Documenting my journey as a female Muay Thai fighter in Thailand, sharing techniques, culture and personal perspective - over 250 fights fought

  • November 30, 2021
    We’ve heard how much everyone has been enjoying the Muay Thai Bones over the years, thank you for sending us messages on how you listen to our epic deep dives into Muay Thai. We know the podcast is super long, but that’s the way we love it. Got to be committed. So we’ve done a quick turn around and put together yet another Muay Thai...
  • our podcast, Sylvie and Kevin on Muay Thai
    November 11, 2021
    Our newest Muay Thai Bones podcast is out, and it is a good one. We really wanted to take our time to talk about this first subject right. We take a very deep dive into all the changes that have been coming to Lumpinee, as a New Lumpinee image is taking hold. For us this revolves around the fact that female fighters are becoming integrated...
  • October 6, 2021
    We’ve noticed that there was a pretty big chunk of fights which never made it to YouTube, existing only on Facebook in their live stream version, so I’ve made a project of voicing over those fights, fights 178-204 in 2017. You can find my complete record here, if interested in following along. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to...
  • August 15, 2021
    This is something that I’ve battled with myself, many times and in many iterations over the years, and I know for sure I’m not unique or alone in it. This video is to offer encouragement to those of us who don’t identify as “Naturally Aggressive,” which in full contact sports can feel like a serious deficit. It isn’t. But it is something you can work...
  • May 23, 2021
    It’s strange, in a way, that there are things about us that we ourselves do not know. I am both fond of reminiscing and also allergic to it, happily recounting memories from my childhood to my husband about my brothers and friends, but I prickle and have sudden amnesia when it comes to a question that raises something more difficult. Recently we were talking about...
5 Minute Documentary on Sylvie
My Latest Posts
  • What I Know Through Experience: Information Does Not Equal Knowledge

    After my last Kard Chuek fight, I had a decent black eye and some scratches on the left side of my face from the rope wraps. The impact had occurred mostly in the first round, while I was tense and my guard was up, but rather porous due to being very stiff. But by the middle of the second round I’d adjusted my guard to be more flexible, so I could see and strike out of it, and after that my opponent was landing most of her attempts straight...
  • Fighting For a World Title at the WBC Amazing Muay Thai Festival

    see Kevin’s beautiful photos from the event here Some of my thoughts and experiences of this past weekend, as part of a big event. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has a catchphrase, which I think is common of tourism to have – something catchy and memorable like, “Virginia is for Lovers” – which is, “Amazing Thailand.” The first annual “Amazing Muay Thai Festival” in Hua Hin this past weekend is named this way because of the participation of the Tourism Authority, along with the Thai Military and WBC as...
  • The Pain of Not Belonging

    I listened, recently, to a book about how women are mostly concerned/afraid about protection and men are mostly concerned/afraid about feeling shame. There was interesting research into how babies, just naturally, fall along the male/female line in tendencies to maintain or break eye contact. Because female babies can maintain eye contact, their caretakers gaze into their eyes lovingly for long stretches. Because males don’t maintain eye contact well (although after looking up or down or away, they do return to eye contact) their caretakers also look away. When the...
  • I’m startled awake by a sound on the front deck of my kuti…

    I’m startled awake by a sound on the front deck of my kuti, a little stand alone, elevated, single-room hut. This is a meditation center and there are maybe 5 kutis on this side of the property, separated by 50 feet or so. This side is only women and I believe there are maybe 4 other women staying in the other huts at this time. Why would anyone be coming to my door in the dark? We’re not permitted to speak to one another and it’s 2AM. My mind...
  • The Art of Binding – Kard Chuek, Kata and Knowledge

    Fight #269 – The plastic I sat cross-legged on crinkled as I changed position, the hard blades of grass that sat outside its limits bit at my thighs with every shifted pose. A group of high schoolers sang and danced on the stage in a “mini concert,” they called it, before the fights started. Only a minimal audience was allowed at the live show, so maybe a dozen people were spattered throughout the plastic chairs around the ring and the distance between those of us getting ready and them...
  • Muay Thai Bones #26: MMA Coming to Lumpinee, Cloaking Sexuality, The Turtle & The Dragon

    We’ve heard how much everyone has been enjoying the Muay Thai Bones over the years, thank you for sending us messages on how you listen to our epic deep dives into Muay Thai. We know the podcast is super long, but that’s the way we love it. Got to be committed. So we’ve done a quick turn around and put together yet another Muay Thai Bones, right after the last. There are just so many things happening in Muay Thai right now, especially with Lumpinee and personally as well,...
  • Podcast: All The Changes Coming to Lumpinee: Women Fighting, Anti-Gambling, A New Image

    our podcast, Sylvie and Kevin on Muay Thai
    Our newest Muay Thai Bones podcast is out, and it is a good one. We really wanted to take our time to talk about this first subject right. We take a very deep dive into all the changes that have been coming to Lumpinee, as a New Lumpinee image is taking hold. For us this revolves around the fact that female fighters are becoming integrated into its promotions after women being barred from the ring for more than a half century, due to superstitions about gender and pollution. But...
  • Throwback: Fight 178 – lessons in reading clinch

    We’ve noticed that there was a pretty big chunk of fights which never made it to YouTube, existing only on Facebook in their live stream version, so I’ve made a project of voicing over those fights, fights 178-204 in 2017. You can find my complete record here, if interested in following along. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss any of these commentaries. In commentaries I talk about my experiences in and around the fight, my thoughts on how the fight is...
  • Encouragement for the “Not Naturally Aggressive” in Muay Thai

    This is something that I’ve battled with myself, many times and in many iterations over the years, and I know for sure I’m not unique or alone in it. This video is to offer encouragement to those of us who don’t identify as “Naturally Aggressive,” which in full contact sports can feel like a serious deficit. It isn’t. But it is something you can work on and you don’t need to change your “nature” or even necessarily get comfortable with aggression itself. In this vlog I lay out some...
  • Kevin’s P4P 15 Best Female Muay Thai Fighters in the World

    The criteria and thinking behind this list Female Muay Thai has always been in need of positive rankings. In the history of the sport as far as we’ve experienced it, orgs have taken turns becoming the relative arbiter of excellence for female fighters. It was the WMC, lacking in accurate rankings and their turn of titles about 10-15 years ago. Then the WPMF attempted to create more updated, performance oriented rankings, but the task proved difficult, very hard to remain current, and (likely) driven by connections and politics, as...
  • I don’t know

    It’s strange, in a way, that there are things about us that we ourselves do not know. I am both fond of reminiscing and also allergic to it, happily recounting memories from my childhood to my husband about my brothers and friends, but I prickle and have sudden amnesia when it comes to a question that raises something more difficult. Recently we were talking about the sleeping arrangements in the house I grew up in. With 4 children and large house, there was a reshuffling several times throughout my...
  • Women Fighting At Lumpinee: My Interview with Thai Female Fighter Phettae

    May 2021 saw the first announcements for women to be allowed to, invited and booked, to fight at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok. Famously, women are barred from the Bangkok National Stadia, Lumpinee (Military) and Rajadamnern (Police), both of which are seen as the ultimate goal for young fighters all over Thailand. One of the first women to be invited to fight is Petthae Sor Sopit (or Teptong, above) and, in interviewing her, she expressed what I had already suspected but had not heard outright: this dream is one imparted...
  • The Boatman

    There are few Muay Thai krus who still carry a stick while supervising their students. Off the top of my head I know Rambaa, Sagat, and Sangtiennoi. Of the 3, I’ve only ever been bitten by the stinging whip of Sangtiennoi’s switch, right on my ankle, as he scolded me for not getting up on my toe for a knee. His eyes are kind, he’s tall and feels more towering than his actual stature, and you want to be correct in equal parts to avoid getting hit by the...
  • Dieselnoi Walks Us Through Muay Thai History | All the Great Fighters of Thailand

    Do read the (free) Patreon post which talks much more about this amazing video and has lots more on Dieselnoi and the 123 Book. When I’m able to make historic videos like this they are for everyone. In this interview with Dieselnoi we get the amazing view of the history of Thailand’s fighters from one of the best who ever fought, and who lived through the Golden Age of the sport. And, you get to know him as one of the most passionate men in the world about Muay...
  • Anime and Legends – Reaching For Your Own Song

    Anime is absolutely incredible, both visually and in what stories are told. The opening to Those Snow White Notes has some of the most beautiful animation that I would never even imagine myself, this soft gust blowing gently falling snowflakes into a dance. I’ve seen that, but I would never think to draw it. And the story is so simple that it seems like you could never make a whole show of it: a young man’s grandfather was a master of an outdated instrument, he knows how to play...
  • “I’ve got the bravest little sister. Maaaan, I’ve got such a brave sister.”

    The downstairs floor of the house I grew up in was always significantly cooler than the upper floor of the house. The floors were concrete, whereas upstairs was unfinished wood that offered splinters and creaky betrayals of each footfall. A long crack ran along the length of what we called the “downstairs kitchen,” but was more or less an extension of the “laundry room,” which really was just a little extra space next to the enormous octopus-shaped central furnace to the house; behind that was my room, which was...
  • Leaving Pain to Weakness, From Shame to Strength

    I woke up shivering, my teeth ground together and my temples aching from the pressure. My fingertips felt numb as I consciously uncoiled them from the sleeping bag, which I was clutching around my body. Only a few feet from me was a black pot-bellied stove, a pile of wheat-colored wood next to it. I took a breath and peeled the sleeping bag from around my shoulders, kicking my legs to escape the pupal casing. A thick cloth, not unlike an oven mitt, wrapped around the coiled handle of...
  • Infomercial Heroes, Clark Kent and Peter Parker

    I’m starting to write again on my blog. There is a lot of amazing content on my Patreon, which I spend most of my off-training hours creating for my wonderful patron supporters, but I want to get back to writing. These posts won’t have a purpose, or maybe even a focus, just me sharing my thoughts and writing for myself, and for you too. Dusk is falling like a cloud over the landscape around the taxi, which is chewing through the road in front of it. The glowing green...
  • Vlog #365 – How Karuhat Reads You Before You Strike and More Magic

    Much has happened in the last weeks, some of it quite painful. This post is about my return. I had a chance to train with Karuhat for a few days following our attendance of Namkabuan’s Funeral in Nongki, Buriram. We drove back down to Pattaya and he stayed with us for a couple of days. I wanted to spar with him lightly, and even more just work with him and move. It’s been a while. Above are my thoughts on the first day, so many things coming back to...
  • The Menstrual Cycle & Muay Thai Training: Important for Female* Fighters & Those That Coach Them

    *The phrase “Female Fighters” is used in the title for brevity and discovery, read as: “People Who Menstruate”. Read more of my Gendered Experience articles here. There are a lot of reasons why talking about the menstrual cycle – the whole thing – is important for athletes. Firstly, the “this is super private and should be kept private” approach keeps us from acknowledging that our bodies are going through some serious swings throughout each month, and not just our bodies but our brains are actually generating and responding differently...
  • What It Is Like to Train At Sangtiennoi’s Muay Thai Gym – Clinching With a Champion

    We shot more than an hour of my training at Sangtiennoi’s gym about 40 minutes north of Bangkok, just to give everyone a sense of what it is like to train there. It is one of the more authentic Thai gyms, run by a legend of the sport. Kevin’s beautiful photography captured the feeling of the space in the morning, and I put my commentary over it all, talking not only about the training itself, the great padwork, Sangtiennoi’s instruction, but also broadly about training in Thailand itself, the...
A Husband’s Point of View
  • Pride Projects and Shame Ditches – Mental Training

    My arms are burning and I’m thirsty. The soft, pudgy flesh of my clinching partner pillows under my forearms as I snake and move and turn him, the insides of my legs slapping the sides of his body and occasionally his elbows, where he drops his arms down to try to protect his body. I feel his resistance, which is manifold: he’s resisting my movements, but he’s also pouting. He’s expressing his dislike of this experience with every cell in his body, but he cycles through going limp to...
  • When You Can’t Train – The Sulk vs Focus

    My last fight – you can watch it here – left me with a souvenir of 8 stitches, right between the eyes. That’s a lucky number for me, I’m into it, but returning to training with a cut on my face is always a slightly tricky process. Surely, everyone who has been with me in the gym for these past 5 years is used to me by now – I’ve been called “Cyborg” and “Iron Lady,” “The Machine,” and “crazy,” because I’m always right back at it. Most of...
  • Mental Training – How Negative Thoughts Can Become Like MRSA

    There’s a phrase, “it’s 90 percent mental.” I’m coming to realize that the more experience you gain. the more time you spend on a single, focused endeavor, the closer that 90 percent goes toward 99.9 percent. Or maybe it’s even all mental and we can escape the body in some kind of Nirvana-state of Muay… I don’t know yet. The other day an Instagram post from Mental Coach, Kara Loewentheil came up on my feed. I needed it. I have needed it: yesterday, today, probably a bunch of tomorrows. It’s an important...
  • Your Technique is Perfect, Right Now, The Way It Is | Mental Training Reading

    We are doing a Muay Thai Mental Training Reading Group, together. On Facebook for everyone – you can join here – and on Patreon in live video conference call with my supporters – you can see our first session here. We’ve covered the first two chapters of the book The Inner Game of Tennis, and on Friday morning (Thai Time), we’ll meet and talk about chapters 3 & 4. This is a small, short book that changes people’s lives, as it teaches us to quiet down our Inner Coach,...
  • The Ketogenic Diet and Muay Thai | How I Gave Up the Carb and Saved My Mind

    The Keto Diet, ketogenesis: The keto diet features very low carb (- 20 g), moderate protein, and high fats, designed to switch the body from sugar-burning to ketone-burning, with suggested benefits of mental clarity, recovery and anti-inflammation, and weight loss (for those that need it), making use of hormone and metabolic responses evolved in humans through long periods of fasting or lean eating. What follows is not an expert telling, you can Google about and find more on all the things I bring up, but it is my telling....
  • My 3 Day Vipassana Mediation Retreat in Pattaya

    So starts my path to enlightenment. Kevin and I turn down the street indicated on our Google Map directions and it’s pretty clear, immediately, that this isn’t what we’re looking for. Kevin immediately suggests we ask someone, which is super easy for him to suggest because he doesn’t speak Thai, so he never has to do the asking. I’m shy, so I decide to creep down the street on the motorbike first, seeing if maybe, somehow, this street lined with bars might suddenly turn into the kind of street...
The Muay Thai Bones Podcast – Us on the Road
My Muay Thai Vlogs – Experiences and Thoughts