First of all, let me just say that I had a pretty good day, showed in that as I rested, exhausted, on the sit-up bench staring at the roofing that even though pretty much every single part of me hurt (some places hurt bad) I was having a really good time and even if I was getting sloppy and slow as I got tired (and lazy) I could have finished my first 4 hour Sunday lesson (instead of the 3 hours we ended up doing) if asked.
^ Oh yeah, that was all one sentence; suckit, Grammar Nazis. ^
Anyways, as I said before this was my first Sunday and they are scheduled to be 4 hours long.
We started with jumping rope again. I am determined to get this shit, but I haven't been the quickest study. I keep loosing my rhythm and balance. I'm supposed to stay in guard and bounce forwards and back as I do it and I keep putting the wrong foot down, jumping too high, or just plain fucking it up. I was told to get to 100 and made it to 38, not even a personal best (I'm just guessing). It's incredibly frustrating and embarrassing when Karim has to just say alright enough is enough and stop me. (I'm panting by now and haven't even gotten anywhere)
After that things got a little (LITTLE) better as we went over all of the kicks, which was fun and I think I'm getting a little looser and better (even if they're weaker than my grandma on Jupiter) at them. If my Thai is right (yeah, yeah it's transliterated, so what) they're:
Dtai chiang (middle kick)
Dtai ban (high kick - head)
Dtai lang (low kick - to the thigh)
teep (push kick)
Dtai krueng kang krueng kao (half kick - half knee, you hit with the upper shin in a kinda dtai chiang motion while blocking)
Dtai .... shit I forgot (it's a sweeping kick with a push from the same-side arm, you want to do it to both legs from the back)
Did a few of those shadow boxing and on the bag (10 or so each, not a lot but I'm still panting by the end of it). Somboon came in and made sure I was pivoting my hip enough when I kick (For some reason I thought the kicks would be a lot quicker to pick up than they have be and I still struggle).
After a bit of that the fun began. Up until this point it's been static, compliant or drills practice. Nothing really exciting except for the fact that I'm fucking training Muay Thai in Thailand. Well, Somboon spoke to Karim for a bit and he gets that evil-I'm about to make you feel like shit- kinda grin on his face (In or out of training I watch out for it) and just walk over, does a grabbing motion and before I know it it's a grapple + knee session. Whooya, this was wild. He came in like a miniature freight train (he weights something like 54 kg) got me by the neck and it was no mercy. I felt like I was at a Judo tourney up against some giant Russian muthafucka, except he also knees me in the gut. I gave it my best and even tried some actual Judo when things got really rough (didn't really help, but I wasn't honestly expecting much, just in survival mode). After I start getting shaky he starts tossing me like a rag-doll and then kicking me while I'm down (laughing). It was incredible, it felt as real as it gets and hurt like a bitch but I was standing...ish at the end (okay, so I was lying on my back panting in a puddle of sweat... read what you want out of that btw you fucking pervs).
Thankfully Karim's girlfriend (a fellow English teacher) arrives and gives me a much needed break as some sort of family drama was going down and distracted him while I caught my breath. I would need it.
So I thought the grapple would be the highlight of the day. It wasn't. Sparring was. Yes, fucking sparring. I couldn't believe it. He had to say it twice (well, mostly because he called it spare-ing). I put on the gloves, the shinpads and got the living hell beaten out of me. Everything I had learned I forgot. Everything I knew I didn't. My speed wasn't and my power didn't matter (I didn't land a single clean hit. I spent most of the time backing up (running for my life) and covering up as my jab turned into an open boxing session on my chin. I can't remember it all (we went for a while and I was pretty dizzy by the end) but the big things I need to remember are:
BLOCK WITH MY FUCKING LEGS (the kicks, I mean) I kept on doing stupid karate bullshit in the first time since starting training. I thought I got it out of my system but apparently not and I ate plenty of kicks for it. Thanks a whole hell of a lot Goju Ryu, you suck.
Keep my cool. I would get excited, bounce and inevitably get knocked down to the ground.
Combinations, use them
KEEP MY GUARD UP AND MY CHIN DOWN
MOVE FORWARD (backing up only gets you beaten up while you back up)
Those are the highlights anyways.
After I failed to get back up after a particularly nice kick to the stomach he decided I had had enough and I got to sit for a bit. Sit-ups that it. 100 in 25 sit-up sets. That sucked, but it was the knell for the end as after that we halfheartedly lifted weights as Somboon chatted up Karim's girl and that was it.
All in all today showed me major flaws in my abilities and a bunch of things to work on.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Mon/Wed
I'm fusing these two for the sake that one was short and the other didn't happen.
Monday was a quick day as Karim's hand was busted up from sparring with one of the child-pros (thumb caught on a push kick or something). So it was stepping drill with punches, elbows and knees.
Two rounds of shadow boxing, with corrections for form and combination choice. Main focus was correct use of knees in combinations, and the fact that the right arm and leg should be 60+% busier than the left (again, southpaw). We worked on a jab-teep-knee combo, all with the right leg.
At the bag I was allowed to go "free style" for two rounds with only minor adjustments from Karim, which felt nice even if my bagwork sucks the air out of a vacuum. Double kicks from both the left and right were introduced and they are really, really fun, though I did sort of really bang up one shin.
I gassed again at the bag though and this really seemed to bug Karim (especially because I just straight up stopped from a cramp in my side). So, while I rested he had me put my hand up and started kneeing me "gently" in the stomach, pushing me back until I hit the edge of the mat and called "Uncle". He then had me turn sideways and kicked me "gently" in the stomach. After 3 I doubled over and took a knee. He then massaged my stomach both where he kicked me and where the cramp was and it was another round of bagwork.
Afterwards we tried to do mittwork but (as sort of karmic revenge) I gave a good cross to his hurt hand and that ended that. So we worked on blocks for a round then just did half-hearted grappling and swapped stories of our favorite MMA fights/moves (I showed him harai-goshi and osoto-gari as well).
Wednesday I was a day of miscommunication. I arrived a little early and no one was at the gym. After returning home and calling him he told me "I'm at the Stadium" (he meant Gym/School). After another 5 minutes of confused conversation Wed's class was moved to this Friday (today).
Monday was a quick day as Karim's hand was busted up from sparring with one of the child-pros (thumb caught on a push kick or something). So it was stepping drill with punches, elbows and knees.
Two rounds of shadow boxing, with corrections for form and combination choice. Main focus was correct use of knees in combinations, and the fact that the right arm and leg should be 60+% busier than the left (again, southpaw). We worked on a jab-teep-knee combo, all with the right leg.
At the bag I was allowed to go "free style" for two rounds with only minor adjustments from Karim, which felt nice even if my bagwork sucks the air out of a vacuum. Double kicks from both the left and right were introduced and they are really, really fun, though I did sort of really bang up one shin.
I gassed again at the bag though and this really seemed to bug Karim (especially because I just straight up stopped from a cramp in my side). So, while I rested he had me put my hand up and started kneeing me "gently" in the stomach, pushing me back until I hit the edge of the mat and called "Uncle". He then had me turn sideways and kicked me "gently" in the stomach. After 3 I doubled over and took a knee. He then massaged my stomach both where he kicked me and where the cramp was and it was another round of bagwork.
Afterwards we tried to do mittwork but (as sort of karmic revenge) I gave a good cross to his hurt hand and that ended that. So we worked on blocks for a round then just did half-hearted grappling and swapped stories of our favorite MMA fights/moves (I showed him harai-goshi and osoto-gari as well).
Wednesday I was a day of miscommunication. I arrived a little early and no one was at the gym. After returning home and calling him he told me "I'm at the Stadium" (he meant Gym/School). After another 5 minutes of confused conversation Wed's class was moved to this Friday (today).
Friday, May 27, 2011
Saturday with Muu
Okay, so now after three Saturday sessions I'm still completely confused at to what's going on here. I mean, the first Saturday I trained with two other new kids at around 13:00, the second I arrived and mostly watched the kids train at 10, today I was completely by myself except for the trainer Muu who taught the little pros last weekend and paid me no mind. Granted, I am fully thankful and relieved I did not have to relive the awkwardness of the second Saturday again this morning and even got in a really good workout, but I am a bit unsure as to what the regular schedule (if there is even one) will look like.
Aside from massive amounts of confusion it was a great day: I started off with Somboon telling me to stretch then having me do the stepping drill again as a warmup, after which he added another step which is the stepping drill but with a 1-2, hook-hook, uppercut-uppercut step pattern (instead of just one at a time). After that I did the same walking drill but now with knees, having to remember to keep my hands a little above eye level, twisting into the strike, and keeping my balance while "bouncing" as I knee. That last one really took the wind outa me.
Sometime during the warmup Muu arrived and took over while Somboon took off for a bit. After the stepping drill I did combination practice standing in place, with 1-2's and kicks from both sides, then 1-2 with knee and kick from the same side (so you punch, then knee, switch step to get back to where you were and kick with the same leg you just knee'd with). He had me then repeat the same combos on the bag (which is frakking hard with the whole switch step timing), that is until Somboon came in, told him I wasn't ready for bagwork (which I felt a little torn on considering I'd been doing it for almost the whole two weeks but I was in fact struggling pretty hard on the timing aspect and was sloppy) and made me do the "knee drill" which is just standing in place throwing as many knees as you can for as long as you can (my record: 59second).
After that Muu told me to put on some gloves and we worked blocking techniques for a little bit. Having already seen them all with Karim I was confident and Muu seemed pretty pleased with my performance as we only worked on it for a little bit before he put on the boxing pads and finished up with a bit of mittwork which was again totally fun.
Aside from massive amounts of confusion it was a great day: I started off with Somboon telling me to stretch then having me do the stepping drill again as a warmup, after which he added another step which is the stepping drill but with a 1-2, hook-hook, uppercut-uppercut step pattern (instead of just one at a time). After that I did the same walking drill but now with knees, having to remember to keep my hands a little above eye level, twisting into the strike, and keeping my balance while "bouncing" as I knee. That last one really took the wind outa me.
Sometime during the warmup Muu arrived and took over while Somboon took off for a bit. After the stepping drill I did combination practice standing in place, with 1-2's and kicks from both sides, then 1-2 with knee and kick from the same side (so you punch, then knee, switch step to get back to where you were and kick with the same leg you just knee'd with). He had me then repeat the same combos on the bag (which is frakking hard with the whole switch step timing), that is until Somboon came in, told him I wasn't ready for bagwork (which I felt a little torn on considering I'd been doing it for almost the whole two weeks but I was in fact struggling pretty hard on the timing aspect and was sloppy) and made me do the "knee drill" which is just standing in place throwing as many knees as you can for as long as you can (my record: 59second).
After that Muu told me to put on some gloves and we worked blocking techniques for a little bit. Having already seen them all with Karim I was confident and Muu seemed pretty pleased with my performance as we only worked on it for a little bit before he put on the boxing pads and finished up with a bit of mittwork which was again totally fun.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wednesday 2
Karim had a cold (how do you get a cold in Thailand?) today so he wasn't able to join me in the warmups and bagwork (as he usually does to show me the proper form and help my shitty sense of timing).
After a quick stretch I started out with the stepping drill: punches and elbows. Then moved on to two rounds of shadow boxing. My physical shape is as such that if it weren't for repeated stops to discuss my dumbass combo attempts and piss poor technique I would not have likely been able to complete even the first round (I don't know how many minutes because I can't see the clock with my glasses off).
After shadow boxing Karim put some gloves on and I did a round of punch defence then a round of kick defence, with constant reminders to circle round to the back after blocking and to move to the same-side as the punch/kick (kick with the left, turn around his left).
Afterwards I put on some gloves and did a short bit of bagwork with some basic combos:
1-2-kick, 1-2 x2 hooks, 1-2 x2 uppercuts, 1-2 elbow, 1-2 knee
My knees are still horrible, as I keep hitting the sides of the bag instead of the center and keep attacking with a square body instead of turning my hips and shoulders to deflect counters. That and my arms and knees are too low.
After the disappointing performace on the bagwork we moved onto my so-far-favourite drill: boxing pads (no muay thai padwork yet). We did a couple of rounds and after each round he had me do a "flurry" of 1-2,1-2,1-2's for as long as I can. At the moment my best is 30 seconds.
The end of class I did 2x25 situps with him hitting me in the stomach with the mitts.
After a quick stretch I started out with the stepping drill: punches and elbows. Then moved on to two rounds of shadow boxing. My physical shape is as such that if it weren't for repeated stops to discuss my dumbass combo attempts and piss poor technique I would not have likely been able to complete even the first round (I don't know how many minutes because I can't see the clock with my glasses off).
After shadow boxing Karim put some gloves on and I did a round of punch defence then a round of kick defence, with constant reminders to circle round to the back after blocking and to move to the same-side as the punch/kick (kick with the left, turn around his left).
Afterwards I put on some gloves and did a short bit of bagwork with some basic combos:
1-2-kick, 1-2 x2 hooks, 1-2 x2 uppercuts, 1-2 elbow, 1-2 knee
My knees are still horrible, as I keep hitting the sides of the bag instead of the center and keep attacking with a square body instead of turning my hips and shoulders to deflect counters. That and my arms and knees are too low.
After the disappointing performace on the bagwork we moved onto my so-far-favourite drill: boxing pads (no muay thai padwork yet). We did a couple of rounds and after each round he had me do a "flurry" of 1-2,1-2,1-2's for as long as I can. At the moment my best is 30 seconds.
The end of class I did 2x25 situps with him hitting me in the stomach with the mitts.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday: KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES-ah
I got in a little late today because our uniforms finally showed up to work after two weeks, right as I was gearing up to leave (Oh well, rather be a 10 minutes late and feel a little more professional I guess). So all I had was a pastry from the 7/11 going in (it didn't sit all the well either). Bitching aside though it was a great session:
Started with stretching (first day with a proper stretch, this helped alleviate a lot of the lingering after training-pains I'd been feeling) then moved on to the stepping and striking drill for punches and elbows. This was followed by a couple rounds of shadow boxing, learned how to move a little smoother (lighter on the feet but still well planted, that last part being a little harder for me) put better combos together and keep up the right-side (I'm a soutpaw) work, keeping the left for the power shot.
After the warmup and shadowboxing it was technique time, but before we got into the thick of it there was a quick break as Karim explained a bit of the Thai clinch and appreciated a bit of what I had to say about Judo clinch-work and takedowns (he seemed to really like ippon-seioi nage). This lasted a few minutes before we moved in front of the mirrors (which I am positive make people look taller and thinner, which is fine by me) and he showed me the basics of the direct knee strike:
Keep the hands high and arms tight to protect the face. The toes pointed down, the standing foot up on the toes (like the kicks) or jumping, and get the knee higher (always higher!) with the leg angles slightly outwards (foot point out, not in).
Then he had me do a series of them in front of the mirror as fast and high as I could while maintaining proper technique (not well, and not high enough). Satisfied I didn't suck too much we went to the bag where I tried out my new knees on it for a little under a hundred good hits. Again, I felt like I disappointed him on my stamina and strength, unable to go as long as he originally said (and after at least one large pause where he restarted the count on my lazy ass).
They felt amazing though, and the THUD and dent in the bag they made is second only to the satisfying KRACK of a proper round kick. After that we shot the shit for a bit, I wrote down a few combinations that were written on a poster to try when I shadowbox on my morning runs and we took off. Over all had a great time, felt stronger shadowboxing (but not by much) and loved learning the infamous Thai Knee.
Started with stretching (first day with a proper stretch, this helped alleviate a lot of the lingering after training-pains I'd been feeling) then moved on to the stepping and striking drill for punches and elbows. This was followed by a couple rounds of shadow boxing, learned how to move a little smoother (lighter on the feet but still well planted, that last part being a little harder for me) put better combos together and keep up the right-side (I'm a soutpaw) work, keeping the left for the power shot.
After the warmup and shadowboxing it was technique time, but before we got into the thick of it there was a quick break as Karim explained a bit of the Thai clinch and appreciated a bit of what I had to say about Judo clinch-work and takedowns (he seemed to really like ippon-seioi nage). This lasted a few minutes before we moved in front of the mirrors (which I am positive make people look taller and thinner, which is fine by me) and he showed me the basics of the direct knee strike:
Keep the hands high and arms tight to protect the face. The toes pointed down, the standing foot up on the toes (like the kicks) or jumping, and get the knee higher (always higher!) with the leg angles slightly outwards (foot point out, not in).
Then he had me do a series of them in front of the mirror as fast and high as I could while maintaining proper technique (not well, and not high enough). Satisfied I didn't suck too much we went to the bag where I tried out my new knees on it for a little under a hundred good hits. Again, I felt like I disappointed him on my stamina and strength, unable to go as long as he originally said (and after at least one large pause where he restarted the count on my lazy ass).
They felt amazing though, and the THUD and dent in the bag they made is second only to the satisfying KRACK of a proper round kick. After that we shot the shit for a bit, I wrote down a few combinations that were written on a poster to try when I shadowbox on my morning runs and we took off. Over all had a great time, felt stronger shadowboxing (but not by much) and loved learning the infamous Thai Knee.
Saturday #2: Aimless Wanderings and getting in the way
I'm lucky I showed up early today (NOTE: Today will always mean the day I trained here being Saturday the 21st) as I was put through a set of warm ups and then shown all the elbows before any of the kids showed up (late: at almost 10).
The warm ups were walking with strikes coming off the opposite foot. First straights, then hooks, uppercuts and later the different elbows.
The elbows are called "sok" and there is:
sok tee = downwards elbow
sok ngud = sideways elbow
(I forget the Thai) = upwards elbow
Backwards elbow
And a spinning elbow
So it went: Stepping drill punches, learn new strikes (elbows), practice on bag for a bit (really sore elbows now), stepping drill with elbows.
This took about an hour and by then the other students had arrived and this is where things got a little weird. Until now I'd either been training with Somboon or Karim on a 1-on-1 or small group basis and hadn't really done much interacting with both the other (the real) students and Moo (the other trainer) and today that's pretty much all I had.
This would have been fine if I was allowed to tag along with what the group was doing (at my own fatass pace of course), but I was kind of pushed to the side as they took the floor and from then on the class pretty much went:
They jumped rope - I warmed up and stretched (on my own accord)
They stretched - I did more stretching
They shadowboxed - Okay! So at least I can do this! (I joined in)
They did bagwork - I shadowboxed
They Sparred - I watched
They did more bagwork - I did random callisthenics and conditioning
They did muay boran - I watched
This carried on much in the same way from almost 10 to about 13:00 and mind you, all of the things I ended up doing (most of which, despite the list was merely watching/gawking and getting in their way) was not because someone kindly said, "Look here, lad. We know that our focus has to be the lil' pros here because most of 'em have fights coming up but go do this in a corner for a bit till the next rotation" or something. No, I was just told "Martial arts you can do on your own" and was left with that.
Oh well, I got by fine enough (maybe not much of a workout but I did have fun watching the real deal all morning). Still, next time I'm definitely following the group as much as I can (when they jump rope I'm finding a fucking rope) until told otherwise.
The warm ups were walking with strikes coming off the opposite foot. First straights, then hooks, uppercuts and later the different elbows.
The elbows are called "sok" and there is:
sok tee = downwards elbow
sok ngud = sideways elbow
(I forget the Thai) = upwards elbow
Backwards elbow
And a spinning elbow
So it went: Stepping drill punches, learn new strikes (elbows), practice on bag for a bit (really sore elbows now), stepping drill with elbows.
This took about an hour and by then the other students had arrived and this is where things got a little weird. Until now I'd either been training with Somboon or Karim on a 1-on-1 or small group basis and hadn't really done much interacting with both the other (the real) students and Moo (the other trainer) and today that's pretty much all I had.
This would have been fine if I was allowed to tag along with what the group was doing (at my own fatass pace of course), but I was kind of pushed to the side as they took the floor and from then on the class pretty much went:
They jumped rope - I warmed up and stretched (on my own accord)
They stretched - I did more stretching
They shadowboxed - Okay! So at least I can do this! (I joined in)
They did bagwork - I shadowboxed
They Sparred - I watched
They did more bagwork - I did random callisthenics and conditioning
They did muay boran - I watched
This carried on much in the same way from almost 10 to about 13:00 and mind you, all of the things I ended up doing (most of which, despite the list was merely watching/gawking and getting in their way) was not because someone kindly said, "Look here, lad. We know that our focus has to be the lil' pros here because most of 'em have fights coming up but go do this in a corner for a bit till the next rotation" or something. No, I was just told "Martial arts you can do on your own" and was left with that.
Oh well, I got by fine enough (maybe not much of a workout but I did have fun watching the real deal all morning). Still, next time I'm definitely following the group as much as I can (when they jump rope I'm finding a fucking rope) until told otherwise.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Day Three: First Wednesday
Today was rough, I couldn't really keep up with the instructions and my shoulder was nagging me from the get-go. Still, I tried to push through it and K seemed to take a little pity on me (though I really feel I let him down).
We started with stepping and moving warmup then moved to combinations on the boxing mitts. We worked on the 1-2-3 combo with hook, upper and other variations and then he began working on my blocks. First is the jab with the left hand on the shoulder block for counters, the key is keeping the shoulder high with a strong left arm on the shoulder itself. We went over the blocks against the jab and cross (arm blocks with dodging to the side, same side as the punch) and the teep (swing arm down and catch it with the glove and swing it away as you move.
After that it was on to bag work, where I was given a series of combinations to try. Series 1 is:
1. 1-2-3 Combo
2. 1-2 Right (front) round kick
3. Jab Round Kick
4. Round kick Jab
5. 1-2 Left Round kick
6. 1-2-3 Left Round Kick
(Actually... I might be wrong... I kept screwing it up so bad and now I can't remember it exactly)
After that it was more blocking drilling, and then seeing my fatigue K showed me a new exercise where you walk normally and on the oppose hand of the step you punch, doing either straights, hooks or uppercuts on both arms as you walk. I think this will get my upper body technique a lot of practice while hopefully strengthening my right shoulder more.
We ended with 50 situps and a puddle of sweat. Overall, I wish I was stronger and quicker so I can keep up with K's instructions better. I plan on beginning a roadwork routine tomorrow (we'll see how that goes in the morning).
We started with stepping and moving warmup then moved to combinations on the boxing mitts. We worked on the 1-2-3 combo with hook, upper and other variations and then he began working on my blocks. First is the jab with the left hand on the shoulder block for counters, the key is keeping the shoulder high with a strong left arm on the shoulder itself. We went over the blocks against the jab and cross (arm blocks with dodging to the side, same side as the punch) and the teep (swing arm down and catch it with the glove and swing it away as you move.
After that it was on to bag work, where I was given a series of combinations to try. Series 1 is:
1. 1-2-3 Combo
2. 1-2 Right (front) round kick
3. Jab Round Kick
4. Round kick Jab
5. 1-2 Left Round kick
6. 1-2-3 Left Round Kick
(Actually... I might be wrong... I kept screwing it up so bad and now I can't remember it exactly)
After that it was more blocking drilling, and then seeing my fatigue K showed me a new exercise where you walk normally and on the oppose hand of the step you punch, doing either straights, hooks or uppercuts on both arms as you walk. I think this will get my upper body technique a lot of practice while hopefully strengthening my right shoulder more.
We ended with 50 situps and a puddle of sweat. Overall, I wish I was stronger and quicker so I can keep up with K's instructions better. I plan on beginning a roadwork routine tomorrow (we'll see how that goes in the morning).
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