State of Mind

Chapter 16

Criss-crossed in the wrong direction...Found myself in a conversation... from a missed connection...

The words gave me the motivation to hit the punching bag harder. All the frustration from my endless days of planning is all unleashed when my training starts. I find myself zoning in and losing awareness of all activities around me. Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead as the motivation originating from the song strongly enforced my solid hits to the bag.

I lost myself in this maze... Yes it haunts me... Felt it slippin' sideways... Yes it haunts me...

Push Ava... Push yourself Ava, you won't make it out there if you don't push yourself.

I began to mock my father's words as they often made me frustrated, which helped me to train harder. A woman who can't push won't ever make it out there.

GOD!

I just punched harder and harder until my hands began to feel numb, indicating that I should take a break. I pulled off my headphones and set them aside from my phone and grabbed my water bottle to drink from. I sat down on the bench beside me and took a deep breath to stabilize my pulse and breathing patterns.

I wiped away my sweat from forehead with my arm and got up to continue. I positioned myself in the correct form and began to hit the punching bag. Left... Right... Left... Left... Right...

I continuously hit the bag, keeping my posture straight and neat, conforming to the perfect boxing position. I switched my hitting patterns every so often to get the pattern into my head. Right... Left... Right... Right... Left...

It was something that is known by everyone who can fight properly. You never continue to hit with the same pattern over and over again, you need to switch it up. My pattern consists of five directions which can be either left or right. Each time, your opponent will notice the pattern and try to work against it. Once you see they start blocking your hits, that is when you switch to the opposite of your original pattern. For example, if I did Right on the first hit in the original pattern, I am going to do Left on the second pattern.

Another aspect is timing and speed. You need to be quick with your moves so your opponent has no time to think or notice your next move. Timing is also a huge aspect. Why? This is because if you have something to distract your opponent at the right time, you will take them down in a heartbeat.

Being able to take down a man half my size isn't easy but determination will guide you through, forcing you to win. Weapons will always be there but the greatest victory is won when you accomplished it on your own.

Victories didn't have to be physical, victories are won in any context. Being the winner gives people less of a reason to doubt you. My father always said that to me, he said things like that to push me but he always would go too far. He didn't train me in the context that I would take over, he just wanted to make sure I wouldn't get killed solely because I couldn't defend myself. Little did he know what the future held for us, where it left us...

I think that's enough for today.

I walked over to the bench, grabbing my phone, keys, and my water bottle, and went to the locker room. Upon opening the door, I could hear someone else at their locker, of course someone's there now, I thought. Walking further into the locker room, I noticed it was a shirtless man, grabbing clothes to shower I presumed. However, when he turned around, his identity brought me to a shock.

"Hey," Osvaldo said, quite surprised as well.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked perplexed.