Hi. Nice to see ya. I hope you had a good Christmas and new year. Mine was truly awesome. Which was nice. Now that we’re on the tail end of the holiday season and the dust is just about settled I thought it would be good to round up 2019 and look at the year ahead.

The one thing I don’t do when it comes to New Year is make many resolutions. I ask for good things to happen and accept that I need to make changes to get to where I want to be. New year, new you is a myth designed to sell gym memberships and diet plans. It shouldn’t take a specific day of the year to inspire you to work towards new goals. That should be an ongoing process.

Whilst away for Christmas (Sunny Spain with the fam) despite the snacks, wine and general Christmas cheer I made a point of keeping my fitness up with a lot of runs. In fact, as of today, I’ve not trained for nearly 2 weeks so this week to make up for it, I’ve run a couple of times too.

It helps shake the food and booze off and at the very least means I won’t gas out when back at the gym in the week.  I’ve always been big on my fitness and cardio when it comes to Muay Thai and I can’t see that changing in the year ahead.

Training wise I finished last year ahead putting my pedal to the metal just to see if I still could and slowed down a little before we wrapped up for Christmas. It was good to see I’ve still got the dedication and focus to commit to training that I was at one point fearing I was losing.

Although I’ve lost my last few fights (both in 2018 and 2019 respectively) it’s good to be able to put things into perspective this year and say yes this is still something I want to do and get good at doing.

There is more to Muay Thai than just competing but hey if you love fighting then it’s not really possible to lose and if you can commit to it then just keep doing it. Besides, I know that the balance often tips. Especially if I commit to training a lot and keep working on my flaws.

I’m hoping to head out to Thailand for the 3rd time in the latter part of 2020 but I’m also looking forward to heading out to Europe over the summer to catch a couple of shows out there too. All in all this year, I intend to be an internationalist and a jet setter. Between you and me I’d love to go the the mighty Kronk gym in Detroit at some point in my life. But there’s lots of things I’d like to do. Energy flows where attention goes as they say.

Speaking of energy and despite a 2 day new years hangover it’s nice to feel ready to get back into the thick of things next week onwards. I want to spend January working on my fitness remembering that my fitness let me down drastically in my last fight as did my overconfidence.

I’d talk about it more but I wasn’t impressed. I let me down so to make up for this I intend to stay humble, train hard and get myself ready. My trainers will say when.I want to make sure I fight a few times this year and win. I need to work hard at the gym because it’s never been an easy road to be on. Only a good one. Fortune favours the bold. 

Finally, I intend to continue to broaden my knowledge and skill as a martial artist. I’m enjoying learning bits and pieces from other systems but would like to find another art to compliment Thai boxing. I’ve always had a soft spot for Kali Arnis and would like to learn some of the older styles of Muay Thai.

I want to be able to pass my knowledge on to others so want to focus a lot on helping others in and out the gym. I guess I want to be more selfless. Sometimes I feel selfish.  Thai boxing and martial arts have really forged some solid friendships over the years so I want to make sure I remember that there’s no I in team. As cliched as that sounds. Without good coaches and a good corner, I wouldn’t have achieved half the stuff I have!

I guess you could call some of the above new year’s resolutions if you wanted to but in actuality, they’ve been on the agenda for a while now. Let’s make sure they happen in 2020. In the meantime, train hard, happy new year, and just like the time before…. I’ll see you on that road.