# Still healing...



## Damian Mavis (May 8, 2003)

Hey guys, since I got back from Thailand I have been training, but not seriously and barely any Muay Thai.  Problem is I still can't punch hard with my right hand and my foot is just now starting to be able to take kicking again.  Man I never realised how rough fullcontact, bone on bone would be on my body.  It's just plain annoying..... I'll be starting my training regimen again next week and might have a friendly fight at the end of the month against a friend.  After that I am supposed to fight in June but not sure if I want to do that since I have to test for my 4th degree in Tae Kwon Do in June and don't want to mess up my chances of passing by being injured.  

Something I'm excited about and wanted to tell people was that my province of Ontario (Canada) is changing the law from Muay Thai being totally illegal to full Thai rules permissible.  That means there will be alot of big matches run in my neck of the woods and I will be able to fight bone on bone with knee/elbows just like Thailand.  Don't know why such a drastic change in laws but I'm not complaining!

I already have my next trip to Thailand planned for next December, this time I'm bringing my girlfriend and my buddy.  My buddy and I will both fight while there.

Not sure if I mentioned this while in Thailand but I met and got trained a bit by 2 K1 champs while I was training there in Pattaya.  Peter Aerts (sp?) talked to me for a good 30 minutes giving me advice on how to train and how to prepare for my fight and Nick (I forget his last name) was very aggressive in his attempt to teach me long knee.  It was a kool bonus on top of everything else that happened on my trip to have 2 champs help me out.  Honestly so many kool things happened on that trip it is seriously hard to keep it all in my head and remember to tell everyone!

One last thing.... in retrospect, the all around best Muay Thai training I received (outside the personal training I got from several friends I made while there) was Lamai Muay Thai in Koh Samui.  It was the best overall for me.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## arnisador (May 11, 2003)

> I never realised how rough fullcontact, bone on bone would be on my body.



Why had you never sparred someone this hard in Canada? The laws, the lack of a partner at your level, something else?


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## Damian Mavis (May 12, 2003)

Heh, sparring is sparring....fighting and hitting your opponent as hard as you possibly can to inflict as much damage as possible with no protective gear to soften the impact is....a whole different world.   I knew there would be bruising and injuries, all the fighters warned me about that.  I just didn't realise how long it can put you out of commission, sometimes you get lucky I was told but I didn't. 

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## KennethKu (May 12, 2003)

Mr Marvis, I believe with you being on a vegetarian diet, you might be short changing your body there.  First of all, vegetarian diet lacks creatine. Meat is the natural source of creatine. If you are not already taking creatine monohydrate as supplement, it would be advisable to look into that. Secondly, eventhough it is possible to get a balanced mix of all the essential amino acids in plant proteins, people might have neglected that aspect.  Soy is the best vegetarian proteins.  Or you need to make sure your diet has a mix of beans and wheat bran, etc.  Your body needs protein (2-3 grams per kg of lean body mass)  to repair its tissue and tendon.  Also, certain vegetarian diets that exclude dairy, may result in insufficient calcium. Result of which is weak bone. Something to look into.

BTW, congrat on a successful trip.


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## J-kid (May 12, 2003)

Sounds like you had a great time did you meet any top notch k-1 fighters.

Glade to see your back.


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## RCastillo (May 12, 2003)

Next time, don't forget the roids!


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## Damian Mavis (May 14, 2003)

Hi KennethKu, what made you think I was vegetarian?  I NEED MEAT! haha


Judo Kid, yes the 2 men I mentioned in the first post were both K1 champions....that's pretty top notch.  It was pretty wild training there and seeing pictures of these guys on the wall and then one day they were there in person.  I was like "oh hey, congrats".  

Right now I am training full time again and my injuries are feeling alot better.  My finger is still really messed up but if I'm careful I can still punch with that hand.  My foot is pretty much healed, it still hurts but not enough to stop me from kicking.  I'm sure it will be totally healed within a few weeks.  I'm so happy to be training hard again, and it seems so much easier now to train hard after learning to push myself past new limits in Thailand.  I want to fight again as soon as possible but like I said earlier I'll probably wait until after my test.

I am counting the days until my next trip to Thailand in December!

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## RyuShiKan (May 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Damian Mavis _
> *
> Not sure if I mentioned this while in Thailand but I met and got trained a bit by 2 K1 champs while I was training there in Pattaya.  Peter Aerts (sp?) talked to me for a good 30 minutes giving me advice on how to train and how to prepare for my fight and Nick (I forget his last name) was very aggressive in his attempt to teach me long knee.  It was a kool bonus on top of everything else that happened on my trip to have 2 champs help me out.  Honestly so many kool things happened on that trip it is seriously hard to keep it all in my head and remember to tell everyone!
> *



Do you mean Nicholas Petas?
If so it is the same guy that trains my friend.....


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## RyuShiKan (May 14, 2003)

Nicholas Pettas

Personal Data
Name:Nicholas Pettas 
Club:Kyokushin Kaikan / Karate 
Country: Denmark
Date of Birth:January 23, 1973
Height:180cm (5'11")
Weight:101kg (222lbs)

Records
Fights: 5
Wins: 1 (1 by KO)
Losses: 4
Draws: 0


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## Damian Mavis (May 14, 2003)

No that's not him, thanks for putting the photo in otherwise I wouldn't have been sure.  The Nick I met looked about 25 and was pretty big and relatively good looking (is a man allowed to say that about another man?!) heh anyway I'll try scouring some K1 videos to get his last name.... the only reason I knew Peters last name is from seeing him in videos AFTER I met him and thinking HEY!  That's the guy that was helping me!

Not to mention the fight record would have to have a few more wins to have won K1.  

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## KennethKu (May 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Damian Mavis _
> Hi KennethKu, what made you think I was vegetarian?  I NEED MEAT! haha



Haha, no. You mentioned that you were a vegetarian in one of your posts.  Now if there has been some changes in your life, then I wouldn't know.


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## Damian Mavis (May 15, 2003)

No no haha, what I probably said is that right now I am living in a vegetarian household.... that doesn't stop me from going to my neighbours and barbq'ing some meat!  Living in a vegetarian household is very expensive, I have to go out to eat 2 times a day sometimes.  

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## ThuNder_FoOt (May 15, 2003)

Good to have you back Mr. Mavis. Your posts really inspired my training. Would you happened to have any pictures to compliment your descriptions?


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## Damian Mavis (May 16, 2003)

Heya, you mean pictures besides the ones already up on my webiste?  I still have more pictures to put up like the ones from my fight and the end of my trip but there are already 4 sections of photos to peruse if you just click on my www tab and go to photos section and then Thailand 1 to 4.  I haven't been able to organise them yet so there are pictures of sights as well as training and schools/camps all mixed together.  I tried to get picutres at every single place I trained.  Fairtex Muay Thai camp was so beautiful I took a crapload of photos there... it was also the beginning of my trip when I was photo crazed.  After that I toned it down a bit.... a small bit.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD

By the way Thunderfoot, do you run your own school/branch or do you help your instructor run his?  And how long have you been doing Muay Thai?  Do you still train it regularly?


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## ThuNder_FoOt (May 19, 2003)

Mr. Mavis,

I tried to send you a PM, but I suppose your box is full. 

I do train MT regularly, and have been training on and off for a couple of years. I have only been seriously training, atleast devoting more of my time for the past year. I couldn't fully train previously, due to my obligations with my Taekwondo training.

I am currently teaching under my Instructor part-time, although I did previously run my own school for a short time. I was not ready for the commitment & responsibilty, so I cut that short.

So how was your school covered while you were training abroad?


:asian:


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## Damian Mavis (May 19, 2003)

I've been teaching for 9 years so I am lucky enough to have several senior belts that were nice enough to teach my branches for me for the 3 months I was away.  It was a huge favor and I will be forever grateful to them.   One of them is coming with me when I go back in December but the rest will be able to handle my schools again for me since I am only going for 5 weeks, 2 of which are during Christmas Holidays.  

I'll empty my box!

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## ThuNder_FoOt (May 19, 2003)

I see. Your descriptions have painted brillant illustrations in my head, now I must take a look at the pictures so that I might get a better understanding of your experience.

So are you also training in MT and TKD regularly? I'm just curious as to how your schedule follows.  I'm often overwhemled with the two, and trying to incorporate weight lifting as well. So how do you work everything in? I might just be going about things in the wrong way, any suggeestions?

Also I'm curious to know how you use TKD & MT collectively, independently... which ever. Your experiences might help me to avoid some unecessary searching within my trainng. Any information is much appreciated.



:asian:


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## Damian Mavis (May 19, 2003)

Yup I am training both Muay Thai and TKD regularly.  I also weight train and run every day.  The secret to fitting all this training into my schedule and run my TKD school at night is......I quit my day job.  So you too can do all this fun training if you just quit working!!! heh.  I was making alot more money before but I was miserable and depressed all the time.  Now I am very happy and satisfied, martial arts is my life so I'm not going to mess around doing anything else anymore.   There are a number of oppurtunities that have opened up for me (all martial arts related) so training is work for me now, the better I am as a martial artist the more successful I will be. It's just a bonus that I enjoy to train.

I'm actually training TKD alot right now because I'm getting ready for my 4th degree test in 3 weeks so want to be fully prepared.  Normally I don't work on TKD quite as much because I've been doing it for 13 years and just try to keep my kicks at the level they have gotten at over the years.  Whereas Muay Thai is still relatively new to me (only 2 years) so I work hard at getting as good as I can at it right now.  I also grapple and do weapons training as well, like I said all you gotta do is quit you day job!

Honestly I am just now starting to feel a comfortable balance between my TKD and Muay Thai.  I used to keep them almost completely seperate as trying to incorporate one into the others training was messing me up.  It wasn't until I went to Thailand and got trained by pro fighters that do both Muay Thai and TKD that I started to see how I could gain advantages in both worlds by using techniques/strategies and footwork from both martial arts.  I think the trick of it is to get pretty proficient in both before starting to mix them together.  But once you can start mixing them effeciently I find it gives you a great advantage.  

As an example of one of my training rituals while I was getting ready for my fight that includes both TKD and Muay Thai:  Each day when I would do my regular rounds of Muay Thai drills and sparring and I was dead tired and my accuracy/power was off from fatigue I would then go to the heavy bag and try to do my most accurate powerful Turning sidekicks over and over.  I was preparing to use that technique at a crucial time when I knew I would be completely exhausted.  At first I had sloppy technique but after doing it every day over and over when I was so tired I stopped ever missing and was able to get power out of that technique.  I'm glad I trained like that because that is how I won my fight, I was very tired and just blasted him with turning sidekick and sunk right in under his ribs.

My basic advice on incorporating the 2 in a Muay Thai format is to use occasional turning sidekicks, axe kicks, side kicks and even some spinning hook kicks.  Learn how and when to use them agaisnt a straight Muay Thai guy.  If you continue to use them alot on the same opponent then he will eventually learn to read them and defend from them.  I found kicking from those angles of attack against the Fighters in Thailand worked wonders because most of them have never seen the body language associated with the launching of those thechniques and so have a poor defence for them.  When I would spar against the pro fighters that now take TKD I had little luck using TKD techniques on them as they recognised the techniques and defended against them.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## ThuNder_FoOt (May 20, 2003)

Wow, very interesting. 

What is your out take on the Motion swtich? I am very effecient in my TKD with the use of the motion switch, along with my footwork. But I seem to  have trouble using both styles of footwork. Do you run into any of these complications?

Hurry up and clean your PM box! 

:asian:


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## Damian Mavis (May 20, 2003)

What is the motion switch?

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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## ThuNder_FoOt (May 21, 2003)

Its when you switch stance. My Master believes in being equally balanced in either stance. When I'm practicing TKD, its natural for me to switch stance.

:asian:


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## Damian Mavis (May 21, 2003)

Ohhhhhh Switch stance, wow never heard it referred to as motion switch.  Nifty.  TKD switch stance is the norm, the best TKD fighters are ambidexterous or close to it.  I switch constantly while doing TKD.  In Muay Thai they drill it into your head to stick to one stance and the closest thing out of it would be the switch kick heh.  I'm left handed so my stance is opposite most other peoples which messes them up pretty good but I've often considered working on my right handed stance just to mess with people a little more.....switching stances half way through the fight would be interesting.  Problem is, after working my left handed stance for 2 years all my reactions and reflexes to shield are based on my right leg being forward.... it would be alot of work to unlearn that...

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD


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