Muay Thai Training

One day, my coworker I were invited by the Muay Thai coach to train after school in the gym. If you're not familiar, Muy Thai is a combat martial art of Thailand, sometimes also referred to as Thai boxing. However, it is different than traditional boxing and called "The Art of Eight Limbs" because it uses eight different points of contact of the body: hands, feet, elbows, and knees. It is said that the body is used to mimic the weapons of war. The hands become the sword and dagger; the shins and forearms act as armor against blows, the elbows hit opponents like a heavy mace or hammer, and the legs and knees become the axe and staff. 

While I had no intention of actually fighting, I thought that a little Muay Thai training would be good exercise and was unique to Thailand, so I decided to give it a go. On a Friday afternoon, Jeff and I changed into workout clothes and headed over to the gym after school. What we didn't know was that coach doesn't let you start practice unless you've ran for at least 30 minutes since endurance is a huge part of the sport. So we ran around the campus a few times while our students giggled and gave us high 5's as we passed. Once we came back from our run, the coach started me kicking over a plastic chair and had Jeff kick over a plastic garbage bin since he's so tall. He pointed to his right leg. "100!" then pointed to his left leg. "100!" I think that meant we had to do 100 kicks with each leg. At this point, we also had an audience of about 150 kids watching us like hawks. It's my very first try at Muay Thai and I have an audience to witness it. Embarrassing. "It's Friday afternoon, don't you have anything better to do?" Jeff said. But of course, they didn't understand. 

After what seemed like never ending chair kicks, we were finally promoted to the punching bags in the gym which were about 10x more difficult. 

I'll give you a tour of the gym. This is the entrance. 

These are the weights. They're old basketballs filled with cement.

The gym.

I was told this was the "locker room". Lol.

This is coach. Coach trained the female Muay Thai world champion of 1999. He even showed me the poster to prove it. After my first day of practice, he told me, "You. Champion. 1 year." Apparently, with 1 year of training with him, he thinks I can be a champion. Somehow I highly doubt that.

This is Bill, who I guarantee will be a champion Muay Thai fighter very soon. While he's not actually one of my students, I still see him quite a lot around campus and running around Bang Pa-In. He lives with monks in a nearby temple and spends nearly every morning and afternoon training and practicing Muay Thai. He's already won many fights in Bangkok already. Bill is hysterical; probably one of the funniest students, despite his limited English skills. Unlike most shy Thai students, Bill's not afraid to scream "HELLO TEACHER, I LOVE YOU!" across the entire campus.

This is Cartoon. She is perhaps the most dedicated and impressive 7 year old I have ever met in my entire life. She obviously doesn't attend our high school, but she comes every single day after school to train with our coach for her future as a Muay Thai fighter. Her training mostly consists of running to build her aerobic endurance. She also does this with absolutely zero sign of fatigue. A smile and wave from Cartoon can be the highlight of my day. She's awesome. What a motivation!

After telling my mom about my Muay Thai training and Cartoon, all she responded was, "Just don't get beat up by an 7 year old, okay?" Lol.

I know it's hard to believe, this is the crappy gym is where many amazing Muay Thai fighters (past and present) train everyday. I guess we don't really need all the fancy stuff after all, huh?