Originally posted by seppuku
About the thigh conditioning it sure sounds interesting... but since I haven't heard it from elsewhere I will still be a tad bit sceptical. I would like to hear from more experienced people as well, better to have several sources before I start bashing my legs lol.

No broken ribs from kicks lol... well the thing is that in kickboxing you don't have the same sort of guard as in thaiboxing. We keep our elbows more tucked in, so we never take kicks on the ribs (you are not allowed to catch kicks anyway). However, I have adopted a guard which is more towards the thai guard, as it's easier to launch fast kicks because of balance and "counter weight" when your elbows are pointing a little bit outwards. But because I started training with very a very tight guard, I can easily block kicks with my elbows when I need to.
And if someone really loads up on a kick I will see it and easily block it with my shin, putting up "the wall of defense" from thaiboxing.
The thing is, when you are in the ring nothing hurts, because of adrenaline. Sparring hurt more, because I don't have the adrenaline boost then.
But it may also be because of the shin guards. We wear 10oz gloves in matches, 12oz in sparring and no head protection.
So the kickboxing game is more limited than the thaiboxing game. We don't have to look out for knees.
But I'm sure that if I had trained in thaiboxing I would have good defense as well, it's a matter of training mentality and focus on what you need in your game. I watch a lot of fighting (K-1, thaiboxing, pride, UFC) and it's just incredible how good learning material that is. I have analyzed the kicking of Por Pramuk, the defense and calmness of Ramon Dekker, the boxing of Andy Sauer just to name a few. Watch how they do it, you will learn a lot. That will be your mental image of how it's suppose to be done, and you will try to reach it in your training.
Of course, I have damaged my foot and toes from kicking... That is very common. I try to hit with my shin but sometimes you still catch an elbow on your instep...
Well if you've done very little sparring I can understand you are not ready for match. Yeah 10 months is a lot of differance. I had my first full contact match (well actually my first match alltogether, I skipped light contact and club tournaments) when I had been training 9 months.
Yeah I think age matters, but it doesn't HAVE to be that way. I have seen guys 17 years old that act and think very mature, and other guys over 30 acting immature. I think that when you are young you feel you need to prove yourself in the ring, and this makes you more tense. It puts pressure on you, so you feel you HAVE to win. The focus on winning at all cost gives you way too much adrenaline. And you can't focus on staying relaxed and learning. I try to see my matches as normal training nothing else, it's something I have to do, and no matter what happens I will have learned from it.
I'm 26 years old. You?
Btw, I don't think you should be nervous as hell when you sparr. You should be relaxed, and you and your partner should take it easy to begin with. When that feels ok you move up to harder levels. Otherwise you will be all tense and this will keep you away from learning the proper reactions. Instead you will fall back on instinctual reactions, like closing your eyes or turning away from you opponent and such things...
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