Tiffany ‘Timebomb’ van Soest Interview – GLORY 80 and RIVALS
At home in the Gym
“I remember specifically saying, to one of the girls I was training with, ‘You know, it’s just been so long, I’m ready to be in training camp again, I’m ready for a fight.’ Then a few days later I got I got the call and I was like, ‘Wow I really spoke that into existence.’” van Soest says that she was relieved and happy to be back in the gym. She’s lived in Bali, California, and the Netherlands, but feels most at home being in the gym. She’s been in martial arts since she was 8 years old and the gym is her home. “It does it really does. I find it funny to hear myself saying I just want to be in training camp… I want to be in camp!”
Striking Arts
Tiffany van Soest is also an art creator. This is centered around her career in martial arts and kickboxing. “I kind of see like colors for openings, or if I land something I see like a weird flash of light where it just landed. And I wanted to see what that looked like imprinted… frozen.” ‘Timebomb’ van Soest took a canvas and put it on a heavy bag, dipped her knees, knuckles, and shins in paint, and began striking canvas to create artwork. “Okay, let’s do this combo jab-cross-hook a hundred times and see what that looks like in like art form, see what marks it leaves or patterns. I mean, it just spiraled and spiraled into finding all these different ways to express myself through my physicality.” In the interview with MMA Sucka, she shows some of her work.
Art created by a world champion kickboxer created via striking, “Kicks and punches… I wanted to capture it.”
Peace in the Ring
A fistfight may seem like the last place to find peace however world champion fighters have a different mindset. “Everything goes quiet when I’m in there. I enter, I get on this different frequency where my senses are super, super heightened. Everything is in slow motion and hyper speed at the same time. It’s like the air around me feels different. While there’s so much chaos essentially going on, it’s like, I’m at peace because I’m in a different flow state. I’m in a different dimension, it almost feels like.”
Tiffany van Soest will be part of the GLORY RIVALS initiative in which GLORY champions will be facing champions from other organizations. At GLORY 80, March 19, she will face the champion from RISE Manazo Kobayashi.
Featured Image Credit thank you to GLORY Kickboxing
