Korean Job Discussion Forums

[vox]

So my coach has been trying to get me out to these Saturday matches and finally I went to one this Saturday. I can't consistently throw the perfect punch he wants, and I'm pretty sure no sambo wrestling is allowed, so I was reasonably sure I wouldn't be asked to fight - yet.

So I'm sitting in this hot gym on a sunny Saturday with about 40 kids to adolescents, some of the younger ones vaguely smelling of pee, but they have an up-to-standard boxing ring in immaculate condition in the center of this 2nd floor shantytown dillapidated shack. I was called up with the other old farts to be introduced as new students but we weren't asked to fight. But the fights that I did see, I don't know what to make of it. I signed up for self-defense, really. I thought it would all be a points system for landing well-formed punches and kicks. I suppose open sparring with other students makes one better at it. But they started off with 5- and 6-year olds who frikkin tried to kill each other. At first they were just shoving gloves in each others' faces (kind of amusing and cute because the gloves were too big and too heavy for them) but as they understood the equipment better, the punches became more fierce and I never saw any horror movie that disturbed me as much as the murderous look in the eyes of an infant. After a minute, each of them wanted to cry. But the coach said, 'don't cry, don't cry' and then declared both of them winners and made them hug each other, and the smiles came back to their faces.

So I thought maybe they were a little tender (damn right!) but then a few fights in, these two chunky young adults had a go at it and they were trying to frikkin' kill each other too! No style, no form, just trying to smash each other. Like little sonic booms everytime they landed a hit. At least these people had head and body gear. But the blue guy got a nosebleed, and then he started to cry. I couldn't believe it! At that point I and my gf left for camping. That was about 1 hour in of a 4 hour event.

Now I've been practising wrestling with a fellow who's much taller (and lankier) than me, and is graciously making himself my wrestling partner so I can study footwork and moves on over-sized opponents. I don't mind getting messed up a bit for the sake of self-study and improvement, and we're all super-polite to each other before and after. That's the scenario I want. But I've never experienced anything like this and I'm thinking that my nice big juicy Western nose would be some lusty target that everyone would want to have at. Is this the way Muay Thai sparring matches are everywhere?
I suppose I'm just a chickensh*t, which is absolutely fine with me if I'm the problem. But I think maybe sparring is supposed to be different. Is it?

Any encouragement from Muay Thai students would be most welcome.

[seoulsucker]

[Julius]

Sounds a bit ridiculous.. you're only supposed to score just enough points to win a bout, not destroy your opponent.

Save it for Thailand is my advice- just stick to the gym or do taekwondo while you're here.

[The_Conservative]

[manlyboy]

Most Muay Thai fighters are retired before they reach 25. It's all about the battering. The body can only take so much. And those guys have sore bones for the rest of their lives.
Every Muay Thai instructor I've known has had that gung-ho attitude. My nose is still crooked from when my instructor broke it ten years ago teaching me how to slip punches! Probably the hardest man I've ever known, but did very little to help me develop. It was all full contact, pedal to the metal, spartan type stuff that I wasn't ready for. Very glad I switched to boxing.

Good sparring is like a game of tag. I chase you around for a bit. Then you chase me. It's about penetrating the defences. Seeing a hole, and getting something through it. There's no need to smash each other unless you're training for an actual fight, and even then you need to exercise caution.

[vox]

[Julius]

While we're on the subject, can anyone reccommend a great training gym/ school in thailand? Seems to be a lot of dodgy outfits running out there.