good muay thai gym in nyc?

jimmyfingers

jimmyfingers

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thinkin bout joinin a gym in the area but read good/bad review on most gyms here... curious if anyone can provide any in gym experiences? atm thinkin about coban but heard good thing bout brandon's place as well...

iim fairly new... however lookin for some serious trainin and not just some cardio stuff, willing to prove myself for what its worth. ill hold my own even if the fucker knocks me senseless lol
 
Go to a few gyms and check them out and see what you think/prefer, tell them your thinking about getting into Muay Thai. Shop around right away so no ones feelings get hurt when you stay for a year and dip out.

Also unless your doing hard sparring (which isn't too common for people who are fairly new), if your getting knocked senseless its probably not a place you want to be. You should not have to "prove yourself" if your handing them your money...
 
It's great that we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Muay Thai schools in Manhattan.

As you mentioned.
Evolution
Coban
The Wat
Square Circle

and to a lesser extant Renzo's place.

Also there was 5 Points, but that turned into a UFC gym. I think i heard they moved back into their old place or somewhere near that but not 100% sure.

Outside of Midtown and below, Brooklyn, Queens, Harlem, there are even more schools to choose from.

In NYC I only had experience with The Wat but that was 7-8 years ago. The instructor and other students were very nice and helpful to the dope (me) who mistimed classes and ended up in the Intermediate class while trying not to die.

All give free trials, some even for multiple classes, and many also give discounts for students or fire responders, so check them out, and see which gels best for you, since everyone is looking for a different atmosphere they may click best with.
 
jimmyfingers said:
thinkin bout joinin a gym in the area but read good/bad review on most gyms here... curious if anyone can provide any in gym experiences? atm thinkin about coban but heard good thing bout brandon's place as well...

iim fairly new... however lookin for some serious trainin and not just some cardio stuff, willing to prove myself for what its worth. ill hold my own even if the fucker knocks me senseless lol
Click to expand...

They won't let a beginner do hard sparring at my MT gym until youve been there consistently for about a year, if not more. Which is a GOOD thing, as far as I am concerned. Will not name the gym, because coaches and staff post here, but I love my gym. There are good gyms in the city.
 
nyguy1982 said:
They won't let a beginner do hard sparring at my MT gym until youve been there consistently for about a year, if not more. Which is a GOOD thing, as far as I am concerned. Will not name the gym, because coaches and staff post here, but I love my gym. There are good gyms in the city.
Click to expand...
Yea that's totally understandable... I guess it's the trainers' way of being responsible and it's def a good thing. Otherwise at the end of the day, enthusiasts without sufficient experience would get hurt pretty bad lol... Sounds like one has to work their way up...makes sense.
 
The Wat is a great gym that is tailored to cardio, but as you move up the ranks, the classes get harder. The last I've been to the Wat was 3 years ago, and I have heard from more recent members that they have changed their management. Last time I went, I paid 165 after a student discount with the original price being 188. The sign up fee was 100 dollars but they were lenient enough to split that up to each month making it 173 a month for me. They only had a year membership back then but now I'm seeing a lot more options. Their classes were usually 1.5 hour hours with jump rope and calisthenics, then some static drills. I rarely did free style stuff here. I thought it was a great gym.


I left to try Five Points Academy after my contract was up. The prices I paid were 175 discounted from 204 by referring members. Their prices were posted on the website before they moved locations, and now they took down the prices. I was here for both their locations. Their first location was beautiful open mat place with lots of weights and racks. Their newer location is smaller, but two floored. Kinda dim also. The classes here are almost cardio, barely any calisthenics, shadow boxing warm ups, and straight into free style pad work. The technical sparring is tougher than most of the gyms I've been in. Feels like regular sparring. Gym feels like they advocate free style and look for specific combos. I thought it was a great gym but then they moved and I didn't like the new one.

Tomorrow I am going to try Coban's and I'll let you know what I think.
 
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lol@guys who never trained complaining about gyms who make them "useless cardio". Youre gonna put through the grinder in any respectable gym if you dont respect the formidable cardio demands.
 
bad seed said:
lol@guys who never trained complaining about gyms who make them "useless cardio". Youre gonna put through the grinder in any respectable gym if you dont respect the formidable cardio demands.
Click to expand...
I think he meant like "CKO" stuff not that Cardio was useless, but I could be wrong.
 
So I just signed up at Coban's today.

Lessons were very similar to the Wat in which there are always a combo that you will follow. I understand that there are "free style pad work" but have not tried that yet. The warm up was a little different than most gyms, and I feel like it was unnecessary as I rather do these before class on my own time.

You start with a round of jump rope out with some calisthenics and stretches and proceed to do this for 5 minutes straight. What we did were pushups, sit ups, crunches, "superman's," side crunches, leg raises, jumping jacks, squats, more stretches, more stretches, more stretches.

I prefer to stretch and do these myself and have more class time to be honest. Next was the pad work. 3 rounds of pre-set drills that you do, and you start and end with 1-2's for 30 seconds and 10 left 10 right kicks. 3 rounds of that, and then we switch,

and at the end, a smaller portion of the cool down.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class, and it was much more similar to the Wat then at five points.

They also have fundamentals class where they teach you how to kick and punch.
 
I've been training at Coban for 9 months now with no other experience in any other gym. I second HighestHand in his description of the muay thai class. I like the gym a lot. Great people at the gym who really took the time to help me get the movements right.

With regards to Five Points, what do you mean by free style pad work? Do you just pair up with a student who is holding pads and just do freestyle work? There is no set combos at all? I'm pretty good at holding pads, but I'm not great at calling out and creating combos. I need to improve with that.
 
Coban is great, I haven't tried any other gyms tho.

The drills are great, each week has a theme and the drills are designed to have you practice specific techniques. Coban attends or teaches most classes himself, he'll walk around and give you tips or correct your technique.

If you don't like cardio you frankly shouldn't do MT . Coban does 8, sometimes 9 minute rounds. There's also the occasional "cardio week".

Only downside is that the evening classes sometimes get too busy. Also, there's only 2 showers for the whole place.

Coban brings his dogs to the gym which I think is cool (the dogs are super friendly). But if you are neurotic germ freak or are allergic to dogs it might bother you :-)
 
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