Jon

Thanks for the comments, Kevin, Oliver. It's the 6th rib on the right front side. I'm still using the patches the doctor gave me, but haven't been taking the painkiller pills I was told to take after meals as it doesn't hurt as much as it did. Yes, the doc offered me a corset-like thing but I didn't take it as it wasn't crippling pain when I moved so I didn't think a corset was necessary (and he didn't try to push it either). I went to the gym two days after that sparring session but couldn't do much. Hitting the bag caused an explosion in the back of my head (it felt like I hit myself) so perhaps I had a bit of a concussion too. I was back the next week and just tried to work with it Try a few things and see what hurt a bit and what hurt too much. Keep doing the former and leave the latter for the next week.

According to this: http://www.singpatong-sitnumnoi.com/muay-thai-weight-divisions/ 12.5 stone (79.37866kg) is juuuuust inside Light Heavyweight. ...is that what you were asking?

I won't go into the details but thanks to a sparring partner that didn't understand the `light` in `light sparring`, I have a fractured rib. After a couple of xrays the doc told me this, and said it would take 2 to 3 months to heal up properly. There goes my taking part in my first fight (albeit a smoker, of sorts) in January. The doc also told me to try not to twist my torso too much, to aid healing...which brings me to my question: What kind of training can be done in this state? I'll be talking with my coach tonight too but thought I'd ask the Roundtable too.

I still have the bruises from sparring with a coach last Friday! It was a two-hour sparring session (obviously most people don’t go and spar for two hours, rather if you attend during those two hours then you can spar) and most people do so in the first hour (the gym closes after this 2hr session. A lot of people don't stay until closing time), however I can’t usually make it until the second-hour, which meant I (little sparring experience, 72kg) ended up doing one round with a guy who’d been there a while (98kg, looked a bit tired but wanted some more practice). We had a good round but had to stop as his leg cramped up...which left me and the coach in the gym. Eight rounds later I was soaked in sweat, bruises growing, and grinning from ear to ear. Great fun and very worthwhile: while the coach didn’t verbally point out weaknesses (he’s Japanese, I’m English, we’re in Japan and he didn’t seem to know how much Japanese I speak), over eight rounds I had them pointed out to me the hard way . This week I attended some non-sparring sessions, talked with those coaches about the weaknesses I’d identified* and we worked on those via pads. It’s going to take a lot more practice, of course, to get rid of the bad habits which kept seeing me hit, but I wouldn’t have had them pointed out to me had I not been sparring with the coach. So, I thoroughly appreciate being able to spar with coaches. * After me throwing a right body kick, he would return it with a right low kick. I wasn’t fast enough resetting and getting my left shin up fast enough, and thus got a very bruised left thigh. Got to work on resetting and checking faster. The other was getting hit with his left hook after I did a right body kick. So this week I worked with my (other) coach on not swinging the right arm down when I kicked, but rather swinging it kind of across their face, to block any punches (I remember Sylvie having a video on this. The coach of the Thai national team taught this if I remember correctly...?).

If I may add to the resources NeverGiveUp listed, it's almost entirely in Japanese, but there is also this site on Muay Boran: https://mayugonforupload.wixsite.com/muayboran555 It has videos of the site-owner's kru, Atsuko Okada, for most techniques and movements. If anyone wants part translating, I'll see what I can do.