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Look at the size difference. Sylvie fighting for her 1st *World Title*. No fighter in history has had to beat top fighters 3 weight classes up to even be credited as "world class". Sylvie is a 95 lb fighter. That's her cut. This was at 108 lbs. Recognized historical western fighters in Thailand, instead have by-and-large feasted on large weight advantages, allowing them much greater freedom in the ring. It is Herculean to have fought at such a high level, so prolifically, giving up HUGE weight as a handicap. In Thailand it's something to quibble about a lb difference. You give a pound to someone who is at a disadvantage. Two pounds. Three pounds...at about three pounds its beyond the scale. It makes an enormous difference to be fighting opponents way out of your weight class, the things you can do, the things that will show effect, its an entirely different world. It's extremely difficult to know what a fighter is facing big weight disadvantages, especially at the lower end of the weight class scale. Five pounds to a 100 lb fighter isn't the same five pounds to a 130 lb fighter, yet Sylvie gives up 5 lbs, 10 lbs, even 15 lbs regularly, facing the best fighters of Thailand (ie, categorically as a class, the best in the world). It's unheard of. Western fighters are given lopsided weight advantages in the country, left and right, advantages that mostly go unseen. What is really unseen is the Light Under a Bushel of Sylvie as a fighter, the Bushel of enormous weight differences. The fight:

Hi everyone, Just wanted to share my finished at home gym! all second hand gear that I’ve picked up in different places. now, just to use this space anyone else wanna share their home gyms? Or fave place to train

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback! I'm going in tonight and I'll try to keep all that in mind when I spar. My goal is to be able to have a fight or two, but I still feel really far off from that, especially after the covid break

Sylvie smashing through the weight classes, and the WBC rankings as a result.

Here's a graphic of the current WBC rankings, at the time of this writing, and the fighters Sylvie has beaten, and those she's fought, just to give an idea of how far Sylvie has journeyed up in weight. The WBC rankings are at this point approximations of the best Thai fighters in Thailand - there are many good Thai fighters missing from this list - just because the information sources an org can draw on are limited and the Thai female fight scene is fluid, but it does give sense of Sylvie historic reach as a female fighter: WBC rankings - has beaten, has fought.pdf

lol when the shoe fits bro haha. Keep it up man! a few notes to keep in mind: Movement is good, too much movement is bad. Your movement was good! you cut angles, and capitalised on your opponents high guard by changing levels. Your opponent was very stationary, turning into a punching bag almost. If you were sparring someone who moved more, or applied more pressure, your movement can turn into too much movement really quickly, wasting energy. Take your time, move when you need to. Use your reach. When you fought long, you were landing more. It also looked like you had the reach and height advantage as well, so if you have it, use it. You landed your push kick every time you threw it, switch it up with your lead teep. Once you land your teep, you can then mix it up with a fake teep to rear straight to keep your opponent guessing. You changed levels in the video, so you should pick it up easy. Combos. Get use to throwing 4 punch combinations or 4 punch with kick at the end combos. You threw in maybe 3 strikes max combos from what I saw. That may transition to you only throwing single shots in a competition fight. If you feel comfortable with 4 strike combos, you will natural get use to throwing more in actual competitions. Knees. Throw more, I don't think you threw any. They help closing the distance, they can be hidden and set up behind punches, as well as set up your sweeps. Your sweeps were really good, so if you add knees to set them up it will give you more variety. Getting better is a process man, and you filming sparring and sharing it on the internet is a good (can be bad) way of getting critiqued. Here is probably the best place for it, so keep it up and keep grinding away.

Well, this is just playing around with the ideas you present. You know you can't turn up the power for obvious reasons, but you can do a lot of things to handicap yourself against smaller fighters. Devote rounds to just teeping (teep the thighs, the waist, the chest), improving your eyes and timing. You can keep the power down and set challenges to yourself like: Only throw in 3s, or if 3s are easy, only throw in 5s (so you can learn to feel the holes in your combination choices). You can eliminate hands, and just work defense and kicks in flow. All these kinds of handicapping will increase your timing and vision which ultimately will give you advantages with opponents at your size. Also, I don't know if you are a patron yet, but there is a new Muay Thai Library session which might really change your game, because you have limited training opportunities. It's an hour session on shadowboxing: https://www.patreon.com/posts/49616909 20 minutes of vigorous, creative shadowboxing can really build your flow and your stamina. Sylvie's one of the best conditioned fighters on the planet, and it wiped her out. It's an approach to shadowboxing that I've never seen before. And, while you are over in the Library there is a really good session by a fellow Big Boy, Kru San: https://www.patreon.com/posts/16912720 It's really inspirational to see how light and smooth he moves, but also the whole session is about ring control, one of the more ignored aspects of Muay Thai basic training. If you can bring ring control to your bigger bodied moves your game can take leaps and bounds of improvement. Hope some of that helps!

We had to move house so my little gym had to move too. I think it’s a blessing in disguise We live in subtropics so during summer this will definitely have a Thai vibe with the humidity

Hi Sylvie, love with all your great work and contribution to Muay thai, I hope you could help to film for Ajarn somboon, he is a former price fighter in Rajadumdern during 60s, head judge for referees in the south, and an instructor who teach Muay Thai trainer for more than 30years. He is also senior of Ajarn Surat. Below is his contact. Thank you once again. Much appreciated. Name: Ajarn somboon Tapina Gym name: Muay Thai Martial Arts Academy Surat Thani Contact: 081 895 4861 Website: https://sites.google.com/view/muaythaiacademy

Updating my training room.

Hey there, love the gyms shown here. Great thread idea! just wanted to share our little living room gym. When the lockdown got real, I spent a little cash so Ina and I could continue training. I feel very lucky and thankful to have her by my side and to have the opportunity for a home gym like this. This jump rope is not used indoors btw., but in our driveway. It’s brutal and rips your arms out after 30 seconds.

I would love to see Samkor Kiatmontep in the Library (especially that kick in slow motion). I think he might not be in Thailand though.