Tag: Muay Thai

The Hardest Muay Thai Test I Have Ever Attempted

It kinda gives it away, but… squee so if post is to long, I passed!

So this weeks post is a little different. I normally post a Martial Arts Week post. However, this week ended in a culmination of a test. The hardest Muay Thai test I have ever attempted in my journey. I have been prepping for it about 4 to 5 months.

We have been doing extra pad rounds. We have been working on our technique, and our cardio. We have been doing test rounds to get used to the test, and upcoming pad rounds.

We have been talked to, discussed strategy, tried to recreate the test as best we can. But ohh boy that adrenaline drop, you cannot recreate that. Not exactly as it is this first time.

I have been nervous about this test. I have been working on making my everything better. The nervous anticipation has been ramping up, and this last week has been super hard. Its great that I have been busy.

However, beginning of this week… my nerves shot through the roof. The night before all I could tell myself was what I told myself before a big test in school.

“I know what I know, there is no way to cram more in.”
“Khun Kru would not let me test if I was not ready.”
” It is what it is, I can only do my best to pass and see what happens.”

That was all I could tell myself, but that did not stop the creeping doubt. It just staved it off Wednesday night. No training, just working at work.

Day of test: Thursday 02/27/2020

I go to work at 4:30 am. I have to get my orders done and then get home. Being busy helps to keep the mind off of the looming test.

But once I got home. I had to make sure I had all the equipment I needed. The hour before the test, I felt a little nauseous. All I could think was. I don’t want to fail the technique demo, the boxing 20, Thai 15, and I don’t want to fail the test rounds.

At the Gym:

Everyone was encouraging. Everyone was telling us we had this. I was happy, and appreciative of the positive

Testing:

I see that Shane is going to be feeding my first round. That is when the fear set in. This dude is called action hero for a reason. His physique is amazing. he is built and hard to move. Full of muscles and I have trained with him before. Checking kicks from with Thai pads on left me with bruises on my shins for weeks. I love the man but he is terrifying.

I sat at the corner, and my coach Tony told me to sit back/lean back and relax. I sat back but relaxing was not easy to do. He told me to keep my feet on the floor and, “have you ever been sky diving?”

Me: “nope”

Coach Tony, “well when you jump out of the plane you can’t get back into it. You will keep going. You have to do this now.”

Me: I just nod.

The music/drums are going, the bell rings, and the adrenaline drops. My vision narrows. I don’t hear and see anyone else. Just Shane who is feeding me. I start kicking and getting knees in. He is teeping me. I know he is. I feel the impact but not the pain. I feel the torso kicks but not the pain. I know they are landing, but my adrenaline is pumping so hard, I don’t feel a thing.

I get through the round to my surprise. I did not realize how much the adrenaline drop takes out of your energy reserves. I felt like it was a 30% drop in my reserves, and my cardio preparedness.

When the round stopped, my corner team guided me back to the corner, and it was good thing they did. I don’t know that I would have gotten there myself. I half heard what Tony and Jorge were saying. They asked me if I needed anything. I could not even tell if I did. Tony was massaging my legs and calves. There was a haze. I could not see anything else but what was in front of me.

The bell goes off again, and I am off. The second round felt like I was drowning. I used to be a competitive swimmer. I have done many races, competed in hundreds of meets. Never felt like this. I had to keep going. I could barely hear the people yelling. All I could see and hear was Khun Kru Krysta in front of me. All I knew was I had to keep going, no matter how many times I was hit. I could not even get a shield in. I just had to keep going.

The ending bell goes off and I am done. I finished. I did my best. She gave me a hug, and they led me back to the chair, and my corner. I just wanted to get my gloves off. But my training paid off. I was gassed but recovered after about 30 seconds. Yay for training. I did not know how my numbers were at the time. I was just happy to be done.

I was shocked to hear my numbers. It was surreal to be done.

This test consists of:

  1. Technique demo ( kicks, elbows, knees, teeps)
  2. Boxing 20 drill
  3. Thai 15 count drill
  4. The the pad rounds. 2 x 3 minute round with 1 minute rest between.
    • you must get 60 kicks and 40 knees per round to pass

My rounds numbers:

First round 70 kicks 45 knees

Second round 82 kicks 47 knees

82 kicks on the second round! That is nuts.

We were congratulated by everyone. There was a lot of clapping and cheering. It was amazing. We all three of us who were training passed the test. Woot!!!

Khun Kru Krysta said when awarding our red pra jiad, “Sometimes our tests are to see what you know, this test is for US to show you what you know.”

That will be something that something that stays with me for the rest of my life. I was honored to receive my red student level 2 pra jiad/armband after the test. (note: you can see the progression chart below)

This is a milestone, because at this point my instructors/gym said we are able to with the proper training now, to go into the ring and fight if we want to. That our coaches and trainers will corner us if we so choose to go down that path.

The next day: Friday 02/28/2020

I was sore, in a way that I have been working out and my body is tired. I was just tired. I wanted to rest. We took it as a rest day. My trainers and coaches said to rest. We did not have to be told twice.

I wanted to rest for several reasons.

  1. Physical: My body was tired, it was telling me to rest and recuperate. I was sore and tired.
  2. Mental: We had been training for months for this test. I just wanted a break. We no longer had this test looming over us. I did not have to think about what it meant, what I had to do, and how I would have to perform to pass. It was a huge weight off my shoulders.
  3. Reward: For hard work we passed, and we were able to just rest.

I thought hrm… I am not to bad off. My ankle was a little pissed at me but other than sore, tired, and muscle aches I was ok.

We did absolutely nothing, and it was wonderful. We went out for Pho for lunch and the broth and veggies were absolutely wonderful.

Training day: Saturday 02/29/2020

We were back at it. This time just for an hour. I was still tired and slightly sore but over all doing well.

Boy did I learn something. I was slightly sore, I just wanted to be lazy. That was my bodies way of telling me hey, we still need to rest. We start doing pad rounds and every hit to my torso was painful. Not in a way that I am dying. But in a way that yeah I was teeped there a lot, I had two people kicking me in the torso there. So every knee, teep, or kick I could feel it. I could feel parts of my abductors that were damaged not horribly but would make themselves known when they were met with impact.

Its funny laying on the couch or in the bed or even sitting, did not reveal these little fun pains.

Don’t get me wrong I could handle it, I was just amazed. I thought I had gotten out of the test pretty unscathed.

Oh and my ankle feels a little jammed or annoyed. Not certain, but does not feel terribly off. Just need to let it rest and stop irritating it.

I learned something knew about the test. The required kicks and knees are part of it, but each test is individualized to a certain extent. When we were training, we were told to keep our numbers close to the 60 kicks and 40 knees, because it showed that we were doing well at managing our time and pace. So when I got 10 and 20 more than I needed for the test part of me worried that I did it wrong.

My trainer wanted to test me on my resolve, and my ability to avoid over thinking things. Because you see, I get into my own head. I mess something up and it had in the past derailed me. If I get hit I think, “wow I should have shielded that, I messed up.” Or I think, “wow I failed to get the flow right on that technique.” Damn It! I get down on myself and tell myself I could do better but then it makes me stop. I know I need to fix this and just keep going.

So she wanted me to keep going, when I was completely gassed, and almost unable to keep going, she wanted to see what I would do. Would I get into my head. Would I put my hands down and just stop? I did not and I kept going. I told myself the day of and right before the test rounds. “Do not think. Just do. Do what you trained for. Just do it.” I did not want to over think thinks.

She told me as well, that she knew I could take a beating and keep going. It was the test of how much in my head would I be, and could I keep from over thinking things.

This was an amazing test, and I feel like I have passed a hurdle, and as silly as it sounds, I feel like I can progress even more now. I have come to a check point and I am now at a different level. It all might be psychosomatic and just something in my head. But I will take it.

I am going to take this momentum and keep going. I am going to keep running, keep training, keep learning and most of all keep learning to avoid getting into my own head, and getting down on myself.

I recorded each of our test pad rounds. There were three of us testing for our red pra jiad this test. Here they are if you are interested.

JD’s Test

H’s Test

My Test

Thank you for reading. I hope you success in all the of you endeavors, and tests in the future.

Up for me next: more training, more conditioning and getting ready for the Thai Camp this summer.

Feel free to like, comment and if you want to see/hear more subscribe.

Martial Arts 02/20/2020: Mr Miyagi was mostly right! He just need spend some time in Thailand.

This is my last week to train up before the big test. To say I am worried, even scared I will fail is a bit of an understatement. Everyone will be watching, but I am going to keep training, and try to be as ready as I can.

I have a week of training ahead of me, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. After this week it is active rest till Thursday of the next week. My trainer said she wants us to take a break before the test so that we are fresh.

I have been training for months for this test so here is hoping. I know that the test is designed to be hard, and to test you. It is physically challenging, mentally challenging when you get hit, and modulating yourself when the adrenaline dumps is going to be tough so you don’t gas yourself on the first round. I am going to do my absolute best, and put everything else out of my mind.

Tuesday 02/18/2020: 3 hours of Muay Thai and Kali

3 hours of training Muay Thai and Kali. Woot what a fun night. Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for two great classes.

Pad rounds before class

Thai class:
1) Jab, cross, rear kick combo
2) Jab, lead horizontal elbow, rear side in elbow, rear inward knee, teep
3) Catch kick combos, return quad spike, knee to hamstring, cross stomp the knee, side kick the leg.
4) Catch kick combo, with leg pass and 4 count afterwards.

Kali class:
We worked on open box, to open box flowing into what ever disarms we could get through the flow. I like the 7 arm bar series personally. And the kumbiata switch to leaver on shoulder and smash trachea/chin.

Then we worked on sword and shield. Took a video of it we have not worked on this in a few months. But it came back to us and it was super fun.

What a great night.

Thursday 02/20/2020: 3 hours of Muay Thai

2 hours of Muay Thai practice. Thank you 🙏 Tony for the great class.

Pad rounds before class

Thai:

We warmed up with- 3x each exercise
1) high knee opposite punches
2) mountain climbers
3) jumping jacks

(This is assuming both people are orthodox fighters, if one of them is south paw then the logic differs, on which catch to do to protect the liver.)

1) jab, cross, rear teep, lead teep

2) catch a incoming rear kick with lead arm and a small step onto your rear foot instead of a slide, pass it and return a rear kick

3) catch lead kick with your rear arm, lateral back with your lead leg, turning your body away from the kick, (this distributes the force along your lower back and hip, saving you liver), pass the kick and return a rear kick from your temporary south paw stance?

4) rear knee, lead knee, rear flying knee

5) lead teep, rear teep, fake with lead teep to execute rear aerial knee called Hanuman Climbing the Mountain.

The break through with the last rear aerial knee for me was, that I realized it is like the crane kick like Mr. Miyagi taught just instead of kick you did a knee. Still need to work on it, and practice, practice, practice. =) So Mr. Miyagi was mostly right.

Cool down and ab work-
Shadow boxing

Crunches
Flutter Kicks
Crunches
Scissor kicks
Crunches
15 Clockwise and 15 counter clockwise double leg circle

Friday 02/21/2020: 1 hour of Muay Thai

1 hour of Muay Thai training. I am about as tired as this picture looks today. Thank you Tony  🙏 for the class.

Warm up:
45 seconds rapid kicks on the bag
15 sec rest
45 seconds teeps on bag
15 sec rest
45 seconds rapid kicks other leg on bag
15 sec rest
45 seconds teeps on bag
15 sec rest

45 seconds left and right leg kicks in the bag
15 sec rest
45 seconds skip knees
15 sec rest
45 seconds left and right leg kicks in the bag
15 sec rest
45 seconds skip knees

Drills:
Step in jab, cross
Jab
Lead teep
Flying switch knee

Jab, cross, hook
Catch incomming rear kick, Return a jab
Shrug off and let go of leg pushing opponent back into ropes
Immediately throw a flying knee into opponent on ropes

Then we did rounds of sparring just boxing first, and then legs and punches

Saturday 02/22/2020: 2 hours of Muay Thai

2 hours of Muay Thai practice. Thank you 🙏 so much Khun Kru Krysta for the test prep and the really fun class.

Test:
Technique demo
Thai 15 count
Boxing 20 count
2 x 3 min test rounds with 30 seconds rest ( goal is 60 kicks 40 knees minimum for each round) (all the while the feeder is kicking and hitting you back)

My numbers for test rounds:
first round – 76 kicks 46 knees
second round – 77 kicks and 45 knees

Class:
We worked on the entire Inosanto 18 count. I don’t have the permission to publish, and I would want to ask first anyway. But it involves knees, elbows, kicks, and punches in a flow.

Whew I am exhausted now!

9 hours of training this week. Next week is our test. It has been highly recommended by our trainer/coach to rest up the next few days. So we will rest Sunday and Monday, we will train lightly Tuesday, and then we will rest Wednesday, just so we can be fresh for Thursday our test.

I feel better after our last training session and our test rounds. Here is hoping I am ready. =)

Thanks for reading. I hope you all have a great weekend. As always please feel free to ask questions, if you like it like, and subscribe if you want to hear more of my rambling, recipes, and product reviews.

Martial Arts 02/11/2020: Crazy Ups Flying Knees

New week new training. WOOOOOO… nah… this week did not start like that. I like everyone, I assume, have off weeks…. Er lets say off days. I try not to let it color my entire week. When I feel like I don’t want to be there, for what ever reason, I still get my butt into the gym. Barring a injury that requires rest or some horrible plague that has taken me down. But the general doldrums I don’t let dictate my training.

As strict with my kiddos as I am, I do the same to myself. So I tell myself to get to it, and get to work.

Enough blathering on. On to the training.

Tuesday 02/11/2020: 2.5 hours of Muay Thai and Kali class

We started off with pad rounds. I held for H, and he held for me. I drug my butt up off the mat and made myself focus on my martial art.

In Muay Thai we worked more on the knee counter strikes. We started last week with, the arm posting on the bicep of opponent, then we did the shielding the knee. Today we worked on the ball room dancing dump off of the lead knee from opponent.

Ball room dancing dump:

When opponent knees you with lead knee. Step deep into their box, grab knee with rear hand, grab their lat around back with lead hand. Like you are hugging them with one arm. Then twist them over your leg that is behind their rear leg.

If done right this will dump them on the ground. It is pretty fast when you get the flow in.

We also did a drill that was fun. I was able to get a head kick regularly.

Jab, lead knee, cross, lead head kick.

I was repeatedly getting head kicks in! Head kicks! So that is a thing. I never thought I would be able to do a head kick. Not in a million years. Because you know… I am short. Vertically Challenged as some of my friends say.

Kali we worked on the high box and disarms, to take downs. Also…never snake a blade! It’s a good rule of thumb. (snake is when you disarm a person only using your arm and hand instead of the vin where you use the weapon to help you disarm the opponent)

She mentioned with the high box you strike, move it, strike it, move it. It was a great way to think about it.

Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for the great classes.

Thursday 02/13/2020: 1.5 hours of Muay Thai

I have my gyms level one test coming up. This includes a technique drill, Thai 15 count, Boxing 20, and the 2 x 3 minute rounds of 60 kicks and 40 knees each round. All the while getting kicked and hit by the feeder.

I have trepidation about this test. It is designed to be hard, and to test your abilities and resolve. I have been training for it. However, I don’t want to fail. I really want to pass.

We did pad rounds with Tony before class. With only 15 seconds rest time. He liked my hooks, lead and rear hooks. I felt good, flowing through kicks, knees, elbows and punches.

Muay Thai Training:

  1. plus sign foot work with jab cross
  2. Opponent throws a jab, you parry, cross you parry, a switch knee, you post on their bicep, you throw a cross, you throw a rear kick
  3. Elbow check the body kick 3 times and on the third one you step in and eat the kick but at their knee level, and return a cross to their chest simultaneously. Followed by a lead to rear 4 count.
  4. Clench over under, with a off balance, and knee

Friday 02/14/2020: 2 hours of Muay Thai

2 hours of Muay Thai training today. Thank you Tony Kap Kun Ka for the fantastic class.

Today was all about the mad ups. We started with conditioning with kettle bells, then knees to flying knees, and then finished with abs.

So I have only done flying knees once before. I went from barely getting off the ground today to some mad ups. Pictures and video so I could see.

Kettle bell conditioning:

40 seconds for each exercise with 20 seconds rest between. Do all exercise in three rounds.

  1. Kettle bell swings
  2. Kettle bell goblet squats
  3. Push ups
  4. Right arm tricep rows
  5. Bicycle crunches
  6. Left arm tricep rows
  7. Jump lunges
  8. Double thrust burpees

Thai:
Drill #1
1) jab, rear leg kick
2) jab, cross, rear leg kick
3) jab, cross, hook, rear leg kick
4) rear uppercut, lead hook, rear leg kick

I was so tired after our conditioning warm up. My shoulders were burning trying to keep my hands up during this drill.

Drill #2
Two walking knees, then a flying knee, followed by a flying knee burn out for last 30 seconds.

Thank you Khun Kru Krysta For working with me.

Ab workout: 40 seconds each for two rounds
Pike ups
Reverse crunches
Flutter kicks
High flutter kicks

Whew!

Saturday 02/15/2020: 2 hours of Muay Thai

2 hours of Muay Thai Training we got to the gym and I sunned myself while I stretched, then Khun Kru Krysta had us practice the skills test, boxing 20, Thai 15, then the two rounds of testing with thirty seconds of squat jumps between.

Then we worked on catching kicks, follow up Striking of catches kicks, and countering opponents catching your kicks.

Key things to remember when catching kicks:

  1. Step offline
  2. Mid calf
  3. Posture
  4. (For me to remember- cinch up on the leg)

Strikes to do when you have caught a kick:

  1. Knee the hamstring
  2. Spike elbow the quad
  3. Cross Stomp the opponents supporting leg/knee
  4. Side kick the opponents leg
  5. Round house to the thigh
  6. Outside cross to step to dump them
  7. Pass/Throw leg, return a 4 count
  8. Spinning back elbow, while holding onto the leg

Counters to do when some one catches your round house:

  1. Walk out – turn your knee down and walk your foot out
  2. Foot Jab – turn our knee and foot jab on hip bone
  3. Weave – weave foot inside and push with knee
  4. Clench/climbing downward flying elbow –
    • if they catch closer to your knee, clench up, jump up and while pushing all your weight down into their arm, come down with elbow.
  5. Superman punch

Whew I am exhausted!

8 hours of training this week. Whew I feel it. My body is tired, and I am looking forward to the rest days. I had a great week. I started off not so great, but it turned around. I was able to get mad ups and actually do a flying knee. I can do it! Woot!

I honestly saw the set up of the flying knees that my coach wanted us to do, and I did not think I could do it. I kept working at it till I did. Then we went home.

As always thank you for reading. I hope you had a great week. I hope you keep trying, and I hope that you don’t let a bad day color your week. You never know when you are going to learn how to fly through the air like a freaking ninja. If you want to like, comment, and subscribe to hear more about my training and fitness journey.

Martial Arts 02/04/2020: Best Early Valentines Day Present New Gloves

This is the start of a new week of training, and what a start to it. Khun Kru Krysta came back from Thailand and training there. H gave me a the best Valentines gift I have ever gotten, and even though I started the day not wanting to training. It ended up being one of the best days.

Tuesday 02/04/2020: 2.5 hours of Muay Thai and Kali class

What an amazing start to the week of training. I have to say I came into the gym not really feeling being there. But I like to practice what I preach as it were. So I was there. I was going to put time in on the mat, was going to train even if I was feeling crappy.

However, what a turn around… I got a chance to work with my coach Tony. Then Khun Kru Krysta came back from Thailand and her training in camps there. I was so happy to see her. Then my husband apparently worked with Khun Kru Krysta while she was in Thailand to get me some new gloves, because mine were dying on me. He present it to me as an early Valentines Day present. We don’t normally celebrate Valentines day, but it is the best V day present I have ever gotten. I squee’d so loud the whole gym heard me. Below are pictures of the new gloves, and the gloves I have beaten to death.

Both Tony and H said I put many miles and many hours of training in on those gloves, and it was a great sign of hard work. I like to think it shows hard work, dedication, and love for an art.

We talked about what to do with the retired gloves. I could hang them up/display them. I could donate them to needy kids in Thailand who would be happy to have them. Or I can do like my predecessors did, and when I find a person that I see potential in, or I have made a connection with, I can give it to them. Kind of a passing on of honor and tradition. For now I guess I will retire them and place them in a place of honor.

On to what we did for training. Enough of my prattle for one day. I just had a fantastic day, when I thought it was only going meh.

For the following drills, we worked both orthodox and south paw stance.

  1. foot work drill – plus sign foot work with knee
  2. 1 – 4 counter knee drill:
    • 1) counter/stop knee with hand on peck muscle
    • 2) counter knee with cross shield
    • 3) catch the knee, and off balance toward the knee caught for a dump.
    • 4) catch the knee, and off balance over your own leg/knee, while lifting their knee for a dump.
  3. Counter switch kick – teep the incoming switch kick with lead teep to stop, teep with rear teep to push.
  4. Counter punch after you pocket kick an opponent – pocket kick with knee across belly/chest, then you push off with leg to avoid being hit with opponents hands.
  5. Response to leg kick – check leg rear leg kick with lead leg, and return lead leg kick right away
  6. Response to leg kick – check lead leg kick with rear leg, and return a rear leg kick right away
  7. catch torso kick (we worked both orthodox and south paw stances)
  8. catch rear torso kick, throw leg caught, and do a spinning back elbow following the leg
  9. catch rear torso kick, spin and catch thigh with other arm, then return spinning back elbow.
  10. counter kick catch with flying elbow -pocket torso kick, that some one catches, you lean in on climbing up, grab behind their head, and drop an elbow.

Kali –

Single stick, snakes and vines drills. Snakes are unassisted disarms, vines are assisted with weapon disarms.

  1. equise drill, low back hand high back hand
  2. inside deflect, snake and plus sign disarms
  3. outside deflect, to snake, plus sign, and equals sign disarms
  4. Sparred with single stick.

Thursday 02/06/2020: 2.5 hours of Muay Thai and Kali class

2.5 hours of Muay Thai and Kali practice! Woot. I got a chance to work with both Khun Kru Krysta and Tony my trainers before class.

Muay Thai- Then we learned (counters to knees), (catching torso kicks to kneeing opponents caught leg, to pushing it off and kicking their sciatica nerve in the back of the leg), (over under clench grip, off balance, to knee to opponents face), (pocket kick to push off)

Kali – we worked on snakes and vines from inside deflect, and outside deflect, kumbiata switch to chokes, and learned a new attack which was a outside deflect to vine and then a trap smash. Woot!

So after we did rounds before class, and were waiting for class to start. Tony my coach said he could see a difference between when I first started Muay Thai pictures and now. How I have trimmed up and slimmed down. I told him thank you. I am getting better at just accepting the compliment. I did tell him I just don’t see it. But I decided to go back and look at the pictures. So here they are two pics from June of 2018, around when I started and this month. ☺️

Friday 02/07/2020: 3 hours of Muay Thai

3 hours of Muay Thai training with some conditioning at the end. Thank you Tony for a great class.

We hit pads before class started. We did 30 mins of sparring just punching, then 30 minutes of kick boxing sparring, then 30 minutes clench sparring, then we did a conditioning workout.

Five rounds of each exercise as fast as we can: (Note: 35 lbs is the heaviest KB I have done so it’s a PR for me! Woot!)

1) Kettle Bell clean walks (L and R side) (16 kilo = 35.27 lbs)
2) 10 x burpees
3) 15 x Kettle Bell squats 15 lb
4) 18 x Kettle Bell swings (16 kilos =35.27 lbs)

We put the time in on the mat and it will show.
Sparring: constant light play lets you feel out the range and what you can get in there.

Saturday 02/08/2020: 3 hours of Muay Thai

3 hours of training and getting ready for my test at the end of the month. Thank you so much Khun Kru Krysta Scharlach for working with me and H.

We worked on technique demo, then boxing 20 and Thai 15 drills, then she held for test prep rounds 2 x 3 minute rounds with 30 seconds rest between. We worked on Ajarn Chai’s Family Wai Kru as well.

Then we worked I Muay Thai drills, catch the jab, long guard the knee, perry the cross, high elbow cover an incoming head kick.

Then we worked I Muay Thai drills, catch the jab, long guard the knee, perry the cross, lean back/ride back to avoid the head kick, return a cross hook cross.

Then we worked I Muay Thai drills, catch the jab, long guard the knee, perry the cross, to avoid head kick – kick the opponents rear leg

Pop the leather three for three punches.

Lead and rear leg 4 counts.

Whew I am tired!

Well I got super busy during the weekend and forgot to post my blog entry last weekend. I did not even remember to finish it and post it till I was training today, halfway through class, and thought. Wow I forgot to post. c’est la vie… it is what it is, and I am posting now. I felt bad, but what can I do.

It was a great week of training. Even though I could not go to Wednesday training cause I had to teach a class of my own, in cake decorating. I still clocked in 11 hours of training. Wow!

I got brand new gloves brought to me from Thailand by my trainer Khun Kru Krysta. H and She got together and secretly got the gloves for me. I had a great week of training, and I got to train for my up and coming test.

I am posting this today, it is Tuesday, and the start of a new week in training. After this I will jot down my thoughts and then shower this sweat off. Pass out if I am lucky and start the day over again.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day. As always, if you want to like, comment and or follow that would be awesome.

Martial Arts 01/28/2020: Your Punches are Crispy

Sunday I had the opportunity to go to a seminar with Nakapan. I wrote about that in a separate blog.

But Tuesday marks the first day in my training week. It is crazy to think that my training week tends to be 8 to 13 hours a week. That is a crazy change from 2 years ago when I started this Martial Arts journey. We were only do 2 days a week at most 4 hours total.

Tuesday 01/28/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

I got a chance to do 3 x 4 minute rounds with Tony. He said the week off being sick was great for me. I was able to train faster than before.

He was able to push me harder. Woot! We worked on Lote Teep or bicycle/car teep, in class. We also worked on mirror drilling and immediate response.

The in JKD one of the things we worked on was a figure 4 wrist lock it was super fun to learn and execute! Then you step through and get the arm bar.

The pictures above where I have H on the ground is the figure 4 wrist lock. It is terrible on the opponent, great for me. =)

Wed 01/29/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai trianing

2 hours of Muay Thai Training and conditioning. Do you know how hard it is to get a selfy when your hands are shaking cause of how tired you are…whew I do!

Tony kicked my behind today. We did kettlebell conditioning today, then after my arms and shoulders were dead he drilled me on pads and had me work my punches, jab, cross, hook, body hooks, upper cuts.

When you are super tired that is when it is the hardest to keep you hands up/guard up, and to perform the strikes keeping your form correct. Ask me how I know. That is when muscle memory is built. When you are so tired, that you body wants to quit, but you push through. It makes you muscles work harder and condition to this. But Tony said my punches were landing great. That they were “crispy”! Woot! Crispy = Meaning tight, solid, and hitting home correctly.

We worked the bags and then we did a cool drill where we played. There is this concept in Muay Thai where they play lightly when training. I forget the word right now, but will try to get it. We played where we are trying to just touch each other’s shoulders. But bob and weave, abound your opponent touching your shoulder. So it’s playful trying to get strikes on your opponent and avoid strikes from them.

It was fun and now I need to pass out. Also i love fruit as an after workout snack.

Thanks for a great class Tony it was fun

Kettle Bell Conditioning:

Do these in a ladder, Starting with 20 reps of each exercise, and going down to 19, 18, 17 excetera

  1. Sumo kettle bell squats 33 lbs x 20
  2. Kettle bell swings 20 lbs x 20
  3. Kettle bell halos kneeling with one foot out at 9 degree angle 10 reps one side, then switch feet 10 reps going the other way.
  4. Cross knee mountain climbers x 20
  5. Bear crawls across the mat.

Muay Thai Training:

  1. 3 x 4 minute pad rounds, working on jab, cross, hook, cross, upper cut, round house kicks, body hooks,
  2. Bag rounds, jab, cross, hook, kicks, double kicks
  3. ladder kicks on the bag 1 – 10 and back down again.
  4. Play training, shoulder touches, head and body/shoulder movement to avoid contact

Thrusday 01/30/2020 – 1 hour… Muay Thai trianing

1 hour of Muay Thai training. Coach Tony took it easy on me today, and had me help demo and teach. Tomorrow he is going to kick my booty.

We worked on distance management and drawing your opponents actions out so you can counter them.

Lead leg feign kicks to teeps, feign lead leg kicks to knees.

Entry on jabs to clench to knees, entry on jab,cross, hook to knees.

And finally turning leg in to stack hips drill.

❤️❤️❤️ I love Muay Thai!

Friday 01/31/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai trianing

2 hours of Muay Thai training. Thank you Tony for a great class again. We warmed up on the bags, then went to 3 x 3 minute pad rounds with 30 seconds rest between each.

Then we did sparring just boxing, and sparring kick boxing, then clench sparring. I started the class with crazy D.O.M.S. Soreness in hamstrings and shoulders, but now I am good after class. We will see how I am tomorrow.

Saturday 02/1/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai trianing

D.O.M.S. so much better for training on it after really sore. Yay. I was feeling good muscle wise today.

2 hours of Muay Thai practice. Guess who has two thumbs and ended up teaching the class with the help of H and JD? Yup… I bowed them in and because we had new people I just stuck to standard 4 counts then 4 counts with teeps at the end. We worked on Thai stance, pivoting, rotating hips, and some distance management. Woot!

I was the substitutes back up, cause our sub called in sick.

10 hours of training total this week. Woot! I had a blast and loved it, even through the pain. I got to teach a class. I died my hair red. I had a blast. For the next several weeks I will be missing the Wed classes. I have classes to teach for cake decorating.

Thank you for reading.

Muay Thai Seminar with Nakapan Phugephorn: The counter fighter is exquisite.

I had the incredible ability and honor to be able to go to a 2 hour Muay Thai seminar with Nakapan Phugephorn. 1/26/2020

He is a Martial Arts legend and owner of Beta Academy in Washington, DC. “Nakapan is a passionate life-long martial artist with over 20 years of experience practicing, teaching and competing in the martial arts. He began his journey in 1993, studying Shaolin Kung Fu. Mental discipline and physical conditioning gained from consistent practice later lead him to a fruitful competitive career in the traditional fighting arts and included over 50 championship titles!” (credit: description taken from advert for the Muay Thai seminar flyer on the Pure Performance Martial Arts Center.)

I love going to learn skills and techniques from different Martial Artists. You get different points of view, different ways of attacking and executing a skill, and different skills.

In this seminar I learned some techniques that I have noticed other people doing. However, I have never, been able to dissect it and figure out how to do that skill. I was so excited when we were working on them. I love learning new techniques, and attacks, counters, and shields. I also messed up a lot. I am going to have to work on them more.

Nakapan said, “counter fighting, is the highest form of fighting, it is the hardest, and it is elegant.”

He also said, “counter fighting is not just waiting for some one else to attack. It is the art of drawing your opponent out, to attack you.”

This really resonated with me. I have been training and working to make myself better. My coach Tony said a few weeks ago that he wants to work with me to start working on my reaction time, and my counter fighting. At first my brain was being mean to me, telling me that my reaction and counters are crap. But hearing Nakapan, say that it is the highest form of fighting, that it is the hardest part of fighting. It made me realize… no it made my brain realize that it is the next part of my training. I am actually moving forward in training. I am honing my skills and I am working to be a great fighter.

I was really down on myself, but I realized something. So long as I have hope, the hope of getting better, the hope of improving, and the hope of being the best I can be, I can work and keep working to do anything.

Anyway enough scribbling down my thoughts and feelings, on to the training we did yesterday.

  1. Five count drill
    • jab, rear leg kick
    • jab, cross, lead leg kick
    • jab, cross, hook, rear leg kick
    • jab, cross, hook, cross, lead leg kick
    • jab, cross, hook, cross, body hook, rear leg kick


      Counter fighting drills
  2. Lean back from opponents jab, return an overhand cross/rear punch, lead leg four count (lead leg kick, cross, hook, rear leg kick).
  3. Perry jab from opponent, return an overhand cross/rear punch, lead leg four count (lead leg kick, cross, hook, rear leg kick).
  4. Pop down opponent jab, and return a cross right away, lead leg 4 count (lead leg kick, cross, hook, rear leg kick).
  5. Flow kick and finish with a lead leg four count (lead leg kick, cross, hook, rear leg kick)
    • you counter a inner lead leg kick from an opponent by (jumping, spinning, and landing on your lead leg away from opponents kick), and kicking simultaneously kicking the back of your opponents lead leg.
    • the more contact you allow opponent to get on your lead leg, the harder your kick to their back leg will be
  6. Square back incoming leg kick and finish with a lead leg four count (lead leg kick, cross, hook, rear leg kick)
    • lateral back lead leg as incoming leg kick comes in to avoid being kicked, don’t shift weight to the now rear leg, but return same leg you lateraled back to round house kick from a south paw stance.
  7. Teep as an opponent tries to do a rear leg kick (this is just timing, but will stop them dead in their tracks)
    • Nakapan said that a teep is the longest and fastest weapon you have, and when timed right will get to opponent before a leg kick, torso kick, or head kick can come in.
  8. Sparring using the techniques we learned

I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to learn from Nakapan, and getting to meet him. He is very sweet, answers any questions, and wants to spread the love of Muay Thai. It seems from talking with him after the seminar, that he like Ajarn Chai want to spread Muay Thai and empower people to help others learn Muay Thai.

I also met some really cool people and hope to visit their gyms as well. I love that our Martial Arts community on the whole is open and loving. We try to be inclusive and understanding of all people. We are one big tribe.

Thanks for reading. If you have questions please feel free to ask and I will try to answer. Keep working to be the best you that you can be.

Martial Arts 01/21/2020: 8 hours back into training after a week off stewing on the couch with my Fear Of Missing Out/FOMO is not bad.

All last week I was sick as a dog. Something, and by something I mean some cold virus is going around here. It is knocking people out one by one here. Suffice to say, I did not do a damned thing last week. Stayed on couch coughing and trying to get better. Went to doc, and found out that this virus moved to my eyes and I developed viral conjunctivitus. So yeah last week was terrible, but I binge watched tv shows I have been missing so there is that.

Hard to workout when you can’t breath, and when you are super contagious. However, this week is not that way. This week I am back! I imagined myself breaking through the wall the way Koolaid man did and saying, “Oh, yeah!”

Cough, cough, cough. Well I am sorta back. I am easing back into it. I am still coughing, but I am feeling better than I was a week ago.

Tuesday 01/21/2020 – 1 hour 30 minutes… Muay Thai 

Coach Tony told me he does not want me doing much cardio today, because he wanted me to take it easy.

Today was amazing. I helped teach, really helped this time. I am honored. But let me not get side tracked.

  1. 2 minutes Jump rope
  2. 2 minutes Burpees
  3. 2 minutes Jump rope
  4. 2 minutes Burpees

Soy Dao- long upper cut

We learned that the words for long upper cut, where you change levels and throw the upper cut. Different than the short upper cut, is called Soy Dao in Thai.

We worked on:

  1. Jab, cross, long uppercut.
  2. cross, long uppercut, hook

Wednesday 01/22/2020 – 1 hour 30 minutes… Muay Thai 

  1. Jumping Jacks x 2 minutes
  2. Thai Knees across the mat x 2 minutes
  3. Jumping Jacks x 2 minutes

We were working on distance management. Kick distance, adjusting for kicks, step in, and step in to get cover and return elbow right away.

  1. leg kick, opponent shields, torso kick, opponent shields, opponent returns kick to upper arm, and you stop it with forearm and hand, opponent comes in with hook, you shield with and come in with rear elbow.
  1. 2 x 5 minute kneeing rounds. Whew… working on form, and from form comes power. Was hurting my tricepts at the end. Leaning in to each other was hard.

Tony started teaching us the Wai Kru passed down from Tony’s family. These are the parts of the Wai we learned and how his family does each of the moves. The Wai your mother and father, the Wai your instructor, the Wai your diety, scooping up and thanking mother earth to the left, scooping up and thanking mother earth to the left, then scooping up thanking mother earth in front.n doing in front.

Tony explained that the Wai Kru was used in the past for the Thai people before fighting Bermese people, so they could limber up, grab some dirt and rocks to use in the fights, and also maybe make divots in the dirt to make your opponent, or enemie step into, and give you an advantage.

I have a lot to work on. I want to make it pretty, I want to honor Tony with my Wai Kru.

The Wai Kru has been used for many reasons. One of the ways people used i to help limber up a fighter (think of it like yoga and stretching), it has been used by others and people who are betting on a fight to size up and determine what a fighter might be like and who is likely to win. However, most importantly the Wai Kru is used and is intended to show respect for where/who you came from, your teachers, the diety you respect, the mother earth around, and the legacy that you have been touched by and will leave behind.

Thursday 01/23/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai 

3 hours of Muay Thai and JKD training today. Woot! I did an hour of training before Muay Thai class tonight. Thank you Tony for a great class again.

We worked on distance management and responses after shielding. I got a chance to help teach again. We worked…Punches to kicks, and elbows to knees.

He told me more about the Wai Kru the second part where we are respecting Mother Earth. It also represents the past the present and the future.

Then I got to learn JKD from Sifu Bob. We worked on One Two offense, 3 offense, single angle attack, single direct attack, attack by combination.

Friday 01/24/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai training

2 hours of Muay Thai training. Woot! I got half way through before my cough became annoying and ever present.

Tony has us do an awesome warm up with plyometrics and foot work with drills. Then we worked pad work. Woot it was a fun class and and I and getting better gonna kick this congestion to the curb.

Also all the vitamins I take. Fish oil, vitamin d, condroitin and glucosamine, turmeric, woot!

We were working pad drills with each other. I am working on my response. So hit, shield, respond with a kick or hit. I need to get faster, and better. So that is my goal. I know the technique, I need to polish it now.

Saturday we normally go train again for about 3 hours. Today we took the day off. We are attending a seminar with Nakapan Phungephorn up in MD. So while my training week is not over just yet. I will dedicate a separate post to that training session. I am excited to learn and experience another great Thai fighters form, and style.

Thank you all for reading. 8 hours back into training after a week off stewing on the couch with my Fear Of Missing Out or FOMO is not bad. Next week I will be better still. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Keep working to be the best you that you can be.

The honor of new Thai shorts!

Hello back for a quick, short and sweet post…

My husband, I, and 3 of my other team mates were called into the gym and presented with Thai shorts. My Coach/trainer Tony comes from a different tradition, one that has been passed down the line through his family. He told us like the WTBA presents arm bands for level tests and acknowledging progress. His family and his traditions are to give Thai shorts to students that are around level 1. He said “one of the first tests is to give back, and you have, you help the other students, and help teach.”

I am so honored and proud to be a part of this team. A gym where we are lucky enough that we can learn from multiple traditions. A gym where we are a team, a tribe, an extended family looking to better ourselves every day, and help others better themselves.

🙏 🙏 🙏 Thank You again Tony for this great honor!

  • My new Thai shorts
  • H’s new Thai shorts

Martial Arts 01/07/2020: Sandal Rubs the Forehead, Tang Kao, and Siep Kao

I really love Muay Thai. I love learning the rich tapestry of history that is behind this art. I love learning about Thailand, the people, and why this art came about. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I practice. I feel like I am making my body and mind stronger. I feel like I am learning an art and that I can eventually pass it down myself. This week I learned many new terms, words that are the names for some of the strikes we do, and they mean. Like Tang Kao, and Siep Kao, names for some of the knees. I learned names of some of the teeps. Like Sandal Rubbing the Forehead. I love how descriptive the name is in Thai.

Also as a person who has learned multiple languages in my life, Thai is one of the hardest I have ever tried to learn and pronounce. English, Japanese, Spanish, and some German, are the languages I have learned. In various levels of fluency. English and Spanish being the ones I am most fluent in. Japanese I learned from my grandma and mother when I lived and visited Japan. Finally German when I have time to study, so I have a basic kindergarten level knowledge. =) I digress though. Thai is so nuanced and the letter y seems to have a sound like ny. I could be wrong on this, but that is my understanding. I may want to pick up a class on Thai and pronunciation.

Tuesday 01/07/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

3 hours of Muay Thai and JKD training tonight.

I love it when my instructors say that they can see that changes, the progress in my training.

This time last year I was feeling like I was in a rut. I felt like I had hit a plateau. However this year, I am feeling like I am making progress on the training side of things. My cardio is head and shoulders above that of last year, my endurance is improving even more, my technique is improving to the point my speed. Yessss!

Conditioning warm up:

  1. 4 count rear to lead on bag, then sprawl
  2. bob and weave drill down under a rope hanging across the mat
  3. ladder where we switched our lead foot in and out of the ladder

Training:

  1. Check the kick lead leg, return kick lead leg, teep lead leg
  2. Check the kick rear leg, return kick rear leg, teep rear leg
  3. lead knee (siep kao, pushing knee), to lead kick
  4. rear knee (siep kao, pushing knee), to rear kick

JKD:

  1. sitting hubud (sitting removes the ability to move around with your feet. You have to feel the partners movements and focus on working the technique.)
  2. sitting 1 to 1 flow drill
  3. sitting 5 to 5 flow drill
  4. sitting 2 to 2 flow drill
  5. Then we flowed between them
  6. Then we worked on standing up while doing one of these drills and sitting back down, without stopping the drill.

We were drilling without shin guards. We were going light but still shin bone on shin bone will cause bone bruises. This is normal. You have to push out the fluid in the bruise. I treated it with Thai Oil, and rolling it out with the tiger tail. It hurt, but cumulatively it will start to hurt less the more it happens. So this is toughening up your bone and shins.

I only document this and show it to show what really happens in this martial art. These kinds of bruises happen, you need to know how to treat them. I am going to put a hot compress on it as well as roll it out again.

Wednesday 01/08/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai

2 hours of training Kettle Bell and Muay Thai. I let my baby girl take pictures and that is what I got. However, I am a little shook. Is this what I look like? It’s blurry but heck.

4 rounds of:

  1. KB swings 10
  2. 1 arm KB swings 20
  3. Side to side KB swings 10

Anyway I digress… today was Kettle Bells, then all knees all the time. My coach Tony who is Thai and is teaching me all the Thai words for the move we are doing. Siep Kao, yat (pronounced yhut), thee (pronounced tee) and Tang Kao We learned different kinds of tees today.

  1. 5 minute round of doing Siep Kao knees on the bag
  2. 5 minute round of doing Tang Kao knees on the bag
  3. 5 minute round of Siep Kao with partners
  4. 5 minute round of Tang Kao with partners
  5. 5 minute round of Swimming/clench work while getting knees in

Then we finished with core workout! Woot!

Terms for knees in Thai:

Siep Kao (pronounced see ep cow) – is pushing knee, where you knee the person with upper shin bone/knee

Tang Kao – is the spearing knee, where you knee the person with the top of you knee.

Yat (yhut) (pronounced nyet or yhut) – when you push with the knee

Thee (pronounced tdee, you will hear Americans say Dye) – word said when you knee a person

45 seconds each exercise, with 15 rest, 4 rounds

  1. dead bugs
  2. crunches
  3. leg raises
  4. bicycle
  5. mountain climbers
  6. clenching core with feet off ground and hands on head
  7. pike ups

Friday 01/10/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

2 hours of Muay Thai practice. My coach Tony kicked our butts again. We learned the names for three different teeps. I thought I took a pic. You the kind of thought you took pic, remembering you put camera up and clicked, but for some reason it is not in your pics. I will get the terms tomorrow at training. But it was the rear teep, a rear hop teep, and lead head teep (that is called Sandal rubbing the forehead) will get terms in Thai tomorrow. Thank you so much for the awesome class. 🙏

Something I was thinking about. When I learn a term like ( Sandal rubbing the forehead) it’s easier to remember for me and I get to learn and extrapolate the culture from it.

Warm up:

  1. jump rope till all students got there

2 rounds of:

  1. bent over KB row
  2. push ups, inside and outside
  3. mountain climbers
  4. bicycles
  5. leg lift
  6. alternating lunge jumps
  7. sit sweeps
  8. plank ups
  9. prison squats

Training:

  1. 2 rounds of pad rounds – feeder kicks and you hold for immediate response
  2. Rear leg teep
  3. rear leg hop teep
  4. lead leg head teep
  5. Tiger walk or begging of Wai Kru in Muay Baron style ( meaning 50/50 stance, fist over fist movements, goal is to make it pretty, and to work on balance)
  6. Abbs – 50 crunches, and Tony hit bellies of trainees with pad 10 times in a row.

Terms for teeps in Thai:

Mon Yun Luk (pronounced mon {like Monday}, nyun, lock) – rear leg teep

Ka Don Teep (pronounced ka {like caw caw}, don {like Donatello}, teep) – jump teep, or feign leg shield teep

Bata Loop Pak (pronounced bata {like baton}, loop {like lopping}, pak (like pac in Tu Pac) – means sandal rubs the forehead, or head teep, executed where you blade the body to your opponent and using lead leg teep the head.

Saturday 01/11/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

3 hours of Muay Thai and JKD training. I did less conditioning and more pad holding which is a skill in itself.

JKD we worked on bridging the gap, feigning, nao tek kicks, ping choi, pak sau, and punches.

Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for great training and a fantastic class.

Saturday was a busy day after training, so I am posting this today. I did less conditioning yesterday, but I did a lot of pad holding. I feel soreness in my ribs today. My hamstrings are tired from the training this week. I clocked 10 hours of training total this week.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think. If I got the terms incorrect, let me know and I will fix them. I am still learning. As always keep working to be the best you that you can be.

Martial Arts 01/02/2020: “Deal with your self” Tony, “My safe word is a teep!” Krysta

Today starts a new week of training. When we have several days off, sometimes it feels like I may have lost my conditioning. I know it is a silly worry. But it did crop up today, I was working and had to do some heavy lifting (literally 30 and 50 lb buckets of product). Well I was tired and thought oh crap am I going to make it through my classes tonight?

Thursday 01/02/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

Muay Thai and JKD- Little less than three hours of training tonight.

I did 4 rounds before class with my coach Tony thank you Sir.
We did 3 x 4 minute rounds and 1 x 3 min round.

Then Muay Thai and JKD with my coach Khun Kru Krysta. Thank you for the great classes. We did boxing in Thai, and trapping in JKD!

Muay Thai:

We worked on the boxing 20. Focusing on the cover of your organs.

JKD:

We worked on Jeet Kune Do (JKD) today. I am going to digress here and talk about what JKD means “The way of the Intercepting Fist”. It was developed by Bruce Lee and was personal to him. There has in his own lifetime been a lot of controversy over the art he developed. Wing Chun was his basis for the martial art, and what he started with first. He added to it with the best of Taekwondo, Boxing, Fencing , and Wrestling. He had many people in his time that were upset that he was melding and mixing martial arts the way he was. They wanted their art to stay pure. However, I really like the way he always wanted to learn from everything and use the best.

“Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is essentially your own. “

-Bruce Lee

My instructors, Ajarn Chai, and Dan Innosanto worked with him while he was alive. I have the honor to learn from them, and from my other instructors who have subsequently learned from the legends above.

We worked on the following today:

  1. Ping Choy, Gua Choy, Lop Sau, Gua Choy, Pak Sau Da, Loy Pak Sau

Ping Choy = low strike block or horizontal fist

Guay Choy = back fist

Lop Sau = grabbing/pulling hand

Pak Sau Da = slapping/grabbing hand

Loy Pak Sau = inside (of the arm) slapping hand

So with those definitions, this is the trapping drill we did is as follows:

  1. horizontal fist, back fist, grabbing/pulling hand, back fist, slapping/grabbing hand, inside slapping hand

I also learned the hand positions names:

Biu gee = Shooting fingers, or finger jab, usually to eye or neck

Tan sao = palm up block

Jong sao = Palm inward block, or sideways hand, (between biu and tan sao)

I made some graphics for those who are visual learners below:

Friday 01/03/2020 – 1.5 hours… Muay Thai Conditioning

1.5 hours of Muay Thai conditioning and practice. My coach Tony kicked my butt again. It was amazing. I like when he pushes me! I want to push through. He was working with me. When we had a break Tony asked me if I was feeling heavy and tired, and I said yes. He said, “good, you are pushing through the barrier. I can tell you are working past it.” He meant the tired, the pain and the haze you get when you are pushing hard.

He had us doing one for one drill, kicking on pads right after a conditioning warm up. And then the more one for one hit response rounds. I am getting better about being hit, tougher. Then we did asymmetrical response
rounds. Finally he had us doing core. I am exhausted but a good exhausted.

One of the most awesome things was I got to train with my first instructors side by side. Thanks you Khun Kru Krysta and Kru Kristen for working with me! It’s amazing to work with them and train with them as well. Different than just being taught by them.

After Thai training snack was yogurt, fruit, and almonds. Nom nom nom

Favorite quote of the night, “Deal with yourself”, Tony. This was in reference to how he was taught Muay Thai. Sometimes you just kinda have to suck it up. Its going to hurt, change is hard. When your molding your body to your art, it gets hard. However, you persevere.

Saturday 01/04/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai Conditioning, and JKD

Whew! The last training day of this week. We did 3 hours. 2 hours of it were conditioning training.

We did between 12 to 15 rounds, either holding or working the pads. I got my numbers in for my upcoming testing. I was tired from Friday, but it was a good tired. I got a chance to work through it and it was not so bad.

For class this day we worked on JKD (Jeet Kune Do) again. This time adding the Nao Tek or pendulum kick to the routine. We worked on feigning and getting out of the pocket using the nao tek. I really enjoy JKD. I like learning the trapping and response moves. It transitions so nicely into Muay Thai and I learn better how to redirect blows with JKD.

Best quote of the day, “my safe word is a teep”, Khun Kru Krysta. This was absolutely hilarious and I loved it. I wanted to write it down so I would remember forever.

There were two great quotes this week from my coaches/trainers. “Deal with yourself,” Tony. “my safe word is a teep,” Khun Kru Krysta. This was a fantastic week of training. We did 7.5 hours of training this week. Even though it was shortened due to the holidays it was a fantastic start of the new year. I got to work on JKD trapping which I love. I got to work with and alongside two of my coaches/trainers with us all being students. It was a wonderful experience.

Finally as if the week could not get any better. I had the honor of being asked to help demonstrate Muay Boran from my coach Tony. From what I understand we are going to demonstrate this art at the Royal Thai embassy. For this I will be learning Muay Boran. Muay Boran is predecessor to current modern Muay Thai.

What I have learned so far is that this style and art was used by the slaves to get out of slavery, to fight off the Burmese, and was used as the Thai soldiers martial art style. As modern day Muay Thai moved to more of a martial sport in the ring, they had to take some of the Muay Boran out. It changed partially because it was a style used to kill, and not used for scoring points originally. It also changed partially because it was easier to award points to the person who hit more often then the person who was able to deflect and control the fight. This made it more accessible to everyone in watching the fights. (I am still learning, and if I made a mistake let me know I am happy to change it. Everything I wrote is from what I have read, and been told/taught by my instructor Tony.)

Thank you for reading. I hope you all had a fantastic new year, and I hope the rest of the year is amazing for you all as well. Keep working to be the best you, that you can be.