12 Feb 2011

That's it

I know it’s been a long time and I apologize. After my return back home to Finland I’ve been preoccupied with all sorts of things and trying to get my life back in order. You probably aren’t that interested in reading my excuses so I just go straight to the point.

Leaving Thailand (again) was a sad occasion and heading back to the cold winter didn’t make it any better.  My flight was through Paris so I was a bit worried if I make it back in time for Christmas because of the whole snow crisis in Europe. Luckily my flight to Helsinki wasn’t cancelled, however I did have to wait at the freezing airport in my summer clothing. It seemed like forever. Would it really hurt to get some heating at the airport..

My family was at the Helsinki airport to greed me and they also brought me winter clothes and shoes, and off we headed to do some Christmas shopping. I arrived two one day before Christmas so the shopping had to be done, never mind that I was on my way fro almost a day with very little sleep.
I survived both Christmas and New Year and adopting back to life in Finland. The reason I wanted to add one more post was actually to summarize my experience in Koh Yao Noi, I guess I got a bit sidetracked.

Here we go: I loved Koh Yao Noi and I still miss it a lot, and training muay thai. The whole experience I had training and sleeping was a great success. In addition to developing my own skills I got to know more about the Thai culture and family life.

KYN Gym is definitely the best place to go to learn muay thai. The place is nice and quiet with little distractions. Most of the other muay thai camp seem to be overcrowded and participated included a lot of partying and drinking. For me, as I only wanted to train not party, Koh Yao Noi was the perfect place to do so. I could actually focus on training and relaxing, so the month wasn’t just pushing myself to the limit but also a holiday.



And the trainers are just amazing. They know what their doing and they care. Sometimes it might not feel like it when you’re getting your ass kicked with an extra “psychological humiliation” that seems to come with it somehow, but all of it actually makes you much stronger and tougher. And of course makes you realize how hard muay thai really is and how much training and dedication it needs.
Not only did I learn muay thai but I also learned that sometimes it’s good to take a break and even though I’m young my body needs to rest. I’m still not quite accepted that my body can be vulnerable, that too much is just too much. I still need to work on that which is a bit weird: I do know my body and the limits and I know how to listen to my body but just somehow I don’t know how to stop. I guess I need to work on my mental problems a bit more.

I wish I could continue training muay thai here back in Finland but unfortunately I’ve been spoiled my Hlukhin and Noom. Now that I know the right techniques watching how they do Thai boxing here just makes me noticed all their mistakes and why would I pay for that kind of training. Yes, if you noticed it, I even changed the name to Thai boxing instead of using Muay Thai, that’s how differently I experience it.

Thank you Hlukhin, Noom and Lisa for making my muay thai experience awesome! And for the readers here’s a video of Hlukhin’s knockouts for you to have a look how good he really is.


I also want to thank Chris Dodge the teacher of the course of which this blog I part of. Writing this made me see that it isn’t that hard and with more time and dedication having and maintaining a blog is pretty fun and easy. Check out Chris’s blog http://sanctuarybayblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading you all!

20 Dec 2010

Back to the training.


20th December
After recovering from Phuket it was time for the morning run and training. My body was well tired, but I took it easy and survived. After few days off I also had much more energy and power to punch the pads, it fell good to let it all out.
I even surprised myself: I didn’t now I was able to kick as high as someone’s head. Hlukhin, the trainer made me try it and after repeating many time that I think I can’t do it, I gave it a go. What an awesome feeling it was when I kicked the pads very high with a lot of power. I sure need to try it again!
After all the training last week my body seems to had enough… again. My ankle is hurting and the runs are getting more painful. Sometimes even getting up from sitting I loose all the support from my ankle and almost fall over. As there are only few days to go I don’t want to give up and have the days off. Hopefully my ankle will recover over Christmas.
I also got a nice bruise on the side of my right knee. For few days it hurt while I was running, but it’s getting better slowly. I did knee with the same knee again into the other trainer elbow and now the bruise looks even bigger. I took a photo for you to see. 



Secretly we all here are proud of our bruises. Weird I know.
On Saturday Hlukhin and Lisa arranged us a farewell dinner. I’m leaving on the 22nd, Alena on 23rd and other soon after. We had a nice dinner all of us with plenty of seafood to go around. Very nice night indeed.


Phuket


15th December
Congratulations to Chris and James for winning their fights. James managed to knockout his opponent; the happy boy was jumping all over the ring with joy as he only needs to win four more fights to be sent to Bangkok. It was interesting to watch him preparing to the fight; he was so calm and also a bit happy, not nervous at all. I couldn’t handle it that well, but I guess he’s born to be a fighter.
Chris’s fight was against an Australian guy, who seemed to be much bigger than Chris. After poor fighting and a nasty elbow on the cheekbone Chris however managed to survive the fight as a winner. All he needed was twelve stitches and he was ready for some celebration drinking. For me it was very nerve-racking to watch him fight; all the hits and elbow he got, it was a surprise he won.
One of the fights that night was a French girl against a Thai girl, an unfair fight if you ask me. The poor Thai girl was half the size of the huge Frenchie. I guess as a girl it was easier for me to relate to the fight and its unfairness; I could feel the pain of all the kicks and punches. The Thai girl didn’t have a chance.
After the fights and the stitching we all went for a night out in crazy touristy Phuket. Few hours and many drinks later it was time to take poor drunken Chris back to the hotel and head back to party some more. Overall we had a lot of fun that night; the trip back was however less pleasant. I was pleased to get back to the island and get some sleep, pity to miss the afternoon training, but it had to be done.