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Hi Malik! I've only called people by their first names in super formal situations. Usually at work, when they're a customer or a colleague I'm meeting for the first time (or writing an email to). Then, you'd use "khun ____", but pretty much right after that, it's nicknames all the way. It would be really strange for me to address a trainer by his first name. Kind of like how you would never call me by my first name, middle name and surname unless you were some kind of official..or if you were my mum and I was in trouble for something. Sylvie, I laughed at the idea of you calling Karuhat 'Lung Sian', just imagining how he would respond to that!

Taught my first class, post heart attack, today. Struggled a bit with the breathing but all things considered, I reckon I pulled up ok.

I'm only an hour and 20 minutes into the Muay Thai Bones #8 podcast but I already had thoughts to share. I plan to come back and add more reflections as I watch. Feel free to share your own thoughts. 1. Square-1-ism - Goggins, Shame & Discomfort (4:18-44:51) I struggle with intermittent bouts of depression. I'm climbing out of a valley right now. One of my symptoms is that everything feels difficult and overwhelming. The hardest part of my day is just getting out of bed. I feel a lot of shame about my depression. Like Sylvie's metaphor of the Iron Maiden/inner critic, I turn that shame inward and berate myself. I wonder why simple things are so difficult, why am I still struggling, why aren't I better that this, I don't have any reason to be depressed etc. The image of Goggins struggling to put on his shoes before running everyday really struck a chord with me. I decided to use that imagery when getting out of bed this morning. For me, getting out of bed is hard, so my goal when I woke up this morning was to acknowledge without judgement that it is hard, not wish that it was easier, and then get out of bed. Like everything it's a work in progress. Video on Western Philosophy of Mind and the Inner Critic. Why Do I Hate My Self? | Philosophy Tube I practice mindfulness meditation and one of the themes is grasping and aversion. During the my meditation, I focus on my breath but my mind inevitably wanders. My goal is to simply acknowledge that my mind has wandered and return to the breath. I don't want to follow my thoughts (grasping) or get frustrated that my mind wandered (aversion). I've been inspired to combine that with Goggins' square-1-ism. When I wake up in the morning and getting out of bed is hard, just let it be hard. Don't try to try to push away the feeling of difficulty but also don't grasp onto the difficulty and wallow in it. Sit with the discomfort, without judgement, and then embrace the task of getting out of bed. As part of my treatment for depression I am tracking my moods. It's amazing how quickly and often my mood fluctuates throughout the day. It reminded me of this post from Sylvie: Hills and Valleys – How 10 Minutes Can Make or Break Your Training Day

I think its a numbers thing, there seems to be BJJ gyms all over the place so its super accessible. Also when I talk to casual fight fans about Muay Thai I usually get the response "ya its so brutal all the elbows and leg kicks and blood wow" so not surprised some shy away from it. Another common response:

Hi everyone, Just became a patreon member because I've started to be really interested in Muay Thai. I've been doing basic techniques and exercises at my gym that has a heavy bag. My favorite fighter I've seen is Lerdsila, I really like his tricky and evasive style of fighting. So I've been trying to emulate some of his combos that consists of feints and tricky combos. I just wanted to maybe get some general information on what you think is the best way to start learning the Muay femur style of Muay Thai. Also a more specific question is I've been trying to learn the question mark kick that Lerdsila and Saenchai tend to use. With my rear leg I can manage doing the question mark kick decently, I can still use improvement. But when I try with my lead leg I seem to not have enough hip flexibility for it. What are some good hip dexterity and flexibility stretches or drills you can recommend to help my kicks. This is my first post and I'm excited to be apart of this community. Thanks

That is incredibly beautiful Kristen. I just read the whole post aloud to Sylvie. There is nothing more that a podcast could mean. You are right on it.

An older burning season thread.

For sure dude, at Numponthep, It's kinda in a back street behind the Channel 3 TV building, off Soi San Suk Sounds like a silly reason, but it's so great for the heat as there's a huge open bathtub size tank of purified water for everyone, - with a giant block of ice in it delivered every day. Never seen something that good in a gym before.

Pai could be an option. It's a nice little town up in the mountains, north of Chiang Mai. I didn't train there (I stayed there way before I took up Muay Thai), but there are a few Muay Thai gyms in and around the town, which seem to get good reviews.

I've trained with Lerdsila and he's really fun to watch. He's also really nice. But he is the way he is because he is so confident in what he knows. When he's throwing kicks or goofing off, everyone stops to watch because its always so good.

What gym are you going to be training at? I live nearby, maybe I'll pop in and say hi

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!

You don't. Not for now at least. Your best bet is to make sure in a muay thai class regularly and learning the basics, but when I say learning the basics I don't mean understanding them in principle, but I mean drilling them over and over, in the same way a Vasyl Lomachenko would. Lerdsila isn't actually doing anything crazy or advanced. He just has perfect fundamentals, because he's so comfortable there, that frees him up to feint more and throw his brazillian kicks with more accuracy! So don't get too worried about if you're doing what he would be doing in that situation, because you're going to have a very different upbringing in Muay Thai to him! Like Sylvie mentioned! There's going to be a ton of sparring and moving involved, lots of shadow boxing! But so long as you've mastered those fundamentals you'll be able to develop something similar to what he does with hard work.

Thanks a lot for the reply, I'm already half way through the Silapathai video since I knew he is from Jocky gym where a lot of my favorite fighter are from and there is a lot of good info that I learned already. I'll keep in mind my symmetry when throwing kicks from my weaker side.

Most people are called by their nicknames, or "play" name. School kids call their teachers by "Kru" and then the play name. "Real" names are very rarely used. Nobody calls anybody by their real name unless it's a legal document or something like the IFMA where you have to register with your legal name. For fighters, they're called by their fight name by fans and when being referred to as that fighter, but if someone knows them even as an acquaintance it's the play name. So, Dieselnoi will refer to Karuhat in the 3rd person but call him by his play name to his face or if he's talking to me, because I know him personally also. I occasionally call Dieselnoi by his play name, but mostly I use "Ajarn Dieselnoi" as a sign of respect, but Ajarn + his play name works just as well. "Pi" is an older sibling, so it's appropriate if you are semi-familiar or familiar with someone who is your age or older. Pi Nu is "Pi" plus the play name (which in his case is just a shortening of his real name, like how westerners have nicknames that are just shorter versions of given-names, whereas many play names are completely different from given names. Example is Pi Nu's son: real name: Titee, play name: Bank, fight name: Tongchai) Dieselnoi is too much older than me for me to call him "Pi" unless I kind of forget. It's appropriate to call him "Lung", which is like an uncle, but "Arjan" feels more respectful to me. Karuhat is also old enough that I could call him "Lung Sian," but he'd be offended by that, like I was calling him old, so even though the age difference makes that appropriate, I use "Pi" for his ego, hahaha.

If you want a location like Kem's, the price will be like Kem's. The accommodation and meals are included because it's so isolated, so it will be hard to find a cheaper version. As for Burning Season, it's pretty awful. Yes, gyms still train and run, but some who can afford it and have the desire to do so skip the season all together and there's a bit of an "exodus" from Chiang Mai at that time. I stayed and trained completely as per usual in the 2+ years I was there (so, probably 3 Burning Seasons), so I wouldn't personally consider it to be debilitating. My husband doesn't remember it as being particularly bad, for what that's worth.

Hi, welcome to the community! For hip flexibility I have this recommendation: However, I suspect it's less to do with flexibility in a general sense, but that your back foot isn't at the same width/position that your lead foot is when you throw the kick. When we switch our stance or do things opposite from our dominant side, we often don't position the body with symmetry. See where you put your lead foot in relation to your shoulder and hips, then see if it's the same on the other side. Likely, you're too narrow. Learning Femeu style is 99% moving and feeling. This means lots and lots of shadowboxing and sparring. Experimenting, messing with your partners, seeing if you can trick and fool them, etc. Far more an "imitation game" of watching your favorite fighter and then impersonating them than it is a combination or set of particular "moves" to make you evasive. You can steal the techniques, but you have to just do them and do them forever until they look natural. In the library, Namsaknoi, Karuhat, Silapathai, Attachai are all good for learning some of these techniques.

Much obliged!

Hi Guys/Girls, I have a bit of mma background, previously been to Thailand for a little trip a few years ago and used to be a member of the infamous Muaythailand.com Forum. I have recently got the urge to get back into Muay Thai and currently in planning stages for a 4-6 month trip! This is a very interesting and useful forum to help plan a trip to Thailand! I like the positive vibe of this forum and the lack of flame wars! Will try and contribute as much as I can post a review of the gyms I visit!

The documentary is here. Enjoy!

Maybe I'm not following exactly where your reference is here, but in the Kleist, and many other myths of the Amazons the breast is removed for efficacy in archery, not to "fit in" anywhere. Did I suggest above that there was a kind of fitting in that is involved in alteration (if so, can you quote it)? (I mean, there are ways that this definitely has been done by Sylvie, but I'm not sure I made that connection). The case can be made that women need to "castrate" themselves, in some fashion, in order to enter a male order, and that this ritual was part of the fantasy of the Amazon as imagined by Athenian (male) Greeks. As to whether the removal of the breast was some kind of Christianized influence I think that is pretty doubtful. The name "Amazon" is literally taken to mean "without breast" in the Greek a- (ἀ-) and mazos (μαζός). It has been linked to their mythology from the very beginning (though in vase paintings they were never depicted as self-mutilated).