Xestaro

He said it while demonstrating some sort of joint lock on someone and had everybody flinch a little as they noticed how painful it was Now my current trainer.... he combines martial arts and physical therapy so he definitely is a sadist I mean: I saw a few of his old fights from back in the day. He was this aggressive kind of fighter who threw lots of elbows and whatnot The massage-ball thing even works while sitting btw. As long as you can generate pressure. You can exert more force while standing of course but depending on how much you actually need...

Good that you got it sorted out! When I consulted my trainer about it he also treated my feet with some of his therapeutic torture instruments which was fucking painful but also helped. He went on a bit of a ramble about how people pay far too little attention to the health of their feet even though we all need them dayly for our whole lives and so much other stuff in your body depends on them as the form the basis of your posture and all. He recommended using one of those spiky massage-balls for a bit every day. Basically you stand up and put one foot on the ball so you can create pressure, then you slowly move it back and forth. Doesn't exactly feel pleasant but helps to "unlock" your feet and the tendons in them. When I saw him about it before showing me the thing with the ball he basically did the same thing to my feet with something that looked an awful lot like a handheld steel axe-blade Yea well.... as my Kali trainer back in the day once said: "yea a healthy degree of sadism is necessary if you want to be a trainer."

Cool! Please tell us about your experience then! :) Everything I've seen from him so far (also the videos that were posted on his own youtube channel when he still had his own gym) was super friendly and helpful. Paul Banasiak wrote that being a sponsored fighter for him could be very demanding but I guess that's normal for any place who seriously trains professional fighters. What I love about Namsaknoi is that I can watch any 2min video of him and feel like I learned something useful

DAMN..... I really thought it was some sort of autocorrect mistake or whatever... Those weird Imperial measurement units are killing me...

wait... there is actually a weight unit "stone"?

depends.... how much do Scottish stones weigh....? *scratches head in confusion*

When I see Muay Thai fights here in Germany (usually amateur), the fighters typically wear elbow-pads so using them for cutting is not really much of an option. Actually I saw several fights when helping out at a bigger event 2 weeks ago that my gym organized and while people in Muay Thai fights used elbows in clinch for example. I often wondered why the didn't use them more in the very short range just out of clinch. Instead, very short hooks were preferred. I attributed it to most fighters maybe being more used to fighting under K1 rules than Muay Thai since MT is really not a big think in Germany but maybe it also has something to do with elbows just being a less effective option with the elbow-pads?

I remember a video of Sylvie talking to someone she took a lesson with (I don't remember who it was) while preparing for a fight and told him that she'd be fighting an opponent who prefers to... I forgot what. He didn't know yet that Sylvie was a Muay Khao style fighter but when he heard what kind of opponent she would be facing he was like "ah, then you just need to be Muay Khao!" as in "If that's the kind of opponent you're fighting, just adopt a Muay Khao style for this fight!". Serves to show that Thais can be kind of flexible with styles.

Thanks! Your're right Kevin, I remember Dieselnoi saying that in some video! That said I should really learn to teep high as from what I'm seeing most people here are more punchers than kickers. I myself don't punch a lot though since I'm not comfortable with using my hands yet. I've practiced frontkicks, lowkicks, knees, elbows and whatnot before but never much boxing, so I tend to fall back to what I know a bit better. I've also done the "Samart-style" side-teep a few times already (to the best of my newbie ability ) and yes, I feel pretty fine doing that as well. I just have to be very careful not to overturn when doing it because people will make me pay for that. Actually one sparring-partner once advised me to not use those front kicks/teeps as much as he felt they got me into trouble. He said a good option for me would be long straight punches since I have good reach (I just can't use it (in my hands) very well yet) Another one said that he felt it's quite hard to close in on me which I took as a compliment of sorts as he is much more experienced than I am. As far as I remember I was using mainly teeps and some kicks that day, probably with a few punches and long guard mixed in (though I have to work on that a lot more as well). Well, I try to make the best of what I can do and if that is keeping people off of me than that's a start at least.

I'm listening to the latest Muay Thai Bones Podcast right now and I thought this time I'll post questions right away before I listen to the rest (still have about 2,5 hours to go) and forget what I was gonna ask by the time I've gone through the whole of it You were talking about the importance of the teep. How to use it to improve different aspects of your style or how what you're doing is perceived from the outside. I haven't been in sparring for quite a while but I remember that when I was, I was having some problems with the teep. I do teep quite a lot. It's kind of my "standard response" to increase distance, get/keep someone off me or whatever. Especially with me having no experience in boxing (I don't trust my fists a lot yet). I'm a very tall fighter, too. I did however get my teep caught a lot or sometimes used against me in a way that redirects it so I end up more open to the following attack. Thinking about it I think it made me a bit insecure about using it which also made me teep lower, towards the leg or maybe hip, as this is a tad quicker (less distance to cover for my foot) and generally less prone to being caught (further away from my opponents hands). What should I do, train or focus on to improve my teep and make it more usable? Is it just a question of doing it enough to develop more trust in it? Get used to having the leg caught (also happens with kicks) and how to counter in a situation like this? Committing to it more so it makes my opponents respect it more because it's "scarier" to them? I'm not a terribly flexible person either. Because of how tall I am I can easily kick/teep most of my opponents upper body though I do struggle with headkicks (unless, of course, if my opponent is considerably smaller than me). However, this makes it more troublesome for me if my leg gets caught. I just don't have much flex left to flick my foot out of a hold or something.

Can only really comment on one thing here: Yes, sparring is useful at at least a certain point I think. It helps to show you where weak points in your technique are that you might not even notice otherwise. Shows you what are things to focus on in your non-sparring training.

Great! :) Keep us updated! Also if you manage to do this before me I'd love to hear your experience! :)

This is in the "anything else you think could possibly come in handy"-category and you probably already know or do this, but anyways: Keep in mind I'm NOT at anything resembling a high level of Muay Thai! I'm a beginner and have not found my "style" yet. I have however done Kali (Fillippino martial art) for almost a decade and a while ago I realised that a lot of what I did in sparring there (that is full contact sparring with a (arm-length) stick as weapon) is what would probably translate to a Muay Femeu style in Muay Thai. One of the basics of course is to watch your opponent and figure out any weak spots or bad habits you notice and exploit those. Multi-level attacks can be useful if you can pull them off without exposing yourself. Could be as simple as tapping their leg with a quick little low-kick that doesn't even really hurt just to draw attention away from the Punch that follows or throw their footwork off or something like that. Also it can help a lot to put a level of insecurity into your opponent which can happen for example by surprising moves (breaking an established pattern or stuff like that). Sometimes it's as simple as making it blatantly obvious what you're gonna do and let your opponent get stuck thinking about what they can do against it. Of course you can still change what you're ACTUALLY gonna do from there (like for example raising a leg ready to teep to "scare away"). Also find weird and unusual positions you can work from. Most people get confused when they are confronted with something unusual because they have no answer readily established for that. Keep in mind though that usually there is a reason for a position to be unusual! Typically because it has weaknesses that can be exploited or something. As an example: In Kali, when fighting with a stick/sword, you usually tend to keep your weapon in front of you so it's in the way of your opponent and the distances are shorter for quicker reactions or up (like arm raised, weapon on your shoulder) so you can deliver powerful blows to attack or parry without having to "load" before you actually strike. imagine the question marks on a sparring partner's face when you stand there just holding the weapon hand low with the tip towards the ground. Most of them were just totally unsure of what to do with that. Kind of like how people like Saenchai freezing up their opponents by quickly shuffling their feet back and forth. Its really actually NOTHING but it gets people confused and stuck for a moment.

RIGHT! That's another thing he explained to me when I asked, that the muscles around the impact area will be engaged when you flex.

Not to hijack, but this seems relevant to the thread: If the question is how long you can stay as Sylvie says, then in what ways is long term "survivability" as a fighter in Thailand questionable? What are some of the things to keep in mind that can make you unable to further extend living in Thailand as a professional fighter and what happens then? Is it possible for westerners to long term sustain living like this in Thailand with what you earn as a professional fighter?

you're talking about the kicking legs foot, right? I actually asked my trainer one time if I should flex my foot or relax or "stretch" it when kicking. There seems to be no hard rule (kinda like there is no hard rule which part of the foot is the right spot to hit with when teeping, it kinda depends on what exactly you're trying to do) but he demonstrated how you can use a flexed foot to hook and unbalance after the kick landed or even when it's blocked. For example let it hook behind the opponents leg and give them a pull on retracting your kick.

Haha cool! "My" gym (where I hardly did any training for the last few months, shame on me!) is Diamond Gym Würzburg. The one where he'll teach for at least a year is Fight Club Ludwigsburg. I already inquired about if it will be possible to get private lessons. They said yes and it would cost 60€ for an hour or 100€ for 2 hours which includes the teacher and the gym reserved for only you. I'm still thinking about how much training I should at least get in before doing this... I mean: I absolutely need to get back into training first! Wouldn't want to waste the time by being too exhausted early on and also I want to really learn from him without him having to waste too much time correcting the absolute basics that anyone could teach me....

Does it hurt more down towards the heel or more up towards your calf? I had pain around the area but more upwards towards the calf and my trainer, who also does physical therapy and whatnot, told me that its not actually the tendon that is the problem here but the calf muscles. He was absolutely right as my physiotherapist confirmed. My problem was that with my heavy frame (1,94m, big man build) and lack of training beforehand, this area wasn't used to the strain of getting up on my toes a lot and cramps up easily. Some (painful) massaging and foam rolling helped but I have to really keep treating those muscles after every training or they'll start acting up again. Both therapists (my trainer and my physiotherapist) told me that if its really the tendon, it usually hurts down towards the heel.

It really is! I was kinda kicking around the idea that MAYBE it would work out to find him for a lesson or two when me and my wife finally go to Thailand for vacation. And now suddenly: BAM! Namsaknoi in Germay! Basically in my neighborhood! How about that?

Interesting.... my Trainer is the one who sold my my (first) pair of gloves. I'm 194cm tall and over 100kg. He gave me 14Oz gloves.

Oooooooh damn! I just found out that a gym here in Germany got Namsaknoi to come over and be a trainer for them for at least a year! It's only a ~1,5hr drive, too! Too far for regular evening training but absolutely in range to pay a visit! Actually I'm gonna try and get my own trainer to try and get him for a seminar at our gym! Really exciting! :) I need to get more fit again so I can learn as much as possible!! Even before Sylvie's library-session with him he was among the absolute top people I would like to learn from :)

Just saw this posted on Facebook: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2019/09/loma-lookboonmee-first-thai-born-fighter-in-ufc-history-alexandra-albu-ufc-singapore?fbclid=IwAR0k_Yl5dwDPqvVur7Z6PfiBpNvEiUctcYM1ScVytAaH0P77ZUxVqmVpvYs I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do and will try finding video of her previous MMA fights which I have not looked into yet. Thoughts?

Guess this depends on a lot of factors... At my gyms last fightnight something like this happened to one of our fighters. I've seen the dude do like 10 or more rounds of sparring in a row and not go easy so I know he has the stamina. The fight was 3 rounds (K1 style rules). He looked really good in the first, in the second things slowly went south and he BARELY managed to save himself through the 3rd. A few more seconds and he probably would have been unable to continue. Looked like he was about to break down really. He took the win anyways but it was really close. He told me later it seemed to have been a combination of being excited/stressed about the fight, bad climate (lack of oxigen in there and so on) and being realy active in the beginning so he kind of over-exerted himself. All that might very well have led to sub-optimal breathing I think.

lol Rambaa is so hardcore. I find it interesting how despite his freaky style and show he seems to be a very oldschool hardcore trainer I abolutely have to get back into the habbit of running or something equivalent!

Where is this video off Rambaa Somdet... well... expressing his thoughts about this to a student who wouldn't participate in runs?