Flora

Woo, I'm so glad for you that your vision didn't stop your motivation. Stubborn is the MT community ;) Since my first post in there (I was wondering whether or not continue training with lense, and whether or not cheating for the fight wearing lense), I've start again to train without them (I basically train with lense for ... 2 or 3 month only, I start without lense, and I'm back to it). I've seen a huge improve in the way I block and spare when I was wearing lenses, of course seeing more clearly helps to make you react faster ... while without it, it like "oh why is that kick doing here near my face?!". So my defense sucks a bit without lenses, I just get hit and continue hitting, like nothing happen, but I get tired easily and faster. Hence I also need to have a stronger mental, not to loose my confidence, because of being hit so many time. Of course, there is some good side, I don't get distract by people watching me, since I can't really see anything past my nose haha. For now I think I'll continue training without lenses at least till I get that first fight, then I'll maybe do once a month a week of training with lenses, just to caught up with some technique and see how I've improve during the month. Also good to ask your coach to compare two sparing (one day you come with lenses, the next day without, or within the same day, one round lenses, you take them off and one round without them). I don't know if my coach pay a lot of attention when I spare, but I've ask him a few time "have you seen any difference between day X and day Y?" without telling him, day X was without lenses and day Y with it. Usually I get the same answer "you need to block more, but no I've haven't seen much difference". So or he is a good liar or I don't suck that much without lenses. I recommend to all of you who wears lenses to get daily lenses for sparing (if you only do pad you don't really care), I've lost so many lenses on the ring during sparing, and since it isn't really cheap it's better not to loose or break a monthly ones.

hahahaha, indeed! Thanks for all your advices, will maybe try Creatine too :) Keep us posted !

Good idea to write down our goal! 1) harass my coach to get fights (I hope I'll do at least 5 in 2016, it's kind of a big goal since I've never fight yet) 2) keeping a smart training and healthy diet (already started a few month ago, and going well) 3) more sparing and more clinch (to get better/to be less predictable mostly but also to get used to see opening) 4) travel to thailand (how unoriginal is that ;) )

Thanks Emma for the info ;) (double-win, as I was trying to find Thai rap haha!)

Thanks Sylvie and Emma for answering, I would not have ever realize (even though I knew) how serious the problem was, and it is so interesting to see in which measure one can react. Your boyfriend is totally amazing for explaining she should not have call him this way and specified he is not offended ... I feel this is what we generally do with children 'oh they don't know', but we tend to forget that even adult from other culture 'don't know' what can just be commun sense here ... Make me remember a conversation I had with a really good friend two days ago. She is from India and beside the cultural difference we are so alike, however sometimes she just makes really shocking comment to me. One day I teach her some french, and she says that she understood how to know if something is 'feminine' or 'masculine' (as everything is french is gendered), so I say "really I don't even know myself what's the trick... so tell me 'computer' and 'table' what's their gender?' And answer "easy, computer is masculine, because it is useful, table is feminine 'cause you can sit on it". It took me a few minutes to come back to earth, and understand how crazy her image of woman was. Yesterday, that same friend told me that a guy from our department told her she should be more pretty, but that well she would never be as pretty as a white-blond-blue-eyes girl. Again I was so shocked, we went into a big discusion about culture, racism, sexism, etc. Related to your comment Emma (which I hope will help that darker person to feel good about themself), I told my friend that where I'm from (I haven't notice in Canada as much as in my home-island) "the darker, the prettier. So girl are in the beach getting a tan to feel pretty". American movies or any other western movies, make it to Thailand right? And there is also good black people in it, does it shocked people there? (First time I watch a Thai movie, I remember a guy being completely treated like shit because he was black, but my first thought was that "it must be an old movie" ... now I'm not so sure anymore).

Maybe I should ask on the vegan tread since I'm vegan but here will work too I guess :) Does anyone has advice to gain muscular mass (diet and exercices)? I lost weight and I'm scared my coach would cancel my first fight because I'm way too light now. And I don't wanna get easy fatty weight with chocolate pie, the goal would be more strength if I gain mass. ขอบคุณค่ะ :)

Emma, I was just wondering how are you dealing with this? Not only emotionally but actively, do you call them out? try to explain them that black doesn't equal criminal ; that humans whether they're good or bad it's not because of their skin color?

Neither I have heard about having to change the mouthguard. However some brand have an insurance if something happen to your teeth during a fight, so it might be a good idea to change it just in case, for people who don't have health insurance. I think mine was a year insurance, I have it for more than 2 years now... so definitively I should change it. Also, about the cleaning, I've never "toothbrush" it, but I let it soak (when I actually think about it) during the night into a glass of water and apple cider vinegar and rince it. It's usually acidic enough to kill bacterias if there is any (and a big plus : it taste amazing when you wear it haha).

Thanks for you comments!! I think I'll start again to train and spare without them like bbf3 suggested, being disqualified is a risk I wouldn't take, since as you said P.Evi, it does irritate a bit the eye, and they can fall off easily (happen to me 3 times already in sparing, it isn't that much but still!)

Sa waat dee kha :) So yesterday my trainer finally told me I'll do my first fight in 54 days (really excited about it!), and told me that it is forbidden to fight with contact lenses. For a while I was sparing without contact, but since I wear them I've seen a lot of improvement in my blocks and distance to throw jab/knee/kick. I thought "it could be great because if I don't see clear there is less chance I'll be "intimidated" by my opponent and the crowd".... however, there is also less chance that I can see punch, kick, knees coming or the ref or my trainer. Then I was wondering if I could just "cheat" and put my contact lenses after seeing the doc... Or basically just fight "blind" (I am astigmatic and short-sighted - both eyes). Did anyone has ever been in that situation? Any advices? Khawp khoon maak kha !

Thanks for sharing your experience, and congrats for you first fight! I remember one day the trainer recorded a few videos of some people in the gym sparing, and after watching 3 sparing that I did, I thought I totally suck at everything I did, I look slow and chaotic in all my moves! I guess this is a normal? Or maybe not. My trainer told me that it wasn't as bad as what I thought. Can't wait to read more from others here! (PS: I have had the same nightmare since forever (even if I never had a fight), I know how the anxiety from it feels, and it's not nice, glad to know during the fight you were calm :) )

Wo, I love what you said Sylvie that it feel like a hug, it is so true and I wish that my trainer tonight would have put some pressure on me like he does usually instead of being too comprehensive and telling me I should rest. Our mental is so powerful, I'm feeling really down since a while, and I've been "faking being happy" in my work, I pushed my limits and ask a lot of myself not just in my training, but also in my work, my studies and my different projets. But at some point we can't fake it anymore, I couldn't train properly today because of my anxiety, my mind keep thinking about decision I should make or not. Then I called my mom which is always so understanding of everything and she told me "maybe you should train less muay thai and work more on your thesis". I fell into tears. Obviously she couldn't understand, that the only thing making me wanna wake up in the morning is going to the gym. But I'm glad I read you all tonight, it actually felt like a big warm hug : some people, somewhere, understand me. So Thank you!

This is a powerful post that she wrote! It is really interesting to see why and how people come into martial art. I remember I started judo (this was the only martial sport in my island) when I was a kid, because my dad was worry about me. Since I am a girl, it is most likely that I would get trouble when I get older (harassment and such). I didn't really liked it mostly because I was forced, and also because I had that urge to punch. When I finally moved from my small island, I had to support emotionally my mom who was in depression, dealing with a lot of new thing (new country, language, culture, people, etc). I fake being super happy for about a year, I was struggling with bulimia and trained 7/7 kickboxing. I had to stop going to the gym because of an injury and health problem, you probably all know how doctors don't really like boxer (and if you are a girl, this is not a sport for you (!) ... I was at that time in a really machist country). Stopping training got myself into depression too. I partially blame it on the country and moved again. After 2 years of doing nothing, I wanted to go back to kickboxing, and by mistake register for muay thai. For me muay thai became synonym of freedom. Daniel Pennac said in one of his book "learning is first to learn how to 'master' your body"; but for that you need to overcome emotional and mental barrier. I've learn that it is not about what happen to you that matter, but what you do with it. They kick you? Grab that leg, make them fall. Got hurt? Train harder! Same in life, if someone hurts me or if I'm down, I don't blame it on the other, maybe I'm not strong enough, maybe I could have avoid it. (For me) Muay Thai is freedom of mind/body, plus when you train you don't have time to think about how sad you were earlier that day :)

Hi everyone :) I'm new to this forum, I know the topics is a bit old but nobody seems to be vegan and since I am vegan I though about writing something. I am not training so much because I am studying for two degrees at the same time but I usually train 3 times/week for 3hours + an hour running / week with some 30min or shadow boxing or yoga. My diet is really random, like my schedule, but when I train I always try to eat an hour before (something like bananas) and after training I make a big smoothy (with protein, some fat like almond butter and a lot of fresh fruits). But what I found really helping was to drink coconut milk while training instead of water, it helped me train longer and feel less tired. Also I know he is a football player but the "300 pounds vegan" has a few tips on his page, but anyways, what Emma wrote are good advices! I have a friend training in Thailand right now, and he told me that he has no problem with food whatsoever, he was even surprise how easy it was.