Fighting Frog
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Posts posted by Fighting Frog
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Is there anyone in the UK within reasonable travelling distance of Bath/Bristol up for some sparring? I'm really keen to find someone round about my own weight and height to have some sessions with (currently work with someone a lot taller and somewhat heavier, with miles more reach than me!)
I'm 72kg and 163cm.
Hope someone can help!
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Sounds like a lot of injuries there, both of you! I would imagine that the occasional concussion/injury would occur in training simply by a bit of bad luck - but I agree with Kaitlinerose - 5 in a short time sounds like something is Not Right, unless there has been a run of genuine mistakes and bad luck (just as in any vigorous sport, however well regulated, there's always going to be the occasional statistical blip where there is a run of people getting hurt).
Take care.
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NCK: Yes, your trainer is the one who knows stuff and when you're ready - but you're the one paying for the classes, you've raised the question of your unease over clinch, but he doesn't appear to be addressing it. So I would say ask him again - he may say to leave the whole issue alone for a bit until he considers you more ready for it (or he has a suitable partner for you, whatever) - but at least then you'll know where you are. It may be that if the whole class is novice then your trainer wants to wait until everyone is ready for clinch work, but that still won't address your issues of feeling uncomfortable with the whole getting in close bit. And if nothing else, you want help with your knee strikes, as your first post suggested that you're not comfortable getting in close enough for them either (although God knows, you can learn to do that horrible knee kick where you spring in from miles off - my trainer got me with that just recently when sparring!) You can learn knee kicks on the heavy bag, but you want practise with a real opponent. Ask again!
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Kaitlinrose: ok, yes, good points. I'm pretty rubbish at clinch, and in an effort to improve I've recently taking to chanting as I go in: " Hand SNAKE, Head UP, chin DOWN, hips IN, KNEE". Obvs this only works when practicing and not actually sparring...!!! But it does help to remind me not to make certain errors. It would be lovely to be able to have a go with someone more my own height.
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I must admit I can't see how one can learn clinch with another novice unless you have a trainer standing over the pair of you directing things.
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Explain to your trainer that you find the whole clinch concept difficult, then get him/her to have a one-one-one session with you where you just do clinch work. You won't have to worry then about standing away and avoiding it - they'll come into you and start it! It is weird at first, but once you've started you will quickly forget about how you are disagreeably close to someone and just concentrate on getting in the moves, especially once you start being able to snake in, grab your opponent and get in a sneaky knee - it's very satisfying and that will definitely help you overcome your dislike of the close contact.
I think you do need to know how to cope with clinch though, even if you choose never to use it yourself; if nothing else you need to know how a) avoid a clinch attack and b) get out of one if you are caught up.
I'm not mad on clinch because my trainer is a lot taller, stronger and obviously more competent than me, and I find it very hard to judge when I can get in with it; but nevertheless I now quite enjoy making an attack with it when I do manage to work it out!
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Oops, sorry, forgot to come back to this (Christmas!) - I asked my own surgeon (colorectal consultant) and he said assuming it's just a quick two stitch hernia repair with no mesh etc then he would reckon leaving it a month before even thinking about re-starting MT exercise - and that means a month NOT doing exercise at all, to let it really heal properly.
However, if it ends up needing a mesh, or more than a poke-it-back-put-in-a-stitch then it will be correspondingly longer without exercise. He knows I get kicked/punched in the gut (he's seen the bruises!) so he does understand what is involved - and he took my part about restarting MT against the pelvic floor rehab person (who had the screaming heebiejeebies when she realised what core exercises MT practitioners do and said I shouldn't do them), so he's pretty cool. He says a fortnight is definitely not long enough; a month should be ok. 2-3 weeks is generally considered ok to then restart 'ordinary' activities. Hardcore activities need longer.
But of course, one never knows quite what will happen in surgery, or how one's body will react to the op. Hope this helps.
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If you like I can ask one of our consultant general surgeons when I'm at work on Friday, and post back on Saturday. They're used to me asking questions about getting back into MT after hurting myself, and they know what I get up to with it, so they should be reasonably helpful.
Your main problem will probably revolve around the risk of getting kicked or punched right in your newly repaired belly button!
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They probably mean that there is muscle tension in your shoulders and hips. Best way of seeing what they mean is to film yourself in training/sparring and watch it with them so they can point it out; or watch someone else with the same problem when they are training. It is surprisingly easy to see what other people are 'doing wrong' and it's a light bulb moment as a result to actually see and realise what your error is. I've experienced this when horse riding - when I used to assist my instructor when she was teaching other people I could see exactly what she meant by comments like 'Your elbows are tight, that's causing the horse to do whatever' because I could see the other rider's tension and the effect it had on the horse. Before I would think 'My elbows feel fine' and not really understand.
Muscle tension means your movements won't flow as easily and won't have as much control or power as they could. I notice a huge difference, especially when I'm kicking - if my shoulders, stomach etc stay nice and relaxed then the kick is way faster and more powerful (and more accurate) than if they are at all tense.
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I asked two orthopaedic surgeons: they both said to continue exercising (movement is good) but if doing something ia painful, then don't do what causes pain. Rest is not generally helpful. Best thing is to do the specific exercises as recommended by your physiotherapist who has examined you.
Some people with SI pain go on to develop sciatica, which is not good.
One of them said he has SI pain too, and it's rotten.
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I can ask for you when I'm back at work (trauma theatre) if you like. When is it most painful? Has it been officially diagnosed as a sacro-iliac problem?
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Anything I especially struggled with? No, not really. It all seems a natural part of MT sparring.
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Marvin: I only did TKD for a few months, and it was a long time ago. A friend's club entered me into a tournament with them a couple of years ago; I had a couple of crash sessions on how-to-spar-TKD (and, indeed, remembering how to kick as of course it's a different style) - the biggest problem then was overcoming the urge to punch my opponent when the chance arose!
So, to answer your question: no, I didn't find it a challenge! I did find it hard trying TKD and kickboxing (last year) after MT as I wanted to kick with my shin and found it hard to use my feet instead. It's academic now as since I've had several bad foot injuries I'm sticking to MT.
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Martin: About 15 years ago I did taekwondo for less than a year... that's it for martial arts until I accidently started MT a few years ago. During our sessions my trainer sometimes puts in purely boxing rounds to help me concentrate on specific aspects. I've been trying to join a boxing club but there's quite a lot of difficulties involved (erratic shift work, travel time, not much money, other life things).
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Dunno...in some ways I think the biggest challenge is the other way - when boxing to remember that you can't kick your opponent... :teehee:
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Twisting: you're not too old at 51 - I started MT at the same sort of age!
It sounds from your post as though you keep hitting with your foot when doing a roundhouse. Have some time with your trainer holding pads and guiding you into hitting them with correct technique, ie with your shin, and with your foot safely out of the way. They can correct you and help you, and get the old muscle memory well set in. Then work the heavy bag under supervision so they can help you keep the technique correct. You should then stop hitting the bag with your foot and you should feel safe working alone, enjoying thumping bags. It is the sort of thing that's very difficult to get right by watching videos, I think you really do need a real person standing there to help.
Have you been officially diagnosed with tendonitis? I know from my own various foot injuries that sometimes the 'shock' of hitting the leather (or someone's hard head) can send waves down which are agonising to a mending pedal injury.
Hope you manage to sort it out soon. As Lucy says, standing closer to the bag will help. I find tightly pointing my toes away in a nice straight line helps me avoid clunking with my foot (it's probably not good technique but I am terrified of hitting the bag with my foot). Practice the move slowly and neatly until you have it safely, then start adding power and speed as you wish. I must admit that I find kicking during sparring much easier than against a bag - I don't seem to hit a person with my foot at all, whereas against the bag I do need to concentrate on making sure the tootsies are well out of the way.
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Thank you for asking! It still aches from time to time - my surgeon says I'll have this discomfort for the rest of my life. However I did get back into full training - we took it easy at first as I found going onto my toes for a left kick painful, and kicking hard with the right leg sent vibrations down which also hurt a lot. After time though it all stopped, and my right leg position improved as I had to hold my foot correctly or it was too painful!
I am now back to working alone (sob); but I am running a lot more to try and maintain some sort of fitness. It sounds feeble but I've entered my first 10K run for next month, and am very excited about it. After my first long run of five miles massively bruised a toe (I lost the toenail as a result) I now have a pair of proper running shoes, and they have made a big difference - I was running in my walking shoes before. Last week, in a desperate effort to catch an earlier train than planned I ran three miles (in a smidge over 30 minutes) dressed in heavy riding boots and carrying a rucksack and bag. So I reckon if I can manage that sort of caper then 10K should be a doddle...
I miss MT training though; but I'm not having much luck finding alternative training. My work lifestyle simply doesn't allow for an hour's travelling each way, or even regular classes. I think I'm going to be stuck with just the occasional private session.
But everyone - do let cracked/broken ribs heal properly before you put pressure on them. Apart from anything else, if they are damaged it can affect your breathing, and if that happens you run the risk of a chest infection which will be hard to clear if you can't cough properly. Your ribs protect a lot of delicate organs - let them do their job! Sorry, caution comes from working in trauma...
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Although I don't have anyone except my trainer to spar with he regularly adopts a different persona when we spar - more aggressive, less aggressive, pretending to be tired, being frightened, losing it, standing on tip toe so as to be even taller than he is anyway, crouching to be smaller, more hands, more kicks, standing off, closing in etc etc etc so I get to learn how to adapt quickly to a 'different' opponent. Personally I think this is all part of the fun of sparring! And it helps to teach me how to change my approach as well - for instance, if he's constantly pushing to keep the sparring to his best range then I have to work out quickly how to either change it to my best range instead, or to deal with it.
Practice, my child, practice!
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I have never had a fight, but I do spar a lot; I would have thought you're probaby right in that that only doing 'technical' sparring might be part of the problem. I find that I have a somewhat different mindset if the sparring is being technical; when we're going more balls-out (so to speak!) my attitude changes and with it my performance - I go from the main aim being to be technically correct to the main aim being to score, score well, and not get scored against. You need to develop and foster your 'killer instinct' for a fight, and I can't see how only keeping to technical sparring will help that. Also, if you're only doing technical sparring, you won't have faced your opponent really going for it, and aiming to hurt you (and perhaps losing it a bit too). I should think encountering that for the first time in the ring would be quite difficult to cope with.
I don't think only sparring against people bigger than you is necessarily a problem; it does mean that your kicks have to be higher so when you're against someone more your own size you should find head kicks easy!!!
I may be talking complete **** here, but hey, it's my twopennyworth. Hope it helps.
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Paul McKenna does a number of hypnotherapy tapes - at least one is on confidence - and they are very very good (well, I think they are!) I certainly find the weight loss one excellent.
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Muay Thai has (sadly) never been an Olympic sport, so I think your news program has got itself a bit muddled there.
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Also, your trainers ought to be encouraging you to try other trainers - different instructors will give you different experiences, and a different take on style, technique etc.
It's not 'betraying' your old gym at all, although I can understand why you feel like that. Just go along to the new one and give it a whirl. You might not like the atmosphere there! On the other hand you may love it!
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People I know who have done this have simply renewed their visas by travelling to one of the next door countries (sorry, can't remember which one!), crossing the border, having a meal, then renewing their visa as they go back. Whether you can still do this I don't know; but it's all I can contribute! I would have thought spending a month or two at a couple of different places would be a great way to experience different training styles and techniques, and also to see different parts of the country. Good luck with it!
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Sounds like Dragon was the best place; have you been able to keep up the new-and-improved left kick now you're home?
NYC Ladies Fight Night this June 28
in Open Topics - men and women - General Muay Thai Discussion and News
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You wouldn't like to come and hold a similar event in the UK would you?!
Wishing you every bit of good fortune with this venture.