Sparring is very important in Muay Thai training. It is the best chance that you can try out the moves or techniques that you learn, improve the ones that you are not quite confident to use (in this case you should use those moves more often to gain confidence), know what to do and what you should not do in the match.

To have an effective sparring, all boxers must control themselves. This means you will have to watch out for your partner because it is training still, not a real fight. You want to be able to learn from sparring not defeating your friend.

If you know that your partner has less strength than you, or is lighter or slower or has less experience in fighting, control your power and use light contact, even better if you note which techniques or moves that are too dangerous to use to that partner.

More importantly, even if your partner has the same level of skills, you must control your temper and fight carefully. Control your power if you decide to spar in rounds to be able to stay until the last round. Don’t get wasted and over use your power at the first round by sparring too intensely when not necessary.

Learn and get the best from sparring sessions by watching other competitors and see what techniques you can use in real competition.

Winter is the best time you want to work around the house. But be careful since every hour from November to January, U.S. hospitals treat lots of patients from falls, carbon monoxide poisonings and home-heating fires. Read this guide, be precautious and enjoy your risk free winter.

1. Falls from Ladders
For every 4 feet you’re going up, pull the ladder’s base 1 foot back from the wall. Falls will happen when you lean over a little too far. If your belt buckle strays past the side of the ladder, you’re overreaching.

2. Burns from Grills
Make sure to test your grill before using. A frozen rubber hose can crack and leak gas. To test the hose, pour soapy water where the hose connects to the grill, if bubbles rise in the air or you can smell gas, it’s time to buy a new hose.

3. Poisonings from Fireplaces
Use dry, seasoned wood because the fresh wood can coat the chimney with more creosote which is a flammable substance and burning household waste releases harmful chemicals. To prevent chimney fires, hire a professional to check your chimney every year and clean it if necessary.

4. Strains from Shoveling snow
Know yourself. You shouldn’t pick up more than 10-15 percent of your body weight. Point your foot toward where you want to throw the snow. A twist the throw away the snow can cause back strain. Get one of those bent handle shovel which help keeping your spine in a more neutral position.

5. Injuries from Nail Guns
Hold the gun perpendicular to the target so it won’t shoot to the side. Keep your hand at least 4 inches away from the point of impact since the longest nail a gun can fire is about 3 ? inches long. Use lightweight guns for the easier aiming.

6. Cuts from Power Saws
Test the blade sharpness by making a cut in a wood scrap. The slice should be clean, if not, re-sharpen or replace the blade. Dull blades don’t cut well and you may hit a knot or staple in the wood and the saw may jerk out or kick back which is very dangerous.

RUESEE LUEM YAN or the Unreal Fists. What are the unreal fists, you might want to know. This technical move can be done by either using the right or the left hand, thus benefitting both the left-handed and the right-handed boxing fighters. For example, if you are left-handed, you may opt to deliver a punch with your left fist. But the trick of this move is, before you deliver a punch, you would first have to push out with your right arm to mislead the opponent, making him think that you are going to blow with your right fist.

As the right fist is held in the act of being thrown, the opponent gets the wrong perception that he will be hit from your right. Impulsively, he will then sway his body to the right side in order to avoid the potential attack. As he does this, however, you must stop the action of your right arm and then throw the unexpected left punch to his right jaw, which is now unguarded.

This “unreal fists” method can also be used to target other parts of the body apart from the head area, such as the neck, the ribs, or the abdomen.

You see, Thai boxing is not only just kicking other people’s ass, but also using your brain a lot in order to defeat someone in a fair fight.

To define the types of boxers, we use their boxing styles. There are mainly 3 styles of boxing that boxing fighters represent or use. Which of these are you?

Inside-fighters

When inside fighters fight, it will always be the most exciting match. The viewers will be overwhelmed by their close range fighting with effective intensity and flurries of jabs and uppercuts. This type of fighters must have very good chin to be able to handle many jabs before he can get close to his opponent. Boxers that are inside-fighters are such as Mike Tyson, Rocky Marciano and Joe Frazier.

Outside-fighters

These boxers are opposite to inside-fighters. Instead of getting close and leaving small gap between him and his opponent, out-boxers will keep the distance but instead deliver fast and long range punches. These fighters are mostly well-known for their fast footwork, however, less powerful strength in punches. Great outside-boxers are great with their fighting strategy to win, not their knockout punches, except some boxers like Lennox Lewis and Felix Trinidad. The examples of out boxers are Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Brawlers

Brawlers or Sluggers or hard hitters or one punchers are the boxers that try to win the fight with mostly raw power and very less strategy. They are known for their one punch knockout. Since there is almost no strategy, the fight will be unpredictable and exciting. However, these fighters depend on their shots with great power, they are likely to be slow to move around the ring. These fighters are such as Eric Esch, Sonny Liston, George Foreman and Rocky Marciano.

Let’s face it. Fat makes the food taste good. That is why we all dig juicy fat dripping cheese burger, pizza, or fries. I’m going to teach you how to make my 5 favorite fatty foods into something quite similar but much healthier.

Burger
Regular Burger: Ground beef in burger patty is shot through with fat and the white bread buns have no fiber but fast digested into simple sugars.
Your Better Burger: Use extra-lean ground beef. It will taste much better if you don’t overcook it. Into the patty mixture, add some chopped up onions and some thawed chopped frozen spinach to add vitamins and create juice that once came from the fatty ground beef. Use whole-wheat buns for more fiber.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Regular Grilled Cheese Sandwich: It contains about 18 g of saturated fat from butter and oily cheese and more sugar without fiber from white bread.
Your Better Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Try whole-wheat bread with skim mozzarella in the middle and crisp it on a dash of olive oil on a hot skillet. My own sandwich will have a thick slice of tomato and a lean ham in between also to make it more nutritious.

Pizza
Regular Pizza: It gives you pure carbs and saturated fat.
Your Better Pizza: Go for a thin crust and half the amount of cheese. Instead of oily-pepperoni or sausage, add some chicken breast that is a lean protein with 1 g fat per ounce. Add some vegetable for fibers and vitamins like onions and peppers. For more tasty pizza, you can add a little BBQ sauce. YUM!

Fish and Chips
Regular Fish and Chips: You know it- breaded and fried fish, oily potatoes, and creamy coleslaw.
You Better Fish and Chips: Cut the bread and try the crispiness from a pan-seared salmon. This way you reduce lots of calories and cholesterol and at the same time add more omega-3. Make oven baked potatoes by using just a little olive oil is obviously better than frying them in a pool of hot oil. Make your own coleslaw, this way you can choose whether to use low-fat mayonnaise or vinegar and oil dressing instead.

Nachos
Regular Nachos: Nachos are basically fried corn chips with cheese product and greasy spiced hamburger mixture and sour cream. It’s high in sodium and calories and low in other goody.
You Better Nachos: Bake the corn chips and use reduced-fat sharp cheddar and lean ground round. Top with diced tomatoes and chopped up fresh jalapeno pepper. This way you will get a lean of fat nachos but tasty and healthy.