When I’m training there is usually a few things running through my mind. One is predominantly “why the fuck am I doing this to myself” the others vary depending on what I tend to be doing during that session. I read somewhere that training should be horrible. Horrible to the point where when you finally take the step to get in the ring with someone it kind of takes the edge off a little bit. Not that fighting will ever be easy (I say that because I haven’t had a fight yet), I can imagine it gets somewhat easier as you gain more experience, as you begin to get your fight week routine down and get the nutritional side of things working for you too.
The other things that tend to run through my mind, say, when we are doing a drill exercise is breaking down every little movement that my body is doing to ensure that I get the correct compilation of muscle memory to be able to do it as a reaction rather than using a lot of my cognitive energy on concentrating on what I am doing. Making it become second nature basically, running through it that many times so you know it backwards.
The only way I can describe it in another way is because I play the guitar, when you learn a chord, it’s not easy to do. It feels totally unnatural to have your fingers pressing steel strings against the fret board which after a few hours practising begins to hurt (as training does), but as you do it more and more the easier the flow between different chords come and the easier it becomes to piece them together to make a song.
In a way I guess that’s how you could see Muay Thai, you are piecing together lots of different techniques, leg kicks, body kicks, hooks, uppercuts, teeps, the clinch, elbows, knees, combining them all to make… Well, a fucking war!!
From the time I have had in the gym, when I have watched the more experienced fighters sparring, it is a beautiful thing to watch really. The back and forth, every strike thought about and planned. Not an ounce of energy wasted on something that didn’t need to be done. They take a body kick to the left side of the body but then return straight away with a body kick and left hook.
It’s awesome, I love it. I remember in my first ever session, it was on a Tuesday. I was there a little early, I say a little early I showed up a few hours before the class because I had finished work early that day, the advanced class was on before the beginners class and oh boy was I in for a surprise.
Craig and Gordon were in the ring sparring and I shit my pants!! Craig is the owner of the gym and a retired professional fighter and Gordon is an A class fighter that has fought at lumpinee before. At that point it was a total set of mixed emotions, I am far from violent. I would do anything to avoid a confrontational situation and this world to me was totally alien. But when I saw them two in the ring, what I thought at the time was knocking the fuck out of each other, that was it… My Muay Thai journey began!!
I haven’t looked back. I can safely say that taking the step to train in Muay Thai has been the best decision I have ever made. One I wish I had made a long time ago. Saying that, because I have a lot of time to make up it just pushes me harder. In the short time I have been going to Northern Kings I have learnt so much about Muay Thai, myself and my inner strength. There is so much more to learn, one of the lads who I was training with tonight, called Tony Ellis who is also a fighter, came into the class, he had just come from another gym where he has been teaching a class.
What he said next I think will stay with me throughout my training and hopefully ‘fighting career.’ I said “you have gone from being the teacher to the student” of which he replied to me… “You will never stop being a student.” Which is so fucking true. If there is anything I have learned so far it is that there is always more to learn and I feel as though I don’t have enough hours in the day to soak up all the information I want to cram into my brain!!
Well I’m going to stop babbling now and let you get on with your day, I will update you later with the training that we got up to tonight. It’s another two hour session tonight, one hour of strength and one hour thai class. So watch this space.
Peace!! – Dom – Muay Thai Blog UK
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