the other woman manages to avoid a blow and resume the offensive.
Erica's face shows the concentration that it takes to keep so many movements and variables in her head at once as she works on throwing punches while defending herself and keeping up the constant movement. She throws a quick left jab followed by a hard right hook in a nice combo as this exercise starts to become easier for her. She starts making her ducking and weaving part of her punches trying to use her momentum to throw harder punches.
As the woman seems to get more comfortable with the drill, Sage watches with an approving gaze. The other woman may not have perfect boxing form, but the previous fighting experience seems to be a help. "Alright, let's add some movement now.. back and forth." She comments as she begins a combo of pad swipes while advancing on Erica to put her in the defensive. As boxing is a sport of motion and rythym, it can be one of the most tiring since it involves fighting as well.
Erica fights back the urge to throw a kick or a knee at the pads as she gets used to the boxing movements. Sage's combo of pads throws her off for a moment as a few swipes find their mark, but soon she has the back and forth movement a little better down and the pad swipes are dodged while she keeps throwing hard punches at the pads.
There's a brief pause when the other woman seems to be off-guard before Sage begins to back up as if on the defensive. The swipes are less frequent but she tries to make use of her longer reach with them to show the other woman what it might be like to face an opponent that may force Erica to be aggressive most of the time. When its her turn to advance, she'll mix up the tempo of her onslaught hoping to see if she can expose any weakness the other woman may have with this form of fighting.
Erica gets in close to avoid the disadvantage of her smaller reach. She keeps close and aggressive as she is used to having to get within others reaches. She keeps stepping close as she hits the pads with hard hitting combos. While her defense is not perfect she manages to avoid or block most of the swipes that Sage sends her way. Still getting used to the movements of boxing she can't keep up completely but her previous fighting experience serves her well and her defense is pretty strong.
As the woman seems to settle into the rhythm of going back and forth, Sage adds the wrinkle of occasionally stopping and resuming like the original part of the drill. And, once or twice adding a circling without telling Erica to expect it. She keeps it going until their respective arms seem to begin to tire with the motions.
Erica's breathing comes quickly as she finally tires from the drill and takes a couple steps back and lowers her arms. "That is a good workout." She says while offering Sage a friendly smile. Bending down her takes her towel from her gym bag and wipes off some of the sweat that has collected on her face.
A smile comes to Sage's lips as she nods her head in response. She didn't have to work quite as hard as the other woman, but she has a light sheen of persperation against her skin and dampening her shirt on the back. "Now show me the speed bag drill and then we can call it there." She comments, "And, one thing that can help build up your arm strength is to lift some weights... there are lots of things that can be used to train if you were to take on real boxing matches, but we can get into those later."
Erica takes a quick sip of water from her water bottle and nods her head slightly as she shares a smile with Sage. "Well I like to use the climbing wall. That does a pretty good job of helping with arm strength, but I'll need to do more work with weights for sure." She says with a quick shrug as she walks over to the speed bag. Raising her hands up she starts hitting the bag in a steady rhythm.
Nodding faintly, Sage grabs her own water from the bag she brought in and wanders over to the speed bag. She waits for the other woman to establish the rhythm before she insists the woman increase the speed until the woman can go no faster before she lets Erica stop. "Alright, I think that's good enough for today... maybe we can meet up at the coffeeshop at some point later on." She offers before things begin to move towards putting things away and moving onto other things.
