After my last Kard Chuek fight, I had a decent black eye and some scratches on the left side of my face from the rope wraps. The impact had occurred mostly in the first round, while I was tense and my guard was up, but rather porous due to being very stiff. But by the middle of the second round I’d adjusted my guard to be more flexible, so I could see and strike out of it, and after that my opponent was landing most of her attempts straight into my elbows. Adjustment is normal within a fight; it is, in fact, the number one factor brought up by every Legend I’ve ever trained under, as a signal ..read more

see Kevin’s beautiful photos from the event here Some of my thoughts and experiences of this past weekend, as part of a big event. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has a catchphrase, which I think is common of tourism to have – something catchy and memorable like, “Virginia is for Lovers” – which is, “Amazing Thailand.” The first annual “Amazing Muay Thai Festival” in Hua Hin this past weekend is named this way because of the participation of the Tourism Authority, along with the Thai Military and WBC as an international organization. The festival was scheduled to take place over a number of ..read more

I listened, recently, to a book about how women are mostly concerned/afraid about protection and men are mostly concerned/afraid about feeling shame. There was interesting research into how babies, just naturally, fall along the male/female line in tendencies to maintain or break eye contact. Because female babies can maintain eye contact, their caretakers gaze into their eyes lovingly for long stretches. Because males don’t maintain eye contact well (although after looking up or down or away, they do return to eye contact) their caretakers also look away. When the little boy returns his eyes ..read more

I’m startled awake by a sound on the front deck of my kuti, a little stand alone, elevated, single-room hut. This is a meditation center and there are maybe 5 kutis on this side of the property, separated by 50 feet or so. This side is only women and I believe there are maybe 4 other women staying in the other huts at this time. Why would anyone be coming to my door in the dark? We’re not permitted to speak to one another and it’s 2AM. My mind races for explanations and before I can even expand on any thoughts a rapping sound clips through the dark, a rapid knock knock knock against the wall n ..read more

The plastic I sat cross-legged on crinkled as I changed position, the hard blades of grass that sat outside its limits bit at my thighs with every shifted pose. A group of high schoolers sang and danced on the stage in a “mini concert,” they called it, before the fights started. Only a minimal audience was allowed at the live show, so maybe a dozen people were spattered throughout the plastic chairs around the ring and the distance between those of us getting ready and them felt alien. I pulled the tape around my wrist and over my thumb, pulled my face mask down so I could bite the tape and te ..read more

We’ve heard how much everyone has been enjoying the Muay Thai Bones over the years, thank you for sending us messages on how you listen to our epic deep dives into Muay Thai. We know the podcast is super long, but that’s the way we love it. Got to be committed. So we’ve done a quick turn around and put together yet another Muay Thai Bones, right after the last. There are just so many things happening in Muay Thai right now, especially with Lumpinee and personally as well, we just went for another deep conversation. I hope you enjoy it! episode 26 – subjects and timestamps (subtract 20 seconds ..read more

episode 25 – Women fighting at Lumpinee, Thai authority and custom, and gambling that binds people together Our newest Muay Thai Bones podcast is out, and it is a good one. We really wanted to take our time to talk about this first subject right. We take a very deep dive into all the changes that have been coming to Lumpinee, as a New Lumpinee image is taking hold. For us this revolves around the fact that female fighters are becoming integrated into its promotions after women being barred from the ring for more than a half century, due to superstitions about gender and pollution. But it is m ..read more

the full fight with my commentary, above We’ve noticed that there was a pretty big chunk of fights which never made it to YouTube, existing only on Facebook in their live stream version, so I’ve made a project of voicing over those fights, fights 178-204 in 2017. You can find my complete record here, if interested in following along. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss any of these commentaries. In commentaries I talk about my experiences in and around the fight, my thoughts on how the fight is going tactically, praise for all the good things my opponent is do ..read more

Karuhat is sitting next to me on the couch, we’re both scrolling on our phones while a cooking show plays on the TV. He likes cooking shows, he tells me, because he likes to see how different cultures eat. Unfortunately, that’s not what I have on. It’s a reality show full of pastry chefs and so instead of seeing how different cultures eat, he’s learning (via my commentary) how American culture is catty. He finds it hilarious though. I come upon a photo on my feed that’s Karuhat and I turn my phone so he can see it. He squints, then pulls the glasses that are around his neck up so he ..read more

This is something that I’ve battled with myself, many times and in many iterations over the years, and I know for sure I’m not unique or alone in it. This video is to offer encouragement to those of us who don’t identify as “Naturally Aggressive,” which in full contact sports can feel like a serious deficit. It isn’t. But it is something you can work on and you don’t need to change your “nature” or even necessarily get comfortable with aggression itself. In this vlog I lay out some of the characteristics or qualities that can achieve the same ends as aggression, talk about how dominance is act ..read more