This training vlog is not my usual ramble into the camera by myself, because I’m rambling into the camera as part of a discussion with my husband Kevin about some of the deeper soils we’ve been uncovering in this 6 weeks of my intensive training with Karuhat. Within the first couple weeks, Karuhat took a major leap in how he’s been instructing me. Not in method, really, but he’d been giving me little games to play and focus on in our long sparring sessions and I’d been improving as he slowly upped the intensity each time I thought I had gained some ground. But this huge leap came when he introduced this unexpectedly difficult game of “ต่อ” or simply continuing. I’m a cardio monster as one of my natural strengths as a fighter, just the ability to push past physical fatigue, but what Karuhat was demanding of me and drawing out of me is something else entirely. He blew the cover off this deeply ingrained habit of taking tiny breaks, all the fucking time. Sometimes it’s just a small hesitation, but sometimes it’s a full mental break that requires me to start over, but neither is acceptable to the Golden Age level of fighting. Take out your “ums” and “ers” and “like” ticks that you use for giving yourself time to think while speaking – it’s not easy. You may not be a full on Valley Girl, but all of us have these small ticks; taking them out feels like drowning. But when you do edit them out, you are more concise. You sound more assured, intelligent, the discussion flows and you have fluency. Karuhat is teaching me fluency.

You can download the podcast version of our discussion here.

You can see all the training vlogs in this series here

Watch all the free Intensive Training videos here