Legit instructors in Muay Thai??

[SAMURAI SPIRIT]

I am wondering how do you find a legit instructor in Muay Thai? Or what constitutes a legitimate Muay Thai school? Let us look at a few scenarios:

a) A BJJ school with a Muay Thai class being run by an amateur MMA fighter. He has decent striking but not a dedicated Muay Thai guy. Is he legit?

b) A Muay Thai fighter who has a fight record and has fought in Thailand but does not have the aptitude for teaching. (Note: The fact that you know how to fight does not always mean that you know how to teach or that you are even committed to the betterment of your students.) As a fighter he is legit but as an instructor?

c) A committed school teacher (yep) who has limited experience actually fighting in the ring but measures his success by what the students achieve. Trains students on a regular basis and then takes them to Thailand once a year.

d) Goju-Ryu school where selected students (who think they are tough) wear Muay thai shorts a few times a week and try to spar harder than the tap-me point Karate system.

e) A personal trainer who is certified to teach a cardio kick boxing class has also learnt how to hold pads for a selected few and advertises a Muay Thai class.

We see videos of BJJ back belts exposing fakes. How would you do that in the above scenarios or WHO would you do that to in the above scenarios. How would you rate these schools in the order or your own preferences?

 

[j123]

I'm not too strict, to me what constitutes as a good school is within their competition team. They have an active team that does good, and wins fights, titles, etc. that's a good school. I'm not a nazi about the purity of the technique.

At the end of the day MT is a sword that's supposed to lop heads, no point if the decor of the blade looks beautiful but has a dull edge.

If a school is very fitness, cardio focused, but lacks in a competition team, I probably wouldn't train there unless I was recovering from a mortal injury, can't exercise properly and it was a good environment.

 

[shincheckin]

I am wondering how do you find a legit instructor in Muay Thai? Or what constitutes a legitimate Muay Thai school? Let us look at a few scenarios:

a) A BJJ school with a Muay Thai class being run by an amateur MMA fighter. He has decent striking but not a dedicated Muay Thai guy. Is he legit?

b) A Muay Thai fighter who has a fight record and has fought in Thailand but does not have the aptitude for teaching. (Note: The fact that you know how to fight does not always mean that you know how to teach or that you are even committed to the betterment of your students.) As a fighter he is legit but as an instructor?

c) A committed school teacher (yep) who has limited experience actually fighting in the ring but measures his success by what the students achieve. Trains students on a regular basis and then takes them to Thailand once a year.

d) Goju-Ryu school where selected students (who think they are tough) wear Muay thai shorts a few times a week and try to spar harder than the tap-me point Karate system.

e) A personal trainer who is certified to teach a cardio kick boxing class has also learnt how to hold pads for a selected few and advertises a Muay Thai class.

We see videos of BJJ back belts exposing fakes. How would you do that in the above scenarios or WHO would you do that to in the above scenarios. How would you rate these schools in the order or your own preferences?

out of the scenarios you posted, if I had to pick one. I would go with C. Given the guy actually knows what he is talking about and actually understands everything deeply. Freddy Roach is a great example of one of the best boxing coaches of all time, but he only had a handfull of professional fights to my knowledge. Cus D'amato only had a few amateur fights I believe and was a great coach.

"A" is a very typical scenario now at most gyms. no one cares about pure muay thai now anyways, they only want muay thai for mma.

B is also pretty common scenario.

fighters dont always make great coaches.

Being an ex fighter isnt a requirement to be a great coach, but it sure does help!

as far as "exposing" someone, you would just have to call them out I guess. But the scenarios you posted, theres nothing to "expose", unless the person was lying about their accomplishments, than you could call them out. people lying about their accomplishments was pretty common in the past. I know a few people/gyms that are entirely based on lies but am not going to put them on blast. Thanks to the internet and social media people cant get away with it anymore.

 

[lts5025]

Judge a teacher by the success of their students, simple as that. Anything else is just a bonus.

 

[Noodles03]

I usually go by the amount of hot Asian girl. The more there are, the more legit this place is.

P.S. I'm still finding a cure for my yellow fever.

 

[shincheckin]

I usually go by the amount of hot Asian girl. The more there are, the more legit this place is.

P.S. I'm still finding a cure for my yellow fever.

theres no cure, only medicine.

 

[j123]

P.S. I'm still finding a cure for my yellow fever.

Latinas

Spoiler

Then you find out they all cray as fuck so you try dip out, but cray = amazing in the sack, so you hesitate to dip and get caught in a vicious cycle

...wait what are we talking about again?

 

[Azam]

theres no cure, only medicine.

There's Thai ladyboys - if that doesn't cure yellow fever nothing will.

 

[j123]

There's Thai ladyboys - if that doesn't cure yellow fever nothing will.

What if Payak was secretly a ladyboy?

 

[Sano]

I'd go with C as well.

 

[Nooob]

There is a gym nearby that I'm interested. The instructor was a former Yugoslavian champ and a WAKO world cup runner up. He trained in one of those gym where champs would train in Serbia then retired due to injuries.

He moved here and what's wierd is that he opened an amateur gym and trains Muay Thai and boxing too. Could he be legit when he only fought and trained kickboxing all his life?

 

[j123]

There is a gym nearby that I'm interested. The instructor was a former Yugoslavian champ and a WAKO world cup runner up. He trained in one of those gym where champs would train in Serbia then retired due to injuries.

He moved here and what's wierd is that he opened an amateur gym and trains Muay Thai and boxing too. Could he be legit when he only fought and trained kickboxing all his life?

Its different though, WAKO is the shiny pants kickboxing, no hitting below the waist style.

MT is different, even though technically it could be categorized as "kickboxing".

Clinching, strikes to legs, sweeps, dumps, etc.

 

[CoolKnees]

I'd go with the gym that has the best students. It's obvious they are doing something right. In a sense, all of the more experienced students become your instructor, so if the one you have sucks, well you got all these other guys to learn from.

At the end of the day, everybody has different bodies, knowledge and fight styles. An orthodox instructor is gonna struggle teaching southpaws. A taller instructor is gonna struggle teaching a short fighter. So in my POV getting tips and instruction from multiple perspectives is worth way more than one good instructor. You may realize you are learning way more from your sparring partner than the instructor.

 

[DoctorTaco]

C

 

[Azam]

What if Payak was secretly a ladyboy?

If I remember correctly he was the son of a farang and a thai prostitute that had a one night stand, that was abandoned and became a monk.

Hmmm a Australian ladyboy living in Thailand....it's possible.


Also TS - my own preference would be C. Although I'd add that you don't necessarily have to take students every year to Thailand to be legit - just like you wouldn't have to take students to Japan to teach legit karate.

To add further I wouldn't measure success by what students achieve either. The vast majority of students training any martial art don't necessarily look to compete - the majority do it as a hobby and all student have differing goal. So measuring success by what students achieve isn't always possible and I don't think it's a great measuring stick either. I think the litmus test to measure success is by seeing how effective students are in sparring, how well they can take the lessons learned in class & apply it to life outside the gym/dojo and more importantly how consistently they train.

What we can achieve in our peak age 18-36 is very different to what's achievable when your 50+. I think when you talk about legit instructors - a part of being a legit instructor is also being able to get students that get much older to keep/stick to training. Not every instructor has the ability to do that.

 

[j123]

If I remember correctly he was the son of a farang and a thai prostitute that had a one night stand, that was abandoned and became a monk.

Hmmm a Australian ladyboy living in Thailand....it's possible.


Also TS - my own preference would be C. Although I'd add that you don't necessarily have to take students every year to Thailand to be legit - just like you wouldn't have to take students to Japan to teach legit karate.

To add further I wouldn't measure success by what students achieve either. The vast majority of students training any martial art don't necessarily look to compete - the majority do it as a hobby and all student have differing goal. So measuring success by what students achieve isn't always possible and I don't think it's a great measuring stick either. I think the litmus test to measure success is by seeing how effective students are in sparring, how well they can take the lessons learned in class & apply it to life outside the gym/dojo and more importantly how consistently they train.

What we can achieve in our peak age 18-36 is very different to what's achievable when your 50+. I think when you talk about legit instructors - a part of being a legit instructor is also being able to get students that get much older to keep/stick to training. Not every instructor has the ability to do that.

There's a blend, but personally I think the competition team needs to be good for the gym. My opinion is BJJ guys take the ranking shit way too seriously. If a gym is producing champs, getting wins, and the competitors are rarely injured its good. When I started out, the grappling credentials were I guess suspect by BJJ standards, but the competition team was good, lots of hardware and the vibe was good so I stuck with it. We're gonna have to trust our instincts and make the best judgement.

There's really 3-4 types of people in a martial arts gym:

• hobbyist - Will never compete doing it as a hobby, and socializing
• hobbyist-competitor - Hobbyist for a few years and decides to dabble in competing. They'll take part in a few events to get a taste of it, but thats it. 1 or 2 ammy bouts / exhibitions.
• Serious competitor - High level ammy looking to make it pro
• pros - Hard to say, pros bounce around gyms like sluts and its rare to have people who started from the ground up and stuck with the gym to the end. They're cross training at multiple places. You'll have a fighter on your team today, tomorrow they're with another camp.

One problem I have with cardio type gyms is that they don't know how to hold pads properly. Been at a few where the name fooled me, but its a cardio kickbox gym in general.

Personally, like a regular career, I feel that if you're the best competitor there and the next best ones aren't close to your level, its time to go. Being at the top will actually make you complacent and you need people better than you so you can grow and progress, if not, the world evolves while you remain stuck, and thats not good. We should always be aiming to evolve, adapt, and progress.

 

[Paradigm]

If I remember correctly he was the son of a farang and a thai prostitute that had a one night stand, that was abandoned and became a monk.

Hmmm a Australian ladyboy living in Thailand....it's possible.


Also TS - my own preference would be C. Although I'd add that you don't necessarily have to take students every year to Thailand to be legit - just like you wouldn't have to take students to Japan to teach legit karate.

To add further I wouldn't measure success by what students achieve either. The vast majority of students training any martial art don't necessarily look to compete - the majority do it as a hobby and all student have differing goal. So measuring success by what students achieve isn't always possible and I don't think it's a great measuring stick either. I think the litmus test to measure success is by seeing how effective students are in sparring, how well they can take the lessons learned in class & apply it to life outside the gym/dojo and more importantly how consistently they train.

What we can achieve in our peak age 18-36 is very different to what's achievable when your 50+. I think when you talk about legit instructors - a part of being a legit instructor is also being able to get students that get much older to keep/stick to training. Not every instructor has the ability to do that.

I still remember Jomhod kicking his ass all over the gym.

 

[esum80]

based on your above scenarios, i would go with C.

 

[shincheckin]

going back to my selection of #3

this guy right here im sure most are familiar with, good coach, knows what hes talking about, and I believe he only had a few amatuer boxing matches.

 

[theranch]

out of the scenarios you posted, if I had to pick one. I would go with C. Given the guy actually knows what he is talking about and actually understands everything deeply. Freddy Roach is a great example of one of the best boxing coaches of all time, but he only had a handfull of professional fights to my knowledge. Cus D'amato only had a few amateur fights I believe and was a great coach.

"A" is a very typical scenario now at most gyms. no one cares about pure muay thai now anyways, they only want muay thai for mma.

B is also pretty common scenario.

fighters dont always make great coaches.

Being an ex fighter isnt a requirement to be a great coach, but it sure does help!

as far as "exposing" someone, you would just have to call them out I guess. But the scenarios you posted, theres nothing to "expose", unless the person was lying about their accomplishments, than you could call them out. people lying about their accomplishments was pretty common in the past. I know a few people/gyms that are entirely based on lies but am not going to put them on blast. Thanks to the internet and social media people cant get away with it anymore.

I agree entirely with the point you are trying to make about not having to have a ton of fights to understsnd the game and make a good coach. Also completely agree that most people want "Muay Thai" for MMA nowadays. But just to give the man his credit for time served Freddy R had over 60 professional fights.