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The ironic thing about this project is that during presentation week, I didn't have time to go to Muay Thai classes because I was working on a Ted Talk about Muay Thai. 

I was pretty nervous to present on Friday because I would be expected to do well. During the brain presentation, I presented on the first day and completely screwed up so I wasn't excited for this. Fortunately, the extra time was actually helpful (I changed the main idea/script twice) and I'm happy with my presentation. There are definitely things that I could have improved, like memorizing the presentation and speaking slower. But I like the script itself. 

I'm going to continue Muay Thai even after the project is over. I had some fun and there’s a lot more to learn. I don’t think I’ll find time for it during the next school years but I could do it in summer.
I like this project because the academic part was easy and it gave me the opportunity to try something new. If I hadn’t done the project, I don’t think I would have started Muay Thai. Even though I always wanted to do a martial art, I just don’t think I would have taken the steps to learn it. I would have made excuses such as “I won’t have enough time to learn anything” or “I’ll be too busy”. I will admit that those could have been true, though. The point is, I won’t do anything, even the things that I want to do without any motivation. I think that realization is something I always knew but never considered.

Here's my script: 

[Click] Imagine this: You’re in class and have just gotten a test back. You’re proud of your grade but then you look over and the person next to you has scored even better than you. As soon as you compare each other, that sense of pride has vanished. Has this kind of thing ever happened to you? I’m sure it’s happened to most of you. This Ted Talk is how I dealt with the feeling of comparing myself to others.

[Click] I learned Muay Thai for the Genius project. Muay Thai is a martial art that originates from Thailand. [Click] It’s known as the art of 8 limbs because it combines the use of fists, elbows, knees and shins. I chose it as my project because I’ve been interested in learning a martial art for self defense for a while.

[Click] I started taking lessons at North Penn kickboxing.

[Click] I was taught the jab, cross, hook, kick and knee all on my first class and so I felt pretty accomplished. However, after class ended, I realized that even though I was taught the moves, I wasn’t exactly doing them right. My stance was off, too. I saw that my older brother, who was taking the class with me seemed to get it more easily than I did. I subconsciously decided that I had to compete with him – after all, he started at the same time as me so of course I had to be as good if not better than him. I still enjoyed Muay Thai, though.

At the next class, I came in excited. I was looking forward to fixing everything and catching up to my brother. That was basically my only goal. The class started like normal. We warmed up and then we moved on to drills. I spent the time practicing the moves I had learned the session before. I was performing a roundhouse kick when I tripped and fell badly and sprained my foot. [Click] I was disappointed in myself – It was the second class! I didn’t think that anything good would come from it, except for maybe a cool story to tell.

[Click] When I came back to classes 2 weeks later, my foot was healed but I was actually still feeling some pain so had to take it easy to not make the injury worse.  Since it was my third class and I was essentially re-learning everything, I worked mainly by myself, at my own pace. What surprised me was that I had a more positive attitude during the class. I figured out that the thing that was making me unhappy before was comparing myself to others and not giving myself enough credit. [click] I thought, “what can I do to fix my mindset?”

In order to fix the comparing problem, I would focus on myself and only compare with myself. I also had to make sure that I wasn’t overworking. I would take small steps, one at a time to slowly develop my skills.

In the classes after, I began to celebrate the small achievements like not being off- balance when kicking or being able to remember to not let my guard down. It was easier to feel happy about these things if I didn’t think, [click] “It’s not enough because others can do more”. I also learned to not care if others were doing better than me.

[click] Soon, my sense of pride didn’t just come from getting as good as other people anymore, it was also the small victories that I won. And those small victories eventually lead to me improving and getting the moves right.

Here’s some videos of me working on the moves. [Click] Even though they weren’t perfect, it was progress.

Now that I look back at it, maybe the sprain was helpful. It taught me that I shouldn’t overworking is actually worse in the long run and that it’s okay to do things at my own pace. I appreciated the hard work, successes and even failures that I made. I adapted to be more flexible and change my goals based on new circumstances. I’m learning to not compare with anyone- no matter who they are or when they started.

Because the only person I should compete with is myself.

 

So far, I’ve been enjoying learning Muay Thai and I hope to continue the sport.  

So, you could say that I was still competing, but with myself.