Being told to “relax”, is like trying to fall asleep – the more you try to do it, the further from it you become. My biggest mental hurdle in Muay Thai training at the moment, is relaxing into the moment: of surrendering myself to the here and now, second by second, strike by strike. The moment between things happening is where my brain seems to get stuck. I’m left analysing what just happened, only to totally fuck up what I’m supposed to react to next, and then the cycle repeats itself.

I think this is the first real mental hurdle I’ve had to encounter in my training. It’s important for me to admit that, so that my ego (and others) know, just how new I am to the sport (and combat sports in general), and to put my problems into perspective. I have nothing to prove here to anyone but myself. And what I want to prove, is that I can live, and fight, and die with a warrior spirit.

So, as an analytical person, how do I approach and begin to solve a largely non-analytical problem? Well, that’s exactly the dilemma I find myself in. I have absolutely no game plan or roadmap as to how to “fix” this, so instead I’ll take a different approach… I’ll allow myself some room to grow, and afford myself some time and patience to do so. I’ll accept that I’m not quite there yet, but I’ll never allow myself to grow complacent.

Now that I’ve been struck with this first test of mental fortitude, I find myself scared to train, because I don’t want to fail again and again, at something that I’m admittedly not good at. So, how are we going to conquer this fear? By facing it head on, of course. By training again as soon as humanly possible, and by approaching that training with renewed focus and passion.