Getting Strong Now

Adrian nodded affirmative at Carmen. If Adrian had to rely on stamina to win, no biggie. She proved that in the obstacle course that she had the speed, agility and stamina to keep up with Taylor, and a good gameplan would help her stay one bit ahead. But not if the blonde punched as well as Carmen did, wow. The former cosplayer didn't think she could get one punch with enough power in the same timespan that her coach shot off a devastating looking combo. If the air in front of her was a person it would probably have been killed by that assault. "G-got it. Try to not get hit."

Carmen watched her face with some concern - they could train and train and train, but some things were learned best in the ring. Taylor could rattle off punches pretty fast,and if Adrian found herself caught up in that in storm...

"Try not to get hit. And if she does get in and you can't get away, you need to tighten up." She put her arms together into a classic Peek-A-Boo stance. Parrallel arms, elbows inward, forearms covering the face. Not without its flaws, but it would hopefully keep Adrian safe and let her hold on, weather the storm. "Try it."

Adrian regained her composure as she continued to follow instructions, bringing in her arms for a block. It felt awkward, yeah she could see it would be good for defense so even if Taylor did get the drop on her she wouldn't be able to do much damage. But if she was trying to out maneuver Taylor, it would make sense to have a position that could jab away, to try and zone her out and deter her from charging in, and bringing her elbows in like this didn't look like it would work to well for that. But Carmen was the expert here, and Adrian had to pretty much agree with what she wanted her to do.

The stance would feel odd, but it was up to Carmen to show the usefulness of it. Telling her to do these things was one thing, but they had to get to the point where Adrian could do them with as little hesitation as possible. "Don't feel married to one stance - you can move out as you need to."

She moved back and started to weave around, taking invisible punches. "She's got you on the ropes, putting on pressure." She dropped her elbow, guarding the sides."Safe here." Up went her shoulders, twisting with each impact. "Safe."

Carmen threw out a double jab, then ducked and pivoted, resuming her orthodox stance and going back to normal. "Make some distance, slip out, and go back to the outside."

This was an awful lot to take in for Adrian at once, trying to get the motions right in an unfamiliar style and stance. The best she could really do right now was mimic Carmen's movements. When in an actual boxing match or just striking in general it would probably make a lot more sense, knowing when to drop the elbow so she wouldn't get it in the ribs or anything, but switching between stances on the fly would be a little tricky, especially when dropping out of the guard, she inadvertently got her feet the wrong way round, ending up in a southpaw stance rather than an orthadox one. "Crud." She let out, correcting her stance quickly. "This will all make way more sense in the match, right?" Adrian asked hopefully. She was making progress and picking up new stuff, so she wasn't going into it completely blind, but it felt like the more she found out the more she found that she didn't know. It was like the chess program all over again.

"That's what I'm hoping for." Carmen knew those weren't the most encouraging words to tell Adrian, but she wasn't one to shine up the truth. Adrian wasn't doing poorly - she could at least do a decent job of mimicking, which was better than most people of the street would. Would it be enough to hold out? One round? Two rounds? Four?

The switch caught her eye, though. Carmen had some experience training left-handed. Fighting with her dominant hand out wasn't something she did often, but it came in handy every now and then, and it saved her ass in her fight with Lorenza after she hurt her wrist in the eighth. Maybe...

"Coming in." Carmen moved in and threw a few practice shots at Adrian. No real power, half-speed, meant to give her an idea of how she needed to move on defense. She stayed on the outside for now, throwing out jabs, highs and lows, one after the other. "What you did there, a second ago - you a rightie or a leftie?"

"Riight..." Adrian half-groaned. There was any so much mimicking the techniques of someone better would get you, she may have the motions but she didn't really have enough of the understanding behind it to do it for herself as easily, but as she dropped back into the peek-a-boo stance to block Carmen's practice shots. "Uh... well, I write with my left but I do most other stuff with my left so... kinda both?" She responded, not really sure what she meant. "I was kind of watching the Rocky movies where he fights southpaw for most of them, so I kinda sometimes switch into left handed stance. It's kind of close to what I used to do during Lucha practice since that leads with the right arm, not the left so that's probably a bigger reason for it." The former cosplayer explained. She was pretty much initially taught to be a faux luchador back in the Philly training school so it would gell with the trainer's home promotion, but she had gotten a mix of styles too so often defaulted to what side her opponent was using to make the moves simpler to pull off.

"Hm."

She started to circle Adrian, seeing how well she followed, throwing a few practice jabs to make her stay alert. "First off, I like Rocky as much as anyone - except for the fifth - but it's probably best if you watch real fights, if you watch anything. Keep your head on good habits. Brother's got a YouTube channel with some classics on it, I'll give you the link."

"Coming in closer." She moved in and threw some low hooks, seeing how well she guarded from the side. "And it might be better if we worked from unorthodox, if that's true. Fighting southpaws is always a pain, screws up the angles, makes things more complicated." She backed off from the hook and motioned for Adrian to take a few shots at her, too. "Not saying it'll be a cure-all, but it might mess with Taylor enough to help you out. You already seem kind of comfortable with it, that's a good sign."

"I was only watching it to get me pumped- wah!" Adrian let out, her protest at the notion that she was picking up techniques from Rocky of all things interrupted by Carmen's next barrage. One hook smashing into her side, knocking her somewhat to the side out of reflex. It didn't really hurt, Carmen was definitely not putting that much force behind them, but it was embarrassing to get caught out like that from a practice shot. "Nggh..."

Now it was her turn to try and fight back. Nothing fancy, just a few left jabs before switching up to right ones, bouncing between the different stances to try and get comfortable with both. Maybe that was her gift as far as boxing went. If she could get the habit of switching stances easily it would knock everyone off kilter, hopefully dulling a bit of their power when it would be harder to land a decent blow, making it easier to out-fight them. In theory anyway, it wasn't a guarantee that she'd win but it was something. She had a base to work on.

"Chill, I figured." She threw a final soft hook and backed, getting ready to take it. "Just want to make sure you cram as much of the right stuff in there as you can. Your brain can get funny in a fight."

Taking the different angles with the jabs was off-putting, and while Carmen kept it slow to let her get a feel for things, the idea behind it might help for a round or two and buy more time, and time was a precious commodity in Chessboxing. She would normally never train someone like this, but then, she'd normally never work with a small window. It was a day for exceptions.

She stayed at mid-range, taking a few, dodging a few, advancing and working around Adrian for a while on defense. "Not bad, not bad. Try to mix it up with feints, too. Throw a fake my way and move as it goes, keep moving." She threw a fake Adrian's way as an example, pivoting as it went and making her way to the side.