The full moon party was over, people were leaving, and the rain continued flooding down on Koh Phangan Island in Thailand. I checked the weather on the other islands, but the weather was the same everywhere in the South, so I decided to stay and trained hard to learn Muay Thai – loved it.
How did I end up training Muay Thai in Thailand ?
Before my trip to Thailand, I knew I would have to fight for a free bucket for the third time on Koh Phi Phi Island, but I didn’t plan to train in Muay Thai. However, the weather on Koh Phangan Island was really bad, literally one hour of rain, then a 30-minute break and then rain again all day long. Whenever it stopped raining, everyone on the road knew that they had only 30 minutes to arrive wherever they wanted to go before it started again. Ha ha. There was not much to do in this weather, so I thought about Muay Thai and asked my friend Marco (from University) who knew I had trained in Thailand before. Luckily, he gave me two valuable recommendations; and after calling each of them, I had a better feeling to select the Kobra Muay Thai Stadium, which was also around the corner.
My first Muay Thai training / going outside my comfort zone – again
I really had no idea what to expect, so I just turned up and joined the group. Prior to the training, I thought the session was scheduled for 1.5 hours, but I think I was a little wrong – urgh.
Warming up: From the beginning, I really liked the spirit there because it motivated me and let me unleash my inner athlete. Ha ha. The warmup was jumping up and down on some truck tubes for about 25 minutes, then 15 minutes with the skipping rope, followed by 20 minutes partner stretching – while doing this, I really didn’t think I had ever stretched so far.
Before the next part started, I was already out of breath; but luckily they provided cold water to freshen up and the spirit didn’t let you feel the pain.
Muay Thai combinations / One on one: Four trainers bandaged our hands and gave us boxing gloves before we started different combinations. There were two groups, so when it was my turn doing a one on one session, the trainer asked me to do different combinations, taught me them, and I did that for about 3-4 minutes. Then I changed to a different trainer for some standing combinations within the group or went to the punching bag. At first, I felt a little weird punching the bag because I didn’t know how to imagine someone in front of me to do the couple combinations I just learned. Then again the one on one with a different trainer, which is really good to move between them. The training combinations and one on one lasted for about one hour.
Cool down: It was the cool down phase and I was very happy the first time I made it to this point. I realised pretty quickly that a cool down in Muay Thai is not as chill as a cool down in football, so it was time to do 50 situps, then planking where the trainer came and kicked my ribs 10 times – it was honestly quite painful, not just a light kick.
So the training session ended up being almost 3 hours, which is usually two hours what I found out later.
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Cost: 450 baht (ca. 14 USD) / training
The trainers
Quick feedback on the trainers: they are all professionals, really motivating and no matter whether you only come one time or have stay for a couple of weeks, they push you and correct your technique, which is important. I really feel like I learned a lot and my favorite move is the elbow. The founder and trainer of Kobra called Kongpipop really takes good care of you and he hooked me up with the best Thai healing massage woman called Miss Nok. What happened there, I will tell in a different story ‘Best Thai Massage on Koh Phangan‘.
I TRAVEL FOREVER’s VIEW & RECOMMENDATION
The training was really, really hard but was the best thing I could have done while it was pouring down on Koh Phangan island in Thailand because it challenged me to go beyond my belief and the other fighters (who had been there a couple of weeks) really inspired me. But more important, I really enjoyed it and had the time of my life. I ended up training for three days in a row and then I had to leave to go back to Germany. I totally recommend this to everyone and I have to honestly say that if I ever go back to Thailand, Muay Thai is the only reason to stay for at least 6 weeks.
Did I mind training so hard when I probably could have chilled on a hammock on the beach and watched the sun set? Absolutely not because I love the action and new experiences!
#TW
