I often chuckle to myself when I hobble back to my room, in pain from the day’s training, hurting in places I didn’t know I had. I whisper to myself…’What I did on my vacation.’ Some enjoy laying on the beach, while others love to go sightseeing for vacation. I enjoy getting punched in the face. I am literally in a tropical paradise, and I spend most of my time in my room recuperating and preparing for my next training session. I could not possibly be happier than I am right now, however. There is something about Muay Thai that makes me whole. I often wonder what this experience would have been like when I was younger, and less prone to injury. To be honest, I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much. I find every injury to be a new challenge…and there have been plenty.
Today I suffered a bizarre injury that I have never experienced before. I got kicked right on my hip, and now my knee keeps buckling on me. I am unfamiliar with this injury, and assume there must be a nerve located in my hip that causes my knee to buckle. It doesn’t hurt at all, my leg just gives in, and I can’t stand up. I’m icing it in my room, but I am not even sure that is what it needs. There is no apparent swelling, and no pain…IDK WTF!!!
Because of the injury, I left class right after sparring, so I got back to my hotel before I was expected and the cleaning lady was in my room cleaning. I sat down in the hallway for about ten minutes waiting for her. When I got up, there was a puddle of sweat that extended far beyond the room next to me. It looked like somebody had poured a liter of water on the floor. This was just the sweat that had found its way onto the floor after I had gotten back to my room. I literally look like a faucet has been left on in class. I sweat buckets at a time. I don’t know how I don’t turn into a raisin and wither away. I don’t think this is normal. There is always a puddle underneath me in training, and others only have a few drops underneath them.
Today was an interesting day in class. I got paired up with a black dude from Switzerland who thought he was one of the trainers for drilling today. He kept telling me where my eyes should be when I was drilling with him. OK, I get it….you think you are a teacher. The funniest part was, he sucked at all the drills. Perhaps he should have worried more about his technique than where my eyes were. I was hoping we would get paired up for sparring so I could tell him where his eyes should have been. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
My first sparring partner was one of the ‘Stans’. He is just a dick. He came out bombing on me. For some reason, he was a little more relentless today. We ended up mixing it up to the point that he tried to shoot in on me and take me down. I stuffed his takedown, and we ended up on the ground, where I landed three pretty solid shots that bounced his head off the canvas. When we stood up, I was on fire…I tore into him again, until he put his hands up and said he was sorry. None of the trainers said a word about what had just happened. I think they knew he had it coming.
My next opponent was a tall, super hairy-chested dude from Sweden. I make jokes in my head sometimes when I am sparring. Today, I told myself it was time to wash my feet. I teep’d his hairy chest repeatedly until I felt the bottoms of my feet were clean. Sometimes I have to entertain myself.
My third opponent was a very small kid from the Middle East. He was not very good, and when do I always get hurt???? When I go easy on guys that are NOT VERY GOOD. He body kicked me, and I caught his kick, and swept him. When he landed on the ground, I relaxed, and his leg that he kicked me with swung in a very strange way, with the heel of his foot connecting with my hip. My leg immediately buckled. I have no idea how this happened, and why my leg continues to buckle. It is the freakiest injury I have ever had, and I have no idea what to do for it.
Tomorrow is the BBQ Beatdown, so no training tomorrow or Sunday. I was planning on attending a training session that they have out on the beach every time there is a BBQBD, but I think I need to take it easy for a few days. Hopefully this time off will give me a chance to heal up a bit, and I might go spend some time on one of those beaches they have here in this tropical paradise.
The Author, Mike Stidham, owns and operates the Ultimate Combat Training Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. UCTC offers classes in Boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, MMA, as well as a wide range of Fitness classes to Men, Women, Children, groups, and private lessons. Learn more at www.UltimateCombat.com
