Had My First Class Today

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novakid

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Attended my first muay thai boxing class today and I had a great time. Got gassed pretty quickly but I feel that I did pretty well for my first day. I just had a quick question regarding my southpaw stance. When we started doing padwork, the instructor just told everyone to go regular stance for now. Should I insist training southpaw or just learn basic techniques with a regular stance?

I am only 19 with no martial arts experience, so I dont want to develope bad habits.

Thanks
 
As a general rule you should pretty much do whatever your coach asks for now. The instructor may have a reason for doing what he is doing. Whenever we got new people at my old gym we enjoyed hazing people just to see how comitted they were...I miss that place. Congrats on your first class though.
 
congrats on your first class - i'm doing MT as well and love it

agree with cpt henry m - do as your told
 
In thailand i was stunned by how many Thais are southpaw,
Stick to southpaw if your more comfortable, talk to your trainer he won't bite.
 
As Waikru said, your trainer is another person. They're a teacher, even. If you're not sure about something, ask your teacher a question.

However! If you ARE right-handed, do not force Southpaw as an 'I just learned this way'. You'll be permanently stubbed at a disadvantage over a native left-hander. If you're naturally righty, learn orthodox and then try and mix some 'tricks' in from Southpaw. Learn how to switch-step and cross, etc. as you improve. Learn what's the most comfortable for you from the start.

To trump all of what I just typed, if your coach says 'Everyone stand (This Way)!' then do as your told. :) He's doing something, and he's probably got a reason.
 
Cangrats on your new class. I went to my first class a few months ago but I have not been able to go back yet which makes me angry.
By just completing one class it's probably not a big problem with not learning southpaw stances, you have still much more time.
Also, I read in a book that if one is about to fight someone who uses a different type of stance, they should try learning the different stance to see how his or her fighting varys from your own.
 
I would do what your coach says but before class next time talk to him and mention that you are a lefty and that is you feel more comfortable. I don't see any reason any legitimate trainer would try and make you switch stance, just let him know ahead of time. When I started I just told my instructors I was a lefty and that was how they trained my brother and I.
 
I feel sorry for the lefties in my muay thai class, they are so left out, no pun intended. My instructor has all of the non-fighters training in orthodox, he says left handers that fight in orthodox have a huge advantage. I think he is just being lazy and doesn't wanna deal with the stance changing.

It's kind of tricky holding pads for a lefty if you are so used to holding for righties too.
 
RJ Powell said:
I feel sorry for the lefties in my muay thai class, they are so left out, no pun intended. My instructor has all of the non-fighters training in orthodox, he says left handers that fight in orthodox have a huge advantage. I think he is just being lazy and doesn't wanna deal with the stance changing.

It's kind of tricky holding pads for a lefty if you are so used to holding for righties too.
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Holding pads was one of the biggest problems I've seen for trainers. I trained with pro fighters and trainers who had been doing this shit for years and it threw them off. However since my brother and I are both lefties we got to be pretty damn good at it, especially since we always held for eachother and got eachothers rhythm down.
 
novakid said:
Attended my first muay thai boxing class today and I had a great time. Got gassed pretty quickly but I feel that I did pretty well for my first day. I just had a quick question regarding my southpaw stance. When we started doing padwork, the instructor just told everyone to go regular stance for now. Should I insist training southpaw or just learn basic techniques with a regular stance?

I am only 19 with no martial arts experience, so I dont want to develope bad habits.

Thanks
Click to expand...

firstly, i was in exact same situation. do what your instructor tells you. i've been training normal stance for a while now at the club. when i go home i train both. one thing i've noticed is i got competent at normal stance pretty quick, and my southpaw didn't suffer. now i have much more options. one i started sparring, i changed stance when i wanted and the instructor didn't say anything. it was interesting to be able to do both and being competent at both. it's also fun to see the partner's reaction.
 
Speak to your coach and tell him youre better as a southpaw. Unless hes a complete cock he will let you train southpaw. Also, stick to training your strong side - some people come in and theyre like "shall I switch stances for this round?" NO, whats the point of training 2 sides if youre not even good at 1?

Good on you for starting training hope you enjoy it.
 
Thanks for the advice guys..

After my two trial classes ive decided to sign up for the three months I will be home on summer vacation from college. Now I have unlimited access to all the BJJ, CSW, and Thai boxing classes I want to attend. Im very excited to start training.
 
novakid said:
Attended my first muay thai boxing class today and I had a great time. Got gassed pretty quickly but I feel that I did pretty well for my first day. I just had a quick question regarding my southpaw stance. When we started doing padwork, the instructor just told everyone to go regular stance for now. Should I insist training southpaw or just learn basic techniques with a regular stance?

I am only 19 with no martial arts experience, so I dont want to develope bad habits.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I am a lefty and would prefer Southpaw but I was also told to do the same thing. I was told that it gives us an advantage over Orthodox people because we can switch down the road whenever we want and will be comfortable in both stances. I was also told that in the beginning there was no Southpaw and everyone just trained in an Orthodox stance. I do what I'm told.
 
I usually fight in an orthodox stance but I'll go southpaw even if I'm not as strong just to throw my opponent off or to counter a southpaw. If I were you I train with my dominate side to get the technique down. Then once I can execute the technique properly start practicing with my other side.
Remember, you should have a good side and a better side, but no weak side.
 
Dude, I love it when righties try to switch to southpaw thinking that will work better. Usually didn't work out too well.
 
lol i agree, you lose almost ALL advantages in that case ^^^ completely different from a lefty learning orthodox.

the only time i switch to southpaw is to set up a lead leg kick, sometimes i switch to it for a few seconds and gauge my opponents reactions when i fire off the left kick.
 
Oh yeah and it makes training a hell of a lot easier if you're a lefty and just practice orthodox because you and your pad holding partner or partner during rehearsed sparring drill will get to practice more instead of wasting a ton of time just trying to figure out how to do everything opposite to accommodate your southpaw stance.
 
mvisit1 said:
Oh yeah and it makes training a hell of a lot easier if you're a lefty and just practice orthodox because you and your pad holding partner or partner during rehearsed sparring drill will get to practice more instead of wasting a ton of time just trying to figure out how to do everything opposite to accommodate your southpaw stance.
Click to expand...

hmmm.....never really had an issue with that, but then again I had kickboxing/boxing trainers that were competent enough to be able to compensate and adjust for training a southpaw. I never trained orthodox because it would have been ridiculous. Why take away one of the natural advantages I have?
 
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