Finn Cartlidge

Yes I was saying it as if you heard the KKK speak positively of Obama, it would be weird but they're still racist of course.

I wouldn't give up on it all together, but just rearrange it around your new work life, and be prepared for it to take longer. I just quoted Micc because I thought it was spot on. :smile:

I think you read it wrong, I wasn't saying they aren't racist because Buakaw is dark. I was saying I just found it weird they don't judge him for it. Please read it again, rather than jumping the gun as I don't understand where I said 'Thai's aren't racist' nor did I imply it either. :mellow: Yeah, that's I meant though in my previous comment that I find it weird there can be exceptions, as I was comparing it to the west in my head where I though racist people tend not to find that ethnicity or skin colour attractive even if they're celebrities, but I don't know...

The way trainers are hired in Thailand is just people they know I think - if someone opens a gym, they'll know a lot of people inside Muay and will just ask fighters who are near the end or at the end of their career (maybe ended a while ago), but I actually saw a trainer get hired from a facebook post lol. I've only seen foreigner padholders/trainers when they own the gym, or they're part of the gym family like Kevin said, so when the gym has a shortage of trainers or maybe they just want to hold for a thai, they will do it. I doubt a foreigner ever gets paid for this... I know Nugget holds pads at Eliteboxing in Thailand, but I don't know the dealo with that. Personally, there is enough Thai's for a gym to find a padholder and frankly Thai's will be cheaper to pay. You could hold pads for a gym but I'd say don't expect anything back.

I find this weird because like one of the major icons of Thailand is Buakaw and he's sooo dark, and I've never heard a Thai judge his skin.

A lot of my Thai friends say they're scared of black people too, though they never specified why... another thing I found weird is they seem to call them the N word a lot, I really don't know whether they realise how offensive it is or not. I also read an article which was about a guy who went an trained in Saenchai's old gym, I think it was Sor.Kingstar in isaan, and in the article there had been some black people that visited the gym and the people from the gym referred to them as 'nekros' though the article stated it thought they might've picked up it up from American soldiers during the Vietnamese wars.

You can't learn it by scratch on YouTube. Though you can add to your game through YouTube, watching something then trying it out, and if it has worked - learnt from YouTube. I think if you learn from YouTube you can't learn solely by YouTube, you'd need sparring partners to test it out on, and sparring partners that know what they're doing too or else it's useless. Though one way to learn from YouTube is if you see something you like show your trainer and he/she can help you do it, so that you're doing it correctly. For me there's too much of a risk of a beginner going on YouTube searching 'Muay thai kick' watching some (wo)man on YouTube who has no clue themselves and copying it, search Muay Thai kick on YouTube and you'll see some right sh*t come up. If you go regularly to a gym then you can use it to help you for sure, but I wouldn't ever encourage someone to self-train, so that's my view.

I don't know whether I'd say few, I can't really think of a top English fighter that doesn't know how to clinch... though you did say western which means Dutch and England fall into the same category, when they can't even be compared so this is why it's difficult sometimes to just specify western. So it's hard when I live in England and watch mainly British fighters and pretty much most of them can clinch well, if you watch Dan McGowan even before he spent a year at Petchyindee his clinch game was good, and all the fighters from his gym were too. Same with Dean James who has a solid clinch game and now he has a gym, all his fighters have a good clinch... and going onto Dean's coach Tony Myers, clinching is a big focus of Tony's so all his fighters have great clinch. I mean this is only a select few gyms, but these gyms are all over the rankings. Based on the fighters on the UK rankings I'd say there's about 5 gyms on there that produce fighters with a truly weak clinch game, and there's about 30 gyms on the rankings. The thing is it's hard to compare Western to Western as there's just too much of inconsistency, even comparing America itself would be difficult. The only difference is experience, and that's all there is to it in my opinion. :smile:

Sweet man. Gavin I'm just wondering how this is going mentally for you? e.g are you struggling to find motivation to go to gym/sessions. I ask this as I took my friend to a kickboxing gym tonight and the trainer said 'come 2 nights a week, or else you'll get bored really quickly'.

She's not scared of someone shooting in on her, that's why her striking excels. Similar to Jose Aldo, although he doesn't have a background in striking, his striking is better than most mma guys, his take-down defence is so good that he can throw whatever he likes without worrying. I think JWP spoke about this before, when he trained sparred mma his striking was crap, he was scared to throw anything. Though I wonder what it would've been like if he wasn't scared - just had a f*ck it mentality, you can try take me down, but I'ma land a few too; although this can only take you so far until you need some solid grappling skills. So in my opinion it comes from confidence and grappling skills, I think Jessica was scared of getting hit by Joanna and Joanna wasn't scared of anything. PS. I wrote that before I read it 'cause I already had an opinion on it, after reading it this guy said some stupid sh*t 'In kickboxing, the body jab is almost worthless.' I don't think it's useless at all lol, I've seen it used in the exactly the same way he's described its use for mma. ' she has opted for the Fedor Emelianenko kick,' I know people like to refer to kicks punches and sh*t like they belong to someone, but in reality this is used so much in kickboxing/thai/mma it's just a variation, and I read a post stating, there's no right way to throw a leg kick; it's correct because it depends what you're trying to achieve with it. He also criticises her for dropping her hands to sprawl in case someone throws a boxing combo after, and to be honest, as she wants to strike she probably would like someone to throw a boxing combo, perfect opportunity for a solid kick counter. I know I'm being a boner about it but I struggled reading that article, truly painful in some sections.

Tony Myers is amazing, best EU judge/referee and maybe even trainer. Anyway, I think Joanna's muay/kickboxing background is what allowed to sink so smoothly into mma, whereas it would be harder for a thai or thai styled striker to go straight to mma. Joanna's footwork was already very active and movey (idk how to explain it) and she used her hands a lot too. If you look at Joanna's trainers you can see why her clinch game is lacking and why she has more of kickboxing style. Though I've seen her in some fights which between a thai and kickboxing stance. I honestly believe prior to mma she probably did no clinch work at all... I went to a gym for about 3 months, and we clinched twice when we were there, for about 10 minutes each. This shows just how some gyms in the west really neglect the clinch, and I believe Joanna's gym was really kickboxing/dutch influenced so it would've been similar. Though her style may just been made more movey/active/boxing just for the European crowd/opponents.

To me it's just different passions, you enjoy muay so you do it as much as you want. I think she just perceived it wrong like she felt it was more important than her, but it's more like; there's no pointing missing it if I don't have to, we can meet whenever but training is set times. It's like saying to someone ohhh I can't come over because I'm watching Hollyoaks or I'm watching UFC. It's hard for her to understand your passion because she doesn't have it herself. Like I don't understand why people like golf, if someone said to me I can't meet because I'm going golfing, I'd be like who cares? It's golf, whereas that person likes golf and enjoys it so they will go and do it. I guess at the end of the day it is priorities, because you could skip training and go meet her. It's weird, imagine saying to your trainer I'm going out with my friend I can't train, he'll think 'you can do that anytime' and when you tell your friend you want to train instead she thinks 'you can do that anytime'. Lol, I always write posts more complicated than they are, but I think it's her view, she doesn't like muay/training she doesn't like it so she doesn't understand why you'd prioritise it over her, when she wouldn't do the same. :smile:

Just my take on it: when you walk into a western gym you kind of guess who the experienced guys/girls are from what they wear, like they'll have branded gloves/shins/shorts. It's also common for people to use cheap or provided gear as beginners, whether this is because they don't want to attract attention or it's because they aren't sure if they're committed to it long-term. When I was new at this one gym I didn't want to wear a gym t-shirt from Thailand, in case people would be like 'oh you trained in Thailand you must be good' - in reality, no one would probably care, but I just didn't want to be perceived as something I'm not. PS. I find it difficult to write my thoughts into words so that's why it might be wrote a bit messy.

I think she means Sor Vorapin, I think you'll know of this, complete tourist gym now. In response to OP, I'm not sure you can get a lot of fights in any province in Thailand if you're a light weight. I think it's harder for women but if you'll fight anyone and have some baht for a bet if necessary, you can find fights. The problem with rural gyms (if you mean the tiny Thai rural gyms) is you won't be sure if they accept women or even foreigners - as there will probably be little to no information about them online. You should specify a province/area so others can help you more in-depth. :smile:

Sylvie I did a bit of research, and it seems like Rosy says, it was an unofficial ban. So I'm not sure how that played out at all.

That is a valid point, I'll just have to let it slide :mellow: haha Yeah, I honestly think Holland is probably your best bet if you want to go abroad, as it's meant to be a nice country and they do have the best K1/kickboxers. Anyway obviously it's up to you, and I'll be interested to see how it plans out. :smile:

Look forward to it, always interesting to see peoples experiences at different gyms. Good luck. :smile:

Just listened to this, very touching. Can see how passionate Frances is, and Boom really working hard. Hats off to them both. :smile:

GIRLS? O_o not me captain. haha Yeah that's true but I think whatever shape you go to Thailand in is out of shape because of heat, humidity etc etc. What're you thinking then - where you thinking of going or?

You don't have to share it or even do it at all. I just thought it might be a good way to monitor your progress, especially when you're having bad days! Anyway, I hear a lot of people talking everyday 'I want to lose weight' 'I'm on a diet' or whatever, and it never happens or lasts. It's nice to see you really trying hard and putting in a lot of effort. :smile:

Damien Trainor wrote a great piece about sparring http://www.damientrainor.com/2012/you-dont-need-to-win-in-sparring maybe you should show them this, haha. Anyway I had this problem once at a gym, I was only young at the time and sparring a man who put 100% in every shot and then actually complained when I would hit back very lightly just because they were 10oz gloves (no one else has ever complained). Some people like to boost their ego, I think sometimes a whack back can work, but I just don't want to be that guy. Needless to say, I left it. I joined a new gym and was sparring someone else who was a complete beginner and who was trying to win the sparring, he wasn't hurting me, but he was trying. My trainer just shouted at him and he apologised and we just laughed it off. So in my opinion, you're always going to have people that go hard in sparring, whether it's because they're a beginner (maybe watched too many films) or just have a massive ego, but a good trainer will always enforce the light sparring rule and then it shouldn't happen. Though if you spar someone much heavier and they are hitting you lightly, it might just feel hard, when in reality it's not. I spar this guy regularly who's maybe double my weight, he kicks me lightly but because he's so big it makes a big impact, I don't get hurt but the impact makes me feel like I did, its weird to explain, so this is not his fault, just more of a mental and size thing.

This looks like a mismatch... I much preferred how Bernise fought on Yokkao, she looked slow in this fight against Tiffany. Also, I have a problem listening to two MMA commentators, although there is a shortage of good muay commentators. I think Bernise wasn't expecting that high of a work rate from Tiffany, she just outworked her and tired her out. Also Tiffany's improved her clinch although Bernise's clinch isn't her strongest point but Tiffany was able to neutralise it and even score well at some points. I'm not sure on the cut stoppage, I'm not really that clued up on them, I was always under the impression they had to be above the eye to be stopped, but I'm not sure.

Hate body shots, always makes me wince when I see the 'victim' rolling on the floor. Great liver shot though

Great thread Gavin. I wonder if you would do like a video every month? You don't have to release them, just so you can see the difference yourself. Or maybe a video now and at the 1000 hour stage. Just an idea, and if you were to release them at the end it would be inspirational for others and nice to see.

Fah's stance is interesting, really like her style though. I wish I was as relaxed as her...