Making life more difficult for myself (and having fun doing it)

One of the great things about being involved with Averlast is the seemingly constant influx of new people eager to try out boxing in Second Life. And I'm not just saying that because I get a percentage on the sales of the trunks.

Take, for instance, a friend of mine named jesica Cuttita, whom I referred to in my post about my first tournament. While she's also outgoing, friendly, and generally a good egg, jesica is probably the most flat-out competitive person I've ever met in my life. She picked up on the methods of boxing in SL fairly quickly, but her technique needed work. Especially her footwork. She moved in these long straight lines that made it easy for an opponent to track her movements and get behind her ( big, red flag, disaster-imminent mistake). It led to her being eliminated in the first match of Friday's tournament, but her obvious spirit had put the crowd on her side regardless.

Well, that was then. Today she and I met in the gym for a little sparring, and I stepped into the ring with a changed woman. On reflection, I think the tournament gave her that extra little kick in the hindquarters she needed to motivate herself to put it all together. She was moving in short, precise movements, moving in then backing off like you should in order to keep your opponent off balance, and angling off to keep me from centering on her to land the KO punch.

I had trained her before, and all of that work was finally starting to pay off. As a bonus, I threw in a lesson on a good way to set up your opponent for the KO ("Why didn't you tell me that before the tournament?" she asked).

Her technique has suddenly evolved with amazing speed. And now that I've given her a secret weapon, I think I may have made things more difficult for myself, should I make it in on Friday (I mean to make every effort, but sometimes efforts fall short, y'know?) and find myself staring across at her in the opposite corner. But I still can't help but feel a degree of pride at her evolution.

And besides, why would I want an easy match? Sure things are for losers.