Muay Thai FOR GIRLS??

I can't believe how long i have been abandoning this blog. Its ridiculous. I used to love blogging so much , about so many ridiculous issues and being completely self absorbed. And now, I can't even sit and pen down a single word.

Il spare myself and my readers from writing regarding boring issues pertaining to my life for the past few 2years and jump straight to what I’ve been doing now.

So, ever since being Alor Setar as a dentist, a lot has happened. Life was such a bore to me that I had to venture out and to find new hobbies and interests to do. I tried Ukulele lessons, I tried guitar lesson, I enrolled myself in a gym and finally, I found something I really liked doing, MuayThai.

I thank Sylvie von douglas for this really. Before this I was only half heartedly doing it but when I discovered her blog and read more about it, I began growing interest in what I do.

Sylvie Von Douglas Ittu www.8limbs.us

Let me first enlighten you about the sudden interest in joining MuayThai.  I was initially drawn to MMA after watching a fight one day while I was shopping in one of the malls in Penang with my friend Aiyin. I remember we were both chatting and I told her ‘’ Aiyin, do you think I can fight like that in a cage? ‘’ and she went  ‘’I’m sure you will be much better!’’

2 November 2014, Aiyin and I watching a MMA ring cage fight in GurneyParagon Penang before our 21km marathon the next day.

I went home and started asking around if AlorSetar has any MMA training facilities. Since Kedah is close to the Thai border, I wasn't too surprise to find out that Kedah has more Muay Thai training centres than MMA. I read more regarding MMA and I found out that most MMA fighters have their fair bit of Muay thai training and so, I started watching Muay Thai fights instead. 

Needless to say, I grew interest in Muay Thai and began watching old YouTube videos of legendary Muay thai fighters. My favourite is Samart for sure. I remember watching and being in total awe of the beautiful strikes and surprisingly artistic nature of the fights. That was when I stumbled upon Sylvie's 8limbs.us blog. I took about a week to finish reading all her posts and at the end of it, I was pretty much into Muay Thai already

 

Samart Payakaroon

I clearly remember it was November 2015 when I contacted Sylvie to ask if I could meet her in Lanna MuayThai , Chaing Mai to learn some basic in Muay Thai but unfortunately, I missed her by a few hours when I reached. Since I was already in Chaing Mai, I thought I would just go on trying to experience MuayThai training there. The few days I spent in Lanna has opened my eyes to how much Thais respected and adored what they were doing.  It wasn't just another fitness activity to them, it’s a lifestyle. It made me appreciate MuayThai even more. 

Training in Lanna  was a torture that I truly enjoy. I never expected training to be so intense. I remember I was pushed by one of the trainers to keep going that I just collapsed at the side of the ring, crying. He just went on ‘’khao’’ing me. Yet, no one offered me any sympathy. It was painful but due to the lack of attention, I got back up and I finish my pad works. 

Muay Thai in general just makes you stronger, physically and emotionally. Its easier physically than emotionally, trust me. It takes up alot of your mental strength to get through each session and after everything, to show up again the next training session.

 You can cry all you want but when the timer rings, you get up on your feet and you complete your pad work

Anyways, Back in Malaysia. my quest to look for a proper gym was difficult. Heck, I wasn't even looking for a proper gym but just any gym which offers Muay Thai lessons. Kedah is naturally a more conservative state. This means that training with a lady  in most outskirts muaythai training grounds were pretty much unheard of, unlike being in major cities such as Penang, or KL. 

I remember asking my staff to set up for an appointment with one of the gyms near my working place. The next day, she came and told me they can’t teach me as they were uncomfortable with a lady being there as most of them are males.

A year later, Alor Setar became more developed. A new mall was built at the heart of the city and a there was a new fitness centre in the mall. I signed up for it with hopes of becoming fitter and healthier. You see, apart of occasional marathons once a year, I'm pretty much a log who sits at home, eat my chips, and sleep. My weight yoyos around and I go from one busted diet to another. 

I figured out that signing up for a new gym would do me some good. To my surprise, the new gym offers an hour of Muaythai classes 4 days a week, that was when I met my first trainer, Spark and Angah. After 1 year, I finally found myself training MuayThai.

Training Muay Thai an hour 5 days a week in Chi Fitness

An hour lesson , 5 days a week, sometimes the classes would be packed with people and that was just not cutting it out for me. I wanted to learn MuayThai not for fitness reasons, but because I really wanted to fight. Being in Lanna, I know exactly that I needed a personal training session and an hour a day is insufficient for me and so ,officially in January this year, I joined Spark and his other fighters in a MuayThai gym  and together we started training daily from 6pm till 12am.

The gym is relatively small, hot and moudly at a certain spots. There are no fighting rings in the gym, just a patched up carpeted floor,  a stench of old gloves smell to it. Yet, I liked it. Many guys from my former fitness gym followed me to get the ‘real deal’ of muaythai training, but they all left when they couldn’t accept the condition of gym. It’s not a commercialized gym. Pretty much like what you get in old muathai gyms across Thailand. It took some getting used to but I was there solely because it was the only place where I could get proper training.

I quitted my fitness gym to fully concentrate on my Muay Thai training. I received a mix of reactions from people. Some were generally just very supportive and some were outright insensitive with their comments. In the end, Ive got to say I knew that many people thought that I would quit.  Which to my own surprise, I dint.

Spark, my first trainer , who is still a fighter himself.

One dude told me that I'm too old to start training to be a fighter. And how girls should just do it for self protection. I dint want that. I get a rush of adrenaline each time I step into the ring, even if its for my pad work. I was obsessed with training. I pushed myself really hard for the first few months.  I gave up on night outs with my friends, gave up on my guitar lessons, gave up on night shifts for extra income and basically, I had no social life out of the gym. 

I work 8am to 5pm daily as a dentist in a government clinic and training can sometimes be stressful for me after a long day at work. Some days when I have to oncall , I would train in the gym, rush to the hospital when I get a call, finish my case, and return back to the gym to continue my routine. Im always the person who stays behind with my trainer to lock up the gym past 12am.

My boss and colleagues definitely do not care about what extra out-of-the-job activities I am passionate about. It doesn't matter if I pulled a muscle the night before or injured my back during training, work is work and so, there were many times that I considered giving up training to be a fighter and concentrate on my job instead.

But the strategy of the game changes once you consider yourself a fighter. It changes from a hobby to a lifestyle.

Nevertheless, when there were days that I feel completely passionate about what I do, there were also numerous days that I wanted to give up completely. I remember after my first fight, I was so disappointed on how things went, despite winning the fight by T.K.O round 2, I was upset and every training day made me very emotional. It felt like nothing I was doing was right. I refused to kick for many many weeks despite being asked to. All my kicks felt wrong powerless.

In the ring, I was downright terrified to kick. Probably because when I was attempting to kick, she teeped me so hard I fell on my ass and everyone was laughing at me . An abrupt change in mentality.

They were trying to work out on why I couldn’t throw any kicks and the discussion made me very bitter, I would stop training early, sit with my head down at my corner and involuntarily start tearing, which was both difficult and embarrassing for me. But I'm glad that phase was over and done with. It's normal. I cry occasionally when I’m training now, but in the end, I still come back for more.

you know how much training Ive been doing these past few months from the muscles I'm flaunting here. haha

I still don’t consider myself a fighter, At this point, I’m just experimenting on how hard I can push myself. Better days should be coming but till then, I just have to punch harder and stop thinking so much and continuously try to improve myself. In the end, I know Muay Thai has helped developed my personality and willpower, overall, made made a tougher. I stopped whining so much and I love the torture of MuayThai, the bruised shins, the blisters from my feet from countless pivoting, the cramps that made me walk weirdly and the muscle soreness. 

That's all I can describe about my experience. Till next time, CHOK DEE!!!!