Western Boxing at P.T.T.

Today i did my first class at Phuket Top Team, the western boxing class. The coach is Silviu Vulc, a former Romanian olympic boxing coach. To me that just seems like a great 'pedigree' of training. The class had about 8 blokes in it, most of them seemed to be at a decent level.
The class was largely based around sparring, which is great because I have definitely never done enough sparring. We did a few rounds of light touch sparring, just trying to tap each other on the shoulders or chest. Great for building up the reactions and footwork. Then Silviu had half of us with our backs to the wall, while the other half would rotate through throwing combinations at us and we were to block and counter. I thought this was great it forces you to stay in the pocket and return fire, rather than just scoot back as your opponent advances. Then it was onto sparring 3 rounds of sparring with the lead hand only and then 3 rounds of sparring with both. I loved the lead hand sparring, defensivley it gives you alot less to think about.
During sparring today I felt ok, not great but competent prehaps. Half way through the sparring I had some nasty blisters develop under the balls of my feet. I have been expecting this, your feet always get shredded pretty fast from all the pivoting when you first start training. So after that I lost alot of my footwork and movement, which made me feel like I was sparring with an arm tied behind my back. But soon my feet will be hard and calloused (like my palms) and it won't be a problem.
The whole time during the class Silviu was telling every power, power and also stressing lightness on the feet, I liked that. Every time I got flat footed Silviu would reming me to keep it light on the feet......

So all in all, a great training session. I am looking forward to the next one.....
Peace