Hi. I thought I’d take the time to swing by this evening to catch up about all things martial. When it comes to training this week things have been good. I managed to fit in a 8.33k run this afternoon before the last session of the week. I’m back on track training wise and will be putting my heart and soul into the next couple of months as I’m fighting on April the 13th in Birmingham.

The guy I’m fighting comes from a good camp ( K Star legacy) and his trainer is the former world champion, Damien Trainor. My trainer has said to me my opponent is fast and he’s good. Speed and volume are what I need to be ready for.

I’m reasonably nervous and I’m pleased it’s happening at an early stage. I once watched an old friend of mine destroy a lad who had around 15 or 16 fights and my friend was only on his 4th or 5th. You never know what’s going to happen until your fighting and you should never underestimate anybody.

I intend to start to pick up the pace next week onwards and really want to make sure my fitness improves before the end of the month. I’m fighting at 61kg (my regular fighting weight.) and haven’t really got a lot to drop but have already decided to clean up my act when it comes to diet and cutting out alcohol.

I’d rather get my head in the game at an early stage and build up the training between now and April than tell myself I can start focusing from March. I’m pleased I’ve got a 6 or 7 weeks training before the next one and intend to make the most of it.

I’m currently limping slightly due to an injury to my knee I either picked up running or training earlier so hope it settles down before Tuesday. I’ve noticed a bit of blackish bruising on the inside of the leg so I think I caught a low kick in the wrong place earlier today. You live and you learn. It’ll right itself.

Recently in training, I’ve been thinking about (and talking about) Muay Thai economy of movement  I think this is important for me to “get” right now because I want to improve what I do massively and I’ve spent some of this week not be able to do anything other than see the flaws. I want to get better at using my movement to close people down and to deliver shots faster and with more power. I can see that my body kicks literally go round the houses so I want to change that.

It was pointed out that my cross is losing power as I’m winding it up so I need to change that. I need to get my right hook better because it’s hitting the guard of whoever I train with so I need to change that too. I need to pivot my lead foot more on my left roundhouse all the time so I need to remember to do that too. It’s been one of those weeks. It has, however, as always been good. You can’t beat learnings.

Earlier on in the week, I told my trainer I find Thai boxing quite “hard” and being honest, I do at points, but I realized after I said it that if I find it “hard” then there’s something I’m missing. It was never meant to be easy. I just have to keep going. I’m looking forward to fighting again in April and having that to focus on should help me make me the hard bits better.

I don’t think I’ll ever become a totally different fighter but I do think I can become a better one. I want to be at my best for April and I want to win. It’s a long road to be on but it’s a good one. I’ll see you on it soon.