Matty

If you can rule out flexibility and muscle stretch being the limiting factors, maybe it's worth looking into Don Heatricks explanations on fast twitch vs slow twitch muscle fibres.

I'm 5' tall - in my experience, if I'm clinching with someone much taller, say 5'9"ish, reaching for the head is impossible. I just don't have leverage once my hand is on the head. My arm is too extended. I usually have to go to body or neck lock.

I had used setting intentions to get more aggressive in sparring before. I did it mostly during fight camp because aggression is important for scoring in North America. One of my intention was "to override" as in to override the opponent's intentions. I felt more comfortable with this than say, "I'm gonna knock this person out", which is not consistent with my own temperament. Maybe rephrasing your intention could help you progress. Instead of "I need to hit hard and hurt them", go with something like "I'm gonna match their energy for this round".

This reminds me - sometimes my instructor would have the class play shoulder tag. Stand in your fighting stance and try to tap each other's shoulders. The hand should come out the same way a jab or cross would. Eventually, the game would progress to tags to body and legs (using hands only). It gives us a chance to figure out how close we have to be to touch our partner's shoulder, and practice deflecting the other person reaching for your shoulder. And it takes "getting hit" of the table (though, you could get slapped on the shoulder pretty hard, but students don't seem worried). You'd also have to remind ppl to not to poke each other in the eye.

If you hold the pads away from your body and elbows close together, you will naturally extend your neck (with your head looking slightly up) which is a weak position to stabilize your brain for impact. Here's something for reference - tip #4 in this video: https://youtu.be/0500ZQltjck I'm small statured and have been able hold for much bigger partners. It's tiring because of their power but no headaches or any injuries. I stand firm, tense up my body to brace for impacts for kicks. If the impact is to much even with bracing and it ends up throwing me back, I simply go with it by walking backwards a few steps. I turn my shoulder in towards the punches to meet the impact instead of meeting the punch with my arm, which can hurt my shoulder. Also breathing out on impact can help also. I totally get your concern with headaches and head injuries. It might be worthwhile to ask your instructor to watch you hold pads and give you advice on holding pads safely.

Hey, I'm familiar with the struggles with partnering with beginners. Once is a while is fine, but you don't get as much out of the class as you would with someone at your level. Here are things I've done in the past: 1) ask the advanced women to come help me train (either in class of outside of class) 2) invite the women that are less advanced, but seem keen on learning, to train with me outside of class, say casually for just techniques (I specified no sparring). Also give them opportunity to suggest what to work on during those times you train together. The 2nd one was very hard initially for me, as it involved setting up this new group training. Our gym had ladies' sparring before that ended in disasters, so I tried to steer us away from that. Also talking to be ppl I don't know and managing multiple new relationships makes me very anxious and mentally exhausted. But that investment of energy pays dividends - I started this a few years ago and I have a few women from there that developed a lot since and partners when me in class consistently. We train together outside of class also. We even met up in parks to train when the gym got shutdown during covid (but small groups outdoor gatherings were allowed).

Thanks Sylvie Is "ning ning" used like an adjective? Is นิ่ง meant to be used in the context of formal writing? In Cantonese, writing and speaking would used different words to refer to the same thing. I am wondering if that's the case for Thai.

@Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu can you please type out Ning in Thai? I'm considering a tattoo, but would like to play around with different fonts. Thanks!

Love seeing everyone's training space! Here mine. It's not much, but grateful to have anything at all.

Has anyone come across resources for making a mongkol? I am entertaining the idea of making my own. I think I am just looking of a creative project... There is a chance I will never use it, since my gym is predominantly kickboxing. I do like the idea of the mongkol being a result of my own merits (efforts put into making it).

I agree it depends on the partner. Sparring involves 2 ppl. It doesn't work if you choose one while your partner chooses something else. And it also depends on objective as well. I have punches the bag with normal gloves, MMA gloves, bare hands. I choose it based on whether I'm training for power, accuracy, or what wrist strength. It's not like we have to pick one and never use the other.

Yea I have experience not being allowed on the bag as well. As someone that works a 9-5 job, I can only train in the evening when classes are going. And even tho the class doesn't need the bags, they would not let me use it. Even as I'm training to build up conditioning to go to Thailand. It's frustrating. Sometimes it seems ppl with power just makes your life so much harder, without much thought at all...

@RB Coop will you be blogging about your time in ubon? I would love to know how the 2 locations compare

Congratulations!!! Looking forward to the video! How do you feel? Any bruises/injuries?

This could be nerves... I remember one time, the evening before a fight, a really severe soreness on my shoulder returned from previous injuries. I asked my coach about ice bath and meds, but he said we'll go get dinner. And lo and behold, the soreness was gone during and after dinner.