emma

In my old gym, I was always taught to look directly in my opponent's eyes, so I got pretty used to that. It's weird to me now, though. In any case, I'm constantly trying not to look where I'm about to strike, so I don't tell them what I'm about to do.

I have a pair of these and was recently joking with some friends at the gym about how popular they are.They're the cheapest shorts in the Boon shop, which must be why I keep running into people who have them. I think I they cost me about 300 Baht. Pretty comfy because of the low waistband, too.

Here's Thai Fight's video of the TKO.

Yes, yes and yes. The Thai Visa Forum is full of men like this, bitterly posting about 'the Thais'. I can't stand it.

That's really shitty, but sadly unsurprising. Recently, I was walking down Sukhumvit road at around midnight with a friend (another white woman) and my boyfriend. Some policemen stopped us and asked for our passports, which has never happened to me before, although it's happened to my boyfriend more times than he can count. Usually, if you don't have you passport, they'll 'fine' you, and you have to bribe your way out of it. We didn't have our passports, but thankfully, I was able to get us out of it just by speaking Thai and being polite. I'm pretty certain that if it had been just me and my friend, we wouldn't have had a problem.

This sometimes seems to come down to gym choice. While it's much easier to get fights regularly in Thailand than it is back home, and often the case that fights are thrown together with very little notice, I've spoken to quite a few people who've come here, put the work in and been disappointed because they weren't able to get a fight for one reason or another. Lanna is a good shout from Kevin, and Chiang Mai in general seems to be the perfect place for women to get fights because of the frequency of events and the amount and caliber of available opponents. Sylvie wrote a post recently about why Chiang Mai has the best female fighting scene in the world, which you can read here.

Congratulations, Sylvie! :bunny:

Kevin, I was just watching a documentary called 'Miss Representation' and something that Caroline Heldman said during it reminded me of this post: "..We also see this new incarnation..where women appear to be empowered. They're carrying the story, they're the action hero, but when you peel back a layer or two, you discover that it's not really about their agency. I call this archetype 'the fighting fuck toy' because even though she is doing things supposedly on her own terms, she is very much objectified and exists for the male viewer." She talks about this more in this post on her website: "Fighting fuck toys are hyper-sexualized female protagonists who are able to “kick ass” (and kill) with the best of them. The FFT appears empowered, but her very existence serves the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer. In short, the FFT takes female agency, weds it to normalized male violence, and appropriates it for the male gaze."

Yes! Sorry that it's been quiet on that front for a little while..We've just had some problems getting new episodes done recently. We've sat down to record a new episode several times and each time, our plans have been thwarted by some kind of shitty internet problem. Working on getting a new one out ASAP! Anything you'd like us to cover in the next one?

Hi Lucy, You don't need to feel like you've done something wrong, although I completely understand why you do. Relationships with trainers can be far more complex than simple transactions, so I don't think it sounds stupid at all. I recently left my gym after being there for 4 years, and it was a really difficult decision to make. As Kevin said, these gut feelings that we have are important, and I wish I'd paid attention to mine sooner. I knew that I had to leave more than a year before I actually did, but kept putting it off because I felt guilty and didn't want to cause any upset, but during that time things kept getting worse and worse, and then finally it all ended rather badly. Now I feel like I wasted a lot of time there, which is unfortunate. It sounds like you did the right thing by going elsewhere. I'm glad you have a new place to train that you feel good about! :smile:

Yeah, you're marching in place rather than stepping forward. Letting the bag come to you. I probably should have made that clearer, haha.

There's a drill I've always used, but unfortunately I don't have a video of it. I'll do my best to explain: Teep the bag with your front leg, then after that foot reaches the ground, step with the other leg, then again with the front foot, and teep with the opposite leg. So it's a continuous marching movement - teep (left), step, step, step, teep (right), step, step, step, teep (left)..etc. It'll get you used to getting your feet in position to time the teep for when the bag comes. As far as technique goes, I always make sure I'm coming up on the ball of the foot on my standing leg, and bring the knee up first, as close to my body as possible, then shoot it from there. I also try to bring it back in the same way and avoid dragging it on the way down. A really good way to get used to this movement is to put a chair in front of the bag and teep over it.

I've just started training at Sitsongpeenong and did my second session there today. I can't recommend any individual hotels, but if you don't get one within walking distance, the only way to get there would be by taxi/motorbike, because it's quite out of the city. It is directly opposite a really nice big park, Suan Luang Rama 9, so if you search for any hotels near there, you should be fine. The fighters run about 10k in that park before training in the mornings. I like the training there so far. It's all a lot more organised than what I'm used to, and they alternate sparring and clinching days. So on Monday you'll do padwork and clinching, but on Tuesday you'll spar and then do some padwork afterwards. On both days, everyone switches partners after every round. Conditioning is done as a group at the end, which on both of the sessions I've done included kicks, knees and teeps on the bag followed by shadow boxing with weights, pull ups, push ups, ab work and then stretching. Everyone seems very friendly and the Thais seem to train at the same time as the foreigners, which I know doesn't happen in some gyms. As you said, it is a bit pricey, so I won't be able to train there long-term, but It's nice for now.

Everything's still a bit vague and there's been talk of lots of different things, but for now, I'm recruiting the fighters for the show and helping them translate all the paperwork. We're currently working on a men's tournament called Muay Thai League. That just got started this week, so when all the madness with that passes, we can get working on Angels a bit more. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated when I can!

I can't say for sure because it's not been confirmed (all depends on funding), but they are hoping to do the same as they did in the last show, with the million baht + car for the winner. Tiffany Van Soest is definitely worth looking into, although I'd be surprised if she wasn't already tied into something.

For those who aren't familiar with Muay Thai Angels, it's an all-female promotion in Thailand that put on some big shows in 2014 and 2014, including a 57kg tournament with a million baht and a Toyota given to the winner, Chomannee Sor Tehiran. Sylvie wrote about it here and here. I've been working with the organisers, and we're now planning to have a 'season 2' in Nov through Jan this year. It's going to be a tournament at 55-57kg. Applications are now open for those who are interested in taking part. This includes those who aren't currently in Thailand. If you're up for it, you can download the application form here and either send it to muaythaiangels@gmail.com or contact me directly to put it forward. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask here or message me!

Here's a couple more of the fights from the Women's Muay Thai show 30th July) Fahsithong Sit. Sor Eung vs. Vicki Linda (Jitti Gym) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03-F9zsMPqk Chomanee Sor. Tehiran vs Farida Okiko (Vor. Hemthanon Gym) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaeiuP7lc6g Petdapee Mor. Krungthep Thonburi vs. Miriam Sabot (Hongthong Gym) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZd2qm_UqQ4 I'll also add the TV version of PhetJeejaa vs PenPhet because the quality is better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAA-i-4e3-0

The training session starts at 8, but the fighters go for a run at 7.

4,000B/hr with Saenchai. But you can do privates with some of the other fighters for less than that. The price list is here: http://www.yokkao.com/bangkok/muay-thai-camp-price-list/

I visited Yokkao on Monday for a session and I really enjoyed it. It's not just for foreigners; they have a team of Thai fighters. Manachai, Singdam, Saenchai and Petchdam were there and happily trained and sparred with the foreigners, which was great. I've heard people say that some gyms have separated the foreigners and Thais, and while I don't know if that's a common thing, it's not what happened here. The fighter girl is Fah, she's Manop's daughter (Manop is Saenchai's trainer). I worked with Manop throughout my entire session and he was really great, I'd definitely recommend going to train with him. He admitted himself that the gym is very expensive. It's 500B a session and they don't seem to offer a monthly or weekly price. Instead, they offer blocks of 20 sessions, but since you're only doing 10 days, this might actually be better for you.

Ooh, I didn't know this was happening! Exciting. Thanks for sharing :smile: Do you know what weight this is at?

I've seen pictures of him on the Cong Carter gym Facebook page recently. Do you know if that's where he is working now or if he's setting up his own gym there?

I'm glad you found the answer to your calf problems! I just scrolled up and found that I posted on this a year ago saying that skipping fucks my calves up. Funnily enough, yesterday I tried out a new gym and their training started with a lot of skipping. As a result, I'm super tight today and walking funny. Lots of foam rolling for me today! I might get in the pool for a bit, too. I've never tried Rock Tape or anything like that, might give it a go.

Hi Layal, This is a really great topic, and I have exactly the same problem. No matter how well I perform in sparring, I can hardly ever bring aggression out in a fight. I have a tendency to wait, to fight backwards, and when I do land shots, to move back again afterwards and let my opponent recover instead of pushing forward. It's extremely irritating and I've lost so many fights that I didn't need to because of it. It's something I really need to work on and has got me down at times. The thing is, every time I do go forwards and fight the way I'm supposed to, it works and usually earns me a TKO. I can't seem to work out why I'm stuck in a way of fighting that has never shown to work for me. Sylvie's response is awesome and it's hard to add any more to what she said, but mentioned how it's really important not to compare yourself to other people and I've fallen into that trap before. So many times I've watched people with far less experience, or who I consistently beat with technique in sparring, win all the time on aggression alone while I go through losing streak because I just can't bring it out. It made me wonder why even though I knew I had the skills and experience to fight better, that I couldn't do it when the time came. I've been told all my life that I'm too nice and a bit of a doormat (which I resent, but whatever), and it definitely translates to the way I fight. I'm very aware that it's holding me back, but I just have to train myself out of it, and for me, it's more to do with mental training than physical, and building confidence in myself. Have you tried any mental training before?

At first, it seems like this coach is being very 'pro-women', but as you read further into the post, it becomes clearer that it's not about all female fighters, it's just about his fighter. This isn't the first time I've heard someone say that Thai girls are forced into fighting, that they aren't strong and that they're basically 'sex slaves'. Whenever I hear this stuff, I think to myself 'how long have these people actually spent in Thailand?' 'Have they ever even been around Thai female fighters?'. I think in his mind, he's making this great statement against sexism, but I'm not sure that he realises that he's dishing out his own form of it at the same time. It's stupid. It doesn't count for much to make this bold statement against sexism in Muay Thai and then shit on all Thai female fighters and the Western women who fight them in the same breath. Then he adds in a nice dig at Sylvie's Go Fund Me for good measure. Nah, fuck this guy. I do appreciate the part where he said that the fact that something is tradition doesn't mean that it's right. That is something I agree with. He just could have come up with a much less dickish way to say all of that.