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Would You Continue Training Muay Thai Here? (long read)
Alright, so I trained muay thai for a year then took a few months off and then trained for another 6 months. After about a year of training, I took up brazilian jiu jitsu and submission wrestling, and that's what I've been concentrating on for the last year and a half. After my muay thai instructor found out I was training BJJ and was mainly interested in muay thai because of an interest in eventually fighting MMA, he started to focus on me less and less and helping others more. He dislikes MMA and is what I would call a muay thai loyalist. He started giving others more sparring time than me and giving me next to no helpful advice. He is really only concerned with producing muay thai champions to represent his gym and in the end, more money.
Beyond that, there were a few other reasons I started to dislike the place.
Cardio Instruction - I started muay thai as basically a clean slate. I was 18 and out of shape, had just started jogging regularly and losing weight for the first time in my life. I honestly knew nothing about getting into fight shape until I started reading on Sherdog and Ross Enamait's stuff. My muay thai instructor told me LSD was basically the way to go on cardio outside of the gym.
I told him I had read that sprints were helpful in fight training, and he told me that sprints are only for your pre-fight training camp and you shouldn't do sprints while just doing normal training. Now, the big problem with this was that I had really bad cardio while sparring, and honestly was having a hard time learning and perfecting timing in the ring with shit cardio. I believe he misconstrued my bad cardio for a lack of heart. To top it off, after I took a break from muay thai, I took up sprints and burpees and things and started doing them often. After I started back at muay thai, I was able to spar hard round after round and all of a sudden the instructor was telling me I was doing a good job.
Sauna Suits - The instructor makes you do thai pads, shadowboxing and bag work at least once or twice a week, while wearing a sweat suit and sauna suit. Not only do I think this was unhealthy, I really think it had no positive impact on my cardio. By the end of the training session, I always felt like I would pass out and really didn't have good technique while training in these suits.
Requirements to fight - The instructor does this thing where for 3 days in a row, you basically just get the fuck beat out of you by someone MUCH better than you. In my case, I had been training under a year and a guy 30 lbs. bigger than me and probably 2-3 times experience did it.
This guy really beat the shit out of me to where I could barely stand, I did 2 out of the 3 days required before the instructor told me I wasn't ready to fight. Keep in mind that he was impressed with me the first few rounds on the 2nd day but then I accidentally kicked my training partners elbow with the soft part of my shin and could barely stand, after that I was just a punching bag. It was at this point my instructor decided I wasn't ready, even though I never quit and stood up the entire time.
Now, I even kept training after this. Then I found out that a guy who I was better than was allowed to fight without having to do what I did. The guy was virtually untested and I was legitmately a better fighter than him and he was allowed to fight.
Privates - The place is run like a gym and you come in whenever you want and just train and train with whoevers there. The instructor expects you to buy private lessons. I wasn't buying them and he honestly stopped giving me help at all. There were times (many) when for at least an hour I was the only guy in the gym (I came in the morning a lot), and he wouldn't even look over at me and he just chilled at his desk/computer. It was one of the most annoying things ever. At the time I had no job, and my parents were paying for me to go to muay thai as it was and I couldn't afford privates.
Sparring - After I had been training there a while, he mad a rule so that you could only spar on Thursday or Friday at a certain time. This made no sense to me and I couldn't always make it those days. Also, when I did make it there were a lot of fighters there wanting to spar and you didn't always get the rounds you need.
Now, the only reason I'd want to start back training there is because it's a real legit muay thai gym. The instructor is legit and has trained in thailand and is a certified Kru. There are a good amount of pro fighters and the instructor has produced some champions. The question is, do the positives of training there outweigh the negatives?
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I left my apartment at 6pm and went to an "All You Can Drink." Promotions such as these are a paradox to me. They are both "A Reason To Live," and "A Potential Way To Die."
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