Evening all, I thought I’d take the time to catch up before Monday arrives in all its glory. Well.. maybe not glory. There’s never been anything glorious about Mondays and tomorrow is no exception.

I’ve managed to spend a reasonable amount of time at the gym this week although I’ve been still shifting the last of the flu out my system which has meant despite putting in work, I’ve taken things reasonably easy and not pushed too much.

Next week onwards I intend to turn things up a little more starting tomorrow off with a decent run first thing. I spent some of my time training today thinking about footwork as well as practicing it which was as always a good thing. Seeing as its the foundation of what we do it’s good to focus on the body mechanics and basics from time to time.

A solid foundation and a decent set of basic skills makes a good martial artist regardless of your discipline, and like with all forms of combat staying light on my feet is pretty much the order of the day.

Thai footwork  isn’t always easy to pick up and there are always different variants  Just recently, I’ve been giving Yodkhunpon’s ‘gallop’ a try (see Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittus video on the subject) as a way to close the distance between myself and taller boxers.

I think I’m going to start practicing it daily so I can get good at it and I really like the way it helps you close distance and cut the ring off fast. As Sylvie says footwork training is “work you can do completely alone” and as I’m still the kind of guy that takes it home with me I think I’ll have fun working on my movement. After all, it’s a big part of my fight game and I want to make sure I’m at my best next time I step up.

I’ve also spent some of this week thinking about the range of attacks and why on some days I seem to spend the majority of my sparring time missing shots I should be landing. I guess the key is not to think too much and to believe in myself enough to know I can land the shot. A lot of it comes down to closing distance and being patient enough to find my range as well as the moment.

Some days I find what I’m looking for, other days it seems to always be just out my grasp. I don’t think there’s ever anything that constitutes as “perfect” doing this but what I  I do know is that practice often helps. If I believe in myself the rest often follows.

It’s good to practice movement drills with a training partner so I hope next week I can use some of my sparring time just working on footwork under pressure. Pressure tests are always one of the better ways to learn and anything that doesn’t go the way I want it to I can just take home with me and work on it some more. The path to self-improvement is always full of learnings and the martial ones are the best.

I like to think by deconstructing myself at points and going back to basics I can develop who I am as a martial artist and I’m confident that little by little I’m getting better the more I train. Of course, time helps with a lot of things and it takes a long time to get good at anything but life is like that. The best bit is that after just over 12 years of training in Muay Thai I love it just as much as when it was brand new. And that’s always going to be a good thing. Have a great week, train hard and just like the last time.. I’ll see you on that road.