Muay Thai week : day 2

Today was rough:

I woke up to my 6:45am alarm, body begging me not to move- every part of me was aching from the beating it took yesterday. 

Despite this I went to the 7:30am workout, got my butt kicked - all the shadow boxing, punching, and kicking from yesterday, but with the added muscle aches. 

Most of the people training at Phuket Top Team have some background in Muay Thai or MMA- even the most novice guys have been studying it casually for over a year. There are even some well known MMA fighters who teach classes at the gym- James McSweeney teaches a 'sledgehammer striking course'. You can kind of tell which of the fighters are the more seasoned, mainly because they are pure muscle, covered in tattoos, and seem to know exactly what they are doing. McSweeney, for example, looks like the really really big Spartan guy from '300', but with a huge tattoo on his chest.

A lot of people have this tattoo here- it's done with bamboo (not machines) and it's a five piece Thai 'charm' that fighters have, which is then blessed by a Buddhist monk at a temple (courtesy of Tara)

As far as I can tell, all of the people in the class are training to use their new Muay Thai skills in the arena, in small competitions either in Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Europe or the States. (Surprisingly, most of the guys training here are from Europe- esp Germany and England- but almost all the girls here are American. I've only met one guy at the gym from the states and he's from Texas. Not sure why the disparity.)

As much as I enjoy watching Muay Thai- and since I decided to do this camp that level of interest has increased- I'm not planning on fighting in competition any time soon. I'm here for the 'real-life application' (as I told another friend): I really hated the idea that someone - anyone- could physically hurt me and I would have no idea how to hurt them back. I took a couple of self-defense classes in college- and a semester of judo- but all of those classes taught about how to be defensive and minimize damage. And it might be uber paranoid / butch of me, but it's weird that at 25 I have no idea how to throw (or take) a punch. 

This difference in training purposes- the arena vs 'real-life application'- came to light when I was practicing clinching with a fellow female fighter. 

'When I lock you in, with your head in between my hands and holding you down towards my chest, and you can't get out, then you should use both hands to push against my face or my neck,' she said (she's a good deal taller than me)

'Mkay but if I really need to get out, could I just,  like, use my fingernails to scrape at you or to hit you in the eyes?' I asked.

Tara looked at me in horror: 'God no! You'll have boxing gloves on !! Why would you do that?' 

(And I wouldn't- not in the ring or anything. But I hate clinching because you're pulled in with very little control over the situation and if you're the weaker opponent- and have crap reflexes - you're in a very vulnerable position.)

After the morning workout I had a quick breakfast, picked up some more gauze for my elbow injuries (which are taking SUPER long to heal, in the sticky Thai humidity), and decided me aching body needed an oil massage from Phuket Spa, right next door (600 baht, or $20, incl tip- there are cheaper places around but this one seemed professional and clean) 

For a late lunch I ordered off the 'healthy menu' at Tony's Restaurant, which had BBQ chicken and a big salad (70 baht or $2.35) Then back to the gym for my Muay Thai lesson at 4-

Phuket Top Team (after workout)

A lot of the people in the Muay Thai program do both the AM and PM workouts, but not all. While I enjoy meeting the new people, it also means that I don't know anything about then, or how long they've been fighting. The opposite is also true- some of the fresh faces have no idea that I am a clueless beginner. So some of them mistakingly assume that I know what I'm doing. And some of them- one particularly serious German fighter in particular- go hard. Said German girl punched me in the face - pow pow pow, one right after the other- not giving me time to recover and hitting my face until I had a mix of sweat and frustrated tears coming out of my eyes. It was my first time being punched in the face, and man did it suck. Three hours later and I still have a sore neck and a head-ache. 

One of the American girls this morning had a similar problem with a different German girl who was hitting too hard during the 'sparring' time (and the American girl knows what she's doing, so it's not just the weak American girls vs serious German girls). Lesson learned: don't spar against German girls if you can help it. It's like they're out fighting with something to prove, and they'll keep hitting your face until they do... 

Hopefully I'll get better at blocking and anticipating my opponents' next move; until then I'm focusing on getting stronger, having a thicker skin and my combination moves. Already my left-side double kick is getting better :)

Sexy leg bruises, day 2!