Training Report

Like every morning I started off by drinking a can of ice tea. My knee felt better and after the customary warm up I started to shadow box. Today I worked with my trainer Lang and was able to get a good rhythm for most of the session. I noticed recently that less people are attending the morning training sessions. That pretty much benefits me as I get more attention and constructed criticism when I train. Also, my stance and punches are getting dialed in as well.

After the 3 hours of training I was stretching out to get my body relaxed. I then noticed someone from Japan walking into the gym. I noticed that it is Hideaki Suzuki a muay thai fighter that I admired 13 to 14 years ago when I started college. I used to buy copies of Kakutougi Tsushin and he was prominently displayed. Apparently he was at Kaewsamrit to buy some equipment for his gym. Also, he informed me that his student is fighting this Sunday at Raja Stadium in Bangkok. I informed him that I would be there as well. Before he departed he gave me his business card of his gym and invited me to train. It's been awhile since I've been back to Japan. Maybe this time I'll make good on my intentions to go.

After a short nap that was truly needed I was introduced to Tomoko Tasaka. Tomoko is a female fighter from Fukuoka, Japan who is at Kaewsamrit for a few days. Because I displayed semi decent Japanese speaking to Hideaki Suzuki, the gym asked me if I could help communicate with Tomoko. It's been ages (like 8 years) since I spoke Japanese regularly and speaking to Hideaki was easy because he could speak english. Speaking with Tomoko was difficult because she cannot speak english at all. So far it has been ok but its a challenge.

When I got up for the afternoon session my body felt really tight. And with my knee not 100% I was still not able to skip rope. Despite all this I tried to push myself. I limbered up by kicking and punching the bag. After a few rounds I see that Lang was working with the most overweight guy in the gym. I did not take any offense to Lang training him first, however I did take offense when the guy asked for one more extra round. At Kaewsamrit they work 4 rounds with 5 minutes in duration. After I heard that I just looked for another trainer and worked with Tai. Tai is great with the clinch and with kicking but he does not push as hard as Lang does. During the pad session with Tai I could really feel myself hitting a barrier like I was hitting a wall. My body felt tight and I had to muster enough mental strength to get through it.

After dinner Tomoko and I headed off to Central Pin Klao. CPK is a huge shopping mall that is close to the gym. It's been a year since I've been back here and it still has not changed. And after eating fish and chips at Sizzler's it was back to the gym to rest up for more punishment the next day.