Hello readers,
I think the first entry on my blog is long overdue. This is the first time I’ve written a blog but I plan to use it to keep close family and friends updated on my travels. It has been hard saying goodbye to everyone over the last few weeks but I’m sure this will be an exciting and rewarding experience. The initial plan is to head out to Thailand for Muay Thai training before travelling through Asia and making my way down to Melbourne where I plan to work for a while before heading back to London.
First stop on the agenda is a Muay Thai training camp located in a remote area of Phuket, Thailand. Muay Thai is often referred to as the ‘Art of Eight Limbs’ because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knees strikes. I arrive at the camp late Sunday evening and checked into a budget fighter room. Key word here being ‘budget’ with no air conditioning and a mattress which makes the floor look more comfortable. The humidity out here is really intense and coupled with the jet lag makes for a sleepless first night.
A typical days training will start with Yoga at 7am. I don’t have much experience of Yoga but decided this will be a good way to increase flexibility and help prevent injury. The session was more spiritual than I was expecting. There is a lot of focus on positive energy and channelling this to those around us. The other day our instructor, or ‘Yogi Chris’ as he prefers to be called, preached to us about the dangers of the media and the powers of the illuminati whom are said to be a powerful group controlling world affairs. At this point I decided to switch off and focus on the task in hand. We are put through all sorts of stretches, positions and poses exercising muscles I never knew existed. The session ends with 15 minutes of meditation during which I find myself constantly opening my eyes to check that the rest of the class haven’t disappeared. Am I a Yoga convert? Not yet, but I will continue to give it a try.
During the morning I will also try to hit the gym to work on strength and conditioning. The gym is overseen by Peter aka the ‘Thai Hulk’ who has competed in numerous national Strongman and Body Building competitions. The Hulk is there to correct form and ensure you get the most out of your training regime.
Afternoon Muay Thai training lasts a gruelling 3 hours. The main instructor, Kru Deng, doesn’t speak the best English in the world but he does threaten to hit you with his stick if you don’t do as you’re told so I think it’s fair to say that he often gets his point across. I’ve decided to start off in the beginners’ class knowing full well that this class will test the fitness levels whereas the intermediate and advanced classes focus more on technique. Also, my experiences in martial arts to date have primarily been in Taekwon Do and I am relatively new to Muay Thai. A typical training session includes a combination of stretching, running, pad work, sparring, clinching and rounds on the kick bags. I’ve quickly learned to keep my guard up which often deserted me when I used to compete in Taekwon Do. The differences between Taekwon Do and Muay Thai are huge. Everything from weight distribution, stances to parts of the body used for striking are different. At the moment I am finding it difficult to change to the Muay Thai way. Each training session ends with a casual 100 push ups and 300 sit ups. Oh and for some of the sit ups the instructor will kindly pound your stomach with a 6kg medicine ball. Nice guy that instructor!
At the moment I am up to 5 hours training a day but I hope to increase this gradually over the next week. Words cannot describe how tired I have been feeling recently. Right now my body feels like a car crash and I seem to discover a new bruise every time I look. The trick here is to stop looking. At this rate I will soon be dictating the blog from my bed side.
Right I better drag my body along to another training session. Will post again soon and hope to get some photos up at some point.
Andy