Hi. Sorry, I missed you Sunday but I’ve been busy. Yeah, that old chestnut. Still, it’s nice to catch up as always and I hope your training has been as good for you as it has been for me of late. Last week, just like the week before was a good one when it comes to all things Muay Thai.

Starting from the top, I hit the ground running and trained hard all week as I was hoping to fight overseas last Saturday, despite my original matchup having pulled out a couple of weeks before I felt it was wise to keep the momentum up and as always to just keep going. I actually finished training on Thursday night feeling pretty good about myself and a lot more prepared than I had been for my previous fight.

I’ve started throwing in lunchtime training sessions with a pal of mine in between days in the week when I’m training at a regular structured class. This has allowed me to invest more time into my gym time and I think it’s beginning to pay off. I finished the week feeling sharp and with a feeling of self-confidence that always bodes well. I’ve had a reasonable amount of fights so far and I’ve decided to let experience take the steering wheel rather than self-doubt but I’ll come to that in a minute. 

On Friday I flew out to Europe for a tournament hosted by a good bunch of people who train hard and have what I consider to be the right attitude about many things in life. It was good to meet the Freedom Fighters crowd as I had heard good things about the camp and the show.  On Saturday morning I got some decent gym time in and hit the pads and bags for a few rounds before the show started later on in the day.

Although I wasn’t fighting, I enjoyed the show immensely and had fun cornering someone for their second K1 fight. I’ve noticed that there was a good atmosphere and a friendly crowd.

Overall I thought the standard of fights when it came down to the K1 bouts were pretty good. Cornering someone can be exciting too and although we lost on points it was a close fight and at one point I am sure we were absolutely winning. It left me looking forward to fighting again myself and a little frustrated that I didn’t get the chance to step up on the day but I have a feeling they’ll be other opportunities to compete over the summer.

The day finished with a  good old fashioned knees up (not to the face)  in the evening  I managed to drink so much I’m pretty sure I  fell over more than once and woke up on Sunday morning, not at my most spritely for the awesome Pete Irving’s 3-hour long Muay Thai seminar in the afternoon. (The first hour truly sapped my life force but I recovered it (I think) for the remainder.

We focused mainly on countering kicks with catches, sweeps, and strikes and although it got quite advanced it was a lot of fun. We also finished the session off working from the clinch, practicing some throws and sweeps. I think if someone is heavier than you it doesn’t mean you can’t throw them. You just need to make sure you get your technique right. I absolutely need to spend more time working on my clinch game! It used to be a strength of mine and I’d like to get back to that again.

Earlier on in the day at the end of my training session, I’d had a good chat with a trainer from Hamburg way about fighting and winning and losing. When you fight regularly winning and losing become less relevant simply because your fighting. You learn to cope with losses and just come back stronger the next time around. Winning is great but a deeper lesson is learned sometimes in defeat. Fightings not for everyone and it’s a tough world in there but a good challenge. 

I want to get a lot better at it so I think I need to stop giving myself a hard time about fight records. We all go through ups and downs it’s how you come back that’s the most important. And besides, if you’re the best you can be your only ever going to come first place.

You can probably tell at the moment I’m missing the ring but I’m hoping this week will give me a clearer picture as to when fight no 20 is going to be. I’ve decided to set myself the modest goal of getting to 30 fights before I decide on what to do next. I’ll always be training and if I get some good results getting to that point I’m sure I’ll continue in the same vein. Never say never. Only say never give up.

This week should see another decent week of training ahead and I’ve already started with a decent couple of runs. Thanks again to Freedom fighters for their welcoming attitude and hospitality,  It’s training in a little while so I better get going but whilst you’re here do the take the time to read about the current situation at Rozbrat which is their home and a fantastic social center for many from all walks of life. From my point of view, we all deserve our place on earth. Keep fighting the good fight friends, train hard, and just like the last time.. I’ll see you on that road.