Phuket – Day 12 -14 (June 7th – June 9th)

Thursday Day 12 (June 7th)

Thursday continued with the Monsoon Part II, which I heard was actually a tropical storm / depression. The other islands ie. Koh Phi Phi and Koh Samui got hit hard.

During my first week here, I went to a Dragon Muay Thai class and Kru Joy held my pads for 5 rounds.  I liked his style and the way he held the pads.  So today I decided to book a private lesson with him.

We worked again on my stance, which looks more traditional ie.  left front-leg bouncing and right back-leg more straightened out.  My body is  also more square.

On the pads, we worked on my teep (an area needing much improvement on), jab, cross, up-elbow, cross-elbow, knee, jumping knee and round-house kick.  He made sure I took a step forward any time I did one of these moves.  Footwork is very important in Muay Thai.  We also did side-steps (pivoting 45-degrees), followed immediately with a leg kick.

In sparring, he grabbed my kick, I’d then jerk my leg back and elbow him as he came forward.  Last, he held a “suit-case” pad and we worked on my low kick.

Kru Joy then helped me with warm-down drills and stretching.  50 sit-ups with him taking a Thai pad and hitting my abs while I exhaled.  I’m assuming this was done to prep me for getting punched, strengthen my abs and to work on my breathing.

Afterwards, I went to Nai Harn beach to assess the damage from the storm.  Trees were down and the waves were still big.  I got to see some Thai graffiti too, which was kinda kewl.

Friday Day 13 (June 8th)

Friday I did another 1-hour private session with Kru Joy and also picked up a pair of Dragon Muay Thai shorts.  We worked on my uppercut which was different from back home…he had me slightly cock-back my arm, almost the way a gun recoils, before launching my fist into the up motion.  It did help pack more power into my punch.  When it hit the pad, it made a nice pop!  We did more on my jumping knee…when I jump, I need to make sure I jump straight towards my opponent and not at an angle, thus landing my knee straight into him.  BTW, my elbows had scabs on them (both arms) from elbowing the pads so much.  Luckily it didn’t hurt.

Later we went to the Honda dealership and Dan bought an Enduro bike.  He was planning on driving this across Thailand into Cambodia for his visa run.  Back home in Canada, he rides also…trying to follow him is hard to keep up.  He got to Patong in 15 minutes he said, lol….superman!

After dinner, a bunch of us sat around the porch area and pre-gamed…Nick brought out his laptop and speakers for some beats.  We ended up at Laguna since we didn’t feel like going all the way to Patong…the night got a bit blurry, lol.

Saturday Day 14 – June 9th

No training today since everyone was hung over.

Suhaila and Mike missed last night’s sh1t-show at Laguna, so they talked some of us into going again Saturday night.  I had a few glasses of vino but nothing crazy.

Wat by the beach

Fa-laaaaang! lol

Dan’s new ride…he bought it for the rest of his trip our here, bad-a$$!

Dan’s old ride which is now my new ride. Handles much tighter on the road.

New Dragon Muay Thai shorts 🙂

Zaheer is a fooos-ball shark! Kid majored in it in college, lol

Laguna crew and some random Thai girl, lol