#6 Give Muay Thai a Try

A few nights ago I looked up some different gyms in the area, picked one with a good trial option, and signed up for my first Muay Thai lesson. #6 on my 40 before 40 list. 

I've never done any kind of martial arts or boxing. Never worked with a personal trainer. Never been coached in any way one-on-one, haven't been coached at all since I was about 11 years old. I've also never been especially coordinated or even all too aware of how my body moves and should work together (things not one, but two physical therapists have told me. Apparently I don't even breathe correctly, but I digress). 

Despite my lack of knowledge, I felt pretty confident going in. I have a lot of rage and the thought of hitting something seemed nice. For some reason I really thought this might be something I am good at. 

I got in, met my trainer. He seemed wary at the sight of me, which is fair. I did a few laps and then he wanted to know if I was right or left handed. And that's where the first problem began. I was transported back to my T-ball days and the utter confusion I felt over which arm is my dominant arm. In softball I just switched year after year....I'm sure no one will be surprised to learn that I didn't really excel at the sport. So when the trainer asked me, I hesitated. Obviously as I am a 38 year old woman, that was confusing to him. After I tried to explain that I didn't really know, we spent the first few minutes just trying to ascertain my dominant side.  Then we began. 

I provided my trainer with a one hour comedic special and I am confident he has never laughed more with a client. Sometimes I would move and we would just look at each other and laugh. Sometimes I didn't know my right from my left. Sometimes he would show me a stance and then I would forget the stance and then I would try to do the stance, and he would just bend over in laughter. Sometimes with all my might I would punch and he would just look at my face and burst out laughing. About half way through he seemed to switch to the coaching method he uses when children come in, which involved lots of pretending to be hurt by my punches. As time went on, I wanted to punch him as hard as I could, but that just seemed to make it all the funnier. 

Anyways, I did it. I did something new that intimidates me. I showed up in a space that I don't really feel like I belong. I do believe that I disrupted that space today with the constant laughter, but oh well. Laughing is fun too. I paid for three sessions so I gotta swallow my pride and go back two more times. Who knows, maybe I'll end up liking it enough to keep going.