Hi, nice to finally find the time to catch up with you and I hope all is going well in your world when it comes to all things martial. Things as always are moving in the right direction here. Yesterday training, (in fact just like last weekend ) I was pleased to find that I’m getting sharper as well as faster.  There’s always room for improvement but my technique seems to be getting better so I guess the hard work is paying off.

At this stage, that’s really what I want and there are a couple of contributing factors, the first and for me, the most important being is that I’m training a lot again and when I train a lot the better I seem to get. Last weekend saw me do my first interclub in a while locally at the awesome Bristol Punch Up (You can find out a little more about them in the link) and I also had a go at reffing a few K1 bouts which was a new experience for me and something I really enjoyed.

It’s nice to see some new clubs emerging in Bristol and what’s even more inspiring is that the “left” gym ( anti-racist, feminist and non discriminatory at its core, but open to anyone who sees humans as humans ) concept seems to be spreading around the UK, taking inspiration from awesome camps such as Freedom Fighters, White Tiger Muay Thai and others in Europe.

There were a few gyms who came last week (Red Corner and Brighton Left Hook to name a couple  ) with fighters all at different levels of experience and the matchups were very good. Well done to all who took part!

I made the mistake of having a night out on the tiles the day before so my first bout wasn’t as lively as my second (I was reminded that hangovers and combat sports don’t mix. I’ll stick to the golden rule from here on in.)   but my second wasn’t too bad at all. I came away from the experience deciding that I need to do a few more inter clubs before I step back into the square ring again. It’s a confidence booster and gets you used to the pressure.

I want to be ready to fight again within the next 6 months and think if I keep moving forward in the direction I am at present it’s absolutely going to be an achievable goal. When it comes to training unless your goal setting your doing it wrong. Besides, the journey isn’t going to stop when I finally decide to stop competing. Muay Thai is a complete system and there’s a lot to explore.

In terms of exploration of the martial art, I train in I’m keen to get back into some decent clinch work so starting this week I’m going to train with some old pals of mine just clinch sparring. It’s nice to have all areas of what I do up to speed and I enjoyed a clinch seminar I went to at the end of the interclub last Sunday hosted by Pete Irving. It was good to work basics and there were a couple of new things I learned too.

I’ve put myself in a position where I can now train 6 days a week if I want to, and like a kid in a sweet shop, I’m starting to feel a little spoilt for choice. It was good to catch up with Sweatbox here last weekend, I like the new gym! it’s been a while since I paid them a visit! 🙂 equally, I’m enjoying training in the mornings as well as evenings at my current camp “Knock n roll” (It’ll always be Combat Warriors to me)  too.

At the moment my heart is telling me “just train” so I go out and put in as much as I can. Investing in myself has always been my favourite thing, and besides an early December break is planned so I need to make the most of the last few weeks of the year. (Although I’ll no doubt find the time overseas too.)

I’m hoping the rest of the week continues to head in the right direction and of course I need to make sure I keep my running up to speed. You don’t run then you don’t fight as they say… So, as Wednesday afternoon rapidly heads towards Thursday morning I’ve realized I’ve got a load I need to get done and being honest I could talk to you forever about this journey of mine. Let’s catch up again on Sunday. I promise not to be late. Have a good week, and just like the last time… I’ll see you on that road.