Interviews to come on the blog

Venturist on Flickr

I have been pretty slack on the interview-front lately. Blame some hectic real-world stuff. But I'm very excited to have some inspiring women coming here over the next few weeks from a range of sports.

First up this week will be Ti from the outdoors in Alaska blog Element 22  As well as insights into her adventurous lifestyle, she's sent me some fabulous (or fablous as we say in Ireland) photographs to go with the interview.

And I just finished mailing with Girl Boxing so looking forward to some great stories from the boxing world in New York City.

Closer to home I'm waiting to confirm with an Irish swimmer who has featured here a few times, will let you know more about that when I have the details.

Plus a few others, including a great MuayThai fighter who has just retired, in the pipeline. As always, if there is someone you'd like to see featured here,  do let me know - or indeed, volunteer yourself for a chat if you love sports too.

How's your cruciate?

pic from balls.ie

Non-sporting types would probably give that post-title a skip. But if you're like me, every twinge and ache gets examined before that big sigh of relief; oh, it's just a sprain, nothing serious. Until the big ones fall apart and then you know all about it.

So far, *touches wood* my knees are in one piece. But cruciate ligament injuries are becoming so prevalent here in Ireland, one national association, the GAA, is setting up a project to guinea-pig 30 players in an effort to find the perfect warm-up. One sports journalist said last week that a winning ladies gaelic football team - from my own county of Cork - has had 15 players out with cruciate injuries since 2005. That's half the team. 

This article in one of the Irish papers a few days ago said it's a far more common injury for women than men. And the worrying thing is the experts quoted don't really seem to know why it's an increasing problem. When you talk to older athletes - in their 60s - they say it was a rare injury 'back in the day' so we're doing something wrong. Or maybe just recognising something that was accepted back then?

Dr Pat Duggan from the sports organisation is quoted in the article saying: “It may be that modern players are so phenomenally conditioned from the hips up that when they land on one leg, like in football, the power going through their leg is a lot greater than it was say 10 years ago.” But shouldn't the legs be stronger too - or is the weights-room to blame?

What's the worst injury you've had? 

Thailand's female boxers go to the Olympics

Great interviews from Global Post with the women on the Thai boxing team preparing for the Olympics. As with the male fighters, many of them were Muay Thai boxers first and now are changing over. Interesting look at a culture where women are not meant to be physically strong or act in a 'masculine' way. Plus ca change ...

Thai Women Boxers Going to the Olympics

Sports Blog Karma

It's been a while since I gave a shout-out to some sports blogs. As always, I've tried to highlight sites which deal with women's sport. Call me sexist if you like but then take a look at your local paper or television station and see if you notice any slight imbalances.

A Runner's Life

I first came across Katarzyna's blog when she was living in Poland and she gave me some tips here on running in the snow. Now living on the Gold Coast in Australia, she's just done her first marathon - definitely deserves a shout-out!

Girlboxing 

Been following this for a while, and now linking up on Twitter as well so definitely time to say how great this is. Everything from fight reports, the dangers of deer-ticks and this on-the-ball review of the Haye-Klitschko fight.

Not to mention the surprise you will get on the About page ...

The Sport Collective

So, wasn't sure I should include this as, so far, they only have one woman up. But hey, they're trying and the writing on the site is brilliant. All are 'long-reads' but well worth the time.

Have you got any new blogs to share? 

Late posting, apologies. Good at sport, not so good at reading calendars! 

Dying to take part in sport?

Marcela Acuna, Argentina

How healthy is sport? Not something many of us question, everyone knows sport is good for you, right? But this article I read yesterday points out that maintaining a healthy weight for competition isn't always the same as being healthy. 

It's definitely something boxers struggle with, most have a "walk-around" weight which is significantly higher than their competitive weight, and the same appears to be true for other martial arts as well as sports like gymnastics. The author of that study (and studies she quotes) feels women suffer more from this than men, "Like the non-sports world, females are more affected than men."

That is something I would quibble with, she has clearly never spent time in a boxing gym. Every male boxer (well, the good ones!) knows their weight to the gram, knows the weight of their food, knows the effect of drinking 200mls of water vs 300mls before a weigh-in. I learnt more about food control and weight-loss from men than any women's magazine. Not saying all of it was necessarily healthy, but that's the story.

It would be interesting to do a comparative study between males taking part in weight-specific sports and males taking part in sports such as rugby or soccer where weight-loss is not so central. Or indeed if males in sports like American football or rugby are under the opposite pressure: to bulk up.

From what you know in your sports, do you think women are more prone to problems than men when it comes to weight?

NOTE: using Acuna's photo not meant in any way to imply she has weight problems, eating problems.

Audio: Why do we box?

Interviews with Irish pro-boxer Christina McMahon, Australia Muay Thai fighter Kelly Simon and a few boys including Irish pro-boxer Willie "Big Bang' Casey - talking about Why We Box.

This is a short set of radio interviews I made a while ago and have just put together. Enjoy! 

  Why do we box ngriffin 2010 by niamhg

13 reasons women should box

This is an inspiring speech from one of my 'online training buddies' Lisa Bledsoe over on The Glowing Edge. Given at the Ignite event in North Carolina, USA, her slides in the background are great! If you've ever had a secret yearning to box, this might tip you over the edge.

I interviewed Lisa here if you want to know more about her boxing career. 

Got any more reasons to add to the mix?

Wordless Wednesday

Angela Parr MuayThai fighter and family

Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week.

Ukrainian Women in Sport: Video

Today is the 25th anniversary of the tragic events in Chernobyl, Ukraine. There was an interesting article in an Irish paper here on how people are coping with the aftereffects: Chernobyl the fallout

These are some of the Ukrainian sports stars I found this morning. If you know of anyone else, please leave a comment!

Women's European 60m final Oleysa Povh in 7.13
 




Best-ever celebration - Gold Medal in Wrestling Athens Olympics 2004


 Valentina Semerenko (Ukraine) comes 3rd in 2011 Biathlon


Amateur Muay Thai world championships 2010 Diana Yakovlev (Ukraine) - Kunones Chantelle (USA) 


 Gymastics - one of most popular women's sports in Ukraine

From Karate to MuayThai with Denise O' Connell, Ireland

Denise O’ Connell started her sports career with Shotokan Karate but after watching one session of MuayThai knew that was her real passion.

Denise O Connell, Sitjaipetch Gym

Denise trains in Ireland – along with some of the other Irish fighters profiled here – and says: “Every time I fight, afterwards I say that’s it now, no more. Then my trainer asks me and I say yeah, sure, I’ll do it.”

At 6 foot 1 inch (1m 85cm) and 76kgs, Denise carries her strength easily now. But she says it’s wasn’t always like this. Without training, she says she puts on weight easily. Last year, while travelling and working in Australia (a typical rite of passage for young Irish people) her weight shot up to 96kgs. I met her at a fight-night in March, and she had lost the weight in less than three months. She just grinned and said: “Yes, I was living in the sweat-box. I had Weetabix for breakfast, protein shakes during the day … and often ran while wearing the sweat-suit as well.”

She won against her Scottish opponent that night, but says one of the highlights of her career so far has been the week at the Amateur European Championships. She says it was a “brilliant week” and she was proud to watch fighters from countries like Russia in the ring and think: “I can do that as well, great.”

But after five years of Shotokan, doesn’t she miss it? Apparently not. “I did some competitive bouts in that, but you only hit someone once. It’s a points-game. After one training session of the MuayThai, I never did karate again.” That said, she does have an interest in UFC. She says it’s harder to get fights in boxing as she is in a different weight category to many of the girls competing at the moment. So we might see her adding a third sport to her list someday.

Do you know anyone else who moves between different sports?

Update on Caley Reece fight

I posted on Thursday about a MuayThai fight taking place in Perth, Australia today. There's been a change in the line-up so now Caley Reece is fighting Sarah O' Connell instead of Heather O' Donnell who had to pull out. 

O' Connell trains out of Queensland's Boonchu Gym under world champion Angie Parr and her husband Wayne Parr (also not a bad fighter, cough) so should be a good fight!

Good luck to both fighters!

MONDAY:  Reece won on a split decision. 

Caley Reece Australian MuayThai fighter

On Saturday two of Australia's best MuayThai fighters Caley Reece and Heather O' Donnell square off again. The Domination event features some great fights but this is the one I'd love to see. I had a cyber-meet with Caley  - thanks for making the time! 

Her fight record record stands at 31 wins from 36 fights, and the trophy cupboard holds the WMC 57kg Western Australia title,WMC 57kg Australian title, WMC 57kg 2x Intercontinental title and 56kg WPMF world title ... so far.

You were lined up for a world title fight against Alla Ivashkevich from Belarus recently, what happened there?

Yes, it was all a bit of a whirlwind couple of weeks. Darren got the call from Thailand  -- Alla and I were the top two contenders to fight off for the WMC vacant title at 57kg. This of course was exciting news for us but Alla's trainer emailed about nine days before the show and said she was injured and also having trouble with 57kg so she would not be coming to fight. I was disappointed of course as I was training hard and also training around some injuries I got from a car accident three weeks before the fight. But the title will be up for grabs on our show (in Perth) on June 25th.

The promoters got Nong Tran Detract from Thailand as a replacement. That looked like a tough fight, how did you feel it went? 

She represents Thailand in the IFMA World Games and won at the Asian Championships so she was good. Nong Tran's had about 60 fights so it was good fight someone with that experience. The fight was a good Thai style fight, she had nice hard kicks and was strong in the grapple as most Thais are!

Caley Reece vs Nong Tran Detract pic Into the Zone

You've had some nasty injuries over the years, how do you cope with being side-lined? 

Yeah, I've had my fair share of injuries but we all do. The shoulder has been the worst  (dislocated in 2002, it often pops during training) and I've got arthritis in the joint on the top of my foot . I've had that now for about  two years. It sometimes plays up quite badly but it's usually your bumps and shin-bruising after fights that linger round for a few days. 

When you started fighting you were manager of a Health Clinic as well, but I hear it's all about Riddler's Gym now? 

I'm full time at the gym now doing all the office side of things. It's great as it allows me to train at different times. We have just started doing the EPIC shows together which is a new form of stress I haven’t experienced yet!! Fighting on and promoting a show….eeeekkk not for the faint hearted!!

Caley and Darren Reece

And you got married earlier this year ... to your trainer Darren Reece. Is it strange doing everything together?

Umm, this is a hard question actually. The hardest part of being married to my trainer and also working together is the fact that it's Muay Thai 24/7. We have to learn to switch off from it and still do the normal things in life! As for in the gym, we work well together 99% of the time…. There's always that 1% though! hahaha

Caley Reece doing Ram Muay before a fight

Finally, Saturday's fight. When we talked in 2008, you said Heather O' Donnell was your toughest opponent. Has that opinion changed?
I have had some really good tough fights since we spoke last so yes, it's changed a little. I've had some really good close high paced fights with Nicole Brolan. Our fights were always so close and fast paced from round one.
Another hard fight was Valentina Schevchenko from Peru (originally fighting for Kyrgyzstan) in the Sport Accord Games in Beijing.
Valentina is super experienced with over 300 fights and was the first southpaw I had faced so I had a lot to work out in my fight with her. I lost the fight but it was a good fight which I'm happy with. I've seen her absolutely demolish people so I was proud to have held my own against her, that’s for sure!

Wishing Caley and Heather O' Donnell the best of luck - should be the highlight of the night down in Perth.

Surfing and MuayThai with Vicky Chan

Surfing sells itself as the mellow sport while MuayThai screams full-contact. On the surface they don't have much in common but Vicky Chan uses one to prepare for the other and loves both.

Vicky Chan winter surfing Ireland

She says: “I enjoy boxing, I love the people up there and I love the fitness of Thai Boxing. It really helps with surfing.”
She’s been learning MuayThai at Sitjaipetch Gym in Ireland for nine years and surfing for two. Her favourite beach is Garrettstown but she loves travelling to Cornwall, Scotland and up to the northern Irish beaches.

Balancing Sport and Living
I asked which is harder, catching big waves or getting in the ring. Vicky didn’t hesitate: “If you miss the first wave, you can go again but not in a fight. I get stage-fright, it can be terrifying … scarier than the time I almost drowned.” That would be a ten for boxing then.
At 39 she feels it’s getting harder to keep both going to a high standard. Her surfer-husband would love her to give up the gym and concentrate on the beaches. Vicky says she has more responsibilities now, and when she has a fight everything else has to stop. This can make things difficult for people around her.

Cross-Training Works
Lots of surfers use yoga for their flexibility and strength. Vicky says ThaiBoxing does the same for her. “The upper-body work complements the surfing. From training you get strong, flexible and have a good core. And you learn to block punches. So when a wave is crashing in on me, I know how to take the impact and how to recover.” She says she’s seen surfers working with weights and pulleys to prepare for long paddles but she has all that from boxing training.

Vicky Chan before a MuayThai fight

Scary Moments
But in spite of her fears about boxing, some of her worst moments have been out on the water. Last summer she took the board right in her face, coming up covered in blood. Laughing she says: “I was dazed but all I could think about was Jaws, I had this cartoon image of a shark in my head.”  Luckily real-life sharks are a rarity in Ireland.
On another busy day she was caught in a rip and flailed about for almost 90 minutes before crashing to safety on the rocks in the north of Garretstown. She remembers thinking the waves were too big for people to get out to her, and how relieved she was to flop onto the rocks.

Final Thoughts
“Choose? No, I couldn’t choose . I’m not brilliant at them really, but I enjoy both.”

Rugby player and MuayThai fighter Nicole Ahern

Nicole Aherne is new to the world of MuayThai but with years of rugby behind her, she is not afraid to fight in the ring. I talked to her at a boxing show in Ireland and we realised we had trained together a few years ago at a gym in Sydney.

Nicole Ahern, Sitjaipetch Gym Ireland

A longtime rugby player, when she arrived in Australia three years ago, she was hoping to pick up some games. But it was winter so nothing doing. Nicole says: “We moved into an apartment and could hear strange noises coming from downstairs at nighttime. I went down to have a look, saw they were boxing and asked if I could join in."

Far from getting a warm welcome, the Thai Boxing trainer looked her up and down, sized up her petite, blonde frame and drawled: "Yeah, I suppose, if you think you can keep up."

She remembers she trained so hard the next night that she threw up afterwards – out of sight of course! After that she trained there for five months before traveling around Australia and Asia on the way home. She says: “Really, we travelled and trained. It was addictive so we looked for a gym in every town using the internet. We even trained in Thailand; that was great.”

Now back playing rugby with Highfield and working as a school teacher, she mixes in boxing training at Sitjaipetch Gym with a growing fight career. Something tells me her students are pretty well-behaved. She says: “I never thought I’d fight, but it’s just raw power. It’s great. Some of the students are here tonight. They think I’m mad.” Playing on the wing with Highfield Ladies her training schedule doesn’t leave much time for chilling.

Fight training is: Monday                   Rugby Tuesday – Friday MuayThai and running Saturday          Free Sunday            Rugby match

Irish MuayThai fighter Siobhan Foley

On Saturday March 19th I caught up with five Irish MuayThai fighters and asked them about their love for boxing. This is the first of the interviews from that show. 

Competing at 57 kgs, Irish MuayThai fighter Siobhan Foley has been training for five years but just starting her fight career. Like many women involved in martial arts, she had no intention of fighting at the beginning, it was all about the fitness.

"I never thought I’d do it," she says in the dressing area behind the fights. "My first fight was the best and the worst moment of my life.” Now with seven fights behind her, she is getting used to being in the ring. Siobhan started in the amateur circuit – they wear a helmet, shin-guards, a chest-guard and elbow-pads as well as using 16oz gloves.

Saturday’s fight was C-class professional which she much prefers. “I loved it, this style is much better.” Of course professional in Ireland doesn’t mean the same as in Thailand where fighters don’t have any other income. Here it’s just about wearing protection or not, and how long the rounds are.

Siobhan Foley (kicking) vs Sophie Gallagher, Scotland

Siobhan works a regular 9-to5 with Bord Gais and heads to training in the evening. Before this fight, she added in daily 7am runs to the routine. It’s normal in MuayThai to fight at a lower weight than you “walk around at” so for Siobhan this means dropping from 62kgs to 57kgs – running, running and running.

She says: “I feel lighter of course at 57. It’s better so I can fight better too.”

There are more women taking part these days but that’s still a relative number. Siobhan says it can be very hard to get a fight – fighters need to have a similar record and weigh the same – and even harder to get one just at the right time for yourself. She fought a heavier girl (about 7 kgs) once but says never again: “I could feel it the next morning, my legs were so sore because she was kicking that much harder.”

So her next fight isn’t sure yet, but with shows taking place every month around the country, she’s hopeful the wait won’t be too long.

Irish female MuayThai fighters

Siobhan Foley, Denise O Connell, Nicole Ahern

I went along to an international MuayThai fightnight in Ireland on Saturday. It was great to see quite a few women's fights. The three fighters above are all from the home gym in Cork, while their opponenets were Scottish (2) and Irish.

Talking to them after the fights, it was inspiring to see how dedicated they all are to training, and fighting. It can be hard sometimes to convince women to try contact sports. So watching other women competing and seeing how much they love it is far more effective than just talking about it. From what I saw on Saturday there are more beginners around in the women's division now than I've ever seen in Ireland, so someone is doing something right.

Over the next few weeks, I'll run interviews with these women and a few other people I talked to at the show. I know I bang on about this all the time, but it's really great to see organisations like the Irish MuayThai Council really pushing for women to get involved, such a huge change from years back. ( Old, me? not at all!)

What do you think your sport could do to get more women competing?

Happy International Women's Day

It's women's day here every day but in honour of the occasion here's some of the photographs you liked the best:

Stephanie Gilmore, Australia - ripcurl pic

Hurling pic Lorraine O Sullivan

Anne-Flore Marx Swiss pic matt george

Nikki Kelly NZ pic playak.com

Caley Lewis Australia pic riddlers' gym

Mary Kom India pic IABA

Are you doing anything special this week for Women's Day, March 8th 2011?

Interview on women in MuayThai for Action81

International Women's Day kicked off early over at sports-blog Action81. They talked to me about MuayThai in Thailand and Ireland, as well as the rising numbers of women taking part in the sport.

You can read the full interview here at: Former MuayThai champion Niamh Griffin talks to Action81

British fighter Julie Kitchen

Julie Kitchen pic Adam Gibbard

British Muay Thai fighter Julie Kitchen combines motherhood with an inspiring fighting career. Her record of  50 fights over the last 10 years counts 42 wins, 8 losses and has clocked up 22 belts ... so far. Kitchen has made huge strides in a relatively short career, about 8 years in total; seen by most experts as the most successful female fighter in the UK. She holds ten world titles across a range of sanctioning bodies and weights - usually in the mid-60 kgs range.

Wins

She defeated American Angela Parr, Spaniard Loly Munoz-Garcia, and New Zealand fighter Karen Lynch on the way but lost out to Germaine de Randamie - no shame there.

TV Coach

Her next move is as a TV coach on American series Enfusion. Kitchen will teach a team of fighters in a form of kickboxing - it's not on air yet but seems to be a mixture of superpro/ K1 rules but set in Thailand.

Parenting

Both her daughters train in boxing now too. It's really exciting to see new generations of women just taking up boxing as a right, without any drama or fears of prejudice. And to see that looking after your family doesn't have to mean an end to a professional career in such a demanding sport.

Do you know any other women continuing with elite-level sports while being a parent on the side?

Dutch fighter Germaine de Randamie

MuayThai fighters rarely make it into mainstream attention, women MuayThai fighters even more rarely. But Dutch fighter Germaine de Randamie broke that mould a long time ago. Having defeated everyone (yes, everyone; Europeans, Australians and Americans that's 37 for 37 in total) who came against her, she's now starting out in MMA.

Great quotes from the video interview below: "I love fighting. It's my work, and I come to work with a smile every day."

There is more info on Germaine's Facebook page  And, btw, she's in Dublin CA not Dublin, Ireland ...