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I don’t say anything, even though he’s right. Speed will help me in many areas of my fight, such as keeping up with fast fuckers like him, and so I can deliver more effectively.
“Your technique is perfect.” He crosses his arms and assesses me. “You can drill, alone, with timed, high-volume kicks on a heavy bag and they’re deadly.” He takes a step towards me. “But add another variable, like a moving target, and you think too much. This slows you down, so you lose your power when you do get a kick in. When on your feet, you can’t control what your opponent does as easily as you can when grappling. You need to learn to let go and… trust yourself.”
I swallow hard and feel tension enter my body. A different sort of tension than I’m used to, because I hate that he can see through me so easily.
“I’ve fought against you many times, Ty,” he says, like he’s reading my mind. “I know how you fight and think.”
I want to tell him he knows nothing about me and has no idea how I think. But for some reason, I stay quiet.
“So, let’s spar today.” Luca unrolls one of his wraps to start wrapping his hands. “Maybe you can actually loosen up for a minute.”
The tension in my body eases slightly, but its claws are still in me, refusing to let go completely. And because of that, it pains me to realize he has a point.
“Fine.” I start wrapping my hands as well, finally able to drop my eyes from his.
Luca chuckles. “Fine,” he says in a mocking tone. “Always fine, never Yeah! Alright! Aye!” he snorts out another laugh. “Show some enthusiasm sometimes, would you?”
I raise my eyes to him as I continue wrapping my hands, and he just stares back at me.
He shrugs. “Alright, we’ll work up to it.”
I turn away from him, but feel a small tug at the corner of my lips. Which quickly falls away when I remember who I’m with.
What the fuck was that…
Luca tosses a pair of shin guards at me. “Normally I would say let’s spar without these, but since you want to go full blast I guess we need these. So, don’t hold back. Since it’s not like you need to work on control…”
“I won’t,” I growl as I grab them, and put them on.
Once our gloves and guards are on and we’re in the ring, it’s completely apparent to me that I’m going to hate this.
Luca is hopping on his toes with a big smile, tapping his gloves together. “Ready, Tiger?”
My stomach flips, and I swallow. I’m not sure why I seem to have an almost nervous feeling about this. I’ve trained every day for years, and I’ve fought this fucker countless times. But training with him… my heart pounds and I feel that same weird feeling I had yesterday. Comfortably uncomfortable…
I hold out my glove and Luca stops bouncing, looking down at it. But he reaches out to tap it so we can start.
And right away, he’s controlling me. He’s lightning fast, and gets a punch combo in before I can even figure out where he is.
I grunt and push him back, which pulls a laugh from him. He’s in the perfect position for me to land a low kick to his right leg. But the second I take my step to do so, he quickly darts in and lands a hit on my ribs, making me drop my glove slightly, allowing him to place both hands behind my neck and land a knee strike to my midsection.
“Fuck,” I grunt, taking a step back to compose myself.
Luca hops on his toes and slightly shakes his head. “Stop thinking so much. I could see the wheels turning and knew you were going for a low kick. Don’t let me know what you’re thinking.”
I exhale forcefully and lift my gloves.
Fine, fucker.
I take a step towards him, and see him shift his weight. But I don’t know where he’s going. I curse to myself, as I’m already on defense and I haven’t even done anything yet.
I step in again and immediately go for a push kick so I can set up an attack and keep him at a distance.
But the second I make contact with his stomach he drops his hands and grasps my foot, pulling me back with him. I lose my balance, and he quickly lands a left hook after dropping my foot.
Fuck!
I shake my head, trying not to show him how much that punch rattled me.
