Just like Adam expected, he didn’t even have to ask as Rangsan continued with his talk.
"You should have seen this old man fight in his prime. His opponents were terrified to step into the ring because of the intensity and ferocity he brought with him.
Now he is going to teach that same intensity and ferocity to you; he will be your main striking coach from this day onward," Rangsan says.
Adam is surprised by this. He thought Rangsan was already doing a very good job on improving his striking game, so he didn’t expect a new striking coach.
"Oh, then I will be looking forward to it," Adam says, looking at Vince.
Vince meets Adam’s gaze and hums with a slight nod.
"You know how hard it was for me to get this old fool to teach here? But I finally managed to do it. When Lao hears it, he is going to be fuming. Do you know how hard Lao’s been trying to bring in Vince to his team as well?" Rangsan says, smiling.
Adam just keeps quiet as he knows he will continue to get more information. But he is genuinely surprised to find out that Vince is just a big deal that both Rangsan and Lao have been trying to bring him in.
And from the sounds of it, both of them failed miserably, until now. So what changed? How did Rangsan manage to convince Vince to e in?
"I only agreed because I do not have to work under you," Vince says with a grumble in his tone.
"This bastard has an ego as big as the sun. The only reason he didn’t want to work for us was that he didn’t want to work under her.
I could only convince him to join us when I told him that I am no longer the owner of this gym." Rangsan says.
Hearing this, Adam somewhat understood the situation. Vince has an ego, and it doesn’t allow him to work under people he considers equal or inferior, but then again, the question arises, what about other gyms, and why doesn’t he have his own?
Adam doesn’t bother trying to dig any deeper as it’s none of his concern. He is just here to train.
"Done with your warm-up?" Rangsan asks.
"Yes,"
"Great, Vince, he’s all yours now. I will go check on the new students," Rangsan says and leaves Adam with Vince.
"Wrap your fists and put on some gloves. Let’s see if you are as good as Rangsan says you are," Vince says and immediately gets into the ring.
Adam smiles as he likes Vince’s no-nonsense attitude, getting straight to the point. He just hopes that Vince doesn’t change his tune like Rangsan did after getting to know him a little better.
One overly enthusiastic old man is already a lot to deal with; he doesn’t want to deal with another.
Like he was told, he quickly put on his gloves and got in the ring.
Vince immediately began with observation. He asked Adam to shadow box while he watched.
Adam did as he was told and started shadow boxing, throwing fast punches into the air, following multiple bos that Rangsan had made his practice over and over again.
As Vince watches Adam move, he not only observes Adam’s hand, but also takes notice of his speed, where he is looking at, his hand placement through the bos, does he cover his chin while throwing punches, his foot work, does he make sure to keep his head out of striking distance while throwing kicks, is his guard up while throwing knee strikes.
Vince squints his eyes as the shadow boxing drags on. Adam continues to throw punches and kicks into the air as Vince has not told him to stop.
The longer Adam goes, the more intense Vince’s gaze gets.
’Rangsan wasn’t lying when he said he found a once-in-a-generation fighter.... No, he might be even better,’ Vince thought as he saw Adam move.
Through the entire five minutes of shadow boxing that Adam just did, he didn’t see Adam make a single mistake, nor did he see Adam slow down.
The speed, the power, the accuracy, the endurance, it was as if Adam had unlimited energy that allowed him to utilize all of them together without being fatigued.
"Okay, stop, let’s move on to pad work," Vince says, putting on some pads on his hands and feet as he begins taking Adam through some bos.
First, he starts off with simple, predictable ones to get Adam into a flow, but then suddenly he changes the rhythm and moves order, trying to throw Adam off rhythm, but to his surprise, Adam makes contact with the pad, immediately getting out of the rhythm he was put into.
This showed Vince just how much control Adam had over his own movement and how aware he was of the sudden changes.
This first time might be a fluke, so he did it over and over again, only for Adam to always meet him. No matter how many times he tried to throw Adam off, Adam always found his pads.
Adam is so good that it made Vince frustrated; even the best fighters he has trained weren’t as accurate as Adam.
’No wonder Rangsan came to me, this kid is way out of his league,’ Vince thinks, but doesn’t voice it out loud.
Rangsan is a good fighter and a really good trainer, but when it es to pure striking, he lags behind a lot pared to some of the best out there.
One of the very best in the game was Vince. Back in his prime, no one dared to exchange fists with him because he would always end up ing on top.
The only reason Vince couldn’t win the big one was that he didn’t have a good grappling game and always got taken down by his opponents.
But he did leave behind a legacy that is still talked about to this day. Every generation, a new fighter es who is an exceptional striker, and they always get pared to Vince, but none can ever replicate what he did.
Now, as Vince stands in this ring, trying to see the limits of Adam’s physical capabilities, all he sees is an endless abyss that would swallow anything that dares face it.
Vince wondered what it would be like for him to face someone like Adam in his prime.
He stops, which leads to Adam stopping as well.
"You are good," Vince says.
"Thank you," Adam replies with a smile.
"But from now on, forget everything that Rangsan has taught you about striking. We are going to start over from the very beginning," Vince says.
This surprises Adam, but he won’t question the teaching of a guy who is clearly superior to Rangsan when it es to striking.
As for really forgetting about what he learned? That’s not possible. Adam remembers everything. His muscles remember everything.
But whether he wants to use it or not, he has full control over it.
And so Adam’s training begins. Vince starts from the very basics; most of the things he teaches Adam are the ones he already knows, but then he reveals a few things that genuinely surprise Adam, making him wonder why he couldn’t think of that.
In just one session, Vince showed Adam a pletely new level in the striking game that he has been missing.
An hour of training under Vince, and Adam feels more worked than he has ever felt.
Fast, slow, controlled, new footwork, everything Vince taught him, Adam soaked up like a sponge.
It was not just Adam who was surprised by what he learned today; Vince himself felt a little overwhelmed.
He asked Adam to forget everything Rangsan taught him so that he could rebuild Adam into a better striker than he already is.
Never did he expect that Adam would take it in so easily. Not once did he let his previously honed muscle memory take over.
It was as if Adam truly was starting as a blank slate.
Even the very best in the world would struggle to do what Adam just did, as it’s not easy to get rid of muscle memory that easily.
All the muscles need is to enter a known pattern, and it would automatically trigger the next move without the brain even thinking about it.
But Adam didn’t experience any of it.
Vince actively tried to force Adam into a sequence of moves he is used to making, but Adam never fell into it.
The more Vince trained him, the more he understood the freak that stood before him.
In all his life as a fighter and a trainer, he has never e across anyone like Adam.
He finally understood why Rangsan had such certainty in his voice when he told him he was a future world champion in his gym.
It was not a prediction, but a statement. An absolute certainty. Something that cannot be denied.
Vince is looking at the future champion of the world, a young kid who hasn’t even had his first fight.
Vince feels nothing but pity for the fighters of this new generation that will have to face Adam in the ring because they are about to get dog walked by him, and they won’t be able to do anything.
"That’s it for today," Vince says, ending the session.
With the training ing to an end, Adam leaves the ring, enters the locker room to take a shower, and leaves before bidding farewell to Lamai and the coaches.
Rangsan and Vince watch Adam walk out the door in silence.
"You weren’t kidding," Vince says.
"No, I wasn’t," Rangsan says with a grin.
User Comments
0 comments from readers