There is a common complaint among Muay Thai practitioners that goes as follows: “My trainer never teaches me.”. I’ve heard this complaint for many years now. Some even go so far as to claim that the Thai are keeping secrets to make sure they can keep beating foreigners. This is obviously a ridiculous claim. They don’t have any secrets; you just might be making any of the following mistakes when coming to train over here:. Any of these mistakes might cost you. The price, if you’re not competing, is only that you’ll never develop. If, however, you do compete, you’ll pay with your health.
In this post, I didn’t cover why you shouldn’t join the mega gyms since I covered that in a separate post (read it here).
Let’s take a look at the most common mistakes people make when coming over here.
Not understanding Muay Thai culture.
Thai fighters don’t have a regular job like Western fighters do. Fighting is literally their job; they live at camp and train twice a day. By the time they come to Bangkok, they’re already really experienced from competing in the local scene. They master the basics already. So when they train, they don’t go to a class. They are preparing for a fight.
Sure, sometimes they train with a lesser intensity, but don’t expect a class like you have in the West where someone grabs your hands and helps you with everything. It doesn’t work that way here in most gyms. People who come here with no experience have to be built from the ground up. That is very time-consuming, plus most people don’t even want to learn the proper basics.
So in most camps, you’ll see them teach Thais and foreigners differently. Thai beginners start off with footwork drills. Most foreigners start out on the pads regardless of their technical abilities. Can you guess how this is an issue down the line? These people are skipping multiple fundamental steps and building upon them.
It’s a recipe for disaster.
Not learning Thai.
A common complaint is that most Thais don’t learn English and, because of that, can’t teach. Most fighters go to school, but only for a short period of time, their main focus is on their career or making money. If you want to live here and compete here, you need to learn some basic Thai to get around. These days, you obviously have translation apps, but you’ll still need to learn Muay Thai vocabulary since sometimes it’s really hard to translate these words to English.
In the end, learning the local language will always give you benefits. The locals will treat you differently; it’s harder to scam you, and it’s easier to get around. There’s only one benefit to it. There would have been fewer mismatches in Thailand if more fighters had learned Thai here.
Not being a student of the game.
Not every trainer knows everything. I have padman that gets confused when I try to use controls. I learned certain things from other trainers, some from tutorials, some just from understanding concepts and studying tape. This knowledge shaped me as a fighter. Other people think they’ll get everything from one trainer. Or they just think that getting beasted every day is the way to improve. It isn’t.
Showing up to training is easy; getting through training is easy. Doing your homework, studying tape or watching tutorials while no one is forcing you or watching you is the real challenge. Most people can’t do this type of mental work. But this type of mental work is what makes the difference down the line.
Not realizing the difference between a padman and a trainer.
I already devoted a whole substack to this matter so I’ll keep it short (read it here). Most gyms have padman and trainers. A trainer is someone who teaches you. A padman is literally someone who just holds pads. Most padman have no clue about tactics, positioning, etc. They just condition you. People who train with only padman go to war every single fight because they have been conditioned that way.
There is a big issue with this fighting style, which I cover here, but for now, it’s maybe time to reflect on your training to see if anyone is actually teaching you. Is anyone fixing your mistakes, Is someone teaching you tactics to deal with all the styles, Are they teaching you how to defend yourself? Or are they just teaching you how to be strong and get through it.
Not understanding the idea of “Kru Puk Luk Chum”.
Every great fighter in Thailand talks about this. They learned by watching others, either live in the stadiums, on television or in their own gym. Trying to figure out how people do certain things makes sure you can apply it as well. Some people are good at certain things but have no clue how to explain it. They just do it automatically. Watching them apply it might help you figure out when and why they do it.
A lot of people see things happen in fights and try to copy them, but they can never pull them off. This is because they only understand the mechanical part of the movement. But they don’t understand how to set it up. Not understanding that is another recipe for disaster.
Become a student of the game because it’s a very dangerous one with painful consequences. It’s weird to me that I have to keep repeating this but some people really don’t seem to get it.
Never explore other teachers/training partners.
My last fight was a loss by TKO in round 2. People said my game plan was perfect until I got caught. That sounded nice, but I felt I could have done better but didn’t have the knowledge to stop this ultra-aggressive puncher from coming at me. Eventually I went to a gym where I visit occasionally and asked what they thought of the fight.
They quickly saw what I could improve and worked on it with me. Not every trainer has all the knowledge about the sport. you can learn from other people as well. It has never been easier to do this so use this to your advantage.
On training and fighting Muay Thai in Thailand
Thinking about coming to train or fight in Thailand? Like mentioned before, not learning about the culture is one of the biggest mistakes you could make.
That is why I wrote my e-book to fully prepare you for your upcoming trip. You can buy it here.
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Until next time.
Alex
