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Today is

By: Ikedi Ani-okoye

Practicing fights is also known in the dojo or gym as sparring. The goal is not to kill your sparring partner! I repeat - you are not trying to injure your opponent when engaging in practice fights. The purpose is to train your mind and train your body using simulated combat.

Does it hurt? Sometimes. I'm brand new at my dojo with about 5 months of practice. I walked in the door nearly 25 pounds heavier than I am now. Learning to kick above my knee caps without falling over was a major victory for me. Heck, learning to skip rope in the warm up with out mashing my toes was a big thing!

But after a few month your cardio improves dramatically. At least mine did with 3 sessions a week. I got some basic skills, punching, kicking and blocking. So my instructor one day asked me if I wanted to join the intermediate class and do a little sparring.

That class was mostly muay thai kickboxing, with a little thrown in for flavor. Cross-training martial arts is very common in my gym. I had on 16 ounce boxing gloves, shin pads, and a mouthguard. I got to fight a girl.

Yes, I said it. My first fight was with a girl. She was from eastern Europe, her name was Olga. Nice gal, early twenties, muscular and fit. I think she worked as a corrections officer. We squared off and slowly began working on jabs, jab-cross combinations, and counters.

I blocked her punches with my forearms or caught them with my hands. She would throw a few combinations and then I would do the same. We went back and forth in the drill for a few minutes. I was nervous at first. Imagine as a guy punching a girl in the head. You don't want to hurt her, but you also don't want to look like a chump. Ah, the fragile male ego at work!

Suddenly I felt a pain on the right side of my face. Olga had caught me with a strong left hook flush on the button. I winced slightly, my pride more wounded than my mellon. We hadn't started working three punch combinations yet, but she jumped the gun. Rather than apologize she just grunted, and I think I caught a hint of a smirk. It was on....

We gradually increased the intensity of our practice fight, adding in kicks to the body, uppercuts and some clinching. I could tell she was fighting near her maximum level of both control and intensity. She was hitting me far too hard, but I let her go. She wasn't really hurting me, and I still was within my limits.

We sparred a full 5 minute round at pretty close to full out. I was hitting her about half power with my punches and maybe a third with my kicks. The kicks were all she could take from a pain level, but she handled the punches well. Of course neither of us hit to the direct face. In sparring causing a black eye or a fat lip or stitches is just not worth it when everyone has to go to work on Monday.

The physical exertion was intense. My cardio was better than I thought. We were both dripping with sweat and our lungs and limbs were burning with fatigue. I really enjoyed my first intermediate class, I'll be back for some more fights!