Documenting my journey as a female Muay Thai fighter in Thailand, sharing techniques, culture and personal perspective - over 250 fights fought

Our newest Muay Thai Bones podcast is out, and it is a good one. We really wanted to take our time to talk about this first subject right. We take a very deep dive into all the changes that have been coming to Lumpinee, as a New Lumpinee image is taking hold. For us this revolves around the fact that female fighters are becoming integrated into its promotions after women being barred from the ring for more than a half century, due to superstitions about gender and pollution. But...

We’ve noticed that there was a pretty big chunk of fights which never made it to YouTube, existing only on Facebook in their live stream version, so I’ve made a project of voicing over those fights, fights 178-204 in 2017. You can find my complete record here, if interested in following along. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss any of these commentaries. In commentaries I talk about my experiences in and around the fight, my thoughts on how the fight is...

This is something that I’ve battled with myself, many times and in many iterations over the years, and I know for sure I’m not unique or alone in it. This video is to offer encouragement to those of us who don’t identify as “Naturally Aggressive,” which in full contact sports can feel like a serious deficit. It isn’t. But it is something you can work on and you don’t need to change your “nature” or even necessarily get comfortable with aggression itself. In this vlog I lay out some...

The criteria and thinking behind this list Female Muay Thai has always been in need of positive rankings. In the history of the sport as far as we’ve experienced it, orgs have taken turns becoming the relative arbiter of excellence for female fighters. It was the WMC, lacking in accurate rankings and their turn of titles about 10-15 years ago. Then the WPMF attempted to create more updated, performance oriented rankings, but the task proved difficult, very hard to remain current, and (likely) driven by connections and politics, as...

It’s strange, in a way, that there are things about us that we ourselves do not know. I am both fond of reminiscing and also allergic to it, happily recounting memories from my childhood to my husband about my brothers and friends, but I prickle and have sudden amnesia when it comes to a question that raises something more difficult. Recently we were talking about the sleeping arrangements in the house I grew up in. With 4 children and large house, there was a reshuffling several times throughout my...

May 2021 saw the first announcements for women to be allowed to, invited and booked, to fight at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok. Famously, women are barred from the Bangkok National Stadia, Lumpinee (Military) and Rajadamnern (Police), both of which are seen as the ultimate goal for young fighters all over Thailand. One of the first women to be invited to fight is Petthae Sor Sopit (or Teptong, above) and, in interviewing her, she expressed what I had already suspected but had not heard outright: this dream is one imparted...

There are few Muay Thai krus who still carry a stick while supervising their students. Off the top of my head I know Rambaa, Sagat, and Sangtiennoi. Of the 3, I’ve only ever been bitten by the stinging whip of Sangtiennoi’s switch, right on my ankle, as he scolded me for not getting up on my toe for a knee. His eyes are kind, he’s tall and feels more towering than his actual stature, and you want to be correct in equal parts to avoid getting hit by the...

Do read the (free) Patreon post which talks much more about this amazing video and has lots more on Dieselnoi and the 123 Book. When I’m able to make historic videos like this they are for everyone. In this interview with Dieselnoi we get the amazing view of the history of Thailand’s fighters from one of the best who ever fought, and who lived through the Golden Age of the sport. And, you get to know him as one of the most passionate men in the world about Muay...

Anime is absolutely incredible, both visually and in what stories are told. The opening to Those Snow White Notes has some of the most beautiful animation that I would never even imagine myself, this soft gust blowing gently falling snowflakes into a dance. I’ve seen that, but I would never think to draw it. And the story is so simple that it seems like you could never make a whole show of it: a young man’s grandfather was a master of an outdated instrument, he knows how to play...

The downstairs floor of the house I grew up in was always significantly cooler than the upper floor of the house. The floors were concrete, whereas upstairs was unfinished wood that offered splinters and creaky betrayals of each footfall. A long crack ran along the length of what we called the “downstairs kitchen,” but was more or less an extension of the “laundry room,” which really was just a little extra space next to the enormous octopus-shaped central furnace to the house; behind that was my room, which was...

I woke up shivering, my teeth ground together and my temples aching from the pressure. My fingertips felt numb as I consciously uncoiled them from the sleeping bag, which I was clutching around my body. Only a few feet from me was a black pot-bellied stove, a pile of wheat-colored wood next to it. I took a breath and peeled the sleeping bag from around my shoulders, kicking my legs to escape the pupal casing. A thick cloth, not unlike an oven mitt, wrapped around the coiled handle of...

I’m starting to write again on my blog. There is a lot of amazing content on my Patreon, which I spend most of my off-training hours creating for my wonderful patron supporters, but I want to get back to writing. These posts won’t have a purpose, or maybe even a focus, just me sharing my thoughts and writing for myself, and for you too. Dusk is falling like a cloud over the landscape around the taxi, which is chewing through the road in front of it. The glowing green...

Much has happened in the last weeks, some of it quite painful. This post is about my return. I had a chance to train with Karuhat for a few days following our attendance of Namkabuan’s Funeral in Nongki, Buriram. We drove back down to Pattaya and he stayed with us for a couple of days. I wanted to spar with him lightly, and even more just work with him and move. It’s been a while. Above are my thoughts on the first day, so many things coming back to...

*The phrase “Female Fighters” is used in the title for brevity and discovery, read as: “People Who Menstruate”. Read more of my Gendered Experience articles here. There are a lot of reasons why talking about the menstrual cycle – the whole thing – is important for athletes. Firstly, the “this is super private and should be kept private” approach keeps us from acknowledging that our bodies are going through some serious swings throughout each month, and not just our bodies but our brains are actually generating and responding differently...

We shot more than an hour of my training at Sangtiennoi’s gym about 40 minutes north of Bangkok, just to give everyone a sense of what it is like to train there. It is one of the more authentic Thai gyms, run by a legend of the sport. Kevin’s beautiful photography captured the feeling of the space in the morning, and I put my commentary over it all, talking not only about the training itself, the great padwork, Sangtiennoi’s instruction, but also broadly about training in Thailand itself, the...

Lots to get caught up on! The Muay Thai Bones podcast is back, with an episode covering some of the more psychological aspects of Muay Thai and being a fighter, as well as the preciousness of the Muay Khao fighting style which recently has been under some threat of being phased out, albeit briefly. Watch episode 18 here on YouTube (below), or get the audio version for your listening ease here as a patron. So much more has been going on I shared a story that Yodkhunpon told me...

I’m writing this to create a resource chain for anyone else who wants to take a deep dive into exploring this technique. I’ve been working on a side project, along with Sylvie 3.0, a process of leveling up in all my skills and habits as a fighter. This side project is what Kevin and I are calling the “Diamond Guard.” It’s a guard inspired by the Old School cross-armed boxing guard from western fighters such as Archie Moore, Gene Fullmer, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and George Foreman (I link...

It is no exaggeration to say that there is nowhere else in the world like Thailand to teach you how to clinch. Yes, it’s the high level of technique and deep pockets of knowledge, the sheer breadth of skill. But more than any of that it’s the possibilities for experience. Some who come to Thailand gyms with an aim to learn clinch might be disappointed by how little “instruction” there is, because the pedagogy of Thailand and the methods of everywhere else can be so different. But I like...

It’s been a while since I’ve vlogged my process, so this is a big one. Join me as a ramble about how I’m handling coming back to training with a new mission. I’ve talked about Sylvie 3.0 and “growing eyes” in past Muay Thai Bones podcasts. This is devoting the next full year to a transformation in my capabilities. Most of all I want to start to see much more in the pocket, and in the name of that I’m just going to take on much more sparring, a...

This video is “Part I” of a Sylvie’s Technique Vlog that I’m filming, examining the simple but very detailed way in which we can all learn to “feel” our techniques. Feeling is so important. It’s more important than any of us ever really know, but it’s something that I’ve been taught more times than I could ever count. The teachers who really stand out for explicitly focusing on feeling are Chatchai Sasakul (Trainer of the Year across all sports in Thailand in 2011) and Sagat Petchyindee. They’re so brilliant...

Below is a story told by the incredible yodmuay Hippy Singmanee. He posted this on his Facebook Page (and the story is apparently in his biography, but I don’t know where you can buy this). You can find the post here, and follow him, but I include the Thai below as well. With the support from my patrons, one of the projects we’ve been able to do is Thai to English translations. Mostly we’ve been putting these projects toward translating interviews with Thai legends, or more recently in translating...