Hi. After a slightly longer than planned absence from writing this blog of my I thought it would be good to catch up. So here we are again, you and me..it has as always been a good week training. I’m pleased to say I’ve managed to get running back on track this week, but as is always the way I haven’t trained as much as I’d planned to. However, not to be perturbed I’ve decided to put my back into it once again next week onwards. But you know what? sometimes it’s ok to slow down a little. Here’s to next Tuesday.

At the moment I’m enjoying getting a little bit of pressure from some of the people I train with and being honest it’s good getting a push from time to time. A push doesn’t mean kicking chunks out of each other because let’s be honest, no one learns anything at all, and when we’re on the same team we shouldn’t be competing against each other but learning from and helping one another.

Competing in any combat sport teaches you how to how to deal with fear and self-doubt quickly. A good way to learn to deal with that fear is to spar a lot and then maybe take your fight game into the interclub world before stepping into the amateurs if that’s something you want to do.

It’s good to practice putting yourself in harm’s way and it’s just as important to spar with people that treat each other with respect and keep the pressure at a level that works for everybody. I think it’s easy to let nerves and hesitation get in the way of action in sparring and of course, fighting too. Being first is just as important as it’s always been to me, after all, he who hesitates is lost. I’ll remember that next time I’m fighting.

I enjoy pressure testing myself in the gym at points so next week I’ll start turning it up a little again. I’m hoping to fight again soon so want to spend the last of the summer working on what I need to and look forward to the autumn bringing in some new opportunities to test myself. It’s taken a good couple of months to get over a confidence knock from losing my last couple of fights but I’ve started training more and more and feel that I’ll be ready when the next one comes around.

I thought I’d leave you this week with some Muay Thai goodness from Muay Ties, a classic fight from way back when Pornsanae vs Kwankhao . He’s always been my favourite fighter because he’s always been fierce and determined to win, and when he loses he just comes back stronger than before. Sometimes when we look at others we can see a little bit of ourselves in them. Stay inspired, train hard and just like the last time, I’ll see you on that road.