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First of all, apologies for bringing Myanmar traditional boxing (Lethwei) into this but as far as I understand muay boran (and other fighting styles in the region) originates from Lethwei. I feel there are some people who want to create an impression of animosity between lethwei and muay thai, but I just experience it as two beautiful versions of the same thing. Anyhow, one of my teachers sent me this old photo from his home in Kachin State, northern Myanmar and one of the most active armed conflict zones. And I wanted to share just to remind foreigners who come to fight in Thailand or Cambodia or Myanmar what cultures they are actually interacting with and where your trainers actually come from. My teacher in the photo is a sweet, friendly guy in his 20s. He works at three different gyms in Yangon that focus martial arts fitness and he leads his classes with enthusiasm and smiles. He sleeps at the gym where I'm training. Regardless of skill level he'll find and push you beyond your boundaries. He has had about 30-40 fights and is currently recovering from a nasty knee injury and subsequent surgery, waiting to be able to fight again. He's also waiting for an invitation and visa to go teach at a western gym in a western country. To prep for the visa process he goes to English school in his free time. His biggest dream is to become a One Championship fighter. And he keeps his body fit in the meantime. This photo simply got to me. It's just such a harsh reminder of what it means to really want it. The endless hours you put in that no one is there to see. And it, as so many times before, painfully reminded me of how spoiled I am as a foreigner when trying to choose the most suitable gym for me, or complaining about pad holders style, or not getting fights, or the whatever. And the caption I was given with the photo also summarizes the attitude so well: "Now ok before ok you know?"

I agree it depends on the partner. Sparring involves 2 ppl. It doesn't work if you choose one while your partner chooses something else. And it also depends on objective as well. I have punches the bag with normal gloves, MMA gloves, bare hands. I choose it based on whether I'm training for power, accuracy, or what wrist strength. It's not like we have to pick one and never use the other.

I get asked quite a lot about how I've gone about learning the Thai language. For me, it's not a direct answer to a more or less direct question, because how one learns a language when you actually live in the culture is entirely different than how I learned German, for example, which was sitting at a desk in school, in America, for 5 years. So, the short answer is: I moved to Thailand and it was important to me to learn the language, so I've been learning it all along. The long answer is: tutors, books, websites, magazines and newspapers, being forced to communicate with trainers, strangers, government officials, and promoters, and having friendships with Thai people. None of these things are singularly responsible for my ability to speak, read and write Thai; and none of them would have made it possible without all the others. Thai is a tonal language. What that means is that the inflection of a word doesn't express your emotional connotation, instead it is required for the meaning of the word itself. For example, if we say "what?" with a clipped tone, we might be ready to fight. If we say, "whaaat?" with a rising tone we might sound like we're in disbelief. But the meaning of the actual word stays the same. In Thai, the change in tone would change the meaning of the word. So, for example "ma" with a flat tone means "come," whereas "ma" with a rising (like asking a question) tone means "dog," and "ma" with a high tone (like an incredulous "huh?") means "horse." How easy it is to mix those up in speech, and yet they're all spelled differently. For a long time, as folks coming from non-tonal languages, we can't even hear the difference between these words. All this is to say, I think it's important to have a teacher at some point in your process of learning Thai. Not only are tones important for people to understand you, but it teaches you how to hear as well, so that you can understand other people. My first teacher was Kru May, who was a generous young teacher at a school that was on the same street as Lanna Gym in Chiang Mai. It was my first trip to Thailand and I wanted to learn some Thai, so I'd contacted a teacher via an advertisement on a light pole. That didn't work out so well and I was lost. I wandered into this school and the office-director, when she realized what I was looking for, was so kind that she just sat me down and had Kru May teach me Thai every few days... for free. It was an incredible sign of Thai generosity. She even invited me to her home to have dinner, this odd little farang who wandered in, but that never came about. I'm really grateful to Kru May and Khun Luang (the woman who took me in). When I got back to New York, I found an online tutor and continued learning that way. This was my teacher, Titcha Kedsri, who may or may not still be offering lessons. Once I moved to Thailand, I met in person with a tutor named Simon, maybe for 6 months or so. For those who want to wade in with their own materials, there are a few sources that are really valuable and free: Women Learn Thai is an online source that really has a lot to go through. If you're a man, don't be confused by the name, it's in no way female specific and often still uses male pronouns and polite particles. Another great resource is video lessons by Mod and Pear, so you can really work on pronunciation and hearing those tones, "Learn Thai with Mod" is great for rudimentary and basic Thai phrases and vocabulary. A book that I used in order to be able to start reading is this Thai: An Essential Grammar by Smyth. Learning a language with proper structure, grammar, spelling, rules, etc. is dizzying for me. It's a good reference and it's the reason I know that the class of a consonant, coupled with it being "live" or "dead," and the length of the vowel, plus or minus a tone mark, all changes how a word is pronounced. I know those things in my head, but over time I just read and now how to pronounce something because I'm learning the language via exposure and immersion all the time. That's really important. I don't know all the rules of English the way I know those rules in Thai, but you know what sounds correct or not. You need both. Finally, and most importantly, I think: it was really important to me to learn Thai. As soon as I could sound out basic words, I was struggling to read through the Muay Siam magazine that gave short reports of female fight results. I tried to order my food in Thai, even when I was painfully shy about it. Moving from Chiang Mai to Pattaya significantly improved my Thai, because I was forced to speak Thai more in Pattaya (there's much less English here than in Chiang Mai). I started chatting with Kru Nu in the mornings. I had to start booking my own fights, so I was texting with promoters - man, I'm sure I made some serious errors along the way. My messages were super short and basic. Now they're long and conversational. And occasionally I still don't understand things, but I have lots of practice in how to figure them out. Because it's an ongoing process.

Sylvie's Muay Thai vocabulary post, which can be helpful: Muay Thai Vocabulary | Understanding Your Thai Trainer

No a dumb question. If the person knows how to hold, you should def. go 100% power, explosiveness and speed. I am also a big guy, 100 kilo, 193cm, and pads holders in the west is a problem. Even in gyms in thailand I can see thais are discussing who's going to hold for me, or who will clinch with me. Even if I don't speak thai, it's easy to see that the like manager is saying, like, "you go" and he's like, "fuck that, did you see him, send this guy" and so on and so forth. I mean, it's no fun to hold pads for any hard hitter. In the west. I try to have the same training partners who are more advance and can actually hold pads. The key is, don't train with newbies. But it's not always possible. Personally, if I see I'll have to train with a newby, I'll just go train on the bag. I might seem like an asshole, but bad pads holding lead to injuries, in the elbows, hips and so on, because the pads are not where they're supposed to be, or because they hold them too softly. If I have to train with a bad holder, then I'll practice good form and go to the bag after the class. Otherwise, I go with the face of the the person, start medium and go harder until I see in their face that it is enough. So funny our it's only partly related to the size of the person. Some pretty big guys will complain before some very tiny women. Anyways, good luck.

When I read your situation, I'm really happy about the family-like places I've been at, especially both gyms over here in Finland. Both gyms are the trainers "one and everything", sometimes we cook together after training, we can come and go whenever we want, doors are open. Everything of course on a respectful basis. At the one gym it was just too small to leave stuff there at the other one they agreed, as I normally go the 10km by bike and was asking if I can leave gloves and shinguards there. No one ever thought about things getting stolen, why should someone take from one's family? Sorry for getting too much off topic... But to get back to topic: as over here, due to large amount of people, we split between pad work training and technical training. So, the pad work days are definitely the more exhausting ones and you work hard then. The technical training is one on one training, focussing of course on precision, timing, etc... instead of power and it's more the advanced people joining these training units.

I don't think it is a dumb question at all. I remember Sylvie training with the legend Kaensak who described the purpose of padwork as "charging the battery", which is probably how it was used in the Golden Age of Muay Thai when he reigned. It was pure power, tempo and fatigue, priming you for a fight. You had already developed your technique since youth. This older purpose of padwork comes into direct contrast with the western preoccupation with Thai cleanness of technique, and with padwork itself. A padman, generally, in Thailand, is just a worker, someone pushing the fighters physically. Not some elevated teacher (in most cases). Holding pads of someone is just doing work. In the west though it is used to teach technique, put to a different purpose. So it really depends where you fall on the spectrum. Generally though, you should be really pushing it on the pads, developing your ability to hold your technique, your tempo, your balance, even though fatigue. Padwork is exposing you to fight fatigue pressure and pushing you through ideal responses, I think.

Although I am from Kyokushin, I can't help but see some similarities between our systems. Our particular style of Karate make heavy use of our shins as weapons. We also will block (catch) incoming roundhouse kicks with our upper shins (very similiar to your Low Kick Destroyer). We don't typically use shin guards, relying very heavily on control. There is also the conditioning of shins, forearms, etc. That being said, no one bats an eye if someone is using shinpads during training. Our instructor is a very pragmatic man. The last thing he wants is for one of his students to be limping around at work or school the next day. Don't get me wrong, we still have our fair share of bumps and bruises. That is how I started following Sylvie (How to treat damaged shins). In general, there is really nothing wrong with training w/o shin pads AS LONG AS you are sensible and responsible about it. BTW- I don't see any mention of treating shins with Dit Da Jow. My acupuncturist make some for me and I was shocked at how effective it was.

Interesting topic over here, great! Just a while ago I started to train without shinguards whenever possible. Sometimes our Kru (Thai) wants me to wear shinguards, sometimes my partner wants. But if it's ok for both, I try to go without. For me it's a little like for @Kero Tide, I don't like wearing all this stuff when training. As less as possible, as much as necessary. Of course every once in a while my shins hurt and look bad, but meanwhile after 2 days the pain is gone again, so not that big deal anymore. @LengLeng I little envy you training at a Lethwei Gym in Yangon! When I visit Myanmar next time I definitely want to give it a try, too! Last time in Mandalay I didn't find one but it was my first visit to Myanmar that time and I first had to see how things go there. Wish you all the best!

You say it right, you "catch" the kick, which means you pick a spot on the shin you want to catch it with, and you meet it up, like you are using a glove and catching a ball. As to how high you bring it up depends on how high the kick is. I'm not super experienced with this myself, but I did start doing it in padwork when I had a banged up shin, and the train was fond of whacking me back with a kick. I just started catching the kick just below the kneecap, or even with the point of the knee, gently. For me, I'd fold the leg a bit to give the knee support. It is very hard when bent. There are some really good things about it. The first is that you are practicing accuracy. People don't think of blocks needing accuracy, but they do. It's usually just "Get your block up!", but all the greats were super accurate with their checks. They aren't using the whole shin. Trying to catch it in a specific part of the shin is super productive, and will give you confidence in your checks over time. As to hurting your partner, well, they are hurting you. Not intentionally, but yeah, it's hurting you. The whole point of sparring without shin guards, or the whole benefit, is that it teaches you control and feeling. If you are catching kicks up on the thick high part of your shin, or catching with the point (a little), they just have to pull their kicks, gain control. It's sparring, not whacking. You don't have to spear them with the knee, just catch it. I'm not even saying you could/should do this. But there are some good ideas why it might make sense in your situation. And it could be fun. In terms of Muay Thai you don't want to be catching kicks all day, in the long term.

Hi, "dern" is the Thai word for walking, so it means the fighter who is going forward. Sometimes the Thai commentator will be saying "Sylvie dern" and it means I'm the one coming forward, pressing the action. Clinching is allowed to go for longer out in the provinces, medium in the stadia of Bangkok, and broken stupid quickly in new 3-round formats like Max, Thai Fight, Superchamp, Hardcore, MX, etc. They claim it's to make the fights more exciting, but it makes them more boring. It only gives people time to hold, rather than work. Golden Era fights like Samson Isaan vs. Pepsi (the third one especially) or Langsuan vs Lamnamoon, the clinch goes forever and the ref just kind of keeps them off the ropes. Breaking the clinch too fast would be like separating fighters after two strikes... totally interrupts the flow of the fight. But they claim it's to make it more exciting, but really it just makes it more like a Windmill show. The way you see going forward as being positive, Thais see going backwards as being in control of the fight, rather than looking like you're scared. You can't ONLY go back. Dieselnoi often complains that all my opponents did was "nee" which is the Thai word for escaping. Going backwards for the sake of going backwards is as bad as going forward simply for the sake of going forward, it has to have meaning to how the fight is being directed by your movements. But a fighter who has the lead and then goes backwards to force the opponent to chase, or catch up, shows control of the fight. A fighter who is simply coming forward all the time looks desperate to a Thai eye, especially if they already have the lead, they look like they don't know that they're in the lead.

I have mixed feelings on all of this. The best answer I have is a bit of a non-answer. For me there is a time and place for safety equipment. If I am doing simple drilling I kind of like doing no pads, but for full sparring I prefer to wear shin guards. It really just depends on the partner, pace, and power levels. I have training partners that I loved sparring with (no longer work with them), but I can't imagine us training without shin guards lol. That is because we went fairly hard though. I like to spar somewhere between 60-80%. We could only go hard like that though because we knew each other quite well and understood when to back off a bit. Even when we tested each other a bit there was always an understanding to back off if it got to be too much and it was never emotional. That said, I've been dropped with a few shots in sparring and had my nose fractured twice lol. I've had other partners that I also sparred "fast" with, but with much less power. I never sparred them with no shin guards, but I think we would have both done really well with that. It's just different with each person. The added protection is just that... added protection. Depends on what you are doing and who you are working with.

I hate wearing shinguards. I don't wear them anymore at my gyms or when I just train with my coach outside. I don't like wearing any kind of protective gear anymore to be honest, not even gloves. It just feels unnecessary bulky and in the way like swimming with all your clothes on. I also happen to have grown fond of both the pain I feel and the pain I inflict when bones hit bones. It's so satisfying to see your partner wince from the contact while you barely felt anything. Or you actually felt something big time and you loved it! Getting more exalted as a result. In both instances your partner usually freaks out/back down. Besides it really does help better with learning control and distance not to wear anything. When I kick kinda too hard at the wrong distance and the part of myself that lands on the other's bone isn't my shin but my foot, I can assure you I feel like screaming and will remember it. If I do the same with shinguards, I will probably not feel the sting at all. My body and mind might not learn the lesson. Might get longer to sink in. Really, protective gears annoy me so much now. I don't even wear bands anymore. I'm no expert at all so I'm not saying I'm right. I just find them useless for the kind of person I would like to become, and the kind of enjoyment I get out of not wearing anything. I even envy men who can train in pants barechested. You're not as free to be that naked when you're a woman, for several (kinda obvious) reasons I can't be bother to list out.

There is a loose theory floating out there, to which both Sylvie and I subscribe, which is that the arrival of shin guards has really changed the level of fighting even in Thailand. In the Golden Age, and certainly before, there was no such thing. We reason, and I think Karuhat helped support this if I recall, that the absence of shin guards produce far more control and balance in Thai fighters, across the board. Just something to keep in mind.

It's a great thing to get used to if you AND your partner have good control. There's not a lot of shin-to-shin contact without shinguards in Thailand. Trainers and folks sparring will kind of use the bottom of their foot to "kick" on the leg, if it's blocked, rather than go shin to shin. But kicking the arms, legs, and sides of the body with control and bare shins is totally fun and much more realistic to what kicks will feel like in a fight that doesn't have pads. You'll often see one pair of shinguards split between 2 people, so your blocking leg has a guard and your kicking leg doesn't, but in a same-stance pair it's the opposite, so their blocking leg also has a guard and their kicking leg doesn't.

Quite regularly I'll do drills with no shin guards and light sparring with no shin guards. It can hurt, but so long as you aren't belting each other as hard as you can, you should be fine. It's more that you have to be careful with body kicks than anything, you still try to kick to the body but you don't want to full on blast the kick like yo would sparring. The benefit of it is that you learn control and it mentally prepares you for a fight.

I actually prefer no shin guards. I think not using them promotes more control. But this isn't the general consensus. Most people prefer using them.

So, I have been training Muay Thai for about a year, and finally had my first fight Nov 6. I wanted to share my experience and maybe get some feedback from the more experienced fighters on the forums about what my training priorities should be for my next fight. Obviously, my trainer has some strong opinions, but I like to get different perspectives The fight was sanctioned under ISKF rules in Florida, which means no elbows and very limited clinch. This is going to be a long post, so please feel free to skip to the end, where there is a link to the youtube video. I am 5'8", and walk around at 140lbs. I had planned to fight at 135lbs, but about 2 weeks out from the fight, the promoter told me I needed to be at 130lbs if I wanted a match. I was very unenthusiastic about cutting weight, but desperate to fight (I had been waiting several months for a match) so I followed the advice in this blog post: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2008/01/18/how-to-cut-weight/ and managed to come in 128lbs. My opponent was 5'2", weighed 129lbs, and had a record of 2 wins and 1 draw. I felt like shit the last week of training because of the lack of carbs. But it was 'day before' weigh-ins, so I had time to rehydrate and refuel. I had some pre-fight anxiety, which I wrote about thusly: "So I am less than a week away from my first fight. I keep thinking to myself "I must be crazy. Why did I agree to do this?" I'll be sitting calmly at work, and suddenly get a shot of adrenaline as I think of my opponent, as I picture entering the ring. I keep thinking of the worst things that could happen. I'm not really afraid of being knocked out, although that would be bad. It's more like the nightmares I used to have, where I'm so angry and I want to hurt someone but all my movements are in slow motion and nothing seems to land. And I'm scared of gassing out: of being so exhausted that my arms and legs feel so heavy and dead. Those are the things I fear: being helpless and tired and dumb. Everyone warns me about the adrenaline dump, and tells me that once I'm in the ring I won't be able to think and I'll just throw whatever my body remembers best. I've written a list of 8 techniques that I'm going to carry in my pocket until the day of the fight. Four of the techniques are "reaction techniques", and four are "initiation techniques". I think that should be enough." (For those that are curious, my list was "1. Jab 2. Teep 3. Parry to punch 4. Parry to Knee 5. Leg kick 6. Hook to kick 7. Jab, cross, switch kick and 8. Superman punch". In retrospect, kind of silly. But I found it very comforting.) Writing down my fears really helped me to process them. I realized the things I was actually afraid of (being totally helpless, getting totally gassed) would be nearly impossible considering I had been training Muay Thai for 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, for over a year. Yes I could lose the fight, but I had done everything my trainer told me to do to prepare, and I wasn't going to embarrass myself or the gym. Reading Sylvie's blog posts also helped me to keep perspective. The day of the fight came, and I was almost last on the card (I think I was the 20th fight?). We got there at 4pm, and I didn't fight until after midnight. I managed to take a nap in the 'locker' room, and stayed bizarrely calm the whole time. I'm generally a pretty anxious person, so I expected to be a bundle of nerves, but it just wasn't the case. Several fighters from our gym fought back-to-back, so I didn't really get much of a warm up, and didn't get a thai oil massage. My trainer is very traditional, and was clearly unhappy and superstitious about it, but I kind of just shrugged it off. In a way, the fight felt pre-determined to me. Either I had internalized the techniques, or I hadn't. I kept thinking of a quote from Muhammad Ali "The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights." I had a huge physical advantage with my height, and while there are absolutely people who train harder, I felt fairly well conditioned. Then the fight happened. I kept expecting a shot of adrenaline, but it never came. I don't know if that's good or bad. I kept thinking "Surely as I warm up, I'll start getting excited". Nope. "Surely as I stand on deck, I'll get pumped". Nope. "Surely when I walk into the ring and see my opponent, my heart will start racing". Nope. "When the bell rings, THEN I will go into Beast Mode". NOPE. It was very weird. I just felt calm and detached, and totally in control of the fight. Watching the video afterwards was hard though. I did some things 'right', but so much I did wrong. I controlled the pace and the distance and landed some good knees. But everything looks so SLOW and I looked so LAZY. My guard is terrible: I keep leaning back and wildly swinging my arms when I should be keeping them tight and leaning into her punches. I could hear my corner screaming at me to "Go forward! Engage!" and I straight up ignore them because I was out of breath, felt like I was winning, and wanted to play it safe. After the fight, my trainer was clearly very frustrated with me, but didn't lay into me too hard because I had won. But he felt that I probably could have KOed or TKOed her if I had just followed up more after rocking her. I have mixed feelings about this. Obviously, it's preferable to end the fight decisively without letting it go to the judges. On the other hand, I felt very dominant, and it seems strategically advantageous to keep something in 'reserve' for my next fight. I don't know. Or maybe ultimately I'm just lazy and like to do the bare minimum, haha. Here's the fight. I am the very tall one with purple shorts: Comments and criticisms welcome!