Balance of Training/Teaching

[MuayThaiRy45]

Greetings all, 

This is my first post on the forum. So id like to take the time to say hello! I am looking for the groups opinion and advice to a little problem/situation I have run into over the last few years. In the first handful of years training/fighting I spend the early mornings before my 8-5 office job for a jog/bag work/ solo training. Then its off to work then anther 1-3 hours of training with my teammates. I about 30 or so fights later I spend most of my time teaching classes and training the more greener and novice fighters. Lately I have been trying to find a balance to make my own training more of priory. The last 4 months I have been commuting into Chicago 2-3 days a week which is about a 1.5 hour commute both ways after work. That has become very exhausting task with many late nights. Lately its been hard to find a balance between teaching/training in my hometown and making a commute to try and upgrade my game. At times it steals the passion and true love I have for Muay Thai and Kickboxing  away from me.  I have taken a brief trip to Thailand after college about 3 years ago for a  handful of weeks I often dream about return for a longer period of time but life always seems to get in the way. 

Well there is my sob story. LOL 

Can anyone share any common experiences and have any advice or uplifting words of encouragement? 

 

Best!

[MadelineGrace]

Is there a reason you can’t reduce your teaching and increase your own training? If your job demand increased ( ie commuting to Chicago) then it makes sense you need to reduce the teaching.   

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

9 hours ago, MuayThaiRy45 said:

Can anyone share any common experiences and have any advice or uplifting words of encouragement? 

I just want to say, as someone who has supported Sylvie, and has been blown away by everything she is and does, my number 1 thing is, just commit, just dive in, just push every line. I'm serious. Every fight is precious, congrats on 30, but even well past 200 we savor every single one. Once fighting is done every one will be a gem in your mind, something taught in a way that nothing else can teach. I say - knowing nothing else - stop teaching, just push your training, save up, come to Thailand for 3 months, 6 months, a year. There is just nothing like it in the world. The country lives and breathes the art. It soaks into everyone. Motorcycle taxi drivers know more about Muay Thai than most western krus (no offense, it's just part of their fluency, their literacy). We overcame a lot to get here. We lived hours away from training. I recall us back in NY on one particularly bad winter's day driving literally 4 hours through the snow to get to a sparring session that lasted 15 minutes, and then 4 hours back. That's 8 hours of travel for 15 minutes of training. It was that bad. I just say you gotta take the jump, throw yourself at your passion. Go on a thin, thin budget, take extra work, and just get the hell to Thailand. Don't go to a bullshit camp, go to a living camp, and feel it. Kill yourself on the bags, the pads, get some fights. Stop training others. You are part way up a huge, huge mountain. When looking down at those below you you forget just how high you want to climb. Put your eyes up, up, up. 30 fights outside of Thailand is no joke. You're heart is in this.

 

note: the above is complete bullshit in the sense I don't know your life, and all the things that may feel very "complicated" to you, but it's my natural response to the feeling I get off of your post...so not bullshit at all.

[Jeremy Stewart]

Dude, if wanna fight..... then fight. Put all the effort you possibly can into living your dream. Don't  make the mistake as many of us make and look back over the years and say.... if only. Once your fighting days are over, then teach. Go hard while you can.