Things I Learned From My First Muay Thai Classes

'Keep your hands up' was the correction I heard most in my first month, usually right after I dropped my guard to catch my breath. It took embarrassingly long to become automatic.

A coach telling me to 'stop watching the bag' changed how I threw kicks more than any drill did — I was so focused on hitting the target that I'd stopped paying attention to my own balance.

I learned to ask what a correction was for, not just what it was. Once I understood why my chin needed to stay tucked, I actually remembered to do it; before that, it was just a rule I kept forgetting.

The most useful thing I picked up wasn't technical at all: match your effort to the class, not to whoever's next to you. Comparing myself to people who'd trained for years was the fastest way to feel like I was failing at something I'd only just started.