Sunday was the hottest day here, so far. Sundays are also our day off. At this stage we’d only had 2 days training but we were beginning to feel the effects of training hard in the heat and humidity.
A few lengths of the pool and some light stretching preceded a stroll around the City in the midday sun, an hour into which we could vaguely remembering Alvin telling us not to go out between 12:00 and 3:00! The local people are friendly, although they do think we’re American and shout “Hey, Joe!” at us as we pass by. The children, being unfamiliar with Gi Joe, just shout “Hey, man!” and run over for a high-five!
5am Monday saw us out running through the City to get to the car park at the Victoria Plaza Shopping Mall for our drills and sparring. The Plaza is a popular place for Filipinos to exercise and there are lots of people exercising by the time the sun comes up. During our training I look over at one of the groups leisurely practicing tai-chi and wonder if I’ve picked the wrong martial art!
On Monday night we got our first Arnis/Eskrima lesson before our normal training with Steve. The lesson was fascinating and it’s a very graceful martial art, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell from watching us. This also meant that we were already warmed up for Steve’s lesson, so he was able to start beasting us right away!
We finished Monday’s training session with boxing training. I can only assume that we all make amusing expressions after being punched in the face, because the more Steve hit us, the more he laughed! Normally we wouldn’t write on the internet that we’ve been punched about the head in training, but given that Steve Grandeza does 12 rounds with Manny Pacquiao’s sparring partner on his lunch breaks, its not so bad.
It was raining when we finished our training. I’ve never been so glad to see rain. It only rains at night here, and the rain is warm, but it was still more refreshing that the stifling heat of wearing a headguard in a hot gym. It only rains at night here, which makes a perfect balance.
On Tuesday morning Steve told us that we were going to stretch out our muscles to loosen up. It sounded that it was going to be pretty relaxing. It was as relaxing as doing the splits with someone sitting on your back can be!
Tuesday evening included moulding training (conditioning the body to take blows), which wasn’t fun, although by the end of the night Davy had perfected his 540 degree tornado kick..
We’re almost halfway through our training, but we also seem to be halfway through all the varieties of food that the Philippines has to offer. Roll on our next meal…I mean… session!
Soaked with sweat, and just putting the gloves on!
