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This is such an engaging topic I've followed for a while but been reluctant to post because I find it so hard to discuss my mental health openly. Although I too feel muay thai can do so much to empower you, I feel it can easily break you down. If you're in a vulnerable mental state, training in a Thai muay thai gym can add tonnes of bricks to the mental stress. It's hard to deal with hard sparring when feeling like you're made of glass and you're stuck behind a wall and you can't really hear anybody else but the critical loudspeaker in your own mind. And also especially since relationships in Thailand are so important and maintaining relationships can be draining or impossible when you're in a state where you cannot even maintain the relationship to yourself. Add to this promoters with other interests than putting on a good fight card. Or trainers demanding respect. Further, as a woman, there are so many invisible barriers to climb. And sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, doors simply don't open. I think for me personally, I might have at one point taken on too much and probably should've stayed away from the gym and all the relationship maintenance for a while until I was stronger. Instead of trying and trying and getting disappointed. Even though I'd go back to my gym in a heartbeat if I could (my plan was to be in Bangkok right now to fight) my mental health benefitted tremendously from training at a gym with no active fighters and having the space just to push myself how I wanted and play around for a while. Anxiety is awful, it's like a dragon in your chest clawing. But at least there's some kind of moving energy. Depression is how I imagine dark matter. It just swallows you.

Nice setup Jim I like all the stuff up on the walls very organized and inspirational.

Something my gym was doing before the corona lockdown, was working with local doctors as something people with depression could be prescribed to see if we could help them by giving them free training/physical activity. I agree with LengLeng, it's a double edged sword. One of my students is a trans-man, who is going through the process of transitioning and all the mental health problems that can come with that very stressful life change. Muay Thai helps him - but it also creates challenges that can in of itself be stressful.

To follow more some of the essential idea proposed here, the study trades on the dichotomy or contradiction in that the spiritual emptiness and non-attachment of Buddhistic practice necessarily goes beyond identity (which is attachment), and therefore gender. The aim itself is toward genderlessness, while the social conventions which structure that practice are quite gendered and hierarchical. I would suggest that the very same thing exists in Thailand in terms of fighting. Thailand has a Fight Culture which celebrates fighting, or "chon" (clashing) in a pure sense. For this reason men fighting, children fighting, women fighting, chicken fighting, and even beetle fighting all participate in the same essential thing, the chon of spirit. You can check out Sylvie's articles on Bettle Fighting in the North to see aspects of this: Muay Thai Clinch is Not Boring – Gwang Chon – Battle Beetles of Thailand - Part 1 Underground Gambling, Beetle Fights, Heart and the Clinch of Muay Thai - Part 2 These transcendent views are really part of the way in which Thailand can be very freeing for western female fighters. There is a real sense in which female fighters are just part of the chon of a universal spirit of battle, and that as long as the spirit is exhibited, it is celebrated. A nexus point in a possible comparison between Thai Maechi and Thai Nakmuay Ying is the way in which there is an operative transcendent, gender-less apex of celebration, something which unites all participants, but also, a hierarchy of laddered social striation which can lead both also unreadable, or at least very hard to read.

A fun drill to encourage creativity that I get anyone who works with me to do: Person A - uses a technique, any technique, or combination etc. Person B - responds with their own one, but one different Both fighters are allowed to check and otherwise defend during all of them. They go back and forth, after doing it for about two minutes, they're allowed to interrupt each others combination. Power is about 50% - 60% to the body + legs, 20% to the head (The English tend to be big lads, don't want to take any risks there). The students learn techniques from each other that way - but also they learn the timing to properly interrupt each other. It eventually turns into something like light sparring. What in my experience I find is that my students end up being far more experimental in sparring. They're not stiff and they learn defence in a more organic way (I posted my fighters first competition, and that sort of drilling gave him his movement, which is still raw but very much there). Those 1,2,3 kick type of drills, for me, only serve the purpose of getting the fighter comfortable with the movement and becoming defensively responsible.

Whatever it is, it's infected and inflamed. Keep putting antiseptic cream on it, but if it doesn't improve or starts getting worse then better to get yourself to a doctor (if that's possible at the moment). Probably worth pointing out I have no medical training by the way, beyond some first aid courses

This was my guys first competition. Sharing it here, because this is quite a nice, private forum rather than a place where you can get concrete feedback. Bit of background: My fella is ex-army, was discharged due to injuries that meant he was not allowed to go on tour in Afghanistan. He was training with me for 8 months prior to this, with no martial arts experience outside of what he had learned in the military. These months were consisting mostly of us drilling the basics and an ongoing struggle to get him to fully commit to his strikes in sparring. He is always the gentleman and doesn't want to hit anyone too hard, which I respect, but I also felt this made it difficult for me to judge his process. When we confirmed that he had a fight booked, I came to the conclusion that the easiest way to get him to really commit to power shots was to hone his leg kicking game in order to get him confident, without having to sacrifice too much balance from throwing those beginner body kicks. There was an issue however. I learned that I am not particularly good at TEACHING leg kicks, despite them making up such a big part of my game. I go back to the drawing board, we re-learn the leg kicks and we essentially drill them for 5 weeks. Specifically focusing on reacting with leg kicks and moving backwards while leg kicking along with L-steps and hand traps to keep him fighting, while moving back towards the ropes. This was the end result. I was worried initially, as I am still new as a coach and this is my first fighter rather than hobbyist who trains for fun and fitness. After the first round, I ask him how he's feeling, he says it's good. I warn him that we don't know how our opponent will be coming out in the second round. After more of the same in the second round I tell him to keep doing exactly what he's doing. I found that I didn't want to suggest anything or give him any advice that would necessarily make him over think and lose the work he was doing. There are a lot of things that I want to work on, getting the fundamentals more solid - but I'd love feedback from you guys, Sylvie, Kevin etc. as a fresh perspective can only help. My fighter is in the camo shorts. I had them made specially for him as a tribute to his days in the royal army, the linework in the colours of his team. All the best

Wanna know something? You all have to just take my word for it, but a conversation like this has never - could never - come up in *any* guy's locker room in *any* gym, in *any* country so far, in my training memory of doing the sport. Never. Would be unthinkable. Even though half the locker room or more probably has dudes with stories just like you all describe. Maybe Corona's making people more open now. Like, so much more messaging between family and friends these days. Don't ya find?

Because Muay Thai is breathing to me. Everything else is just drowning. There's a quote from Rosa Luxemburg that goes: "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains". In a similar fashion I wasn't aware I wasn't breathing before starting Muay Thai. The oxygen it gave me is my life-changing discovery - that and kitties.