Description: A little bit of unarmed training for Brett via one Lita Luwanada, trying to teach the hockey kid not to rely on his trusty stick too much
This time, Lita has a little bit of free time after her trip to Las Vegas so she makes a trip to Metro City to arrange for another training session for Brett. While communing with nature for training is good and all, there's something to be said for having a gym with a multitude of equipment.
When calling to arrange the said training session, she gives an address for a gym in downtown Metro City.
When one first enters the gym they don't see the equipment right away but rather a desk and a few couches. Lita is seated in one of the couches in an outfit that Brett might not exactly be used to. Grey t-shirt, loose navy blue sweatpants, and her blonde hair is tied up and kept out of the way.
In her lap is a clipboard with a waiver that she's filling out, and a clipboard that's right next to her which presumably is for Brett.
Morning training isn't exactly a new thing for Brett. After all, being part of a team in one of more well known junior hockey leagues in North America tends to mean you take your place their seriously. Still, he didn't expect Lita to be calling him over for such morning training, especially so suddenly.
Still, it wasn't exactly too hard to get there for him. He just isn't expecting Lita to be dressed...well, as workout-casual as she is when he arrives at the gym. Blinking a little as he almost doesn't recognize the Delta Red agent at first, he gives a faint, rather dazed wave to her. "Um...hey."
Well, it's probably less distracting than some work out clothes you see from women at the gym. Doesn't keep Brett from being surprised. "Um...so...what's on the slate today, L...er..Coach?"
Lita looks up from her clipboard to see the hockey player coming into the gym. A smile forms on her face as she raises a hand to beckon the hockey player over. "Hello, Brett. Glad to see you made it here safe and sound."
She then glances over at the second clipboard and holds it out to him. "Here. Fill this out. They won't let us train here unless we fill this out first. Liability and what have you. I'll be footing the bill for this session." She then pats the couch beside her and then she gets back to work finishing the form.
After a few moments she speaks up once more. "While you're filling that out, I might as well tell you what's on the agenda. We're going to be working on boxing. No skates for three reasons. First, since footwork is important, and I don't know how the skates will interact with that quite yet, I'm not willing to do that and put you at risk of injury when it's not necessary. Second, you may not always have your skates on and so you need to be able to fight off the skates as well. Third, I don't want to risk ruining the floor with wheel marks or anything like that."
Ahhh...gym waivers and contracts. Brett made a bit of a face at that, but then again, he was used to the team gym...and the gym back home was a lot more cozy and less like a franchise business. Still...if it's for the sake of getting himself bettered...
Taking the clipboard, Brett starts to glance over the details, frowning at the wording obviously decided to baffle most laymen. Still, he signs it, filling out the necessary details on it as he listens in to Lita. "Boxing..." he says, a bit distractedly as he finally gets to the signature down at the bottom. As he listens to the agent, he ponders. Boxing does seem like it'd be pretty close to the necessary skillset (once you remove the skates) that is. Still....
"So...we're going to be sparring? In an actual ring?" he asks, glancing down at his hands, and trying to imagine boxing gloves on them rather than his usual hockey gloves. His fingers waggle, as if finding it hard to think of using mitten-like glovse without separate fingers.
The society has gotten so litigious, that even the small time gyms in the US have waivers you have to fill out before they even let you /look/ at the equipment let alone use it. Not that this is one of those small time gyms.
When Brett asks the question Lita is quick to shake her head. "No. No sparring quite yet. I want you to be able to get the basics down before we start with that. We'll start with the muscle memory and pad work. And then after that, we'll spar."
With her waivers signed she rises up for a moment and then goes to the desk to give the waiver to the desk clerk. After that she sits back down and waits for Brett to finish his.
With everything all filled out and signed and initialed, Brett hands over the clipboard, standing up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Basics...you mean like how to jab, things like that?" he asks curiously. As much as boxing has interested him, he admits he's not got a real clue as far as the deeper mechanics.
Still, he puts his trust in the older Agent, picking up his bag and waiting for her to lead the way. "I hope you're not expecting me to punch a bag off its chains or anything..." Looks like whatever Brett actually does know about boxing he learned from watching Bison fights. Hoo boy...
"Yes. Basics. Jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, and movement. That type of thing. I want you be able to do those things at the very least, adequately before we getting sparring in." She rises and takes the waiver over to the desk. "No. I'm not going to be training for power just yet. I want your fundamentals to be sound before we even start thinking about what you're going to be specializing in. Having all the power in the world doesn't mean anything if you're no good at seeing where and when to put it to use."
Then Lita goes to grab her things before leading Brett through a room filled with machines that are high quality if not state of the art gym machines eventually there's a doorway into a room with mats padding and gloves. "Before we start the training I want you to make a fist for me and show what part you should use for an ideal punch."
Brett nods, curling his hands into fists and giving slow punches in the air as his bag hangs off his shoulders. "Yeah, I get that. Kind of like how it's pointless trying to do a slap shot if you can't get the right form down, right?" he says, following Lita through the gym once the agent gets all her stuff.
As they make their way toward the room with the mats, he rubs the back of his neck a little nervously. "It's...different seeing you without that uniform on, you know." Even last time, when she had on the Panthers sweater, it was over her usual tactical outfit. "It's...not bad," he says, trying not to sound too stupid about it before clearing his throat. Putting his bags down, he does just as asked, making a fist, and throwing out a long straight. "...um....hrm. Arms, obviously....hips too, right? Turn yourself into it?"
Lita shakes her head with a bit of amusement visible in both her smile and in her eyes. "I thought this would be less distracting to the others in the gym. I hope the change isn't too distracting for you."
When Brett throws out that long straight, Lita observes the mechanics of the punch making notes on what to adjust. While it wasn't intended she got plenty of useful information. "Let me clarify. What part of the fist is it ideal to strike with when throwing a punch?" She forms a fist of her own and holds it up and waits ready to demonstrate where and why if Brett gets it wrong.
Brett coughs a little, even as he has his arm out extended from that punch still. "It's...I dunno. It's a nice change. Like a different side fo you," he says, turning his head away as he coughs again and tries hide most of his embarrassment before focusing on the task at hand.
As he returns back to the form, he frowns as he thinks a little. "Er...knuckles right where fingers meet the hands?" he answers. "I know I nearly broke my fingers once throwing a bad punch since it landed lower on my hand, so..."
Lita nods for a moment. As she listens to Brett, but the way she does it makes it clear it's an 'I'm listening' nod rather than a nod of confirmation of the answer. She takes a deep breath and then she looks at Brett.
"Ideally you want to strike with these two knuckles." She uses her un balled up hand to indicate the knuckles of the index and middle finger. "The reason for that is the impact is divided between those two fingers." She pauses for a moment and then indicates the inside forearm bone. "Plus this bone gives more support not only means better punches but you're less likely to injure your wrist throwing the punch. You'll probably want to consume lots of calcium still to toughen those bones up. But we'll cover that at a later time."
"First we'll work on stance." She steps onto the mat ad goes into stance. "Keep your fists slightly loose and bring them up to your temple. It allows you to see everything and protect your head."
Brett draws his arm back when Lita starts to elucidate a little more. His hand is still in a fist, but more to look over his own hand as she explains. "First and second knuckles...." he says, looking between her hand, then his again. "Ok...so focus on hitting with here," he says, hand tapping those two knuckles again before extending out for another punch.
A small dissatisfied sound comes, before he pulls back his arm again, turning to Lita. He looks on closely, trying to mirror her stance on the mat, the way her feet are spread and pointed, the bent knees, with loose fists raised up to his temples in a partial guard. "Like this, right...I guess this was part of Delta Red training?"
Lita continues to hold her stance some more while she listens to the sounds of Brett getting into his stance. When all is silent outside of Brett asking about his stance, Lita turns her head towards him.
A few moments are taken to look over the hockey player's fighting stance. "Yes. That's good." Still a bit stiff but training will take care of that. "I did learn a bit from Delta Red but I picked up some things here and there." She clears her throat and takes on a business-like tone "Anyway. Now we'll work on the jab. Now pivot your front front foot as you turn your hip to deliver the jab." After that she proceeds to demonstrate the jab slowly working in all of the mechanics she described. "It will feel strange at first but you'll get used to it if you keep it up.
Brett looks side to side, making sure his hands are in the right place as LIta appraises his stance. He keeps it steady as he can until she says it's ok. When she decides to move on to teaching the jab, he glances down, hands dropping just long enough for him to testingly shift his left foot, as well as turn his hip in. "Right..."
Bringing his hands up, he looks forward again, making sure to keep them at stance again, before slowly shifting his weight, turning his left foot and hip in as his left hand extends out. It's not fast, but then again, he's taking to heart the part of getting the mechanics down first before speed.
Lita nods as Brett goes through the mechanics of the jab and he's clearly taken her words of getting technique right before anything else to heart. She then has him practice for a good amount of time before demonstrating the next punches. The cross, the hook, and uppercut.
She then goes through each type of punch repeating the process of demonstrate the punch, have him repeat it, adjusting his punch as needed and then having him repeat it over and over until a good amount of time is spent on it. She's not looking for perfection after all, it's only his first time in terms of boxing. She still is looking for growth however.
After that, the next part of class is having him demonstrate the techniques she taught at the last training session, just to make sure he had been practicing.
It's obviously not a familiar thing for Brett, trying to learn attacks while firmly planted, rather than rolling at a clip. But he seems like a dutiful student and a definite stickler for the basics. Maybe this is why the Greyhounds were as fond of him as they were. Of course, he hasn't tried doing them with actual weight into the blows yet, but that comes later, right?
With the mechanics of boxing worked on, the training moves on...and while his attempts at hip throwing are still somewhat ungainly, he HAS been practicing. Not surprisingly, the shirt grab techniques he's taken to a bit easier...though he seems self conscious as he tries them, looking around and hoping none of the other gym patrons get the wrong idea.
After doing some new things and some review, she's gotten a better idea of both what he needs to work on and what he does well. As a result, she's getting an idea of what to do for the next training session. While she's not all that happy with Brett's hip throw she is seeing improvement which is still a good thing if not ideal.
"Keep practicing and hopefully it won't be a long time before I get another pass to do more training. I for my part have to go but feel free to take advantage of the weight machines."
After that, Lita begins packing her things and heading for the door. "Next time we'll go over defense and pad work."
Brett nods, rubbing the back of his neck as he tries to absorb all the constructive criticisms and pointers that LIta has to offer once the review is over. He definitely knows he needs to work on the throw, but otherwise, it's pretty illuminating.
"Yeah...I might work on the machines for a little. I haven't had time for a real work out in a while anyway." He manages a smile toward Lita as she starts to pack up her things, waiting to see her off it seems. "I'll look forward to it, Coach." He looks aside for a while...before turning back to the agent. "...maybe a cup of coffee next time, too?"
Log created on 10:12:28 07/27/2012 by Brett, and last modified on 10:15:20 10/21/2014.