Hi. Sorry, I’m a little later than anticipated but as always it’s good to catch up. I hope Monday fairs you well and has been a productive start to the week. I never seem to get on that well with Mondays. I spend half the day not doing too much then about 4 hours taking work seriously. The internet like life is full of distractions.

Training at the moment is still heading in the right direction (being honest, I don’t actually think there’s a time when it isn’t ) and I’m slowly picking the running up again. Last weekend I headed down to a gym I trained at way back when and got some sparring in with some old training pals.

Everyone there like at my current place is at a good level so it was nice to see how I fared against old and new faces. I seem to be improving I’m pleased to say, so next year as is the  plan intend to get myself fighting again. With the support of my gym of course.

I’ve been Thai boxing for nearly 13 years now and although it’s taken its time things are starting to come together more naturally for me. I’ve also found that my flexibility is improving a little. I put some of that down to having to kick a little higher than I’d like with most people, and the majority down to actually listening to my trainers for once and practicing mobility stretching at home.

I think I still need to do a little more in sparring,  but my cardio is ok and I can keep the pressure on when it counts. This week I intend to start trying some sweeps in sparring and all that good stuff. I need to work on ways to close the tall and dangerous down and make it so they don’t want to kick me anymore.

I’m also going to start spending time working on my mindset a little more and keep that aggression switch on. I’m sharp at present so want to use that to my advantage. It’s a long road and as always all of the above is a work in progress. When a friend of mine told me many years ago it takes a long time to get good at martial arts he wasn’t joking. I still have a lot to learn.

I think it’s important at present to find people that I know are going to push me to be at my very best and a change of scenery from time to time can keep that particular landscape varied and challenging. It also means I can put in a good amount of work in every week. Next time I fight I’ve decided to train 6 times a week for it. Whenever that may be. In the meantime, I’m doing my best to match that training regularly because I think that’s where progress lives.

Training and fighting require a lot of self-discipline so it’s good to find myself heading back towards the right places. Next on the agenda is getting my hit and miss timekeeping sorted out. Procrastination is still my enemy and as the saying goes sometimes the hardest bit about training is getting there. On that note, I’m currently putting off the rest of Monday evening so for now, that’s all she wrote and just like the last time.. I’ll see you on that road.