Striking

Striking here is boxing and Muay Thai: hands, elbows, knees, kicks, and the clinch where all of it collides. Rex still holds the pads himself instead of pointing you at a bag, so a bad habit gets fixed on the rep instead of getting drilled in forty times while nobody is looking.

Start with the answer on boxing versus Muay Thai, then the one on the jab. The jab is where everybody starts and where most people stop paying attention too early. It measures the distance, it covers the way in and the way out, and nearly everything else you throw is set up by it. Pad work is how it gets built: he calls it, you throw it, he tells you what moved that should not have moved. Then you do it again.

The honest answers on this shelf are the ones people are shy about asking. Yes, kicking hurts at first, and shin conditioning is less dramatic than the internet makes it sound. No, you do not have to get hit to learn this, and not getting hit is a skill you drill on purpose rather than something that happens to you by luck. You can train striking purely for the fitness and never spar a round in your life. Plenty of people here do exactly that. Wrap your hands. Rex will show you how the first time.