By the second round, I am exhausted. My opponent is collected. Very defensive. I try to open him up, but I've spent what little energy I had this morning. I'm sleepy, ineffective and frustrated.
My coach yells at me for coming into the gym tired. He says, "You are wasting everyone's time."
I think about how just an hour ago I ate 4 cups of oatmeal, 8 hard boiled eggs and a piece of grilled chicken. I feel like an idiot. "Why did I not allow myself enough time to digest?", I think to myself. My opponent notices how unfocused I am, and finally decides to get offensive. He unloads his punches on me. He is very accurate, and lands several punches to my head. I start dry heaving every time he hits me.
Its the end of the 2nd round, I am already defeated.
The 3rd round starts. I no longer care. I am covered in sweat. I barely have enough energy to keep my hands up to block. I am still dry heaving. I want to leave. I want it to end. But it won't end. There are 2 minutes and 55 seconds left to go.
2 minutes pass. And in that last minute, I feel a strange sense of inner peace wash over me.
I get punched in the face, and I shake it off. I didn't blink. I didn't dry heave. My stamina feels intact. I experience a euphoric moment of clarity. My body moves fluidly and unflinchingly. Something in my brain unlocks. I feel creative. I want to experiment.
I lean my head forward and pretend to be tired, lost in thought, just as I was in round 2. I want to incite a response. I want him to attack me. He bites. My opponent swings at me with a left hook, I duck under it, and pop him right in the mouth. My opponent is taken back. He tilts his head to the side, nods a bit, smiles at me, and in a gesture of respect, he starts throwing very hard punches at me. I block them. And we're both smiling now.
He grows tired from attacking so much. And he puts up his hands to block. For some reason I have enough energy to punch really hard. There are only 20 seconds left, so I just unload as many hard punches as I can and I knock him back into the ropes. I throw a flurry of punches at him, and eventually land a beautiful straight directly in between my opponent's eyes.
The round bell rings. The fight is over. He looks at me in surprise. I am just as surprised as he is. I hunch over and start dry heaving again.
My opponent helps me up, and gives me a hug. He tells me I did an amazing job, "In that last round, you did not look like a beginner."
He steps out of the ring, and compliments my coach on how he well trained me. My coach smiles at me in approval. And then he actually gives me a compliment. "I'm impressed", he says. I can't believe it. I am so used to him yelling at me, and telling me that I'm not working hard enough. I finally received my first genuine compliment.
I asked my coach, "Why did I all of a sudden do so well at the end of the 3rd round?"
He says to me, "The more you relax, the harder you punch."
"That's really beautiful.", I say.
"Well think about it later. You still have another hour and a half of training to go today. Get to the heavy bag and give me 3 rounds.", he barks.
