Muay Thai Training at Team Quest

I’ve been training Muay Thai in Thailand for over two months now. My first day training started on October 20th. I figured with a new year I should reflect on my time here and how much I have progressed.

For those reading who don’t know much about Muay Thai I’ll quote a quick intro of it here:

Muay Thai or Thai boxing is the cultural martial art of Thailand. The origin of Muay Thai dates back several hundred years, and was, essentially, developed as a form of close-combat that used the entire body as a weapon.

Essentially it is like Western boxing except there is kicking, kneeing,  and elbow striking. Some people call it the art of 8 limbs because it uses all parts of the body as a weapon.

Some people are probably wondering what would make me want to do this. Not really sure entirely. It’s one of those things that if I never tried I would never know. I have always been drawn to combat sports. When I was around 10 I spent a couple years learning Tae Kwon Do. That was more of a fitness class and method of developing discipline and self control rather than seeing what type of physicality and fighting ability your body is capable of.

Socrates explains it better than I can when he says,

“It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.”

Coming from a Tae Kwon Do background and a wrestling background there is something very addicting about a sheer struggle between one man and another; with no teammates, no timeouts, no one to blame but yourself. In these type on competitions you are often stripped down to just the bare essentials. Wrestling shoes to protect the feet and a single to keep yourself decent. In Muay Thai it’s just gloves to protect your hands and shorts to keep decent. It doesn’t matter the background of either person or the struggles one might have with work or school. Each person is exactly the same in the ring. They are just one human versus another and it’s as simple as that.

When you are out on that wrestling mat or standing in the ring you have no choice but to be fully 100% present and I think that in itself is a rare thing in a world with so many distractions. Nothing really compares to the feeling of competing like that. In the end you gain a lot of respect for the other fighter because, like you, they stripped down and submitted themselves to their basic human form and put their skill and training on display for the whole world to judge, just like you have to. In the end you learn more about yourself than anything else. Anyone who has ever competed like this knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Training

The picture above is the lone ring at the gym. Team Quest, you can see the sign in the background of the picture, is where I have been for the entirety of my training. When I first came to Chiang Mai I toured around and tried to find the right place for me. I initially like the vibe of the Team Quest gym, but I still went and looked at other places. In the end this gym was the closest to where the church was and that was an important factor.

Fortunately, after training a while I realized I had made the right choice. There isn’t a lot of ego at the gym and everybody is friendly and likes to help out. The trainers are funny guys and speak decent enough English, but more importantly they care about helping you improve. They teach good technique.

The gym does have a handful of Thai students, but being here for over 2 months I’ve seen that a lot of their business is from foreigners coming to train for a couple of days up to a couple of weeks. There is only one guy here, not on the pro team or the local Thais, that has been here longer than me. It’s been nice meeting so many people, but it can be sad when a good training partner is ready to move on. I do get to experience a lot of different fight background, however, which is always a good thing.

I have been training twice a day, six days a week since getting here. The only exceptions are my week off for my concussion (you can read about that story here) and my week off traveling Korea visiting friends (there are a couple of recent posts about that as well).

My typical training day schedule looks like this:

6:30amWAKE UPI typically read for a half an hour and brush my teeth and that good stuff
7:35amARRIVE AT GYMGet in early for around a 20 min. run through the neighborhood
8:00amTRAINING 1This is the actual training time and morning is technique work
10:00amPOST TRAINING WORKDepending, this is a 30 min stretch to an 1 hr workout
11:00amBACK AT APARTMENTShower and make lunch. Then a lot of Netflix and reading
3:45pmARRIVE AT GYMA little early for a stretch and 10 minutes of jump roping
4:00pmTRAINING 2This is a more intense bag work, pad work, and sparring session
6:15pmBACK AT APARTMENTShower and dinner. More reading and Netflix
10:00pmBED TIMEI like to get to bed early so my body can recover

..and that’s how it goes Monday through Saturday. In some of my reading and Netflix time I run errands like grocery shopping and made go to the mall or movies. I live a pretty independent lifestyle. It can be lonely, but it keeps me regimented and strictly adhering to my budget and training plan.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc9_wWSFUhi/?taken-by=wild_boom

There is a video taken in late November of me doing some pad work. When I first started I was way worse than that, and now, even only after another month, I’m a little embarrassed how bad I was in this video. It just means I’m progressing every day!

Next post should be about some New Years activities and some other updates. God bless!

Muay Thai Training at Team Quest

A Very Merry (and Thai) Christmas!

Christmas is sort of an anomaly in Thailand, but despite that fact I still managed to get Jolly and have some Christmas fun! First shout out goes to Maria for giving an unforgettable pre-Christmas celebration in Korea, where I actually got to see snow! Next shout out goes to the church here in Thailand. After reading this post you’ll understand why they deserve it!

Thai School Christmas Outreach

On the 21st, I had the opportunity to go with some members of the church out to a school a little ways out of the city. The school only had 45 kids in it and is right on the borderline of being shutdown by the government. It a lot of ways it reminded me of my own grade school, in which there were only 12 kids in the the school when I graduated from 8th grade.

We started at the school with some ice breaker English games and songs. Then we eventually got into telling the Christmas story. The missionary pastor, Pastor Rob, told the story in Thai while I stood up there on the stage holding his props. It was an awesome opportunity to be able to share the news of Jesus’s birth to kids who may have never heard it before!

Thai Christmas Caroling

On the 22nd the church carried out their tradition of Christmas caroling. We started around 6pm by piling into cars and driving to one of the members houses. At the house we quietly passed out music sheets and lit candles and then walked to the front door singing classic Christmas songs. The family came out and then they chose their Christmas favorites to sing. After we sang a couple songs we had a Bible reading and prayers. Then, as the tradition goes, the house we visited feeds everyone special treats!

It went on this way from house to house. I wish I had known about all the food, because I foolishly ate dinner beforehand. At the first house we had rice, meat, and fried eggs, as well as fruits and desserts. It was practically a full meal. At another house sweets and drinks, then at another rice cakes, and at another donuts and hot drinks. Not sure where all we went, but we sure covered some distance. We started in the city and by the end we were out in the countryside at some member’s house. When I finally made it back to my apartment after the caroling is was midnight!

Even though I was the only native English speaker there and not many of them spoke English and I wasn’t very good at sing in Thai the fellowship was apparent! It was a heart warming night and awesome to be apart of their loving church community!

Sunday Christmas Service

Though it was only Christmas Eve the main celebration of Christmas was on Sunday. It was the most packed I have ever seen the church! Most of the Thais came in traditional clothing and everyone was in such a festive mood! After a nice service (thanks to Pastor Rob for translating) we had a traditional Northern hill tribe meal.

The meal was prepared and set out on trays with everyone sharing from bowls on the table. Each person got a bag of sticky rice and you use chunks of the rice to scrap up the different meats and sauces. Traditionally they eat with only their hand and no utensils. I welcome that to chopsticks even though it might be a little more messy!

Before eating one of the girls performed a traditional dance, in the photo above. Later on, another girl from the congregation played some traditional music. Then all the native English speaking folks, myself included, sang an English Christmas song for everyone. Then after that was a good old fashioned game of bingo to win some Christmas prizes. I was actually the first winner!

 

It was an awesome experience to have the traditional meals, dancing, and music especially for a holiday that isn’t traditional at all to Buddhist Thailand. The fellowship was awesome and giving spirit was incredible! I got sent home with so much left over food , a goodie bag of candy, a goodie bag of soap and laundry detergent, and two bags of mountain rice. The rice came from a hmong village in the mountains. I’m told this rice is big grained and has a different taste and texture due to where it’s grown. I had so much to carry that my “Thai mother” pictured above helped my tie to my bike for the ride home! So much to be thankful for! I have been truly blessed by the people here in Thailand!

Christmas Day

My first Christmas outside of the US was spent in Thailand, at where else but a Japanese steak house. Not really your typical Christmas meal, but Christmas is anything but typical in Thailand.

I’m always super appreciative of the help and support I’ve gotten from the people at church and no people have taken care of me and made me feel at home more than the Meister family. Pastor Rob Meister is the missionary pastor who started the mission years ago (I’ve heard the story several times, but always forget the number of years they have been here. It’s around 20.). They are some of the most genuine, caring people you will ever meet and they have given their whole lives in service of spreading the good news of Jesus.  I’m so blessed to have met them and to have learned from them! In a clear example of them making me feel at home and taking care of me, they took me out with their family for a Christmas day lunch!

The rest of my Christmas day has been spent training at the gym.

I’ve had one heck of a different Christmas experience here in Thailand, and while I miss my family more than anything, this is a Christmas I won’t be forgetting soon! God’s blessings on your Christmas!

A Very Merry (and Thai) Christmas!

Thai Fight!!

 

In a surprising development on Saturday afternoon I found out that Thai Fight tickets were free! I skipped out on afternoon training and headed to the show with about 10 people from the gym. Now I know you’re thinking, what’s Thai Fight? The best way I can explain it is that it’s a cross between UFC and the NBA All-Star game.

Obviously, it relates to the UFC because it is fighting, but it relates to the NBA All-Star game because it has the biggest names in the sport of Muay Thai. Often their matches don’t really count for much, just like the All-Star game.

In the photos above you can see Saenchai. He is regarded as one of the best fighters of all time. His record, after the win I witnessed, is 308-23. He has numerous accolades as champion at multiple weights at top stadiums in Thailand as well as several world titles. Now, at age 37, he more or less fights lower class, inexperienced opponents for show.

Thai Fight, like the UFC, also has legitimate match-ups and potential for some good fights like a couple I saw Saturday night. However, every single fight, at least at this specific event, was a Thai versus a foreigner.  The foreigner was almost always supposed to lose. Only in one fight, the last of the night, did a 19 year old Ukrainian kid upset one of the popular Thai fighters.

This was actually the first time Thai Fight has happened in Chiang Mai. Normally Thai Fight takes place in Bangkok when it is in Thailand. Like the UFC, Thai Fight takes place often in different cities and venues. Recently there has been Thai Fight Barcelona, London, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

After the fight, I took the opportunity to get up close and see the ring. We had decent seats, only about 6 or 7 rows back, but it was cool to see it up close and personal. It’s hard to tell from my pictures, but this was a major production. There were cameras mounted everywhere on robotic arms and the stage was massive. When the fighter is first announced they pop out of the floor of the stage and then make their way to the left side where they bow to a picture of the King of Thailand. They also knee and bow before a Buddhist shrine, though I did notice fighters didn’t  always bow to the shrine.

After that the fighter walks down the main bridge high-fiving fans as he goes. Then into the ring. I am posting a video below that shows the whole event in it’s entirety. You can just skip around to different parts in the video, if you’re interested, to get a sense of the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13W_nhoq1F8

Overall, it was awesome to get to see one of Thailand’s legendary fighters even if it was mostly for show. There were some real solid matches throughout the night, and for free you can’t beat it! It’s only got me more excited to keep training!

Tomorrow is Christmas and I already have a blog post planned to fill you in all the festivities I’ve already had and will have tomorrow! God bless your holidays!

Thai Fight!!