Muay Thai camps in Thailand

Just got back from a month in Thailand, spent a couple of weeks training at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket.

For Phuket, the area with the gyms is in Chalong, which is on the East side of the island. Annoying as all the beaches are on the East side. But most people rent scooters and its onlye a 15/20min ride away to Patong/Katon/Kara/Nai Harn (my fave).

There are a few gyms in Chalong (all pretty much on one road) – Tiger muay Thai (where I trained), Phuket Top Team, Phuket Dragon Muay Thai and Suwit. My recommendation is to go start off at Tiger. Its a much more accomodating gym for newcomers and it’ll help you find your feet. If you’re there for a month, Id say do at least a week or two there and then move to one of the smaller and old school gyms on the road. You’ll get a lot more focus there in your class, but you’ll feel a little bit more comfortable having done the basics at Tiger.

For accomodation… Tiger has its own, but its a bit pricey (relatively speaking). But if you are training there its convenient. I was staying a few mins down the road at Tonys (Good lord, I could write a whole post on this character… he’s basically the local ‘fixer’). Had my own bungalow, but he’s got rooms too. Cheaper restaurant there as well.

If you have any questions then just shout :)

Gonna paste some stuff I posted in another forum:

Each day consisted of 2 Muay thai sessions, 8 – 10.30 and 4 – 6.30.

There’s also yoga for an hour beforehand you can do, but I could never get up that early… Time in the middle was yours to do as you please, most either did a private session or chilled at the beach.

3 classes, beginners, intermediate and advanced all running at same time (the camp itself is huuuuuge).

Beginners is :
Half hour warm up – running for 15 min, then 15 min jogging while punching, kneeing etc, jumping jacks, burpees, usual shit. A pain in this heat though.
Half hour shadowboxing being led by trainer.
One hour rotating between pad work, bag work and sparring (3 rounds each) . 10 pushups between each round…
Half hour warm down (mostly same as warm up)

Intermediate is:
30 min warm up and stretching
45 mins of technique work in pairs or with trainer.
45-60 mins sparring (boxing in morning, Muay thai in afternoon)
Warm down (Tuesday and Thursday afternoon is running around camp)

Never did advanced.

Each class usually has about 10 trainers in it which is a great help

I was able to do either 2 sessions or a session and private nearly every day, which surprised me. I struggle with 2 sessions a week back home!

Finished up training now, just a few nights relaxing before home :(

The training was so worth it, it was awesome. My technique has improved immeasurably (this is more to do with the private sessions than the group classes it has to be said). Most of the trainers were cracking lads and a good a laugh. Genuinely nuts most of them though, and nearly all have had tons of pro fights and fought in lumpinee stadium.

Some highlights :

the quite pretty English lass (and a very girly girl) and who turned up to training in a bikini. The amount of trainers who got hit during pad work because they kept getting distracted :lol:

the saffa lad, who turned up topless, hands wrapped and sporting the ultimate beach body. Nowt wrong with that of course, except he used to ‘hollywood’ shadowbox, ie no technique just flashy, while also combing his hair back with his gloves while doing so :lol: he got the cane for walking during a knees up exercise too as he gassed pretty early on unsurprisingly

some other bloke got caned too, and stormed off refusing to shake the head trainers hand.

Constantly being hit hard by a girl during 10% sparring, got a little pissed off after she did some random sideways kick at my liver and caught her with a right hook to the temple and a left middle kick to the waist :smug:

Saw Paul Daley wandering about a couple of times, but was always in class :(

The head Muay thai trainer always picking on the swedish lads cos his missus ran off with a swede years ago (awesome dude tho, looks like a thai yoda/splinter/miyagi combo, but with shit loads of tattoos)

Tony. The incredibly dodgy bloke who is the local fixer. Nothing he can’t get or do for you. But will always make a buck off you.

Mate,

Where are you at? I’m Perth born and bred, have trained in Thailand before and I think some of the stateside guys don’t appreciate the 1) how small your town is, 2) how urbanised Aus is and how scarce martial arts gyms are and 3) the geographical proximity of Thailand to WA.

Training prices are dirt cheap in aussie peso terms also, e.g. you should definitely start with 1 on 1 private classes, which might be A$70-100 in Perth / Syd, but in Thailand are B600 – B1000 (~A$25). I’d actually recommend starting in thailand one on one, as they will give you the best technique at the start and you won’t have to unlearn any bad habits.

You don’t get that kind of attention to technique in 30 person classes in a big gym in Aus. I agree with the last dude, smaller classes are better.

I would say don’t write off the smaller gyms that aren’t as big as some marketing wise, I often find that’s where some of the best (and cheapest) training is.

I would recommend you do a lot of research and making up a list as the comments you hear might be from a dude who has trained at tiger, but no where else. e.g. I used google to grab these to begin with:

http://goodmanfight.com/Muay_Thai_Camp_Reviews.html
http://www.pak-mma.com/?tag=training-in-thailand
http://fightpassport.com/muay-thai-training-journals/where-to-train-in-thailand/

You should first think about where you want to be at, i.e. Bangkok, South (Phuket, Samui), North (Chiangmai), Isaan (NE) etc. I’d think the southern / BKK gyms would be more foreigner friendly and you can’t go wrong in Phuket, Samui or BKK. Personally I prefer Krabi to all of them as it’s less developed and more chilled, but depends on what you’re after, you might want to party or get chuck wow. There is only 1 gym in Krabi though, although I thought it was good.

Places which I think were good (and not already mentioned):

- Patong Beach Gym in Phuket had some great trainers who put a lot of focus on my technique
- Pinyo Muay Thai in Samui
- Emerald Muay Thai in Krabi
- Rawai Muay Thai in Phuket

I’d probably start by finding places with the cheapest privates, trying a few of them and then settling.

Big tip: you’re probably not unfit, but work VERY hard on your cardio before you go. Training thai style + hot humid air = gassing earlier than in Aus. You want to get the most out of the experience. Hill sprints + freestyle sprints for breakfast.

You will get the shits eventually, but don’t drink from the tap.

Man I miss Thailand.

I’ve been to Tiger twice although the 2nd time I did hardly any MT – BJJ & MMA instead. I’d like to go back again but I’m 38 next week and it gets pretty hard training that much. Anyway I’d tend to agree with what other people have said, Tiger’s class sizes are probably too big and probably not beginnerish enough for a complete beginner. If you can definitely do some striking training before you head over there.

Nothing to do with training but make sure you check out Suzy Wong’s in Patong.