Ever since I was little, I have always been an active person and as I got older, I developed an interest in martial arts. I used to do Taekwondo and Jujitsu but due to school commitments, I had limited time to go to the training nights. In 2016, I joined a gym and continued to remain engaged in physical activity. I would frequently attend the gym classes in combat and boxing. However, due to COVID-19, we could not attend the gym due to quarantine. I still remained doing physical activity by using Centr which is a fitness and healthy eating app.
I recently, in 2022, joined another gym and began making friends at the gym and through this, I met someone who did Muay Thai. (Muay Thai is a martial art from Thailand that uses boxing and kick-boxing like skills). I met this friend and was encouraged to try Muay Thai at his gym. Since then, I have been doing Muay Thai twice a week and have greatly developed my fitness and strength, making me more confident. I have noticed that increasing my fitness has assisted me in physical tasks in relation to Honours, tutoring and volunteering. I found myself not being as out-of-breath in comparison to when I lacked fitness in the past.
I have managed to “grade” in Muay Thai as well which is super rewarding. Grading involves testing abilities and cardio. This can be seen in other martial arts as receiving belts (e.g. white belt through to black belt) but in Muay Thai, these are called ‘Singlets’. I am currently a blue singlet which is module 3.
Muay Thai training has taught me resilience and perseverance. It has been a big factor in encouraging me to keep working towards goals and accept failures or things I need to improve on. It has also greatly helped me with confidence and working towards goals and being the best I can be.
