In my first two muay thai fights it was about being aggressive but there was no tactical thought, it was all about surviving the onslaught by my opponent. In my second fight I used my left jab as my primary weapon and rarely led or used my right which was a mistake. I need to switch it up and start from one then the other so it doesn’t become predictable.
I didn’t use push kicks, elbows or knees which can’t be allowed to happen again. It is hard to recognize when to use each weapon since you only do them on the bag or in pads but never in sparring so they feel somewhat disconnected to everything else.
The closest thing you get to a fight is sparring and I know that’s why I don’t use them, I need to think about it first and by the time I do it’s usually too late. I don’t kick with power and much as I should probably because you are always moving neither you nor your opponent is stationary so you rarely get the time to pull of the most powerful kick you can.
My footwork is basic which isn’t going to be enough in the future, I need to mix it up and get faster and more natural in my use of space. Each movement has to have the potential to lead into an attack. My use of combos was beyond basic and never went past jab, punch or kick.
I have to naturally get to the point where a jab can go into a kick and then an elbow. The technique we do at the gym is great it went all out the window when I got into the ring itself. Knees are deadly weapons that I could have used to end the fight but couldn’t recognize so couldn’t make use of.
Fundamentally it is about finding my flow, being able to go from one attack to another at any moment and being able to respond to any attack with a counter and making it come naturally but that is a lifetime pursuit but one that can start now not later.
I want to improve my hand speed and just diversify my attacks, counters while shoring up my defense. My conditioning is good but I will assume my opponent will be better in all aspects of their game than me. This will require more than the same old thing that I did for these first two fights, it means I will have to get more advice and practice more technical sparring so I can learn to chain these elements together.
Heart will never be a problem for but if I want to stand a chance in the future I have to elevate my game by understanding what I did well to win these two fights and where the gaps are so I can narrow them and turn them into strengths not weaknesses.
So as long as I am here I’ll continue to get into the ring so that is at least one more time in December and possibly another in January. I know that 4 fights over the year and a half I’ve been here wouldn’t be a lot but I think that’s pretty good since I just started in October.