starting private MT lessons friday

Discussion in 'Thai Boxing' started by Saved_in_Blood, Feb 3, 2014.

  1. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    I am going to start up with private lessons which I'm pretty excited about. I can only afford an hour once a week which sucks, but if I really like it I may make it my only MA. I have a decent amount of punching time, but I want to be able to throw leg breaking kicks (probably not literally) to go along with the punches. Actually in CHKD we use a lot of elbows, so this will really help me with that.

    I know a lot of people like boxing as a self defense art, but how is Muay Thai? I realize it was a battlefield art, so it would seem like it would be good for SD as well.
     
  2. Dave76

    Dave76 Valued Member

    I enjoyed my time in Muay Thai more than any other art. It is great! The origins of Muay Thai are in the battle field but the modern version is a sport art. In my gym there was a large focus on speed and reaction time which carry over great to SD. As far as elbows go that can vary a lot depending on where your instructor trained. The camp my instructor trained at was know for knee strikes and we did quite a bit of work on the various knees.
    Like any sport art some things will transfer well to SD and others won't. One thing that it seems most people who never trained in a sport art do not realize, not everything you practice in the gym is "ring legal". We practiced moves that would get you disqualified in a ring fight. We just didn't focus on them.
     
  3. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    Just make certain the leg you break is not your own!

    MT is such a devastating combat art. Best learnt when one is in excellent shape and has previous exp in MA - I began in MT but decided to learn Western Boxing first, then study MT after I've developed some proficiency with ortho boxing.

    Ive found straight boxing to be more than enough of a challenge.

    But good luck to your!
     
  4. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    yeah, the instructor there has like 15 or so years of experience in TKD and he also did a lot of kickboxing, Muay Thai, they have a BJJ class there too. I don't want the classes though... I just don't want people all around me. I might do the classes later on, but I'd rather have very good technique first.
     
  5. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member


    Also, no boxing instruction here at all. If the instructor was involved in kickboxing, he might have enough experience with boxing as well for me to do some of that as well though. I'll just see how this first lesson goes.
     
  6. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    I don't understand this approach to be honest. I think you'd be better served by going to the class, drilling with other students and sparring with them. Nothing to be embarrassed or anxious about, everyone starts at the bottom rung. There's benefits to practicing with people of variable skill levels and variable body types. I'm taking my first muay thai class tomorrow :]
     
  7. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    That class is more of a cardio kickboxing class... I'm not interested in that. I do an hour and 40 minutes of cardio a day now.
     
  8. Guitar Nado

    Guitar Nado Valued Member

    Cool - hope you like it! I have been at it for 3 or 4 months, and it can be pretty hard at times - the conditioning and repetition I mean.
     
  9. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    I can vouch for the benefits of private lessons, depending on the instructor. My kids had taken youth boxing for couple of years and then began taking supplemental private Muay Thai lessons once a week with their instructor.

    I saw a trifold increase right away - not necessarily in "skill" as we know the term, though that was there - it was ... a new adaptability and a great increase in the willingness to engage.

    Mind you, the instructor had been under the constraints of "youth" boxing and was limited in what she could teach young children in the regular programme. Once some of the constraints were loosened, it opened up a whole new playing field for them and they could actually begin to practice what combat arts were really all about.

    One of them was able to move into the adult boxing programme - a rarity for this particular school.

    Having said that, overall I don't think privatised lessons to be the best thing for learning boxing or MT - I canna say for karate and so forth as I've never practiced those.

    Our boxing coach goes to great lengths to mix our partners up for us - sometimes that has resulted in some of the greatest 'mismatches' in history!

    We even had a bad KO during sparring due, in part, to a big size/weight differential; but I and everyone in my class would tell you that we've each gained something very important by that mixing process.

    I understand what you're going through. I went through it as well - you are wanting to perfect your technique on your own ( or as close to it as possible ) then show up for class, the idea being you can hold your own against those that you might perceived as better.

    It won't happen.

    Your technique and skill will only increase in the fires of competition - that is with those who are better than we are and, even if they are not, they just want to kick our **** for the hell of it anyway.

    Its hell, but one day you'll turn around and look back at where you were and you'll see how far you've come.

    Anyroads, IMHO, privatised lessons are great for transition periods, specialised situations with a definite goal in mind and a definite date set for when one gets back into the mix
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2014
  10. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    Great stuff SiB! I haven't trained in Muay Thai but whenever I read or watch training videos it seems like it has an intense training culture like boxing. One session a week is probably plenty, and I would recommend you not try to get everything you can in each of the sessions (don't try to pick the instructor's brain for 50 different things each time you see him). Like boxing it'll have the basics, and once you learn how to do those correctly it'll take you a few months to get proficient in them. Don't try to rush it and try to find out how to do all the cool stuff right off the bat or you'll end up with a lot of holes in your game.

    Once you have the basics down and start learning tactic stuff you'll know the right questions to ask!
     
  11. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    I'll likely video my lessons and then go over it from one week to the next, so I can just repeat everything throughout the week.
     
  12. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    Dude hell yeah, that would be perfect to go back and reference. Hell, you could get him to show you a lot if you're going to video it because you can always go back to it.
     
  13. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    My instructor spars with his students and such. He does light sparring, as he is quite a few lbs heavier than many of them.. and I would guess 30 lbs more than me. It would be a good gauge on technique and power with sparring if I am able to give him a dead leg :p Seriously though, I just don't like people and at my CHKD class there is myself, another student and my 2 instructors, who are themselves still learning and one there who is a 3rd Dan and she sort of oversees all of us technique wise.

    The good news is that at my Wife's work they are all doing this little weight loss competition with each other (like she needs to lose weight but that's another story) so I think I could get her to go through some of my CHKD moves repeatedly both for her cardio, and actually it would fit a woman well since you see or at least I have, seen a lot of guys try to grab a womans wrist when they are walking away or arguing. It wouldn't matter though, at the very worst I can teach her the real core moves that I believe could help her out of a bad situation if it ever came about. Luckily, she's not working as a bartender anymore so it's really not likely to happen.
     
  14. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    Yeah, if it's only once a week that would work out well for me to go back to.... now just to get a bag! I have my punching bag, but it's either work on kicks or punches. We do no kicks above the waist in CHKD for obvious reasons, so it's not really possible to set the bag low enough for punches and leg kicks.
     
  15. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    If you can kick above your head, your kicks that don't go above your waist will become a lot stronger/powerful due to the ease of mobility. Honestly I wouldn't kick anybody in the head in a fight unless I had trained it as much as my jab for boxing (probably never going to happen) but training for the ability to do it will add great benefits to your round house. That said, that bag I recommended you is tall as crap. If you get a banana bag you won't be having any issue going from kicks to punches.
     
  16. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    Yep, I think that's the one I am aiming to get. Fairtex makes a few that are nice. Many of them are unfilled though and so people just cut up a lot of old clothes into very small pieces and fill them.
     
  17. Ero-Sennin

    Ero-Sennin Well-Known Member Supporter

    I just recommended that one because I've used it and it was pretty awesome. You could probably just go all Rocky I and roll up an old mattress hotdog style with some duct tape and have at it too :p.
     
  18. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    HA! I don't have an old mattress lol
     
  19. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    well done.
     
  20. Saved_in_Blood

    Saved_in_Blood Valued Member

    Thanks, i'll see how it goes and post about it on here of course.
     

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