Timing is very important when you want to compete at the very top level of a sport. You have to take into account your fitness, your age, the amount of time you spent training and all.

Heres the scenario.

AMBITION
If you have an ambition, you chase it right? You sacrifice things in life to pursue what you want. And thats what I want to do. I'll post it here, my ambition is to fight at the top level one day. Competitive taekwondo, or Muay thai.

TIMING
Most competitive fighters today have been training in a sport since young, as early as 7 years old, and age between 20 - 30 years old when finally fighting competitively in their prime. Thats sums up to around 13 or 14 years of training experience in a sport, before going competitive.

BEHIND TIME
I only started Taekwondo and Muay thai at 17 years old, and currently, i train only once a week in taekwondo. I'm clearly behind time if I want to fight competitively in future. When I'm not in training, i work on my physical conditioning, and when I'm in training, i give my 150% to make sure I'm constantly improving, hoping that in the near future, I'll make it at the competitive level in the sport. But the reality of the matter is, all the effort I put in to make myself technically sharper, and physically stronger, its not enough. Because, 1 training session of 3-4 hours a week is nothing compared to those who have started building foundations as early as 7 or 8 years old.

SUPPORT
I dont train everyday. I dont have a sandbag to practice on at home, and I dont have people who share a similar interest / ambition around me. Furthermore, my family members dont even give a shit about taekwondo. Honestly, its a very demoralizing environment, and its very hard for me to improve at a pace i want / need to.

THE RESCUE PLAN
Thats why, during my 5 month holiday before enlisting into NS, I want to invest my time in a Muay Thai training camp for around a week in Thailand (http://www.rawaimuaythai.com). There, I'm entitled to 6 hours of pure Muay Thai training a day, continuously everyday. And when I'm not training, I can practice on the sandbag, or do some physical conditioning at the gym. There, I can get trainers to help me correct my technical mistakes, learn new techniques, and improve my game. There, i can focus everything on a routine of eating - sleeping - training for a week. Basically, its the environment that i want to experience. and its the environment there that I wana pay to go to. Yes, Muay thai is an entirely different martial art from taekwondo. Even though Muay thai training is different, fighting is fighting. Fighting instincts is a universal language, so if i improve my muay thai, i improve my taekwondo.

And as usual, no one around me approves. Instead, of a caring and understanding yes, they tell me loads of shit. They list down a 101 fuckingly absurd reasons why i shouldn't go,

• Dont go to these kind of places in thailand! theres black magic!
• Those thai women are good for nothing
• Im not free to go there w you (yeah right, you just booked a trip to thailand for shopping w ur fucking friend.)
• You can train here in singapore.
• Theres no promotion on flight tickets to go there (not like a normal ticket would kill you, especially when its a budget airlines flight to thailand)

And as you can see, I've clearly illustrated how clearly un-supportive my parent is when I want to pursue my interests. I always try to explain, and they always don't give a shit. Honestly, its not always easy to be motivated, when people around you dont give a shit about you and your interest.

When i train hard and come back tired or injured (from sparring), they don't ask how i got hit, why i got hit, what mistake I made, but they tell me, "you asked for it."