Leaderboard

Hello, and thank you Sylvie for suggesting this. First I would like to say this is going to get a bit wordy cause a story like this just can't be told in just a few words. My name is Pat Cornett. I'm a Thai American that goes back and forth from USA to Thailand to visit family. I train Muay Thai at Sityodtong LA. When visiting family in Thailand, my family elders would sometimes mention the Legend of my grandmother's brother Sakchai who was a muay thai champ that was handsome and murdered. I didn't know how famous he was then. Family was very humble about it. On my last visit 2 years ago my auntie brought Sakchai up again. So I asked if we had any photos. Only one. And it was a big funeral one which had his real name and fight name written on it. I took a picture of it. Thai can be tricky but Sakchai Nakpayak can translate as winning with honor - phantom tiger or ghost tiger. Back home in the states I decided to Google his name exactly how I thought it would be translated. Only one result which lead me to an old muay thai forum which had a scan of my uncle. Little did I know this was a start of a big rabbit hole. One day I decided to message Sylvie and see if she's caught any word of my uncle since she's been around so many master's. I was chancing it. She took a picture of some of the pages my uncle was featured in that she owns. It has his record and a few details on his death. He beat almost all the top guys in the early 1950s including Sagat's grandfather Suk. It didn't stop there on my research. One day I decided to go back to that old forum to find any further info. One of the commentors who posted scans mentioned the authors name. Alex Tsui. And by golly he has a facebook! I've been talking back and forth with this author and he knows just about everything on Sakchai. He's actually a muay thai historian from China of all places. Alex has been sending me tons of photos and newspaper articles. And there are talks of a movie. I have dedicated a whole album to my uncle which is open to the public on facebook. I know this probably wouldn't mean much to a whole lot of people and by all rights there are still living master's and champs doing their thing fighting and teaching. But it's amazing to me. I was raised American by my dad. There was a time many years ago that I put my Thai culture aside and just wanted to fit in with the people around me. My parents divorced and finding another thai person was like finding a unicorn. Sakchai is from Chon Buri. Has a surviving sister. My family contacted her for me if we can find out his gym name. She doesn't remember. But author Alex believes it's called Rayong Blood. Sakchai had a brother who also trained muay thai but passed away. His brother had 3 kids which my family kind of lost touch with. We only know them by nickname. A son named Dtoi or Toy. A daughter who is about 60 years old named Dtauw. The other son's name my mother forgot. Their last names should be Prianprakdee. Anyway, this is my cool story. I hope you enjoyed it. I haven't come to the end of the rabbit hole and there is much more information out there. It's just not easy to come by Update: I made a video documentary

Hi and thanks for your reply and encourageing words! (And also sorry for the enormous font of my text. At least that’s what it looks like on my phone. Not sure how that happened. Don’t mean to be screaming at you:)) Two days later I’ve calmed down. I’ve been agonising and hiding and trying to put it in perspective. Last night I managed to watch the fight and it wasn’t at all bad. Well it wasn’t what I know I can do in training and I can se how my waiting for openings looks like I’m passive etc etc but it wasn’t at all in relation to the shame I felt. She did not humiliate me. I was just too passive at times. As you say ones feelings about something doesn’t make that something true. And my feelings said that I hadn’t landed anything, that going blank had leaved me with absolutely no skills or weapons what so ever. But seeing the fight showed that that wasn’t true. And I can almost feel a bit proud of fighting my first fight. I read your reply Sunday, still so sore I couldn’t really take it to heart. Reading it again today it all rings true. My hard work hasn’t been in vain and this doesn’t mean I can’t ever control myself. The whole situation also makes me think of something you’ve written about that failures aren’t necessarily your true self. Which it feels like when they happen. Thank you!! So, good news! I can go back to my gym haha!

Lisa... this never goes away. It changes, like you have only a moment of shame, or glimpses of shame, or rounds of shame, or you feel it like an echo... but it never fully goes away. And there are times you don't have it, when fights go great and you feel awesome, and then it appears again and your thoughts are "what the f***, I thought I was over this." It's okay. Firstly, the fact that you fought yesterday and are already trying to get over your shame is a really good sign. The thoughts and emotions are still fresh, so it's a bit raw feeling, but lots of folks try to hold on to those shitty feelings for a long, long time because they feel like they SHOULD be ashamed, even when it's time to let those feelings go. It's good to feel them for a short time, I think. They have meaning. But the feelings and the fight are not necessarily a 1+1 equation. Consider this: when you're sparring in your gym, you know everybody. You know the space. You know that you're training, even really hard sparring has a slightly different intention and emotion to it. "Doing well," or whatever you tell yourself in training is under conditions that are not as similar to a fight as we think they are. We think creating the physical conditions, like getting hit a lot, will prepare us. But the emotional unknowns are a big deal. It's incredibly hard to recreate those in familiar spaces. So the fact that you blanked in your fight is not unusual at all. The way I see it, if you hadn't put in the work and then blanked in the fight, that's shameful. Folks who don't put in the work, that's a shame. But you get to keep all the hard work you put in in the gym beforehand. Losing a fight doesn't change any of that. Kevin and I call it "shitting the bed," when a fight just goes totally the wrong direction from what you know you're capable of. If you wake up and you've shit the bed, you're embarrassed and ashamed, don't want anyone to see it are afraid they will, etc. But it doesn't mean you don't know how to control yourself. It means the conditions for that situation to take place were all in line. There's nothing wrong with you to have performed the way you did. There's nothing wrong with you to feel the way you do. But don't hold either of those as permanent states. Just wash the sheets and move on.

Hi! I need some advice on how to handle my shame after losing my first fight. So, the fight was yesterday. I’ve had the date to work towards maybe six or seven weeks and I’ve trained like a freakin’ mothereffer. I’ve sparred at least four days a week with a lot of hard sparring with guys much better and bigger. My gym is quite big with several pros and national champs so I’ve really had the best possible chance to get good at this. Or at least good enough for a first fight. Leading up the fight I’ve been reading up on mental training and Sylvie and Kevin’s discussions on shame and fear and all of that. I haven’t been afraid and I’m tough physically. I’m tall and heavy and the guys go pretty hard at me so I’m pretty conditioned like that. The nerves have been manageable, every other day wondering if I’ve lost my mind for doing this and the next feeling like yeay this will be fun!! The goal was to breath have fun (and then of course win). Not to stand there with the shame. Anyhow, the bell rang and I leaved the room. Not really, my body was still in the ring and the other woman was punching and kicking and kneeing but I heard nothing and felt nothing. I vaguely heard kick and I kicked. Like in slow motion and without power. I so totally lost control of myself and my body and the whole situation. None of the sparring, NONE, has been anything near this experience. The closest situation I’ve been in where I’ve so totally lost control of my body was delivering my two children. But by the end of that I had a baby in my arms. And I did not have an audience seeing me lose my head. I picked up in the third and final round with a fuck it attitude since I’d already lost but it wasn’t enough. She didn’t totally dominate me. I’m not at all bruised today apart from my shins from kicking. Today I’m just leaved with such shame! I’m so ashamed. Not really for losing the fight but for not being in control of myself and the situation in front of all those people. I’m used to being super in control of things and myself and I can’t see how one ever could do anything rational or conscious in the state I was in. The fight was filmed but I can’t bare to watch it. Sorry about the essay. What are your experiences of your first fights and adrenaline rushes and losing your head? Thank you!

I had my first sparring tournament a little over a week ago and lost. She was a good bit smaller than me so I’ve taken a bit of ribbing from my coaches. I’m not sure if I feel shame but I do feel a little bit of frustration and maybe some embarrassment for not using the tools I know I have. Im chalking it up to first time jitters and hoping next time my nerves calm down a bit. I’ve only been training for a year so I guess I can hardly expect my first experience with someone outside my gym to be a stellar performance. Lol I’m any case, I’m telling myself that many people who train Muay Thai or other combat sports never step in to any sort of competition. I won a different kind of battle by being incredibly nervous and doing it anyway. Good on you for doing the same. The hardest one is behind you and now you know what to expect a bit more.

I also would like to add that I'm very lucky and fortunate to find this information. I started a little late, but I am the only one currently that trains muay thai in my family. I started in 1999-2003 and went to the army for several years and didn't pick it back up again till 2015 because of injuries from military service. I feel like Sakchai in our family would just have been a forgotten memory to us. I understand I think. It's wasn't a happy ending for Sakchai. But I and others are keeping his memory alive.

Hi! Depending on how it's translated, Nakpayak is either Phantom Tiger or Ghost Tiger. So maybe why the poster has a reaper riding a horse? The book that Sylvie has and now I, it says shadow of tiger. This is confusing. As I know it, he came in and pretty much cleaned out the competition during that time. He was also the very first middle weight champion at rajadamnern stadium. 154 pounds fighting the 160ers. Also has never been knocked out.

I love watching Sera's brain pull from both emotional experience and rational analysis as she debriefs her latest fight. I wish more fighters would do this. The emotions are raw this close to a fight, but reigning them in so that they propel you forward is just so inspiring to see. Also, follow Sera on FB. She's very cool.

As everyone returning to the forum will see we've done a complete redesign of the forum (as well as of 8limbs.us). 8limbs.us has become 8limbsus.com (which will give it more reach out there in the netherworld. And the changes made to the forum are of super-high quality. The forum is now equipped with the latest software, and is very supportive of conversation and community. That being said it's sure to have a few bugs as we go forward in the next month, so please do post any anomalies, confusions or deadends that you run into, just so we can make it better for others. I'll post a list of upgraded features, but one of the better ones is that if you go to your profile you can add your Facebook account which will allow Facebook Login, just signing in with click. That's pretty good, I'm already using it. I have to say that this complete level-up could only be accomplished through the support of our patrons. If you are not yet a patron and appreciate this space and community you can easily become one here: Patreon - Sylvie. Even a $1 a month helps with the new costs of the forum, and gives you access to some incredible exclusive content the likes of which you cannot find anywhere else!

I love the new look and layout! I'll keep a lookout for any bugs.

It's hard to gauge what the instructor's intentions were and what it means that he didn't come give you pointers as well. It's possible that he's a total jerk, it's also possible that you're taking it personally whereas it's actually just him not being mindful of how his actions might affect your experience. If you feel like he's not looking out for you or is actually intentionally trying to hurt you, take care to protect yourself.

Just wanted to share a kind of peaceful joy with everyone :smile: and also credit Sylvie with the idea... Several years ago, I did a sketch off of a photo of my coach from probably the 80s, but left it unfinished. Several months after starting the sketch, my sketchbook was stolen, so the sketch could never be completed. I did have a photo of the incomplete work. This weekend, I took inspiration from Sylvie making T-shirts of Karuhat: I stylized that photo of the original sketch and printed it on a t-shirt to gift to my coach for his 60th birthday. I am glad the incomplete sketch became complete in such an unexpected and meaningful way. Thanks for reading and Thank you Sylvie for the inspiration.

I'm stepping into the ring for my first match soon (not in Thailand and wearing full protection). Although I have trained for quite a while, I added sparring later in my training and so still alternate between confident and hesitant, depending on my mental state/sparring partner (maybe this is always normal, but I think lack of experience plays a big role here). I am not aiming to be [insert favorite Muay Thai legend here] in the ring for my first match, but I want to make sure I perform to the best of my ability without "freezing up". My question is for Sylvie and for anyone who has a few matches under their belt: "Looking back now, if you were in your corner for your first-ever fight, what advice would you give yourself?" Looking forward to your answers, and thank you!

Hello sylvie, i want to learn the thai language but it seems that i cant find any book, guide or anything. Do you have something to suggest? Or how did you learn thai? Thank you

Yeah, in my first ever fight my oldest brother was sitting next to my husband, so in the recording you can hear him yelling, "Breathe! Boffus, breaaaathe!" It is still, to date, the best fight advice I've ever gotten; still holds up, still the most important part. The way you describe your alternate bouts of confidence and nervousness is totally normal and I'd even say is good. So, don't worry about switching back and forth, just make sure that when you're nervous you're letting that energy move out and through you and aren't bottling it up inside as if it should be hidden or something. The first fight is a blur but it's also an awesome ride. Critiquing your technique or strategy INSIDE the ring or even directly after is a waste - you can break it down later, a good day or more after the fight. But in the ring it's not "coach" time, it's letting your training speak for itself time. You've already done the work. Just go.

1. Breathe 2. Have fun That’s it. :) Nothing will ever go according to plan in your first match. Your opponent is also goimg to be quite green. I’m not saying you will door poorly. I just mean that even after 5, 10, 50+ fights you will look back and think about what could have been better in your performance. So don’t let apprehension stop you from enjoying something most people don’t have the guts to do! Get in there, BREATHE, and have fun!