The kicks, the punches and a butterfly

The air of the early morning is quite fresh for Thai standards, the sky is slightly cloudy and just a few, hot sun rays are visible on the horizon. We duck from the left to the right side of the rope hung up over the mats, shifting our weight while getting out of the way of punches thrown by an imaginary opponent and counter with easy combinations.

It is my penultimate training session before I step into the ring on Sunday. Yesterday evening we drove to Loikroh Stadium together to support the youngest fighter of the team, Piak, in his 33^rd fight. When I arrived with Josh, Joel and his girlfriend we met half a dozen of other guys from Team Quest Chiang Mai. Of course, neither the fighter nor the Thai-trainers are already there. Why should they hurry? Piak would only fight as second on the card, so sabai, sabai.

The boxing class goes on: We concentrate on combinations. With two fast jabs we get closer to our opponent, duck under his counter and counter-strike with a hard uppercut-hook combination. Careless of the smashing sound of boxing gloves hitting their target, loud exhaled air and spraying sweat, a dark-blue butterfly floats through the ring. It lands on the corners of the ring or stops for a few seconds and observes the scene from the top of the water dispenser. Then it disappears and comes back after a few minutes to continue its morning trip.

It is confusing when you try hard to concentrate on the correct movement how to step out of the line of your opponent, then go forward and put all your power in a potential knockout-uppercut when such a delicate being crosses your field of view, acting like nothing happens around it. It seems as if nature wants to ask me with a cheeky smile on its face: "What the heck are you doing, dude?"

A few minutes before the first fight is about to start, Piak and the Muay Thai trainers appear at the stadium whilst calmly enjoying some fruit shakes. While they tape the hands the first fight starts and ends really quickly with a Knockout. Then, finally, they start to hurry up. Four pair of hands take care of Piak at the same time, massaging him with warming Thai-oil, tie the cup and cover his face with Vaseline to protect him from getting cut. There is no time for a warm-up.

We are lying in the ring, doing sit-ups together while punching into the open hands of our partner when we reach the highest point of the movement. The coach leans against the red corner and tells us how happy we should be with our situation: "You have to do the sit-ups in the hardest way! If we do it the hard way, we will finish earlier. If you quit, we have to do this the whole day. " No one counts how many we did already because there is a time limit. But only one man knows when this ends and this man is standing very relaxed in the corner. It starts to get harder and harder, the abdominals begin to burn and unconsciously we start to do the movement in an easier way. "Hey! I don´t want to see your shoulders touch the ground! Keep them up high! Or does anyone want to admit to being a wimp?" Even if you considered admitting to being a wimp for a second you realize it was a rhetorical question.

The bell rings and Piak and his opponent start to fight. They start very relaxed and calm, sizing each other up and doing a few careful low-kicks. Right after 20 or 30 seconds they start get more intense: Hard knees while they are clinching, really hard middle-kicks. It seems to be a very even match-up.

"Okay! 30 seconds left! I want to see effort!” The butterfly disappears; probably he was bored from the tedious grind, lasting for several minutes now.

Maybe one minute already passed, when the Team Quest fighter starts to become more and more the dominating fighter. His opponent struggles to find an appropriate way to counter the brute force of Piak´s knees and elbows. Piak attacks his head with a straight-right and he pulls up his fists. Piak uses this immediately and hits his opponent with a perfect body-shot to his liver. He collapses right away. The referee checks him as the coaches jump into the ring. Piak wins by K.O. in the very first round.

I breathe out in relief for the session has come to an end. While I am stretching every single muscle of my body, I see the butterfly again. The sun is high in the sky now - exhausted I lie down in a truck´s wheel. I enjoy the sun-bath for more than half an hour: through my closed eye lids I see nothing else than a warm and bright orange light while a pleasant wind cools my dripping wet body. I relax after the workout and listen to the concert of hundreds of birds in the trees nearby.

I grin quietly to myself: Maybe my fight on Sunday will be as successful as Piak´s yesterday.

Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture of the butterfly described in the story, but I think the photo is still good.