Do hard things, including love more.

    

Where I thought the gym was going to be.

 It's been a little while since I've written anything but plenty of things have been on my mind. First is an update on the gym. We have reached the two year mark and it is by far one of the hardest things i've done and it was made exponentially harder due to the circumstances. As the recently deceased Nipsey Hussle expressed, this is a marathon not a sprint. So for everything that has transpired throughout this journey I am happy with where we are. So very grateful for everyone and every opportunity. Thank you all.

      It's easy for people to tell you what and how you should go about your life but the truth is there are plenty of examples to draw upon. The majority of the most successful of us didn't get gifted anything. The difference between making personal dreams and accomplishments become reality lies in choice. We all have a choice to honestly pursue our own successes even in the face of seemingly  insurmountable obstacles. Quit or keep going is your choice and your challenge I commend those that continue forward and I understand and encourage those that need a rest and regroup. Just don't quit.

     Let the obstacles in front of you testing your resolve become benchmarks in your growth and vision of your goals. Even if you have to switch lanes to get back on track do so with ferocity and acceptance that even though it is out of the way your are on the right path and your choice has already been made.

     Over this last couple of years I have run into mountains. I doubted myself to my soul but I made the choice to just keep going. I've had to sacrifice some friendships and relationships not based on anything that happened but simply for my own mental health. I had to isolate from the negative vibes and love from a distance. I was and still am in search of...but I also have found so much in myself. Much like fighting an opponent in the ring, fighting through adversity gives you a different view of yourself as a human being and each conquest gives you a further vision as to what could be.

     One of the hardest things to do in this life seems like it should be the easiest and that is to Love. Not the love you give to your mate though it should be measured accordingly. To love those around you even if you disagree with their ideas even if they aren't down for you. It's easiest to put them in the “they can fuck off” category but can you still have love for those that don't believe in you? The answer is a resounding YES!

     I know this is a hard concept and I struggle with this as well but I believe in it. Just because I don't rock with you like that or you don't have good things to bring to my personal universe doesn't mean I can't have love for you, even if it's from afar. I personally can't grow and become what I want and at the same time have hate in my heart for another person. It's a work in progress…

    Lost a few friends over the last couple of years and I just want to take this moment to say love more those around you. Your paths may cross for years or for a brief moment in time but we gotta do better about appreciating those moments as a culture.

    When the artist, entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle was murdered last week it really hit me hard because I was truly inspired by him. I had some people message me about it because they knew how much I looked up to him. I would listen to his mixtapes and get hyped about making something bigger than myself happen. Though I am not there yet I know I'm on the right path. I know that you are too.

   Keep doing hard things to make you a better human and keep loving more to prove you are an evolving human.

Peace and Blessings.

L

R.I.P. Bigg Rodd

R.I.P. Nipsey Hussle

     

The Purge: Making room for gratitude

Well well well... Its been a long time since we were here together. When I used to write this blog it was a way for me to get out my feelings, good or bad. A way to tell stories of my life's journey. It was a way to connect to my friends and to be honest about who I am and how I perceive not only Muay Thai but the Martial arts world as a whole. It was my outlet. Since the last time I wrote this blog my life has changed drastically as well as my relationship with Muay thai and martial arts in general. I finally achieved a huge goal in opening the first Lucky's Muay Thai gym. It was bitter sweet because at the same time I went through a devastating break up which split up my family. Everything I was working towards was still in place but the reasons I did them changed tremendously. I honestly wasn't sure if I would make it. I spent a lot of nights after everyone left the gym sitting at my desk pouring tears. If it wasn't for my amazing friends, family and students I'm not sure I would have gotten through it. For that kind of love I am forever grateful. However, between the stresses of the gym opening and Miami getting a CAT 4 hurricane which killed business for months, and fighting off depression and panic attacks daily, I was drowning. I was completely aware that it wasn't going well and I was doing my best to keep it moving. Fortunately, I did. Now I have to do my best every day to leave those feelings where they belong, in the past.
   It wasn't until now that I finally feel like Lucky's
Muay Thai will be here as a staple of the combat sport community for a long time to come. It isn't because of me, it is because of all of you. It was without a shadow of a doubt that my self belief got me to this point but it is your belief in me that kept me going when all was lost(believe me, it was lost). People coming up to me to tell me about the video they saw on the Internet or someone telling me that I had helped them change their life because of something I said or because the gym was there for them, how can I not be grateful. I have been more than fortunate to have two people that I met that believed in this vision enough that they were willing to jump on this boat with me and help me keep it afloat. Shout out to Benjamin London and Jacob Israel for having good hearts. That brings me to this. Now that the dark cloud is dissipating and the sun is peeping through, its time to work. I want to give you what you all give me, encouragement, support, direction, and above all else, LOVE. I'd like to personally welcome back everyone that rocked with the LMT family into the new space and we would like to welcome all the new members that have been hitting us up non-stop for information. We are for sure a family and we are as dysfunctional as any good family always is. I love you guys and 2019 is our year to make memories and accomplish goals together. I can't wait to build this gym up to reach it's full potential. I am so proud of everything we did and how you all played such an integral part of it all.

I am grateful for you all

Lucky

P.S. LET'S GO!!

Fundamentals are the key

After all the years involved in Martial arts I am still in awe of the progression of techniques and evolution of the different styles. The other thing I'm fascinated with is how the fundamentals of every combat sport can in most cases nullify the new and or fancy techniques. The reason why this is so amazing to me is because watching someone jumping through the air or spinning in circles while they strike or attack with grappling is beautiful and mesmerizing to look at. However, much like a solid sharp jab will beat a power hook the fundamentals are the key to the evolution and not the other way around. When Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors is nailing three point shots from all over the court it may look like he's been doing that from the beginning I can almost guarantee that it started with learning a proper lay up or free throw shot. When I started doing Taekwondo I can remember spending a great amount of time sitting in a horse stance throwing straight punches from the hip. My Sensei wasn't teaching turning side kick or spinning back fist or jumping knees for that matter all I remember are the fundamentals. This isn't to say that flashy techniques don't work they surely do, what complicates their effectiveness is how fundamental the opponent is. In the Ufc lightweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos all the flashy went out the window. Rafael dos anjos put pressure and used very sharp, very strong punching and kicking and then attacked with basic wrestling double leg takedowns pressure ground-and-pound. In Glory Kickboxing Raymond Daniels used his sport kick fighting blitz style to dismantle fighters left and right with spinning back kicks and jumping spinning back kicks anything you can imagine. Strikers were falling like flies. Twice when Raymond Daniels came up on Nieky Holzken he was stopped Nieky put pressure applied simple boxing techniques simple leg techniques and it was enough to stifle Raymond Daniels and stop his flashy but aggressive style. In the case McGregor vs Nate Diaz fight Conor McGregor had a full camp came in very aggressive throwing spinning kicks and punches from all angles and that was all stifled with a simple one-two combination for Nate Diaz. Once  Conor was rocked he tried to shoot for a very poor double leg takedown which Nate transitioned into a rear naked choke one of the first submissions you learn. I wholeheartedly believe that the more tools you have in your toolbox the better off you'll be and the more opponents you can defeat but I also believe it all starts with your base. How good are your fundamentals? How good is your jab? how good is your cross? When it comes to the ground game how good is your pass? How good is your guard? How good is your control and your pressure are the questions that I often ask myself. Now this is not saying that there aren't special athletes out there whose fancy footwork or arsenal have gotten them to the top we can take a guy like Wonderboy Thompson in MMA who's on the verge of having his first title shot and  he fights primarily with his hands down bouncing side to side in a sport karate style. The question isn't how good Wonderboy Thompson is now, the question is how good is Wonderboy Thompson when he faces somebody with a skill set of fundamentals that's as strong as his skill-set coming from a karate background. It's hard to say what will happen but damn it'll be fun to watch. Maybe the reason that Stephen Thompson so good is because his fundamentals are great maybe that was the same with Anthony Pettis maybe the same with Raymond Daniels. Ultimately the base is what matters and the strength of your discipline you can't give up what you first learned and put all your eggs in the basket of if I spin or if I jump maybe I'll surprise them, maybe I'll be able to finish them, the reality is that your job can be fairly repetitive, move your head, keep your hands up, keep your feet moving and stay focused. As far as Jiu Jitsu is concerned it's important to learn positions and how to control them before you ever even consider submitting someone. My advice to all is never ever get out of your game but build your game into something effective and beautiful to watch. I often tell my Fighters it doesn't matter what the other person does it only matters what you do. Spend the time making good habits in the gym and revisit your fundamentals regularly.

Racing father "Thai"me

What's up Muay thai family! I hope all is well and great on your end. This is definitely a personal one for me. If you've been around me or heard me speak over the last 15 years then you know I have been saying that I wanted to fight as a pro at least once in my life. I was a late starter and a late bloomer in the fight game. I was simultaneously taking amateur Muay Thai fights, teaching classes, training amateur fighters, and doing jiu jitsu. I was doing this and teaching myself along the way. Other than the tremendous amount of help I got from my close fiend and world champion Sarah Z., I was coachless for the majority of this time and that surely played a part in my progression and what my career could have been. I was blessed however to win 3 amateur championships in three different organizations and a handful of jiu jitsu medals. Lately my amateurs are collecting W's and I am super proud about that. I've met some amazing people throughout this time period, I've done padwork for world champions, aficiandos, and regular joes. It is always an honor and a pleasure to train people that are as into the sport of Muay Thai as much as I am. I find that I am always learning something new from them. At 42 I am considered an old man in the fight game. The dream of being a pro is fading into the sunset. I feed off of and live vicariously through the conquests of champions like George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins, the tenacity and toughness of guys like Randy Couture and Maurice Smith who knocked out an opponent via headkick at 50 years old. Now I don't claim to be one of these greats but I am inspired by them daily. Father time is undefeated and I too will fall at the hands of this adversary, but what will I have accomplished by then? Will I have done everything I ever dreamed I could do or wanted to do? What about you, will you strive to accomplish your goals no matter how far fetched they might seem to be? After the years I have put in and accomplishments I have had the only thing I wished is that I would have started earlier. If you haven't yet taken a look at yourself in the mirror and asked straight up ,"Am I everything I set out to be?", then you should do that now. The last thing you want to do is be at the end of the line and regret not having done everything you wanted to do. Life is short and opportunities are fleeting. Dreams are visuals of infinite possibilities, doubt is the only thing that keeps dreams from becoming reality. Relinquish the doubt and embrace what could be. The imagination is a beautiful place, everything that was ever created by the human race was first brought to light in the imagination. 

As for me, at some point I will only be able to hold pads, write workouts and supervise training. I will sit and reminisce about my days competing with a huge smile on my face and a cold beer in my palm. I will not however do that today, today I will have entered my name into a pool of fighters looking to fight on the only pro striking card in Miami. Mixed Striking Challenge 2 will be held in July and if I'm blessed enough I will have an opportunity to represent my brand of  Muay Thai and live my dream before it is too late. I hope that whatever your dream is you decide to grab it by the throat and never let it get away from you. Just to reiterate, life is short and opportunities are fleeting.

Peace 

The night we introduced LMT, again.

The team after an amazing night

What's up family? Hope you guys are having blessed days and amazing nights! It has been a great start for the LMT team this year so far. We started our first competition with four fights and four wins. The fights were competitive and exciting which made the victories even more fulfilling. Watching the fighters train so hard and then apply the knowledge they learned and techniques they worked tirelessly was absolutely mind blowing. They deserved the glory and we made a huge statement fighting some of the biggest Muay Thai gyms in Florida.

Felipe throwing a hard overhand 

     As for me, it was my greatest accomplishment as a coach to have all of my fighters win on the same night and I am stoked. I have been working at this for some time and I pride myself on studying. I might not be the most experienced, but I study as hard if not harder than a large majority of coaches. I study everything all the way down to the smallest detail of every technique. From fights to padwork etc. but I also study the minds of the masters. Genghis Khan, Sun Tzu, and Miyamoto Musashi. These three to me are the foundation to having the proper mentality to combat, sports and real world. I could sit here and spout of a bunch of cliche quotes that I might have just googled but that is not how I perceive what I have read. To be successful at combat on any level you must first accept your fate. I relate this to my students first and foremost. From that point forward we can't believe that there is only one road to victory but that the road forks several times and each fork offers a new opportunity to display a new set of skills. You must also be prepared to do so.

Jennifer with a nasty uppercut

    Being aware of my fighters abilities, gifts and mentalities

Sarah throwing her jab over the top 

has allowed me to choose in what fashion we can attack our opponents. The thing I am most proud of for myself in these fights is that I had laid out separate and unique strategies for each of the fighters and they went out and believed and applied. I spent time meditating and visualizing on what we would do and when. I had come up with a new way to get my point across in the corner in between rounds and it was more effective than the previous way I had done things. It allowed me to make adjustments without messing up the flow the fighters had. Making adjustments must be done by fighters and coaches and in this case it was happening fluidly. We had worked extremely hard and put ourselves through the ringer during the training camp for these fights and it showed.

Romeo dropping bombs on his larger opponent

This was the most organized I had ever been, I have taken different aspects of strategies for training and fighting from the masters of the past and the coaches of now ie. Greg Jackson, Faras Zahabi, and Duke Roufus. I am finally feeling like I am becoming the coach I really want to be and the fighters are starting to come into their own. I will continue to out study the opposition and give my fighters the best chance of winning. We won't win them all but they will remember us without a doubt. I Love this team. I am so proud of where we are and we are going.

This great honor!

Hola people! Hope everyone is great after an awesome couple of weekends of fights and that crazy Superbowl. I first want to start out by saying I am in a great place right now. I have an awesome family, a passion for my career, and an amazing Muay Thai team. As we move through fight week I had to express what an honor it is to be in this position. It's really an unbelievable reality.
    To begin to understand why this is such a far fetched reality for a guy like me you have to first make some comparisons to major sports and how they affect the coaches and players that are involved in them. Take Basketball for instance. Started in 1891 by a P.E. instructor trying to figure out how to keep his students active on rainy days. Now basketball players of the stuff of myths and legends. Questions arise about who the best player is or was. Often these questions boil down to a handful of guys that are in my opinion the usual suspects. Boys and girls across the country have posters of their favorite player or players lining their bedroom walls or lockers. Basketball, with a few stars has changed the culture of sports and lives across the board.
     In 1869, American football was created. teams have come and gone and great players and coaches are once again debated by Monday morning quarterbacks around the world. Over one hundred million people watched the Superbowl this year. That is a huge tell regarding the love of football as well as the history from which it comes.
     In the U.S. and abroad baseball is no different . With a rich history dating back to the 1830's and maybe further, baseball is considered to be America's past-time. Players are making outlandish amounts of money and the game is played worldwide. Players even defect from their communist ruled countries risking imprisonment  and death for a chance to play in the big leagues.

      In sports around the world you often hear the players and coaches in championship victories saying things like,"I feel blessed to be here", "It's just an honor to have my name mentioned among the best", "I just love being involved with a sport with such rich history", and they are right. However, in my case and in the case of the other fighters and teachers(Kru) that are involved in Muay Thai, it is more than that. It is a spiritual undertaking filled with honor, humility, inner conflicts, and pain. This isn't a sport that you can look back and debate who the best is because he doesn't exist mainly because it isn't a sport as much as a lifestyle. The history is more rich than the sports of of today and had multiple applications in life as well as battle.
We don't have "bests" in Muay Thai, we have legends. This sport was being practiced and applied in military training in the 1500's and against the invading Burmese army in the 1700's. It is not a sport as much as it is a calling. It is a burning passion that I cannot hide and it draws many to me but only few can actually deal with the commitment even on a exercise and fitness level. It is complicated and yet simple, it can build you into a piece of iron or crumble you into sand but all the while it is connected to your very soul. I have been involved in it for 15 years now and only in the last 5 have I been somewhat comfortable as a fighter and only the last 2 as a teacher. I am honored and humbled to be able to share my knowledge with those willing to listen and undertake the huge responsibility of being a teacher. I am passing on methods and theories passed down for hundreds of years to students that have trusted me, in some cases, with their lives. This reality is not a joking matter I take it very seriously. I received my green belt in Taekwondo in 1983, I was 11 years old.
I have been a martial artist ever since. I was just some kid in the South side of Chicago that liked
Bruce lee movies. After all this time I am still in love with the arts and I learn something new everyday. I have conceded that this is the way it will be for me and I will continue to pay homage to the students, fighters, warriors, and teachers that came before me. I am Nak Muay, I am a teacher, I am Muay Thai!

Muay Thai and Race

My man Patee in Thailand

Hello all, hope this finds you all happy and healthy as we close out this year. It was an amazing year for us at Lucky's Muay Thai and I am so proud to be a part of such a great group of people. We are already scheduled for a couple of events in the new year and I am stoked. I wanted to touch on a subject that some find uncomfortable, and that's race relations in Muay Thai or Martial arts in general. Maybe it's a good thing that it makes people uncomfortable to talk about race or it could just be, the way that I see it, in Martial arts it just doesn't matter. It matters in other places in society e.g. politics, certain neighborhoods, social issues, etc, but in Muay Thai in my experience, it just doesn't matter.

Matthew from Switerland and Jihad from France

When you walk into a gym or dojo anywhere in the world the focus is on the discipline and technique. It's about uniting your mind, body and soul. Yes something about being hit in the face or kicked extremely hard is spiritual. I'm not sure why we don't think so much about race when we train in Muay Thai or Jiu Jitsu, or Taekwondo, or other arts. Possibly because we are spending most of our time trying to learn how not to get knocked out or choked to sleep. All of us seem to realize that we will progress faster individually if we work together as a group. We are more when we are training as one. Not to say we don't have our opinions on the social issues of society but the reality is when we get matched up at a tournament or in a ring or a cage the last thing we care about is the color of our opponent. We care about how well we trained, how hard we worked, how our coaches and team feel about the efforts we've made and can we express ourselves fully when the bell rings. What I find unfortunate is that some may read this and say, well you forgotten where you came from or you're not where i'm from. All of that couldn't further from the truth. I know exactly where I came from. I had great great grandmothers who were slaves, I grew up in Chicago where at times it was one of the most segregated cities in the country, I lived in Texas where I was called the N-word by cops and chased on more than one occasion by idiot racists with guns. So yes I get it things are not fair for everyone in society, particularly minorities but in every place i've lived and with every group I've had the honor of training with one thing rang true. Race was never an issue. From my Israeli friends that teach and train Krav Maga to my Brazilians that train Jiu Jitsu, all the way to my Thai friends that train Muay Thai and beyond.

MMA class 08'

We all love each other just the same and putting our heart into getting better at our arts and using that to make us better human beings is the goal across the board regardless of race. As most of my readers know I have a new baby, she is now five months old and she is bi-racial or mixed, or whatever label people are using now but to me she is just my baby. I didn't even realize she was light skinned until people would ask me,"who's baby is that", or "is that your baby?". No joke, i've heard that and more. As she starts to get older the only place I feel really comfortable with her being and people I feel comfortable being with are those that walk the Martial path because those are the people I know will instill in her a sense of love and compassion not based on her color and I love that. I wanted to add some pictures of people I've had the pleasure of training with from different parts of the world and of all different races but it would just be a never ending collage. So I just added a few but know that I think of you all and have truly enjoyed meeting you, training with you and growing with you.

       Only one thing left to say and that is thank you for letting go of the insensitivity of the outside world to become more sensitive and aware of your true self. Peace and blessings through the holidays and much success in your training and fighting in 2015

Last night's training all colors, all creeds, all L-O-V-E

LMT Fight Team 2014

Out of the shadow of Senior

Hey guys, I am really happy to have all the support from my readers, students and friends, so thank you all. The last blog I wrote was my 100th post and as small as that might seem to some, for me it is awesome. I started writing the blog to just find another way to communicate my thoughts and reach out to others with similar interests and for some therapy. It turned out to be a pretty good idea and allowed me to give people insight into my personal life in a way that I don't normally. All that being said and in lieu of some recent happenings I think it's time to talk about my father and how martial arts taught me the lessons that he didn't, including how to accept him.
      I turned 41 years of age on September 14th of this year and on that day I received a message from my father saying that he apologized for our non-relationship etc.. I responded to that and it set the wheels in motion that has us meeting for dinner in Chicago when I go to watch the Glory 11 kickboxing event. I don't think I could possibly do justice to the rollercoaster ride that is my relationship with my father but I will try.

NCAA finals vs N.C. State

     My father whom from this point forward I'll call Senior. I am calling him Senior because we share a name and I was never fond of it because of our relationship and still feel uncomfortable with it at times. Senior was a basketball superstar in Chicago and had a very well known college career at Marquette University as well as playing the NBA.I would hear these legendary stories from people in Chicago in the neighborhood I grew up in as well as in Texas and in Miami from random people. Once I was working as a bag clerk at a grocery store in Texas and as the man whose groceries I was bagging saw my name tag he laughed and jokingly said, "You wouldn't be related to Lloyd Walton that played at Marquette University would you?.  I responded,"That's my father.". The man's mouth dropped as he went on to tell me how amazing he was and how he once held him to "35 points",  and that was as good job in his book.  I smiled as the man asked how he was doing and I gave him a generic answer because the truth was that I really didn't know. My father and I have always had a strained relationship. He was never married to my mother and was in and out of my life past the age of three or four. I never really knew when I would see him, but I would often hear stories of his greatness. The men in my family, my cousins, uncles, and grandfather had serious problems with substance abuse and Senior was no different. He had succumbed to his addiction and lost his NBA career along the way. I watched from a distance as my family structure crumbled and when I needed a male figure in my life there wasn't any available, but there was always martial arts. Even when my mom and I moved to Texas the lessons taught in Kung fu movies and Tae Kwon Do classes are the ones that stuck with me. Discipline, courage, hard work, and peace through connecting mind, body, and spirit. All of these lessons were fantastic however there was something missing. Not as a detriment or disrespect to my mother, aunt, grandmother, and other aunts and women in my life but there was no man around to teach me how to be a man. The women in my life worked tirelessly to teach me how to be a good person but I can honestly say that I am still a product of not having a father figure always around. I learned plenty about life while playing sports, and I have played plenty competitively growing up. However for a boy, nothing compares to having a male figure to look up to and emulate.

Milwaukee Bucks1979

       Where senior faulted, martial arts took over. From reading IRON FIST comic books, to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, to The Last Dragon, I was all in. I still am and always will be a martial artist, I devoted my time to it even if it was just reading about it and it carried me through every kind of pain you could imagine. It even carried me through the pain of having to let go of the idea of having Senior around. I suppose it sounds a little whiny, but I was constantly in the shadow of my father. He was considered a great ball player and he never was completely out of my life or the NBA. I would hear stories about him, see him on television, read stories in the newspaper, and for a time he was the director of the Jordan center in Chicago, a coach in the development league, he even ran for political office. He has always been in the spotlight and people would always ask about him and why I didn't play ball, and wasn't like him. It's damn hard to live up to a name you share but barely even know.

Me saying appropriately, "Finally".

      Over the years there have been chunks of time when senior and I didn't speak. five years here seven years there. Also, several times of reconciliation without serious commitment on either side to continue communications after. I always welcomed some sort of dialogue but it was never a consistent effort. As I began to fight and win I began to realize my true passion and create my own name. I have garnered the respect of my peers and no longer feel like I'm living in the shadow of Senior. Now when I have feelings of doubt, or depression, or uncertainty I train my arts, and they in turn help to calm my soul. So after all this time and finally reaching a place that I can accept myself, maybe I can also choose to accept him whether in my life or not. Time will tell.