Hello Jheiel.
I am not a Mauy Thai practitioner however I am an instructor in karate and I am also quite up on physical fitness and health, and I think I can help you with some of the issues.
You say kicking causes pain in your ankles, and also that kicking leaves you unbalanced. I would suggest these two problems are not unrelated. It is common for young people nowadays and even more senior people to have a weakened set of muscles and tendons supporting their ankles due to poor developement in youth. A weak set of muscles and tendons in the ankle will result in poor support for the foot when kicking causing pain, and poor support for the foot during lateral tension moments hense poor balance.
As such I think it is high time you started working on thickening up your ankle tendons and training up your calf.
There are plenty of low impact exercises you can start with before moving on to high impact exercises once your ankles are in good nick.
Ankle curls,
Stand straigh and normal with your hands by your sides and your feet shoulder width apart *you can hold onto a wall or banister for balance*.
Raise yourself up onto your toes and to a count of 5-10 seconds depending on ankle strength lower yourself back down to the floor, slowly, DO NOT use your arms to help support your weight, DO NOT bend your knees, focus on using your ankles to support your weight and if possible to prevent lateral balance issues.
Ankle Press
Stand with your feet in short splits (horse stance for karateka), about twice your shoulderwidth appart, almost three times. Bend your kneels to bring your shins almost vertical.
Press yourself down on one foot by straightening the other leg, at the same time raise that foot onto the toes.
CAUTION!! -- this causes allot!! of lateral tension when done incorrectly, and with weak ankles can cause damage, start slow with just a bodyweight press, don't provide active pressure.
Balance turns
Balance on one leg, *you can use your hand gently touching something to maintain balance* keep your other leg bent with the foot level with the knee of the supporting leg, and keep your body still.
Begin slowly with small turns of the foot by crawling the toes round, slowly rotate the foot and body until you have done a full circle.
At more advanced levels without balance assitance snap the body and foot round 90-180 degrees, while maintaining balance. This provides allot of rotation force for the ankle to fight and is an excellent impactive training method for strengthening ankles.
There are three Calisthenic exercises usable to strengthen your ankles and improove their ability to hold your balance, and maintain your foot during kicking.
BUT, for gods sake,
TALK TO YOUR SENSEI ABOUT YOUR ANKLES!!, undoubtedly, he/she will help too.
Oh and Joe, feel free to try those
Muay Thai Home routine
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