Muay Thai Mastery

Muay Thai Mastery for pro self defense techniques

Do you remember all your fears about the first day of a new high school or college? Worrying if you could find the right class room, wondering if you were overdressed, under-dressed, or had even picked the right image to present yourself to your new classmates. Always checking your schedule, trying to figure out where to sit, trying to decide if you should raise your hand or not in class. Looking around the room and wondering who would be a good person to talk to and become friends with, wondering if you were cool enough to be their friend. Well thank God that’s over for me, and for most of you, but I like to remember that feeling because it can be a little like the first day of school for people when they walk into a Muay Thai gym for the first time. If you have been in the fight scene for a while, you forget what it was like when you first started. For a newbie, instructors, fighters, and other students are intimidating. Muay Thai traditions are completely foreign. You don’t know a Thai pad from a kick pad, Thai oil smells funny, three minutes of jump rope feels like an eternity, and you have no idea how to take 180 inches of fabric and somehow with what seems like 37 different twists and turns, wrap it neatly around your hand without either cutting off your circulation or having the whole wrap fall apart after the warm-up. At my gym, I try to make beginners feel comfortable and explain to them all the things they will need to know before they move on to the mixed level classes, but I will probably always fall short. It’s so hard to remember all the things beginners don’t know because it’s been so long since I was one. I am always grateful when a student asks me a question that is very obvious to me, but they couldn’t possibly know without being told. It gives me a chance to share with them my experience and pass on knowledge that was passed down to me in a true tradition of martial arts. This blog is for all the teachers like myself that need reminding how little we knew in the beginning and for all the Muay Thai newbies who just started training or are curious about starting. These Tips for Muay Thai Beginners are for those who I assume care about getting better at Muay Thai. if you are training just to get a ripped body you might want to consider other less technical means like those of boot camps or cardio kickboxing. Just my two cents.