(Day 15 ) Friday 2 okt.

I love the lifestyle I’m having down here… all that’s matters is.. training..training (+ eating, sleeping) no stress or other things that disturbs the peace… even all the sickness and badluck can´t get to me today…I´m beginning to get used to the climate ( kind of!!!) and way of living here! My cardio is a bit better (a little), at the private lesson with Nan I even kept my lungs down were they belong!! Nice…
I started the day with my morning swim. Got some breakfast… did some of the “paperwork” I’ve been sloppy with lately...

(one of the beginner thai classes at TMT)

And off to the Thai lesson to do some more work on my lack of stand-up skills…
We did some rope swings, and to my big surprise I was able to do so for pretty long time… then the usual hand wrapping and shadowboxing wile I was hitting the air, Nan gave me some techniques to work on… and corrected me when needed… then we did lot of padwork! Think it was 10 rounds of 3 min. with short breaks between… my kicks are really getting better (still nothing of a thaikick but a lot better than before) and sparring! The thai-for-mma-stile I youse is getting better and better and harder and harder for Nan to spar agents… it´s only when he kicks I get in trouble! After the lesson with Nan I rushed home to wash my gear and get something to eat … and shower of course !

- Then back to TMT to see how the late mma class was doing! As I got there they were sparring stand-up in rounds… think Ray is in love with the boxing timer.. :) but must agree it is so f…ing yousfull)

there was not so many participating today so when the rounds ended… they got up into the cage and did one on one battle (full mma without elbows and knees to the head) 2 guys at a time… 3 rounds of 4min with all of us shouting advise and Ray giving them in a bit more calm manner! Think this was really fun and all the stress and shouting was giving a small taste of how a real competition can effect a fighter… in the breaks Ray gave advise and the fighters was taken care of by there corner men ( others of the students… giving it a bit more reality fell like!!)… ( I will incorporate this concept when I get home… ).


When I came back home to Floraville I had dinner together with Mika ( a finish guy I’ve been talking a lot with) who told me of a nice place to get a massage… will go there tomorrow after my private with Nan and the play/sparring session me and some of the mma-guys planned when nowone is yousing the mats!!

( 16 days left in Thailand )

(Day 14 ) Thursday 1 okt.
( pic. Is missing )
This has been a short day… started with the usual morning swim, breakfast, private-lesions (2 times this day) eat, sleep, train …eat… rest! (no mma today)
Worked with some combos and how to get away when under pressior of a aggressive opponent… my highkicks are getting a lot better and my damaged shoulder are starting to get used to the training… nice! I hope it doesn’t change when I am back home in Denmark and the could weather ..! my lungs was as yesterday..trying to eskape up threw my throat.... but a bit better today... didn´t get as dissy as all the other days!!
( 17 days left in Thailand )

(Day 13 ) Wednesday 30 seb.
( pic. Is missing )
Today I had arranged with Nathan too join me at the morning class(mma) and was happy too find that the teacher for the day was Brian Ebersole (pro mma record: 53-14-1)



We started with the usual warm-up and then we went threw( all the basic) … the
double - leg takedown, the single- leg takedown and some strategies sorunding these techniques and some defenses and how to get up (or take the back) when sprawled upon! After that we did some sparring (some of us in the cage and I fount that I had an BIG advantages by being used to the fence and doing takedowns/defense up
against it!)

(the"cage"I have build back home!! some of the guys asked about it!)

- after the class I rushed home to get a shower, some food and half an hour of sleep before I rushed back to tmt to my private lesion with Nan. We worked a lot with my highkick (back home I can´t kick a properly highkick doo to my knee injury and lack of flexibility but the climate down her helps a lot) and did a lot of sparring with him correcting me when needed! Ending up with me almost calfing up my lounges … damn a pace!! As we did yesterday… a lot of stretching and he gave me a massage and we had a talk about what we should work on the next day! Home and shower, wash my clothes/gear, eat and some rest…
( 18 days left in Thailand )

(Day 12 ) Tuesday 29 seb.
( pic. Is missing )
Today has been good… started by swimming then of to tmt to get a private lesson in muaythai! The thaicoach had a name that is impossible for me to pronounce (Sansananchai) but said with a lafter that I could call him “Nan” like all the others farangs… he was very nice and patience and took the time teaching me properly with all the breaks necessary for me too follow! He was impressed by my lowkicks but the rest was “not like that” . my fighting stance (mma) was wrong and “no-do” but he couldn´t make me do like a true thaifighter and we found a golden midway we could agree on… and after some time we kind of found each other and started working with thai-for-mma! After some technique we did some stretching (iám old and stiff.. but the heat and climate made me a lot more flexible than usual..nice) and ended up with him giving me a massage… nice eventhow he walked all over me! Made a new appointment with him the next day and went home for some food, a shower and rest… at night time I went for a short run.
( 19 days left in Thailand )

(Day 11 ) Monday 28 sep.
( pic. Is missing )
Started my day with the usual morning swim… 50times back and forward in the pool without any pain in the shoulder this time… when I arrived I could only swim a couple of “rounds” … nice it´s getting better!! And so was my eyes … they were fine… but had to be entirely sure that the “pinky-eyes” was gone… so no training today!

Tied of doing nothing I booked a tour called: Phuchada Safari Tour.
I was picked up right out in front of the Floraville bungalows by a cap. The tour started with a snake show… where one could touch the snakes and a guy teased and “played” with the snakes… kind of crazy in my book! He was rewarded by one of the poison-cobra with a bite in his hand… so he had to take off in a hurry… the lady that was the speaker for the show, said that he was bitten many times before and therefore was out of mortal danger but had to be sure!



After the snake pit we went to see the elephants… I hadn´t expected that there would be so many of them.. (over 100 spread out on a lot of small farms). I went for ride with one and got to be the “driver” while the real zookeeper had to take a pee… it was exiting to ride the elephant all alone not knowing how to make it go were I wanted it too… but I guess it was used to the route and knew it a lot better then I!
After the ride I was allowed to feed it some pineapple from a basket… it seamed a bit hungry and was not satisfied with the pineapple alone…so when the basket was empty and I started to walk away, it took the basket from me and tried to eat it… kind of funny!
After the elephant trekking a guy put took for a motorbike ride up the hills to a place filled with 4-weel offroaders now it was “bug rider” time… we raced up and down hills in the jungle-like nature for about an hour… really fun but had a soar bum afterwards, smile.



When I got back home I took a shower and washed all my clothes and sandals with dettol (including myself… didn´t want to get ringworms or something from the elephants ). When I had my dinner the couple from Australia (Nathan and Danni) asked me if I would join them later when they would go to the putong market… that was a bit of an experience we shopped a lot and went to the local burger king…


and a trip down the patong main street ..(nasty place, awful smell and dirt all over, boysgirls and hookers at every bar… one must say that there was a party going on!! ) we took a “taxi” home it was a small car with lights and music so loud that we coun´t even talk together and it was 0200 in the morning!!


( 20 days left in Thailand )

(Day 10) Sunday 27 sep.
( pic. Is missing )
Not much to tell… spend my day by running, swimming, eating, sleeping… and some more eating!!!
Didn´t train with the others today… wanted to get rid of this stupid infection… Al though my eyes were clear today… they still itched a bit!
( 21 days left in Thailand )

(Day 9 ) Saturday 26 sep.
( pic. Is missing )
Today my eyes was still infected but didn´t drip with yellow nasty slime anymore… it was a bit sore, red and the itching was still there but better…


(stole this pic. of Ray from his facebook profile, but i shows exaturely how i looked as well)
Spend the day walking around the camp looking at the muay thai- training… and trying to absorb as much as possible.

Talked with a lot of the guys from the mma-class and every single one of them had the pinkys… and was told that it was an outburst covering most of phuket Iceland.


This was the night of the traditional BBQ-beatdown fest/ fightnight of TMT. The mood was a bit down.. course to half of the camp (and ALL mma-people) was hit by the “pinkeye” infection. And most of the schedule for the night was canceled but the party went on and they managed to make a couple of Thai fights… including some “clown fights”. The food was good and so was the beer… or so I’m told I couldn’t taste shit!! So went home early a bit disappointed!
(22 days left in Thailand)

(Day 8 ) Friday 25 seb.

Got up early ..took a shower.. got my yogurt.. and walked up to TMT to do the morning class!
COACH: Andreas Hesselbâck (from Sweden, pro mma fighter, nice fellow with a lot of humor, got skills).
# Started the training with the usual warm-up … running, bearcrawl, farmers walk, shrimping, neck flips, butt-drops, “getup´s” (and as the other days when we did the neck-flips we lay in a circle and Andreas started the count 1-50 front up, by counting loud…. Then the next in line counted 1-50..next one 1-50 side to side and … next on the left side… right side… and so on..).
- While we were swaiting Ray appeared with a pink eye (infected) and gave a warning about not training when ones got something nasty and contagious… ( there were already some guys there had be contaminated)
# Technical part: I was dummy for Andreas so might have missed some details and gone on routine…
Start ass down and opponent on his knees… armdrag and skoupe ass to the side so you get one leg free… and be able to take his back by swinging the free leg over him and have both hooks in… shooters stile :)
If he is protecting his side so you won’t be able to get that food in.. (pretend that your right hip-side is down) underhook his left arm with your left.. and put right lowerarm across his neck and close the hands in a wrestlers grip ( palm against palm). When your push your right arm down and lift the left ..,it will HURT like hell and force him to roll… right into your seatbelt … then there are a lot of options… like RNC or the shorter vers. of RNC …use the right arm to “knife” his trout and the left to push down on his left shoulder … needed to be closed in the wrestlers grip.. and kind of turn the right one into his trout and up at the same time… like baseball choke . Another option is going strait to the armbar by “bumbing your hip up and swinging around…

Drilled that a bit… and went to doing a lot of sparring/rolling….
At the end of the class my eye was starting to itch and get red… so went home … took a bath washed all my gear and clothes with dettol (disinfection) and had a taxi drive me to the pharmacy to bye eye drops… ( and antibiotic )… be aware they tend to give you that way too often… but it works) the normal pharmacy was out of eye drops so went to the Central mall .. and did some shopping and got my “dope”..
By the time I was home my eyes was filled with pus and hurt like crap… so for now.. no more mma-training for me, and some of the other guys (until the eyes is better) but will do some running and strength I think…. might be for the better... my strain in the shoulder needs a pause, it´s starting hurt a bit!!!
This day is over and out….

( 23 days left in Thailand )

(Day 7) Thursday 24 seb.

My shoulders look a bit better to day, so after some breakfast (yogurt with muesli and fruit ..jum jum) ..off to the morning class…

COACH: RAY ELBE
# We started by the usual warm-up … running, bearcrawl, farmers walk, shrimping, neck flips, butt-drops, “getup´s” . and then strait on with the…
# technical part:
- first the basic of the halfguard (being a mixed class we got ALL the fundamental, kind of nice.. because when one train for a long time, you tend to forget some of the little things and just do them but not knowing why!!) some key words: *always be on the side/ribs NEVER flat on your back… *get a deep/high underhook with the upper arm right away. *defend and control your head by either controlling opponents’ arm (the one he “stands” on) or cover the head.
We worked with getting up from the halfguard …
- Sweep. *shrimp and get your top leg into the guard in front of his hip…and if he starts to push your head (or something like that) *simultaneously - kick with your upper leg and - pull with your lower leg (it should be hooking his leg to prevent him to pass). and a straight bendoverroll “getup” with one knee up and controlling both his legs with your hands.... importent: have a good posture and get up one one hand!

#Cardio/fit part
As we did the other day as well…in the middle of the schedule we had some workout…
It’s preformed like circle-training with the timer running… first 4*4 minutes of work … 4minuts of rest/water and 4*4 minutes of work
Today we had: 8 counters (kind of like a burpee ), jumps (touch the floor and up), sit-ups, butt-drops, bearcrawl (fast to the middle and a bit slower out), standing snow-angles, shoulder-push-ups, box n´run!
#Ended with a lot of rolling/sparring… lost count of rounds!
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Like the structure: # warm-up # technique /drill # cardio/fit # sparring as long as there is some breaks and a lot of water… one can give it a lot all the way through the session!
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When the training was over I went back to my bungalow and…. eat, protein shake, water, sleep (seams to do that a lot!!).. Eat some more and all the usual stuff..
( 24 days left in Thailand )

(Day 6 ) Wednesday 23 sep.

This has been a slow day… so not much to write…
My shoulders and top of the back didn’t exactly like the combo (from yesterday): sunburns - sweat - rolling/sparring and repeatedly have some guy messing around on my back!! Had to let them heal … therefore no MMA today.. Instead I was out running and tried to swim (but it was painful to get chlorine into the wounds so that didn´t work either) It´s been raining a lot and with no training I got the time to finish the layout of Redbeard´s tale and upload some pictures…
Been a bit around the camp and watch the Thai-training… looked really nice and the trainers push the students HARD… but with a smile and a lot of humor ...like falling to the ground playing dead!! That is if the student hits like he should, and connect with a good punch or knee! I really like the atmosphere here. There are friendly people all over.. and so far no sour faces!! Found a place were I could buy some milk (pasteurized low fat “fresh” milk, cost 40bt/ltr.) and my evening shake suddenly tasted a LOT better ..Kind of like strawberry milkshake from Mac D …nice!
(More to come.. )
(25 days left in Thailand)

(Day 5 ) Tuesday seb. 22

Finally the day arrived that I was her for!! Today I will start to train! Got up early and had some breakfast at floraville´s restaurant ( grown quite found of that place! ) packed all my new gear and off to TMT (shopped some brand new at TMT on arrival .. needed some new glowes and gear … and had to save some pounds in my luggage so I could bring protein powder and supplies from DK).
The mma class was teached by head couch Ray Elbe a BJJ brown belt/pro mma fighter from the big US of A!! He seams to be be a cool guy with a nice approach to MMA-training … we started out by doing some of the usual running, swimming, farmers walk, shrimping and so on.. the first thing we worked on was how to move/lay on top on a grounded opponent when he was in turtle pos. one thing in particular I liked.. he kind of draw a cross on the back of the opponent.. when you lie on him you need to be in the square closest to your body… nice way of telling how to have good base and a lot of weight on him..

- Did some "gaaa choke" and front... "RNC" from the sprawl pos. as well!!

the class ended with a lot of sparring think it was 8 rounds of 3 min with new opponent pr. Round.

There was a class later that day but I was hurting like h.. course to my sunburn and rolling I had a lot of spots with no/little skin on my shoulders and I needed to take care of them… so I just looked and took notes!
It started by some warm-up then a lot of the camps Thai coaches came and took all the guy one on one pad work (holy shit a pace!!!!) after 30 min and a lot of sweat Ray broth in a guy called..Brian Ebersole
By being a student of Matt Thornton he is a talented grappler and he was the teacher the rest of the class with Ray helping … best technique/punch line… when someone’s try too pass your guard (in mma) just stand up!!
The right way of course!! Looked a lot like the way shooters do it.. but some small differences..Ended the day with a good meal.. (although a bit too spicy) and the usual …budget, Skype, blog , water, sleep!

( 26 days left in thailand!!)

(Day 4) Monday seb. 21
( part 2/ 2)
www.phiphicruiser3.com
Out in the middle of nowhere we changed boat (those of us that was on the daytrip) this boat was equipped with gear to dive… and this was one of the reasons I was here… I just love to dive/snorkeling! A diver told me afterwards that he had seen me on 6 meters of water … ( I was following a beautiful fish, and when it went down so did I… so kind of lost track of depth !!) .. the corrals were awesome with a lot of color and wildlife… fish all over…. Amassing!! We had about 1 hour to play.
Then off to the main island of Phi Phi… at the phi phi hotel to eat and then some sightseeing..

Really nice island (made some great footage… might put some up at the blog later) the trip home was a bit boring.. straight home with no stops…. Shared cab with a couple from Spain.. and as always I forgot their names! At home after I had eaten.. I went for a swim… and a walk around the camp..
and at the end of the day as always: budget, Skype, blog , sleep!

This trip is great but might consider taking the more expensive one with speedboat.. less crowded and gets closer to all the exiting stuff!

( 27 days left in thailand!!)

(Day 4) Monday seb. 21
(part 1/ 2)
Got kind of a sudden start to day… managed somehow to sleep from the alarm clock. But luckily the potier at floraville, knew of my plans for the day.. so she got me out of bed by knocking on my window!

I went to see the island of Phi Phi with a boadtrip/cruise..

becourse of the late start on my day the cabdriver was in a hurry.. so the ride to Phuket harbor was kind of scary (Thai-people drive like maniacs and kind of drive where they want. That´ll be in the middle of the road ect. with no distance to the car/motorbike in front of them.. and if they have to cross the road they´ll just start driving hoping that all the cars stop!! Scary shit!! )
The cruise was nice although it was a bit crowded.… ( note: take the speedboat next time!!!) but the trip was amassing lot of beautiful nature and got to see THE BEACH ( like in the di´ caprio movie)

continue in next part...

(Day 3) Sunday Seb. 20

I might have been sleeping a bit to much yesterday… got up at 5:30 am!
Had some breakfast at the restaurant (good superb food) at floraville and wondered what to do with my day …no possibility for some private mma training today (all the instructors was away fighting) and there is no schedule on Sundays!
Tried to get online.. but the wireless connection sucks… so did some swimming ( good for my shoulder that I managed to fuck-up just 14 days before… but only some muscular damage, the dislocated shoulder popped right back)…. (And here i need to make a note: remember NOT to swim in the sun without sunblock at middel of the day)…got burned :(
But while swimming I met a couple from Australia who became sick on arrival, they seemed nice… but my fucking memory did what it does best.. forgot there names! They told me of the Central mall down town. So after some lunch I went by cap to Phuket town to see this big mall and get some supplies… and quest what … I found a Starbucks (happy me!!!) after walking around for some hours and not getting a clue.. coffee ( with chocolate) and a muffin was pure happiness! ( note to big A… no strawberry / blueberry -pies!!)
Took a cap back at half the price it cost me to get there (200bt) and started this blog, checked my mail and did some Skype/messenger with people back home… day spend!
( 28 days left in thailand!!)

THAILAND (Tiger muay thai / MMA -camp) 2009

This is the tale of my first trip to Thailand

I had been planning this trip for more than one year… so off course….surprise…panic… "there is only 2 weeks till it starts"!!! Needed to check up on the last couple of things…
1. Passport
2. Visa?
3. Budget
4. And so on..
Note to me: remember that you don´t need to waite until last call if you need to check something or need to buy things!
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(Day 1) Friday Seb. 18 and..
(Day 2) Saturday Seb. 19
Today has been a long day… started by driving to the airport… then realize that the seat (in the plain) was way too small, by being placed up against a curved wall, and that I was going to sit next to a BIG Chinese guy… that snorted, farted, smelled, punched and made funny noises ALL the way… at that time 10 hours seemed as a long time! But I was on my way! :) armed with “Got Fight” by Forrest Griffin ( I recommend that you read it…it´s awesome!! ) so time flow by (slowly)..I hate to fly it´s boooorrrrring!!!!

CBH /Bangkok 10 hours and no sleep as I had hoped! From Bangkok to Phuket 1 hour with a aircon directly at my face…then a little drive (30 minute with a cap arranged by TMT, so all I needed to do was to find the guy with my name on a sign) and I was arrived...

5 months ago I had TMT book me a room at Floraville bungalow resort http://www.floravillephuket.com/ it was one of the expensive ones but it was recommended me by Elina (shooters) who had been there before! … It was a good choice… What a nice place!
I spend the rest of the day eating, drinking, sleeping, figure out how to get online, update my budget on my laptop… and try to get familiar with the climate.
( 29 days left in thailand!!)