Weekly Report #17: “Boxing And Acdec” (Week of Jan 22, 2024)

I was finally done with my literature review the week before, and I was extremely happy. I was finally done with my Original Work Project. although now I have to continue and focus on what I will do  on my Final product. The week after this, I'm planning to read more on the sodium channel that my mentor was talking about. This week I mainly focused on studying for Academic Decathlon and practicing boxing. The Regional Acdec competition is happening this Friday and Saturday and I'm extremely scared. For the subjectives, I think I won't do well. Even though I've practiced speech a lot, I feel that I'll mess up and feel nervous on the spot. Additionally, we have to give an impromptu speech which I WISH wasn't a thing. For the interview, I'm a bit less worried but I hope they don't ask too weird questions and that I'm able to think about long answers on the spot, although because of the practice I've had in ISM with going interviews I'm not extremely worried, but I hope it goes well. We have already written the essay which I think went a bit decent, but I can't wait to see my score. Hopefully I didn't get a bad score, but I hope to improve on what I wrote for next year.

Regarding my boxing classes, since my old boxing gym closed I've been going to the gym in our apartment. But, recently I've been looking at different boxing classes to join. I found one called Rumble boxing, and since that was the only one we found at that time, we decided to join it. BIG MISTAKE. It's an incredible class, but it's mainly for people who are trying to get fit. It's like training to get fit, not training for actual boxing. It's even more sad because I found an actual boxing class that was actually trained for boxing competitions, etc. It's called TEF, and the trial class that I had there was incredible. At first I was scared that they would judge me as I hadn't done boxing in quite some time, but everyone was EXTREMELY nice. We did a bit of shadowboxing, and the other high schoolers learning there taught me some more stuff. They all looked extremely strong, and I wished I could be like them one day(sounds cheesy but I really want to be stronger and spar some day, and maybe eventually even fight in a match). After shadowboxing, we went to the punching bags. In the Rumble classes, they only had speed bags which at first I was kinda hesitant about, but I still went along with it. In the TEF classes, they had HEAVY BAGS. In my old boxing gym we had heavy bags so I’m more used to them, but I never realized how much I loved them until when we went to punch the bags. IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING FEELING EVER. I currently sound like a fan girl; that met her favorite idol, but just punching the heavy bag, with the resistance it gives you, as you try to use all your power from your technique and footwork, it feels absolutely amazing. And even though this may be a stretch, I felt like just that one day I had already improved in my jabs and crosses(2 types of boxing punches), since I had only focused on those two for that day. I think that I wanted to join Rumble not because of the actual class but just because I felt good doing boxing again. It might be the same for TEF though, so I’m going to wait a bit before switching. I do regret my decision though, but now I know that I shouldn’t do things too hastily. For now, I’m going to continue working for boxing, acdec, and ISM, hoping to improve.