Cilla

I love love love this post. Muay Thai and my amazing trainer are the reason I'm coping at all! Muay Thai gives me strength, courage and belief in myself. In recent times I have had to deal with distressing workplace physical violence and am currently watching helplessly as my parent dies. I used to smoke. Now Muay Thai saves me. Every day. Even when I have a shit day at training, I know it'll be okay and I just push through. I absolutely know, without a doubt, that my mental health has been maintained and improved by Muay Thai.

I'm 43 and just celebrated my one year anniversary of finding, and training, Muay Thai. I train at least 5 times per week at night, work full-time, have 2 small children. I started due to bulging discs in my back and I also have several 'invisible' illnesses. I run before every session approx. 4-7kms. I have experienced incredible change and growth in that time. I have learned so much about myself and coped with many difficult times as a direct result of the inner strength I have gained from Muay Thai, my amazing trainer and my gym family. Muay Thai is the hardest, yet best, thing I've ever done. It has taught me to stop making excuses. No matter what, I train. It's not easy, I'm not 'special', I have bad days, I have good days. I don't feel 43. Sometimes I'm horrified when I think about it! I hope to fight next year at some point. Apparently that's not such an easy thing to arrange at my age. I'm keeping positive that I'll get to experience it - in an authentic and challenging way. I'm inspired daily by Sylvie and other women and men in Muay Thai. I know it's a learning curve with no end for me. A lifelong passion.

I just like this whole post! haha

Wow, I can't believe (as a generalisation), Thais don't stretch! I'm always so stiff, I have to stretch before each session. I thought cos I'm old but maybe its the cultural thing! I've never thought about that before. I'm so surprised to hear you say this about yourself. My trainer was taught in the femeur (spelling?) fighter technical style at a femeur gym and that is how I have been (am being) taught. He is trying to get me to read my opponents and try out things with them to see what they're going to do next. It's soo hard! Now I know it's hard if an experienced person like you also struggles with it. I love this part of Muay Thai though, even though its so challenging. I think I am slowly getting better at it but I'm constantly thinking about this as I watch videos of fights etc, trying to see how fighters incorporate this intellectual side. I do love watching Saenchai's 'trickiness' for this reason - you can actually see him (with a lot of replaying!) work out how his opponent is going to react to certain situations and then he counters it perfectly. It really is inspiring to me. I suppose this is another thing young kids can really incorporate via cultural Muay Thai osmosis! If they grow up constantly 'playing Muay Thai' with each other, they could become inherently good at this style without having to think through it like I do! It must be amazing for you, and at times demoralizing, to watch little kids mastering difficult moves! I like to incorporate that sense of fun and play into my training too and I really appreciate some of the young guys/girls I train with who like to joke and muck around a little bit. We all take the training part seriously but it's nice to be able to laugh and really feel that enjoyment together when we're all doing something we love. I love your comment about experiential knowledge too. I don't know how it happens, but sparring really does make you better. I get so frustrated sometimes and having a bad night at sparring on a Friday can really ruin my entire weekend. But sometimes, all the thinking and the training seem to come together into some sort of alchemy and there's an improvement or a breakthrough or a new technique makes sense! Like for children, the repetition does help and being able to use the knowledge in a real world situation (eg. sparring under pressure) really helps to integrate it. Most of the time I can't actually tell I've improved and if my trainer happens to mention something, I always quietly ask him later what he was referring to haha. I need to know so I can pay attention to what I've done or achieved and move on to my next challenge. One thing I like to remember - even though kids have an age advantage and can really 'absorb' their Muay Thai, adults do have more advanced and developed brains (for the most part! haha) and that gives me hope that I can still learn the strategy and intellectual aspects of MT.

This is so interesting! I don't know enough yet to comment really, but just love reading this type of post! In reference to the photographer's quote you included, I really can relate to that notion of the 'internal quest' that Muay Thai seems to instigate in people. I had no idea about MT when I started, and yet I find the 'quest' I've now embarked upon to be so intoxicating and addictive actually. I do feel misunderstood when I try and express the passion I feel for it haha! From the outside, I suppose it does seem violent etc and obviously can be about combat but from the 'inside' (or my personal experience of the 'inside', keeping in mind I've never fought) it really does set you off on the most amazing journey of self-discovery and self-knowledge, of strength, of character, of challenge and discipline, achievement, persistence....I could go on and on and on. For me, it is about so much more than violence or even sport - so much so I struggle to find the words to describe how and why I've become so obsessed by it. Overall, my path of learning Muay Thai has been so empowering and personally enlightening. Although not religious myself, it's fascinating to read how it ties in with Buddhism.

moved from another thread to start a new line of discussion This answer is kinda me thinking out loud haha. I don't really have the answers to your question specifically but... in general terms (and this is purely my early childhood philosophy - not everyone's!) children learn best through play, so I imagine the kids around your gym are absorbing heaps of Muay Thai 'knowledge' through play, through adults modelling, through observation, through family and each other. Children make sense of their world through play so they probably mimic what they see important adults in their lives doing. I suppose this is a great example of how 'Muay Thai culture' is transmitted to the kids in a way that it can never be, for outsiders. It must just be in their blood - from being a baby around a gym, to playing to actually training. It's really mind blowing to think how integral it must be to their lives! In terms of brain development and gross motor development, the learning of Muay Thai probably follows a progressive sequence - much like it does for adult beginners. Children who 'practise' these movements (whether through play or training) might be more likely to form the 'muscle memory' at quite a young age and then start developing the more cognitive skills of strategy and tactics, planning ahead and thinking about 'reading' their opponents intentions, at a later age when their cognitive function is more developed. For instance, very young children are 'egocentric', meaning they find it difficult (or impossible) to put themselves in another's shoes (as a simple way of explaining it!). They can't really see another person's perspective. This is not 'egocentric' in the general usage sense of having a huge ego! Sometimes children show you this trait when they say things like "Remember that dream where I was being chased?" They think because they know what was in the dream, that you will too. They can't put themselves in your shoes. This is one reason why young children have trouble sharing - THEY want the toy so that's all that matters. They don't understand that someone else might want it too. Its only later, they see the social payoff of sharing eg. adults are happy with you, kids share things back with you etc. Until a child can cognitively move 'outside themselves' and see another's perspective, it would be pretty hard for them to predict an opponent's next move etc in Muay Thai. But the repetition in training (and playing) is also a vital way to develop the cognitive sense of sequence, order, successful combinations etc as well as the physical development of movements becoming 'second nature' and developing the required flexibility at such a young age eg. in the hips. Sylvie, do you think the Thai kids and fighters you know are more flexible in general? Or is that totally an individual thing dependent on training or body type? Definitely interesting to think about! Sorry for the rambling answer! I know, as a beginner myself, Muay Thai has been a very big mental challenge for me as well as physical. Moving from thinking about every single movement to some things starting to become second nature. Then in sparring, being under pressure, I could only barely think about my next move, let alone what my opponent was going to do next! Slowly, slowly I am working on getting better at these things. Little children probably do not think as overtly as we do about such things but develop their physical and strategic skills as they grow in age. It would certainly be interesting to watch - maybe you have seen this, Sylvie, to some extent with Phetjee Jaa?

I have never fought but I work full-time during the week and train 5 nights a week after work. I also have 2 small children and I study. It's not easy to fit it all in but I HATE when I have to miss training for something else. My husband, who also works full-time and studies, looks after the children while I train. Training is my sanity and the key to my health so it does take priority (aside from the fact I'm passionately obsessed with Muay Thai!!!). If I need to, then the children come to training with me and watch. I really want to get a heavy bag at home so I can practise at other times as well that suit me and when my gym is closed.