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Hey everyone, I'm Gene. I'm from San Francisco, California. I've been studying Muay Thai for about 10 years, I've only done a handful of smokers. By the end of 2020 I hope to transition to amateur Muay Thai since my coach thinks I'll be ready with a couple more smokers. I'm looking to compete as much as possible before amateurs. I'm here to make friends and learn to become a better nak muay. I'm hoping to contribute to the community as well!

For that question, I love to use some adapted quote from an english author: “I fell in love with Muay Thai as I was later to fall in love with people: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.” Meanwhile I'm training or furthermore studying it for some 1,5 years. Only! But it feels like ages! Honestly I don't see that violence point but what I see is pure art and beauty in the movements. When I talk about Muay Thai people tell me my eyes are shining! I'm fascinated and attracted by its precision, the necessity to stay concentrated in every single moment, the complexity of each move. I love getting deep and deeper into it, analyzing techniques, trying this and that, soaking up everything like a sponge. Regarding the fitness aspects I can say I started at >85kg and meanwhile (after 18 months) reached some 63-64kg, I enjoy to watch my body develop, to experience getting stronger, see muscles becoming apparent. Sure that might happen as well with other sports but I was always an active person before but nothing attracted me like Muay Thai did meanwhile. I'm just happy I "met" Muay Thai and enjoy every single training session!

I do it because I really enjoy it. I really regret not starting when I was younger, but nothing I can do about that. It keeps me fit, my flexibility is getting better, but mostly I think its learning new skills and seeing myself slowly improve. It also provides me with a connection to Thailand (I love it there, see). I’ve also really enjoyed learning about the history of it - reading up about all the golden age legends, then looking up their fights on youtube, studying them in Sylvie’s library. I’ve been able to get over to Thailand a couple of times this past year and train with some of them, which was amazing. I think another thing that fascinates me about Muay Thai is how the sweetest, most softly spoken people you could ever meet have developed such an explosive and brutally effective martial art. It’s all about causing the maximum amount of damage in the most efficient way possible. No fancy unifroms, no grading system, they just put on a pair of shorts, train real hard and fight!

I just got absorbed by it. It's like this destructive super-passionate relationship I keep coming back to even though I keep getting hurt and the guy is a dick but all other sports I ever loved are friendzoned forever. Mainly I love being in the gym. Or having a gym to go to. It gives me a purpose and feeling of improvement even though work might suck or other stuff in life might suck. Muay thai allows me to get out of my head and into my body. I like the feeling of being sweaty. The sounds of someone kicking pads. I love the feeling of pushing through exhaustion. Of always hurting a little bit. The constant presence of pain makes me feel alive. I like the physical closeness in the gym, with other students, with the trainer. To discover movements and skills I practiced suddenly becoming available to me. I learn so much and I discover so many things about me and others that I could never have understood in any other way than physically experience it. I learn patience. I learn how good things and beautiful things are parallel to pain and frustration. I get the physical experience of hard work pays off. I learn about violence and I discover my own violence. And I really like gym when people don't talk much. When bodies do the talking.