Well, despite almost forgetting to get this blog of mine written this week I´m pleased to say I have as always landed on my feet and defeated procrastination for the second week running, therefore I´ll claim this as a Sunday win. I´m currently overseas with my family for the holidays and despite already feeling the spirit of Christmas taking shape in the form of crap food, too much booze and average telly I started my day with a 5k run this morning. It´s nice to keep my martial head on. They´ll be more of the same tomorrow I´m sure. Bah humbug,

I have already started setting some positive goals for 2019 and beyond that I´ll write a more about next week before another year draws to a close. February 2019 will see me having been training for 12 years in Muay Thai and nearly 13 years in martial arts as a whole. I´m already intending to hit the ground running next year and up the ante with  Thai boxing and martial training in general.

I´m pleased to have kept my mind open this year and it´s been good to have been shown a little of some the other “scruffy” arts that are out there too. Tai Chi fighting like Muay Thai goes through people I have been told. It´s been good fun learning something new from time to time and getting a better understanding of body mechanics. I want to start focusing on delivering more power with everything I do in the new year. Ok, correct form and speed is important but I want to hit harder too. It´ll come. Energy flows where attention goes as they say. The trick with Muay Thai I have been told, is to set your intent and attack with venom.

“Venom” that´s a good word to remember next time I´m fighting. . When I first started competing I was told I had a distinct lack of it. “You can´t be a nice guy in the ring.” “fighting is brutal.” eventually  I came to realize I had to be a different person if I wanted to win or at the very least fight well. It´s why I started working on that little characteristic in sparring as much as I could and why now if I get hit a little too hard my faces changes and I get aggressive. Venom is the key to applying pressure when you need it.

There´s nothing more intimidating than a forward footed fighter. At least until you learn how to get round them. I have always been someone who just keeps coming, although in my last fight it took me a few round to switch that on again. I want to get back to that and work on what Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittu calls the Muay Thai “gallop”. It´s frustrating sometimes being a shorter fighter and it´s important to be first. When I´m close I´m dangerous. To get close enough to be that I have to remember to switch on the fire and apply the venom.

As well as getting my body kicks up to a good standard  I´m going to remind myself that sometimes it´s totally fine to destroy your opponent´s legs too. Being able to do that can stop a fight. Here´s to making my left leg a formidable weapon again. I think I´ll get back to training next year with some good training goals and look forward to letting it go when I´m back in the ring in the next few months. After all, if you don´t fight fire with fire then why fight at all. Have a great Christmas and an awesome new year and just like the last time…I´ll see you on that road.