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This is the hidden future of female Muay Thai. This ethic, this world bond and bubbling up of shared failure, shared technique, shared culture, in the hands of 12-15 year olds. This exists in parkour because all of this was put online, cross-connecting, building a lifestyle. It was made possible because it grew out of male-dominated skate culture, x-culture, and then parkour and now Gtramp culture, but using social media networks a genuine life force is created. Female Muay Thai has much to learn from this.

Hi everyone. What do you think about dedicating a part of the training to western boxing? When I train on my own muay thai skills on the heavy bag I always split every type of shot. For example I do 20 minutes only roundhouse kicks, 20 minutes teeps, 20 minutes knees and elbows. I prefer to do like that due to a better focus on every single shot. I think Boxing is usually underrated and undertrained in muay thai. So do you think that making some boxing lessons would be good? Of course you can't do everything you do in a boxing fight like weaving, but I think punches would become better right?

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

I just recorded my mother reading some newspaper articles I printed out about my uncle. Some interesting story bits about his youth before he started training. I'll try and edit the videos and post them somehow. But its all the same stuff that's in my Facebook album dedicated to my uncle.

Yes, I feel it's important. I am the only one that I know is training muay thai in my family. They watch it sometimes on the weekends, but that's just about it. They don't really show interest in trying to know more about my grand uncle. I don't know if it's a Thai thing to just leave it in the past, but I feel he's worth remembering. And not just for me but for our MT community. Who knows, had I known this as a kid I might have embraced my Thai culture more. Or the times I've been assaulted I could have used the knowledge I have now to better protect myself. Life can be tough, and we need all the help we can get. Muay Thai has changed my life. And gave me my life back after being injured. Couldn't even walk unassisted. I was 275lbs. Now 165lbs.

I'm definitely designing a shirt already, profits will go to the Kru Fund. You read my mind!

The author of the other book mentioned that my uncle had lived or was guided by a person that was his friend named Kim Mang while he stayed in Bangkok. Not sure right now if he was a fighter or a manager. The author Alex Tsui that I've been conversing with said when he goes back to Thailand this year, he's gonna try and find Kim Mang. As you know, anyone today that was alive when sakchai was would have to be in their late 60's-100+. I was told by Ajarn Rex a muay thai official out here that there is a Kru Kim that's old enough out here too in California thats an official for the muay thai events as well that might know my uncle. I just don't know yet what his last name is. I remember him but he's supper old and haven't seen him at the fights lately and might have retired. My Kru, Kru Walter at Sityodtong LA tagged him in one of my posts on facebook and also said he might know of sakchai, but kru kim hasn't responded. My guess is he doesn't go online much. I haven't asked my kru yet how to go about getting kru Kim's attention outside of Facebook. I'm a little shy about this kind of behavior. In the newspaper article I posted it mentions Sakchai's girlfriend's name. Sunee PoomSluay. She would be 87 today I think. She was a little older than Sakchai when they were dating. He would be 85 today. It would be amazing if she is alive today.

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.

This was my answer to someone on Reddit who messaged me and asked what I do for mental training. I'm posting it here in case others have had success or experience, or if there are questions people have an would like to raise. This is what I said: Thanks for listening to the whole interview and I’m happy it resonated with you. I’m still working a lot of this out myself and there’s a LOT of trial and error, just like with physical training. It’s also so much easier to slack off of mental training than it is getting physical work in. So whatever routine you figure out for yourself, really set a schedule and stick to it. Break it up into a 5-20 minutes various times throughout the day. Hey, not selling this, it’s expensive. But it was an investment and it worked for me I used this program for myself and found it really helpful: 14 Steps to Mental Toughness. He walks you through some visualizations, using imaginary waves to match rhythms to your breathing for relaxation. Something my brother taught me, also, is that you can practice and teach yourself how to visualize using more mundane things than your training or fight. I found it SO HARD to visualize fighting in a concrete way. So John asked me to describe in strong detail just walking around my apartment. Picking things up, where everything is, how it smells, the lighting, etc. Stuff I see literally every day. That way I see how to visualize with all that detail and can slowly start applying it to being in the ring. A fight is an “event,” but what you’re visualizing isn’t. You’re kind of exploring a space and possibilities – like playing GTA in your brain. Something that really helped me from the tapes was writing down my thoughts before, during and after training, every day. So I’d get to the gym and immediately sit down and just write whatever I was feeling: “tired,” “sleepy,” “unmotivated but ready to work,” “strong,” “I”m going to kill my trainer on the pads,” etc. Then I’d check in and do some more mid-training, then again after everything but before going home. It showed me a few things: 1) My thoughts were really negative a lot of the time, for really no reason. I actually ended up naturally adjusting for this by writing the negative feeling but immediately countering it with “but…” and whatever good could come of it. I wasn’t forcing myself to be positive, I actually just started feeling like “I’m tired but I can focus on being relaxed in my movements” was better at driving me. 2) It showed me that my thoughts change over time in practice. I can come in feeling negative and end up feeling great at the end. Or I can come in rearing to go and then something that happens in training gets me down. Which leads to 3) I have control over how I respond to things. I just have to be aware of it – mindful of what I’m thinking and whether or not I want to keep thinking those things. More recently I’m working on connecting relaxing breaths to active movements. So instead of holding my breath when I’m being hit or blocking or striking, I pay attention to breathe out and in with a rhythm to my movements. The point is to get my heart rate down under pressure, but it’s conditioning myself to do it automatically through movements I’m going to be using without being able to think about breathing. If you breathe while trying to drink water you choke. But you don’t think about “don’t breathe” in order to drink water – you do it automatically. So I’m trying to get my body to do those automatic things to stay relaxed under pressure. As for a schedule, figure out where you need to focus your attention: how you talk to yourself, how you respond under pressure, visualizing, etc. and work out a plan to work on these things several times every day. I visualize when I lie down for a nap or sleep. I write when I’m at the gym. I breathe when I’m actually training.

So much the same for me. It's hard to realize - like, really accept - that I have to keep working on the mental all the time, not just when it's been a hard time and I want something to make me feel better. You would never expect to just do 10 pushups a week before the fight and be stronger. You have to keep doing it, and then do 20, then more, etc. My most recent fight I worked really hard on the mental practice. I'd lost 9 days prior and had no time to make physical changes, so I knew it was all mental. I worked and was very dedicated to the mental training. And while I lost again, I performed really well - same as you describe above. And I feel good, ready to learn and improve. But the physical side is so easy to design for yourself - watch some videos, read some routines off of athletes you like, make up your own circuit. But the mental isn't as intuitive. I think it's actually embarrassing to work on confidence and being kind to yourself - it feels narcissistic or something. I asked my brother in my interview with him, "what is the 'couch to 5-K' of Mental Toughness?" Just the most bare-bones starter program. He talked about breathing and relaxation, recommended some books. If I were to ask myself that same question and have the gall to offer an authoritative answer, I'd say this: start with "act as if." Think about the kind of confident, strong, calm and collected athlete you aspire to be and then act as if you are that athlete. Confidence is an action before it's a feeling, not vice versa. That's something I believe wholesale. Being consistent with training and kind on days when my mind is weak (just as the body can be) is hard, but I've seen how worth it the effort is.

I have just lost again this past weekend making my amateur record 0-5. I know it sucks. Although, I could argue that a few were bad calls from the judges. Me being a bleeder (bloody nose from a single jab doesn't help either). However, I am particularly disappointed in this last fight. This past fight, I fought too tentatively in the first two rounds. I've always been a slow starter and fought with a traditional thai style. Sadly in America, the judges favor boxing over kicks/knees (my strengths). My opponent was a mma guy with a flashy outside-point style (spinning back fist/kicks, side kicks - but sloppy technique). It wasn't until the third round that I started to find my rhythm. I had him in the clinch, but was unable to capitalize (I let go). My coach and even the comissioner said if I had landed one more knee I could've ended the fight. I don't know though. Physically, I always felt stronger and I am usually always taller than my opponent(s). I'm 5'8" weight class 125-127lbs. However, this time I felt like I had no power (my gas was very good though). Overall its been frustating, especially with a 100% losing record I never felt confident going into my fights. I've been told I am more talented than what my records shows, but at the end of the day thats all there is to show. I disappointed that people supported and believed in me, but I let them down by not believing myself. I can probably contribute most of my loses due to the mental aspect of the game. I've never been dropped or really hurt in any of my fights (Lost all by decision). However, sometimes I question if fighting is really for me. All that hard work, training 6 days a week (barely any breaks) for the past 3.5 years for nothing .... Even though I'm only 22 (23 soon). Were the sacrifices really worth it? Thing is when I'm not at the gym (it doesn't feel right).

This is a major difference between western boxing habits, and Muay Thai (at least the Muay Thai of Thailand). In boxing it is very common to protect the body with the elbows and forearms. You aren't protecting against elbows at closer range so your guard can be lower, for one thing, and a crouch can be advantageous in boxing for many reasons, both offensively and defensively. Lots of westerns come to Thailand and favor this habit. But in Muay Thai the body is mostly protected directly by the knees and shins, and the guard stays higher. It's a very different defensive posture. This is related to some degree also to the hips. One of the biggest challenges I think for a westerner in Thailand is learning how to push the hips forward as part of defensive maneuvers, especially, at closer range. This goes against a lot of western instincts which basically are inclined to pull the groin back (to safety) and to hunch. It can make a bad habit in Muay Thai. One of the concerns of training boxing is getting comfortable with an ass-back defense. There is a lot of variation in Muay Thai styles, so this isn't universal, but one of the biggest hurdles westerns have in Thailand is the orientation of the hips in both defense and attack. Thais learn early on that pushing the hips forward can be very advantageous and safe. Adding to the western bias towards the hunch is that Greco-Roman wrestling also can favor hip-back, ass-out positions (very different than most Thai clinch positions) so with western boxing and wrestling combined the tendency of the ass-back can get in the way of a lot of Thai Muay Thai techniques, at least at introductory levels. You need to be able to toggle the hips, out and in - you see Saenchai humorously do this in fights, and be prepared to use your shins defensively.

Hi, Im struggling a lot over self-confidence and being emotional run down. For most parts of my life Im a really self-confident person. I travelled all over the world and never had anyone telling me what I can or can't do. I just went my own way and if things didn't add up any more I quit, moved somewhere else or tried to work it out. It was never in particular running away, but probably a little. When I took up training I did it for the sake of fun, never with the intention to start fighting. I have never been a sporty person in particulary, though I always did all sorts of outdoor sports, Im just too heavy to be athletic by nature. My will to fight changed when I started training in a professional gym n whcih I got pushed hard and I started believing in myself. My coaches would never praise me, but they would train you in a way that you trust yourself. Though I always went through daily emtional highs and lows, usually crying after training coz I felt so bad. However I always felt safe with my coach, if he would say run, I run, if he would say jump out that window I would have jumped, that much I trusted him. After I left that gym I put matters in my own hands, training in different places, training a lot for myself additionally. I felt good and quite self-confident, as long as my fitness was up and running. However lately I started doubting myself again heavily. Last summer I trained with a different coach (due to yet another move) and he is quite technical coming from a boxing background, I was never good enough for anything and it slowly got myself down again. Before entering the ring before a fight he would tell ne how slow I am and that I needed to twist this and that anymore, than I started thinking about it, because I want to please and make it right, thats when I lost. again again, but always in my mind first, because I wanted to get my technique right, he completely tried to changed my fight style. I did take a lot out of it, but it is not the way I fight. It all led to cancelling a fight 2 weeks ago because I didnt get all the training in I wanted, though deep down I know I could have easily stepped into the ring even without having worked on the bags or did any sparring. My fitness was ok and I could have done it. Only my head led me down. After my last loss in February I took up mental training, one Emma recommended in one of her blog posts, but this is a much deeper issue. I always needed someone in my back to trust in me, not to necessarily to tell me, but to cover up my back. I adore people who dont need that, who can just jump into a fight without the preperation Im used to. are there more people out there like this?

The greatest coaches don't force you to change your style - they adapt what they teach you to fit your style and strengths. The greatest coaches do not break your confidence down, they find ways to build your confidence up. At the end of the day, we all seek some form of validation, but it's important to pick who to seek from.

The ranges and timing for hands change when used in the two arts! Knowing when you're vulnerable to being kicked is an important step to learning how to punch in kb/mt. Even the great Sagat was often disrupted when he goes into punching mode -- of course though, he was facing some of the greatest kickers in history.

I've done some boxing training and it has always been beneficial for me. There are some major differences between western boxing and Muay Thai, but it's mainly in hip position and the boxer's "crouch" versus the Muay Thai "c" shape. You can't check kicks with your legs from a full-boxer position and you can't sit down in your punches the same way boxers do when you're in a Muay Thai stance. But as long as you can figure out how to switch between them for what you're working on, it should all be very good.

Western boxing has been influencing Muay Thai from the modern beginning. We tend to think of Muay Thai as "pure", but the very first permanent ring in Bangkok in the early 1900s featured western boxing, and there has been western boxing in Rajadamnern and Lumpinee stadia from the start. They are of course two different arts, but Thais don't seem to see them as contradictory. Samart Payakaroon, who some consider the best Muay Thai fighter of recent eras, was also a WBC boxing champion. But there are schools and styles of boxing, and some may be less conducive to Muay Thai than others.

I received a strong blow to the shin sparring, and the subsequent bruise and knot/swelling followed. I put ice on it the first two days and then tried the towel/hot water method that Silvye shows in her video. It felt good, the problem is that after the second time I did it I ended up with scratchings on my skin from the towel (I have very thin skin, it sucks) so now I don't know what to do. My trainer, the old one, told me to freeze a glass water bottle and then roll my shin with it. I could also try the stick method. I am confused What do you use to treat your shins? Do you have any suggestion for sensitive skin?

Yes, I've rubbed the skin off of my shins before and that is very painful. Filling a glass bottle with hot water and rolling it instead of using a towel can solve this. You can use the bottle to press the bump as well. There are also heat patches you can buy at pharmacies that are for back pain and period cramps. They're sticky on one side so you can adhere them to your shirt or whatever and they're supposed to stay hot for 10 hours or so. (Not Tiger Balm, not Icy Hot; there's one called Salon-Pas that's good - they make them very small as hand warmers for skiers, too.) Sometimes I'll stick one on my shin overnight and let the heat work on it for hours that way. If you have sensitive skin you might want to wrap plastic wrap around your shin and put the patch on over that, so it's not sticking directly to your skin. Let me know how it goes. I'll keep trying to help!

My differing perspectives: When I was an amateur fighter, I maintained a winning record and was a champion. I was once paired up with a fighter who had only about 1/2 the fights I had and a losing record. (My record is 6-2, his was 1-4). However, when you looked at the list of his opponents, you saw a list of the who's who of amateur champions. That fight wound up being the toughest fight of my career and a loss. While I was disappointed in losing that fight, I didn't feel that bad because my opponent and I had waged a literal war from the opening bell and I knew I had given my all in the ring. I lost a total of 4 times. I was only disappointed in the loss I just mentioned, I was FURIOUS at 1 other loss because it was as shitty decision, and I was really down on myself for the other 2 losses because I knew that I had allowed myself to become psyched out, which led to me seriously underperforming in the ring. As a promoter and matchmaker, the first thing I look at in regards to someone's record is the total number of fights they have... the overall experience. Then I look at the actual record and, when possible, try to consider who this fighter has faced in the ring. It's hard to properly assess at the amateur level here in the US, of course, but you start to pick out certain patterns.... So a losing fighter from one gym might still be a good match for a winning fighter from a different gym. Ultimately, it still boils down to the indivicual, but there are certain trends. As a coach, I personally don't care about a fighters amateur record. What's important is PERFORMANCE. Did my fighter do what we had trained to do? Did my fighter respond to commands I was giving? How did my fighter respond when they had the advantage? How did my fighter respond when they wer at a disadvantage? Remember, your goal as an amateur really should be to prepare yourself to fight professionally. Sure, there are many, many people whose goals do not extend beyond the amateur ranks, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't approach amateur fighting as a vehicle towards professional fighting. As a coach, there are certain benchmarks/goals you want your fighters to achieve before turning pro... development and demonstration of good training habits, minimum # of fights, does your fighter beat who they're supposed to beat, how does your fighter respond to adversity, etc, etc.... Anyway, my overall point is that there are many ways to view a fighters record, all depending on what angle you're viewing it from. Hope all of that makes sense!

There are a few exercises whcih helped me a lot getting this aggression out, the bite you need. Im not natural in this. This is what my old coach did and still does, no atter whether beginning fighter or world champion. The first exersice is the bat cave. A bunch of people get in the ring or form a big circle, ideally everyone is around the same size. the fighter in question is in the middle and will now get attacked by every person standing on the outside, one of the other. Each attack from the outside lasts about 10-30 seconds and its important to not have a break in between the changes, the guys outside attack straight away, no hand shaking, nodding or waiting, just straight attacking, whatever angle they are on. Since Im a girl and all the boys are usually above my size and weight I was always allowed to attack and the the others werent allowed to attack back, they just had to defend. It is important (since it is such short rounds) that you keep going, literally no break whatsoever. You continue this until you reached the goal time (lets say 3 min) than its a minute break and afterwards it starts all over. The next exercise is a mix of padwork and sparring. There is your padholder and next to him a sparring partner about your size (ideally) now the pads start, all full on, not single strikes, but long combos, lots of kicking, full force, at a signal it is a direct change to sparring and your sparring partner attacks, whether you are ready or not, you have to keep going, keep attacking, no stopping, at the next signal it is straight away to padwork. How long each pads and sparring lasts is due to the one giving the signal, maybe 10 seconds, maybe 30 or 40 seconds. Again make it a round of 3 mins, than break and than all over again. This really badly teaches you to keep going forward. However this is obviously not daily routine since you still need to focus on light sparring etc, but its one thing to think about keep going and the other thing about actually having to do it. Always do those exercises under supervision so it doesnt get out of hand or is too aggressive. Another exercise is body punches only. Pretty simple. you are allowed to punch only, and only to the head. If you want to learn to stay grounded you and your partner leave the front feet right in front each other, like touching toes and you dont move those feet away anymore. Now punch, create openings, but dont wait, as soon as you wait your opponnend will attack. so its your turn to attack. I know most coaches dislike this exercise since it easily teaches you to drop your hands and have them in front of your body. This one can be done with your feet standing in a circle or even with moving around. This last exercise made me continue to punch without being afraid to actually getting hit to the head. the next thing we did in sparring is sparring at 10, 30, 50, 70...% First you go light, look for openings etc. aslowly (through the course of an hour) it builds up to intense sparring in which there are seconds as called out by the coach when you are not allowed to stop and wait, but to keep attacking. Another coach of mine would drill us combinations which are really really long. Like attack, counter attack, counter to counter, again counter etc, until you hardly recall the whole combination, but you just keep going and counter and counter and counter always with 3-5 hands and kicks. I can only speak for my own experience here, this is what helped me getting this aggression going, and not stopping too much, waiting etc

I need to be more aggressive, too. I don't know you, but I'll tell you that 99% of the time the reason you "let go" or stop or don't keep on the attack in a fight is because you practice that in training. In clinch training you get dominant position, throw a couple knees and then let go, because you're just training and there's no need to KO someone. But you have to train not letting go, not jumping back out, etc. I do this. I land a knee and jump out for no f****ing reason at all, other than that I do it to "reset" in training. So now I stay on someone in training - not hurting them, but I have to learn how to be aggressive, keep going, smell the blood, etc. You don't KO your training partners, you keep it light, but you keep the energy high.

Hi Freddy "No (wo)man is an island" the quote goes... In Stephen Covey's book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People he talks about three stages of growth - dependence, independence, and interdependence. Interdependence being the highest level of growth. It recognises that we perform our best when we are in a team, not by ourselves. I don't think you need to do it by yourself... reading between the lines, I just think you need a different coach, a different team.

The irony of this topic though, I literally just got home from the gym and had this discussion today about self confidence and not thinking so much about it. That's my problem, I think way too damn much. And then I think about it some more.

I haven't fought. Not yet. It's my next goal. But, that being said, I constantly doubt my capabilities. And it's not just in training. It's work, too. I'm so used to someone (literally) yelling at me telling me I'm doing something wrong or half assed, that no feedback and positive feedback I tend not to trust, which in turn relates back to me not trusting myself. And unfortunately it shows in my constant hesitation to do something I know I am capable of doing. I'm not 100% that I am understanding exactly what you're writing about, but if it's similar to what I described, the constant self doubt, the only thing I can tell you is to stop thinking and just do. Let your body do its thing. You know how to do it, you know what to do, it comes down to (in my opinion and experience) a brain switch. Your focus (again, IMO) should be on doing what you love. Whether training or fighting or fitness. Can't let coaches get in into your head so far that their voice becomes yours. It's like that with any situation where there's one person who is over another. Coaches are there to coach. NOT become your conscience.

I'm sorry you're feeling down on yourself, Freddy. But I don't think there's anything wrong with you, but definitely wrong with your thinking. You can push and push in training, be so tough and strong and do all the work, but if you doubt yourself or don't believe in yourself it's like doing all that work with the "emergency brake" (die Notbremse) on in the car. You can put the pedal to the floor and you'll barely move. But the thing is that you've had that confidence before - you've been there - so you have a blueprint of what that feels like and how to get back there. It's very difficult when you don't have trust with your coach but you just have to realize and accept that it's harder on your own, but not impossible. It took me a really long time to figure out what exactly makes me feel confident. I had no control over it; I just had good days and bad days but had no understanding of what caused it to go one way or the other. And I still don't fully have a grasp of it, but I can fake it on days I don't feel it. That sounds like you're just "acting" and it's not real confidence, but here's the thing: confidence isn't a feeling, it's a behavior. And you don't always have to feel confident to act confident. How would you respond when you were confident, with your old coach? If you were tired and not turning on your kicks, how would a confident Freddy respond to that? Then do that. For me, I laugh when I'm confident. So when I'm not feeling it and when I feel like I'm totally crap at training, I try to laugh at myself - actually out loud. Sometimes I can't even crack a smile, even though I know it will help, but when I can act the way I would act if I were confident, I can feel it creep back. I try to take myself out of it because I can be so hard on myself, it just becomes a downward spiral if I use my own self as the target, saying things in my head like, "why aren't you ____?" Whatever. So instead I think: a confident person wouldn't let that mistake change her mood. A confident person would acknowledge it and move on. A confident person would make a joke about it. A confident person wouldn't let the coach's micro-criticisms affect her flow. Not, "I shouldn't let the coach's criticisms get me down," but "a confident person would take a note of the criticisms and then go in to fight." Because you can fight whether you turn on your damn punches or not.

Hi Freddy, Sorry you have been feeling low about your work. I've watched Sylvie closely for not only the three years here, but all her years in Muay Thai and I've come to think that the fighter's burden, the fighter's path is all about confidence, feeling it, displaying it, recovering from its loss. How to build genuine confidence and maintain it? Even fighters who exude confidence I think often have precarious confidence, something a losing streak or a bad loss can easily shake. Fighters are always walking such a line, pushing themselves to fatigue, paying so close attention to their imperfections, experiencing make-or-break events (fights). I'll tell you everything changed for Sylvie after a really bad loss and she decided to start mental training. She bought tapes. Listened to them. Did the work, and the results were pretty amazing. One of the things it made her aware of was how often she was negatively tearing herself down, in private, and how to work to change that. I will say that getting with a coach who wants to change your fighting style, and rebuild everything can be really problematic, especially when that style may not suit you. Many coaches will teach what they themselves know, or think in cookie-cutter shapes. Sylvie was pushed into a fighting style that just didn't suit her over and over by many people because she is small and female, and it resulted in her beating herself up, very concerned with trying to please people, over-sensitive to her failings. It wasn't until we identified her fighting style, and that there was such a style in Muay Thai (things she naturally did well and excelled in) and then even made the location move to get instruction that supported that style, did we get on a more positive path. Before that it always felt we were working against the grain. It's good of course to expand yourself, explore techniques or elements that are not natural to your comfort zone, but its a fine line. So I'm not saying that if a coach wants to change your fighting style its a bad thing. But I do think that when it comes to strengths and weaknesses some people are better suited for certain ways of fighting, and others not. And because fighting styles are very deep arts - you can train in a style for a very long time and not have really bottomed out on what it can teach - it seems best to stick with the vocabulary of an approach you feel that expresses YOU. She wrote this post when we finally realized she had to pursue a different style, something that led us to move to Pattaya.

Have you ever heard the three feet from gold story? Here's an image that explains it: You might be at the point where you break through. Who knows? You could go on a 10 fight winning streak. I say if you really love it, give it another shot.

You guys nailed it. For me. I had an extremely good first year. 14 fights, 12 wins. This year I decided to take on more and bigger fights. 2 fights back to back against bigger opponents and one against a Swedish champion. I have only won 1 fight this year out of 4. And it hurts. But Sylvie and Emma have nailed it. If you love it, use your losses to motivate you and push forward. Try to always think of something you are happy with in every fight too. Losses can help you grow :)

Wow, I was just about to write a reply to this, but I think Sylvie nailed it! I'll just add a little from my personal experience. I definitely know how you feel. As my record currently stands, I've lost more fights than I've won and I've been through some losing streaks, during one of which someone told me to give up fighting altogether, but I've never told myself that. That's only been an external thing. Even at times when the thought has briefly crossed my mind, it couldn't be further away when I'm training. Everything I do in there is in preparation to fight, that's what I'm working for. It would be an awful shame to take that away. All that passion and hard work needn't go down the drain because of a lack of self confidence. You have to work on your confidence the same way you work on your physical training. I can also relate to what you said about being a slow starter and coming out of fights feeling like you haven't done enough. In every single one of my losses (also all by decision, as you said), I've felt that way. People have told me that most of the people I've lost to had no business beating me and it was only that I wasn't confident enough in my mental game, that I hesitated and let them fight their fight. I've been trying to combat that with mental training, which has really helped me in the past. I wrote a blog post about that here: Letting Go but Staying in Control: How Mental Training Enhanced my Confidence. ^ I could quote a ton of things from what Sylvie just said, but this is fucking perfect ^

Ask yourself two questions: 1) did you fall in love with Muay Thai because you could eventually write some numbers down on a piece of paper and have the left column outnumber the right column? 2) if your friend, who loves Muay Thai, fights with heart and trains as hard and with as much dedication as you do was considering quitting because of his record, would you advise him to do it? (Note: if the answer is "yes," you're a shitty friend.) I've bee through some really rough losing streaks. I lost 6 in a row in the US, which was over a year of losing every single fight I went into. I always came out thinking I could have done more, I never was injured, and I always thought I'd let everyone down. It feels like shit. But I kept fighting anyway because I love to fight and every single thing I do in the gym is toward the aim and joy of fighting. I never throw a kick and think "I ought to turn my leg over better because that's how I win." I change the kick because that's how it's done right, because that's what feels good. I wrote about that year-long losing streak in a blog post, "I'm a Loser Baby." And I've had losing streaks again since then. Above is a graphic of another 6 fight losing streak here in Thailand in 2013 - same number of losses, same disappointment, but because of my fight rate in only took me a month and a half to rack up those 6. It feels less bad now, but I reckon that's because of two things: 1) I have more practice at losing now; I've lost so many times (34 times, as of right now) that I know how to handle it. Muhammad Ali famously put it this way, "I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life." And 2) I realized that nobody cares as much as I do whether I win or lose. My victories don't define me and neither do my losses. What defines me to me, to the people who train me, to people who pay any mind to my blog and my path out here, is that I keep going. You can lose without being defeated, you know what I mean? It's a pity to think that all the love you put into what you do, all the pain and fatigue and hours, is reduced down to a record that means fuck all about you. I talked about how I feel about records in this video: And Emma wrote a great blog post "Does your Record Really Matter?" Pi Nu, my trainer at Petchrungruang, points out some of the champions at the gym and tells me, "he lost for one year, cry every day." Or, "Before, nobody want him, gamblers hate him." He's talking about champions, fighters who I see every afternoon at training and can watch on TV, read about in the fight magazines, etc. You wouldn't know it now because they grew out of these hard times - sure, they still lose sometimes, but they just kept going through those very long losing streaks. And I reckon it made them stronger. If they'd quit because they were losing, then that's all there would be. What a damn shame. And I'll tell you something that nobody's going to tell you: you won't feel satisfied after winning, either. You can always do better, always do more, always have put more in. There's no, "well, that was perfect because I did everything right." Winning just feels better, so you can gloss over the mistakes more easily. You win and nobody has anything to say other than "great job" or "congratulations," or "badass." Wins make you look better than you are and losses make you look worse than you are - none of it is a full picture; none of it is an assessment of who you are or what you're worth. But you do have to get your mind right. You do have to believe in yourself, and at the times that you don't (and there are always going to be those times; I have those times) you have to trust the people who believe in you for you. If you go on Wikipedia and look up Dekkers or Buakaw... those dudes lost a lot. It doesn't matter. It just gets pushed to the side so the work can get done. You're not a bad fighter, you're a work in progress. And that goes for all of us, really.

I used to kick elbows more than I do now and, like Micc says, I think that's about control. Both you controlling your kick but also your opponent controlling their elbows! We all have reflexes though, so you can't rely on the other person having control all the time. If you're kicking the body, the more "upward" your kick goes (I call this the "farang kick") the more likely you're going to hit an elbow. If you kick "over" more, you'll nail the body under the elbow rather than kicking into it. The teep Kevin mentions is one that a fighter named Paowarit (fight name Kae Sasiprapa) taught me. You teep with your toes right under the belly button. You don't use a great deal of power, but man... it hurts! It's like being stabbed more than being knocked back. Taking care when you teep someone is also a way to protect yourself. Defensive teeps are less likely to result in the flinch-response that people who drop their hands/elbows have with offensive teeps. So, wait until they're on one leg from a knee or kick and teep as a counter, rather than as a way to offensively come forward yourself. And lastly, either request that your coach teach everyone drills on teep defense, so that your group of potential partners can learn how to appropriately sweep teeps without hurting each other, or at the very least work on this in a very controlled way with your partner before getting into sparring. Sorry about your foot :pinch: You can, of course, rest the injury while still working on other things. You don't have to stay out of the gym entirely.

There are two places where Thais teep which would be hard to catch an elbow from a beginner. Up higher above the solar plexis, and also very low on the abdomen. This lower teep can be very fatiguing. When Sylvie's been shown this low teep they usually use the ball of the foot, or sometimes even the toes. Also, practicing accuracy, instead of just a general mid-teep, could be more fun or challenging. Maybe Sylvie can hop on and talk about this lower teep. It's very effective.

Oh gosh! I'm so sorry to hear you have to deal with such a painful injury....This is exactly why I don't spar with beginners, I'm more scared of them then of a veteran, at least they know what they're doing. I'm also scared of hurting my feet while teeping or doing a front kick to the body and I am currently working on this. For me - the key to dealing with the stress is control of the kick. When I see I can land the kick 99% sure, then I will kick it. If I see the opponent is seeing the kick and getting ready to block, I will stop my kick mid-movement. So basically, I decide last moment if I'm going through with it or not. So far it has worked out fine for me, I've landed a few kicks, had to withdraw from a lot more, but control control control is what rescues me. I never had a broken foot, so I can only tell from observance, but a lot of people come back after some rehabilitation. It's important to take care of the healed foot, so you can't jump right into hard training with it, but you need to "teach" the new bone the strenght you want it to have. I don't know if this explanation is understandable, I hope it is! :) I hope your doctor allows you tokeep at least a bit active during the healing process, maybe you can do some light strenght excercises of the upper-body, or stretching? This way you won't have the feeling of wasting your time.