"The Kick"

"Man", his English name, is fighting at Lumpinee stadium in Bangkok soon, which is the most famous and largest muay thai gym in Thailand. Because NOBODY will fight him down here. This dude's kicks are hypnotic to watch. He's one of the gym pros, and is just absolutely amazing to watch. The SOUND of his kicks alone is intimidating, and ring throughout the whole gym. If he hits somebody's shin or hip bones the wrong way, he'd easily break his leg (as has happened in some fights, but it is rare). One thing I learned from the fight I watched at Bangla stadium is that kicking is soooo much of the fight. There's a front kick, which you use to just (rudely) shove someone away from you. I love practicing them on the bags because I can feel how much 200 of them in a row strengthens you (and tires you out!) But I the right and left kicks are where it's at . . . . and aren't easy to do! Most of us haven't seen a lot of Muay Thai, and so I thought I'd film "Man" demonstrating his wicked awesome kicks. Basically, I feel VERY sorry for whomever has to get in the ring against this dude.

They were super kind about letting me film him, but I still think he kicks harder when it's not after he just completed his workout of something like one billion kicks per leg (or what it seems like, lol!) As intimidating as he comes across, all the guys like him are just super sweet, polite and friendly. I love watching the young children watch him, as if he's Superman or something. "Bung-oh" (I'm surely messing this up) always trains the REAL fighters because he's a large dude and can handle the blows, although he still uses pads, of course. You'd have to be quite the masochist not to, for real! He's a doll, too, and always offers me a ride on his scooter when he sees me out walking to the cash station, etc.

Seriously, though, his form is impeccable! This is how it's supposed to be done, folks, and it it's ridiculously hard. He can do 100 kicks each leg, without stopping. These kicks work every muscle in your body. I wish I could go to the fight, but it's not in the budget. Still, Tuk alone bet like 30,000 baht on him winning. The kid is killer. Muay Thai at it's finest. GOD this sport is NOT for the faint at heart. It hurts, you're sore always, you can count on blisters and injuries, and all of that is just in practice. Soon, I'll post a video of myself training....but by "soon" I mean maybe in like six weeks, lol! As it is, my 5 three-minute rounds with the trainers absolutely kills me, especially when it's like 15 kicks in a row, each side, with them yelling "More power!", lol! I'm improving daily, though. You can see how going from pretty out-of-shape to learning such kicks can just kick your butt, though, surely. Argh! By the way, as if it needs to be said, my kicks do NOT look like this, lol!