For those who know me, know that I am a tiny bit of a perfectionist. Sometimes concentrating too much on one detail which can mean sacrificing the bigger picture. I was struggling to think how to put this together and then I thought, instead of doing a load of research about a subject I wasn’t too familiar with. I’d talk about my own experiences and a summary of my journey so far. Until recently I’ve really underestimated what I know. It wasn’t long ago I found myself speaking for some time, in front of a class about stance and how to throw a punch.
I originally started classes to improve my fitness. At the time, thought of doing this for anything other than fitness hadn’t appealed to me whatsoever.
Some time after I started, I went on a night out with family. Unfortunately, during the evening a stranger wouldn’t leave my sister-in-law to be, alone. We asked him several times politely to back off. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Needless to say things turned even more aggressive physically really quickly. Fortunately, between us we were able to physically control the situation long enough for the bouncers to become involved. The techniques used for this physical control weren’t even Muay Thai. It was a technique my Kru showed me a few weeks earlier when we covered self defence.
This made me realise that for some time even though it was for fitness, I was actually learning an art and now I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more than just throw techniques. I also wanted to learn more about Muay Thai, Thai culture and anything I could learn surrounding the art.
Since then, I have been fortunate enough to visit Bangkok and have the opportunity of learning a little about Thai Culture. This included a visit to the The Grand Palace and Lumpinee and Rajadamnern Boxing Stadiums. I have been most fortunate to have the opportunity of meeting and training with World Champions such as John Wayne Parr, Sanchaei and Pakorn and also training and teaching with other martial artists in various disciplines from around the world.