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There is a very good book to read on this subject which is The Inner Game of Tennis, which presents the Coach's Dilemma, which is verbal correction very often leads to the opposite results as intended. As an overthinker you might find this book very interesting. If the aim is to actually help someone (as the outcome), and not just display knowledge, it gives powerful food for thought. I say this as a very analytical, breakdown oriented, let-me-explain-things, kind of guy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003T0G9E4/

I never even considered fighting, I thought I would try the sport when it was decided I would move to Thailand but I never even considered doing anything serious with it. I had never even seen a fight first time I tried and I did not know how to stand or what a guard is or anything. I was also incredibly shitty. Like the one everyone in the gym tries to help out because she cannot keep her limbs together. But after some months I suddenly had this vision in my head. Super scary. And about ten months in of proper training (starting 2/week to 6-10/week but no clinching, almost no sparring at all) I decided I really wanted to fight. And then it took a while to even get a fight and I only discovered how much I really wanted it when what was supposed to be my first fight got cancelled. And in the end I was smoking a cigarette having a beer when I was offered a fight five days later. So not ideal prep but it went well anyway. And nothing can beat that feeling of fighting for the first time. Everyone told me it would be just like sparring no worries and you won't feel pain. I felt a lot of pain. And it was nothing like sparring. So, even if I had done much more sparring and harder sparring I do not think I could have known before how I would react in the ring.

Hi guys, It's been a while since I posted, but I've been meaning to ask this question to a broader audience. Just where do we draw the line when it comes to critiquing someone, criticising, and basically commentating? What I mean is, I am an overthinker, unfortunately this is a curse and a blessing as I can't turn it off, it's amazing for my work, but not so great when it comes to Martial Arts. I can critique someone, the snap pointers where you see your partner not twisting their hips on a round kick, or pivoting on a hook... But it seems whenever I attempt a constructive criticism as to why something isn't working by brain goes into overdrive and I basically start explaining it step by step as if I was telling myself how to do something, which the digresses into micro adjustments and eventually onto a full blown commentary... There are examples of it on this forum. Extremely valid examples which I was called up on, which at the time I was writing seemed important, and relevant, but upon going back and reading after, I could totally see why I was called up on it and gave me a completely different perspective on what I'd written. Where should I be drawing the line to just help my partner? But at the same time, no be stepping on toes of instructors etc. Does anyone else have a similar problem with things like this? Especially if it is a subject which you are extremely enthusiastic about and have a tonne of observations which you think would benefit. There will always be a point where help becomes hindrance, and at that point no on is learning anything. How do I keep things objective, and subjective when there is so much noise to filter?

How long are you thinking of staying? How many sessions or how much hard work? Mostly, is this something you want them to really dive into, or you want to to be a part of other travel and vacation like experiences? Chiang Mai is really a nice city to experience these things in. For one, it's lots lots to do and see. Secondly, in the North it's culturally more conservative and traditional, so you will get less of the touristed Muay Thai subculture (not saying you won't get it there, but generally the city has a kind of conservative quality). Also, there are female Muay Thai fights pretty much every night of the week in the city, so they can go and watch some fights and maybe enjoy that and be inspired. Once you let me know how much time and how deep of a dive you want them to take (do you want them training twice a day, coming back to the hotel wiped out?...or, do you want them training once a day, or even less?) maybe I can give a few recommendations?

Thank you for that feedback! This at least gives me some idea of where the bar is set for serious training in Thailand. I’m in the US and from my understanding, the idea of fight camp is more of a western thing? Fighters in Thailand are coached to be fight ready pretty much always? I don’t have firsthand knowledge of this but that’s been my understanding from people who train and fight there. Like almost all amateurs, I have lots of life commitments, including 4 young children. I just started training at a new gym that is much more of a fight geared gym than the one where I started. The level of serious training is quite different, which is what I was seeking. But it’s giving me a more realistic view of what it’s going to take to get to the new coaches idea of being ready to compete. It’s... a bit overwhelming. I’m excited and motivated to really start accelerating my training. But what I don’t want to do is overcommit and end up having to walk away or half ass training and end up getting seriously injured. I started training 16ish months ago after 10 years of being pregnant 4 times, taking care of babies and small kids, and doing little in the way of fitness. I’m also on the “mature” side at 41 so the rate of improvement in conditioning might be a bit on the slower side. While not overweight, I had very little strength and endurance when I started out. Those have vastly improved over the last year+ but I’m definitely not where I want/ need to be from a conditioning or skill aspect. All that to say that I started at almost zero so it’s a slow but steady uphill climb with training. I daydream about taking a few months off and just focusing on training but that is just not going to happen. Lol. Thats interesting about the idea of thinking we are working harder than we actually are. Lol. I’ll have to start paying closer attention and maybe hold myself more accountable to accuracy of how much I’m actually working. Thank you again for taking the time to share your experiences and ideas about getting ready for competing. You guys are generous and awesome.

Thank you for the feedback guys. It's much appreciated. @LengLeng I'll definitely keep your pointers in mind going forward. @MadelineGrace I completely understand what you're saying. I've just passed the year mark with Muay Thai, and as much or as hard as I train, I still think of myself as relatively "new". Our Muay Thai classes are only run twice a week at our gym, but there are guys there who train K1 5-6 times a week and do Muay Thai on top, but I only do the Muay Thai classes so always feel a level below if that makes sense. I think where I've watched almost 100 hours watching the Patreon videos though, there are small things I can contribute which they may not have thought or seen before and in most cases they havent, especially in the clinch. I think I will just try to keep myself more grounded going forward, and apply what I know, and just throw the nuggets if someone has me in a dominant position and doesn't know where to go, or vice versa.

This is such a hard pill to swallow, but you are so right that when people say "I train 3 hours a day" that's not super accurate. I'm lazier than I think I am, too. But the honest answer is also what you get to next, which is that the amount of time required is just whatever gets you fight ready, mentally to the point where you know you did the work. I don't know that an "x" number of miles works for everyone, or "y" number of sparring rounds. I've fought with zero clinching and sparring (due to stitches or whatever), or with daily clinching/sparring leading up. I'm an anomaly in terms of how often I get to fight, but not in what those training methods' purposes are. They're to make you ready. And to me "ready" is a state of mind more than anything. If someone walked into my gym and said, "Sylvie, put me on a program to get me ready for a fight," I'd just make sure that the rounds of pads and on the bag are at least 1 minute longer than the rounds of the actual fight. So, 2 minute rounds in a fight = 3 minutes or more for each round in training. 3 minute rounds in a fight = 4 minutes in training, etc. And more rounds than the fight will be. So, if it's a 3 round fight, do 5 rounds on the bag and on pads. If it's a 5 round fight do 6-7 on pads and the bag. Although, padwork is largely up to your trainer, so you might have to do whatever they say and then get your extra time/rounds on the bag. Shadow a lot to get the feeling of movement and timing. I'd tell this person to run every morning (mileage doesn't matter, as long as it's pushing you to do it every day). Situps, knees, pushups, pullups, and teeps.

.....oh and proper recovery stuff like nutrition sleep and body work (massage etc) is to me key to increase fitness level quicker. If I'm sloppy with that my training and endurance suffers a lot.

This is such an interesting topic. Personally I feel that if you have a decent level of conditioning you can get fight ready quite easily. But if you go from nothing it will take so much longer. We have a great fighter in my gym who is not actively fighting atm. But he joins clinching everyday to teach the others (he is one of the guys in Sylvies slomo video of Saranmuenglek clinching). He drinks a beer every evening and is as mentioned not training for fighting. But now he has an upcoming fight and he told me he needs a week to get ready. Most likely due to years and years of hard training giving him the basic conditioning needed. At fight camps in Thailand you usually train 2 2-3 hour sessions a day, 6 days/week. Morning session starting with a run and being a bit softer than afternoon sessions. Mix of bag work and pad rounds. At my gym I only join Saturday morning sessions due to my work and those are very soft. Run and then people working on their own stuff. 3 pad rounds. No clinching. Afternoon sessions start at 4pm with run or skipping depending on weather (30-40 min). Then 30 minutes clinch ending with man in the middle. Then it's either sparring usually 3-5 rounds of 3 min rounds. Or padrounds where you do your own work waiting to be called for 3 rounds of pads with 1-2 minutes in between. I often get three extra rounds of only teeps or elbows because apparently I need this . Once everyone got their pad rounds there is usually some technique drills followed by 200 jumping knees in the ring, pushups, 200 situps (but only a third of us actually doing any situps) and stretching. Done by 7pm. If any of the thai fighters have upcoming fights they will be given a lot of extra work and driven to the point of exhaustion by the trainers. The thing is people can say things like yeah we did skipping rope for 30 minutes and I did 5 rounds on the bag. But in reality they didn't skip for 30 minutes there were several breaks and the bag rounds were not efficient work. They pretend time spent in gyms is time spent training. But they just goofed around half the time not engaging in efficient training. So I feel it's difficult to get a true answer to how much time you need to prep. People are way lazier than they think. Personally (and I'm not very experienced in terms of muay thai but I've competed in other sports and have a decent understanding of how my body works) I want to keep a decent level of conditioning to always being able to train and learn. If I'm exhausted on the pads I will learn less and my movements will be sloppy. I train to train. What I find important is to drive yourself to and beyond point of exhaustion. This because I feel it increases my level of fitness, but it also teaches me that I have much more to give when I feel I'm dying. So it's both for mental training and for body conditioning. I love metcon workouts to do this. Sylvie has tonnes of very helpful articles on this topic on her blog. Perhaps look at articles tagged "overtraining". But also keep in mind that she is constantly fighting and she has done so for years. And I'm also pretty sure she might be a cyborg .

Hi! No big deal- Just a casual question I’d ask my ‘Muay Thai friends’ if I had them in real life but I don’t ( my gym is new, still small, everyone is so so quiet and serious! Now I’m very serious too and definitely an introvert *BUT* I would like to add just a bit of fun or humor to class while being very serious— but it’s not there at my school so far... oh well ) I was partnered with a 6’2” if not taller man yesterday. Both of us just started Muay Thai 5-6 months ago. (There were only 4 of us in class) I’m 5’2” and under 120lbs. ( female). It was a fun class - kicks was the focus. heres my question: i woke up today with neck pain. I imagine it’s like ‘ whip lash??’ [ I’m definitely fine! It’s just a lot of soreness. I anticipate it being gone in a few days to a week. No big deal] but I’m trying to find out ***what caused it *** and the only thing I can think of is yesterday’s class. We held shields for each other’s kicks. I need to note here that- I have to WORK hard to hold pads for men. I mean I’m definitely fit but I’m small. I strength train but...lm a middle aged small female. ( I’m a little bigger than Sylvie but I imagine not as strong. )So I REALLY make an effort to brace myself and put out ‘ force’ so when the guys land on my pads or shields I’m not a weak, wet noodle providing no resistance.know what I mean? ( none of the guys go hard on me. I have to tell them you can hit a bit harder) So I’m trying to say I have to work hard to give them something *solid* to land on and not get knocked over. Could me doing this be what strained my neck muscles? I’m sure almost all of you have partnered with someone much bigger or stronger before.... My neck muscles definitely hurt and I almost skipped the regular gym today ( I didn’t. I took ibuprofen. It helped. My work out was good!!!) I just am lucky in that I typically wake up every day feeling well physically so to have this significant neck muscle pain ( the back of my neck. Going up and down it. Sore to press on) is not at all typical for me. I’ve done nothing different in life to cause it *except* yesterdays class with shield holding for kicks with a large male. ( note I’m not complaining. It was a lot of fun!) ( i realized that I should have put this in open questions section. Any way to delete this? I can copy and repost it)

Lamnammoon Sor Sumalee was an absolute legend from the Golden Era who specialized in knees. He won his first ever fight with a knee KO (He was nicknamed the Vampire of Knees by the press). He has his own gym now, situated in Ubon Ratchathani, one of the four great city of Isaan. It's the region he grew up in. I went to Lamnammoon's gym last year (2018) between end of September and early December. Damn, I don't even know where to start... It was SO great. I love this place to bits. Before I keep going whoever reads this may want to check out Sylvie's take on "Gym recommendations" if they haven't done already. It's always difficult recommending a gym because gyms are not frozen in time and everybody has their own expectations about what they want out of things in their lives. Lamnammoon's gym, like any other gym, go through changes all the time. The training partners I had during my stay there and some of the coaches I was blessed enough to learn from are not currently there anymore. And those people contributed a lot to my progress and happiness. Now, Lamnammoon is Lamnammoon no matter what. His gym has a its own soul that he's slowly been nurturing for years with all his heart which I think has remained the same to this very day. It's an intense, old school, leaning toward Muay Khao (but not exclusively at all. He adapts to the fighter's nature), big on fight kind of gym. If you give your heart to the gym and work hard, you will get the equivalent attention and focus right back to you. If you'd rather train not too hard and just be a chill tourist, you won't get ignored or looked down upon or neglected but you'll get the same kind of nonchalance in return. It's a fair place where you reap what you sow. Unless you're a woman. However to be fair the disparity between genders really is not as great as what you'd expect in a gym that not so long ago still didn't allow any woman in the ring. Clinching put aside I got absolute great training and attention like everybody else. No shady behaviors from anyone either. First day you get there Lamnammoon will probably take you on pads himself to assess where you're at. Then he might advise you to take it lightly the first week, and gradually build up the intensity of your training to match the overall level. Definitely take it light the first week! Don't go all in at the beginning. He told me how he saw SO many Westerners coming to his gym and going crazy berserk the first few days to try and impress everyone, before quickly dying out like a deflating balloon. I don't know whether you wish to fight or not, but if you want to fight you should be serious and consistent and not skip training (unless you're ill). Lamnammoon absolutely loves people with good heart. That means: being humble, training hard all the time, never quitting, not showing fatigue, not complaining about comfort issues. When he was a young fighter Lamnammoon used to sleep on the ring alongside his buddies and his pillow was a pad, and that's it. So, I don't encourage you to complain about being in pain or feeling uncomfortable unless it's really serious, or unless you don't intend to be taken seriously as a fighter. .Accommodations. > Staying at Lamnammoon's home: you can choose the whole package of training/room/food for 28 000 baht per month. You'll be housed at Lamnammoon's own home in one of the several rooms he rents mostly for foreigners. There's aircon in the room. You can also get WiFi. No TV though. And if you have the same room I had: no warm water and an annoying mouse running around and munching on your bananas lol. His home is situated 6km away from the gym. You get fed twice a day (Lunch + diner after each session) with delicious home cooked local dishes (it's absolutely wonderful I kid you not). That's the option I took and I don't regret it one bit even though it's far from cheap. But investing in such a great gym feels awesome, and being around Lamnammoon and his family all the time is too precious for words. Sometimes he takes you out to the restaurant alongside his family. What an honor. His wife and his son are very welcoming and kind. He also has a daughter but I didn't interact with her much. I saw his dad a few times and I was too intimidated to discuss with him much. He had an aura of pure wisdom and kindness about him. Such wonderful people. > Staying at an hotel near the gym: some of my fellow training partners from the West were staying at this hotel very close to the gym. It's 5000 baht a month I think and the quality is pretty decent. The cost of training at Lamnammoon's (without food and lodgings) is 10 000 baht per month. So hotel + training = 15 000 baht. There are restaurants around the hotel and one meal usually cost around 40 baht or something. If you do the math you'll see this option is way cheaper. You'll also be more free to leave the gym whenever you want, whereas if you stay at Lamnammoon's house you've got to leave when the driver leaves (the driver being Lamnammoon or his son or whoever gives us a lift). Unless you have your own vehicle: you can rent a motorbike if you wish. Lamnammoon can take care of this for you. It's not expansive. Sometimes I had to cut short my conditioning/stretching at the end of session cause we were leaving. It's simply out of order to make anyone wait for me. This was a bit of a downer for me sometimes. .Training. After the first week of adaptation that was quite light (yet still painful because I was running on mostly no sleep and I had weird cramps all over my body), this is what my training schedule there looked like: > Morning session (6am to between 9 and 10am): ° Run between 10-14km (mostly 12k) from 5.45am until around 7am, time when you should be arriving at the gym, getting ready for the morning session. The running route goes from Lamnammoon's home to the gym. You can wander off track to make it a long run since the actual distance between the two places is only 6km like I said. You leave your gym bag in Lamnammoon's car and he brings them to you later on in the morning. ° 10min shadowbox ° Many rounds on the bag (I can't give you a number. It's until you get called for padwork. And when you're done with padwork you go back on the bag until you get called for clinch.) ° 3 rounds on pads. If you have a fight coming it's 5 rounds and they're more intense. (The young Thai fighters there get 7 rounds sometimes. I honestly envied them a little. Some days I didn't envy them at all though. Lol.) Depending on the coach you're assigned with, it can go from a slightly boring and chill to real fun and tiring as hell. Lamnammoon is the absolute peak of both great fun and so fucking hard as hell it's like you're climbing Mordor without Sam by your side. ° Around 30min clinch. A bit more when you have a fight (if you're a woman you get less unless you are very insistent I suppose, which I wasn't) When clinching is done it's back on the bags for endless reps. ° Drills/reps on the bag. Sometimes on your own, sometimes supervised by Lamnammoon or Kru Lampang (when it's supervised, you fucking die). The basic instructions for the drills are as follows: 200 hundred speed kicks, 300 hundred knees, 300 teep, 5min of only elbows. This is the bare minimum. After a while my own routine looked like this: 300 hundred speed kicks, 200 hundred knees on the "uppercut wall bag thing", 300-400 hundred knees on the normal bag, 200-400 teep, 5min elbows, and whatever else I felt like adding as extra bonus if I have time left. °Conditioning (abs, pull-ups, push-ups, whatever) + stretching. This part is almost always up to you. There were times when we did it in groups, but mostly not. Then it's around 10am and training is done for the morning. You go eat. Afterwards if you're silly like me you skip sleeping and instead go for a walk into the city center to do errands that aren't necessary or you just chill on your bed watching Netflix. When afternoon session finally comes, you curse yourself hard for not having slept. Lol. > Afternoon session (3.45pm to 7pm): ° Run 6km. I never did more than 6km, never less either. I fucking hated these runs because of the heat, the traffic, the road work, the dust, and the occasional acidic reflux from not having digested my lunch properly yet. ° Around 20min skipping rope. I remember one blissful day when Kru Lampang was talking to another trainer while we were skipping rope and completely forgot about us. They always tell us when to stop skipping and if you're a good student you just don't stop until told to. That day I must've skipped for about 35min haha. Sweet hell. ° Rounds on the bags, same thing as morning. ° 3 rounds of padwork (5 if you have a fight) then back on the bags until called for clinch. ° Around 30min clinch (when I wasn't clinching I just did a mix of shadowboxing and bagwork. Or I worked drills with another partner that wasn't clinching. Or I got extra technical instructions on stuff from available coaches) ° Sweet drills of hell on the bags (same thing as in the morning) ° Conditioning and stretching. Then you either eat at the gym or at Lamnammoon's or wherever and I don't know about anyone else but usually at around 9pm I'm dead on my bed. Except for the first week: it was sleepless nights after sleepless nights. /!\ Some important notes: - All rounds last 5 minutes. - The last 30 seconds of each rounds must be done faster and more intense (the coaches all go leow leow leow at you which means speed speed speed). - After the end of each round you go straight on the floor and do around 20 push-ups, then off you go drink some water. - On Tuesday and Saturday mornings you get Muay Thai sparring instead of padwork. We all get to spar each other in turns. No exclusions here. One round lasts 10min. The whole sparring time usually lasts around 1h or so. If there are a lot of people, they have to make the rounds last only 5min so as to make sure everyone spars everyone. But you don't get one min rests after those 5min, you just switch partner quickly that's all. - On Friday morning it's boxing sparring. Same thing as Muay Thai sparring when it comes to rounds and such. - Sometimes we get a session that's all freestyle and looks like no other. But mostly they're all like what I've described above. - You drink water from a shared bucket filled with ice. The water is super cold. You can bring your own bottle if you'd rather. - There's a stereo blasting Thai music. Mostly country sounding Thai music. Sometimes one of the boy or the foreigner would connect their phone to the speaker and put their own music, for a change. - There are showers and toilets at the gyms (one for women, one for men). You can shower there if you wish. Frogs like these place too. - You can leave your gears at the gym (gloves, shinpads, skip rope, bands). Just make sure you don't leave them lying around it's not polite. - There are dogs at the gym. They run all around you during training. They're adorable and so cute. At first I was annoyed by their clinginess but eventually they grew on me. There are also ants. Those on the other hand are real painful fuckers. You'll see. .The trainers. > Dam: he was a young padholder same age as me (28). He stayed at Lamnammoon's house too so we bonded like friends, which means his padwork never brought about any kind of anxiety to be "worthy of your coach" or something like that in me. His padwork style was enjoyable, even though boring at times, but some days I really liked the fact that it didn't stress me. He was insecure and sometimes asked me afterwards whether his padwork skills are good or not. I had to comfort his insecurities which felt odd. I liked him though. I don't know if he's still there because he didn't enjoy that work so much (it's very tiring and doesn't pay so well) and I don't see him on Lamnammoon's Instagram posts anymore. > Kru Lampang : he's absolutely awesome. Very cheerful and cheeky and so fun to work with. He's very tiring but his padwork style is not linear and while you do suffer a lot you also don't feel the time fly by, cause he's so much fun. That said I will never forget my last rounds of padwork with him before my first fight. It was on a Sunday morning and he made me start the very last round with 50 kicks and 50 knees. It doesn't sound so bad like that but living it was quite something lol. > Kru Rengrad : he's as awesome as Lampang but more bear-like in his aura: at first you may think he's grumpy and not interested in you, but in truth he's such a teddy bear and he's very generous. He's so good with punches. His padwork is awfully tiring because it's relentless. He doesn't stop the rythm and hardly ever stop to correct you. Thank God he never makes you do speed kicks at the beginning or ending of his rounds otherwise... Well, our loss I suppose. > Lamnammoon (aka Kru Yo): the big boss is plain batshit crazy. Padwork with him is like a hyena on crack doing a bunch of summersault on a rollercoaster at full speed without brakes while singing the Pokemon theme song with a chipmunk voice. I love his padwork style so much despite getting anxiety attacks every time I know I'm going to be on pads with him. Pressure to not suck and all that. I didn't experience any other trainers while I was there. When I look at Lamnammoon's Instagram posts nowadays I notice several new heads. Kru Lampang is still there but Dam and Kru Rengrad are not. They might come back or not. God only knows. .Thai Fighters. > Robert, Petch, Bahn, and Top are the main fighters there and they are still very much there and thriving. They've been at the gym for around four years when I got there last year. They're still teenagers and all except Top still go to school. They are so damn skilled and a joy to train with! They're pretty small and light but it doesn't matter. Unless you are truly way way bigger than them, you'll progress a ton by their side. Even if you're a giant you'll progress. I'm very introverted so I didn't get to warm up to them fast enough before it was time to leave. I suppose it's for the best. They see so many people come and go they may not be so enclined to become best pal with you and then having their heart broken because you must leave. That said, they're still welcoming and fun to be around. Just watching them in their home (they live at the gym) is a blessing in itself. > Wut was a new fighter when I arrived and as of right now he's not there anymore. He was 18 I think. I was amazed by him so much. I loved watching him blasting the pads. I have a printed picture of him stuck on my door hahaha. Yeah I'm a fan of his. .Ubon Ratchatani. > The city itself isn't really pretty at first sight - but there are some really beautiful spots if you care to go look deeper around. I'll let you discover them for yourself. It's a big town with big shopping mals like big C and local street markets and you can go to the movies or get massages or go swim at one of the local swimming pools that are almost always empty, etc. If you're like me and you don't care much about night life and distraction from Muay Thai, but still likes to wander around sometimes in huge mals (I don't have those in my own city so they were novelties too and I was fascinated) and still occasionally feel like going to the movies, you'll like it enough. If not, well... You'll get bored quick. But then again you don't go to a gym like Lamnammoon's to be chill and comfy and waste yourself away at night, do you? It sounds almost paradoxical to me. _________ Lamnammoon really values hard work and dedication. When he saw how much I ran and faster than everyone else on most days, he seemed genuinely pleased. The two weeks leading up to my first fight (after almost two months being there), I didn't wait to be told to go up to the gym on Sunday mornings to get extra trainings even though I didn't have to. Yeah the gym is open non stop Monday to Sunday. The Thai boys train every single day, morning and evening. They fight often and they usually get between three days to a whole week off after every fight. I only went to train on two Sunday mornings once I got a fight, otherwise I usually took that day off. But you can definitely train everyday if you feel like it... There were some Sunday mornings when I still did a morning run, for example. Lamnammoon is really kind and funny and helpful. If you ask for help he will definitely help you, and he never forgets about you. But if you need something and you don't ask, he's not going to be a mind reader and check up on you every single second of every single day. He still very much cares about you having a good training and being happy at his gym. A few times throughout my stay he asked me with concern whether I was homesick, and if I was happy at all. Because I'm introverted and very quiet and intimidated by his charisma he thought maybe I wasn't happy. So, if you go there do make sure to let him know how you feel if it's something genuinely positive. He has a big heart in every way. Also, something that my introversion made me miss (until I got some company at his home who were chattier people than me): he's got a lot of stories to tell but you need to ask him questions otherwise he won't tell you anything. Thanks to Broke, Rocky and Jodie for doing what I couldn't do at all which is basically talking to him. Lol. Now the only downside: if you're a woman, you'll get less clinch practice. You won't be prompted to do it by the trainers. The Thai boys might feel awkward clinching with you (not all of them. Wut definitely did not like clinching a woman...). The pre-fight massage you get is less thorough than the boys' for obvious but still frustrating reasons. You may actually get less fights, though I'm not so sure about that last one at all. I got only one fight because of my height, or so I was told. I'm tall for a woman and most Thai women are relatively small which is not an appealing disparity for most gyms with the smallest fighter. I was envious of the Western men at the gym getting fights after fights after fights. Some even complained of having too many ones booked... Tsk. They don't fucking know their damn luck. _________ This answer turned out longer than intended. I probably still left out lots of stuff though. Don't hesitate to ask me more questions if you have any. If you do go there you can contact me anytime on here for any kind of things. Although you may not need me at all because there's a super British guy that lives in Ubon called Mickaël who used to train full-time at Lamnammoon's not long ago and who still goes to the gym occasionally to train or help around or serves as guide for the fresh new farangs. He will definitely help you if you meet him. Or Kru Yo (Lamnammoon) can put you in contact with him if it's needed. I intend on writing a day by day account (diary style) of my whole stay there. I'll post updates in here as I go along in this little project. If you're interested I encourage you to follow the thread. In any case, thank you a lot for reading me. I hope you found this review useful. Good luck on your own journey, fellow travelers! > Anyone interested in going to Lamnammoon's gym should regularly check out his Instagram page to see how his gym is doing and what the training looks like at any given time. He post videos often : https://instagram.com/lamnammoonmuaythai?igshid=11qff920fl1ol > Also a must see is this recent short documentary made by a woman named Angie. It's wonderful:

The mental thing is a bit tougher to wrap my head around. I’m really starting to grasp just how significant the mental and emotional aspects are when it comes to making the decision to fight. I’m a pretty tough person but I worry about crumbling in the ring. I keep waiting to feel closer to ready and anywhere near confident but it hasn’t happened yet. I worry that that part won’t ever come. That part has me more nervous than being physically ready.

Thank you for the specific recommendations about how to get ready! This breaks it down into what seems like something doable and specific. I guess I feel like I’m a bit all over the place in terms of what exactly I’m supposed to be doing and I’m feeling a bit unsure. I’m planning on speaking to my new coach a bit more about it but this is a great place to start.

Glad to hear it’s not uncommon ( I sometime practice footwork in my kitchen )

I should but I hate to call more attention to being the oddball /odd man out ( 5’2” 118 lb middle aged mom in a sea of males ) That said, I’m not stupid so I’ll think it all over

No worries Chiang Mai's very nice. There'd be plenty for you and your wife to do while your daughters were training.

It always amuses me when people ask 'Can you recommend a Muay Thai camp in Thailand?'. It is a big country, did you want to narrow your options down a bit? Being the capital and home of the main stadia, Bangkok has the highest number of gyms. It's a bit chaotic and traffic is terrible, so it's not everyone's cup of tea (personally I love the place), but you can get excellent training there and there's plenty to do. Or, do your daughters (and yourself and your wife of course) like the idea of going to the beach after training? Then look into training on one of the islands. Or, do you like the idea of being in a pretty big city, but a lot more laid back and less traffic than Bangkok plus some great nearby scenery? Then look into Chiang Mai Or, do you like the idea of training at a gym in an area of the country that few tourists visit? Then look into training at a gym in Isaan Or how about up in the mountains? Then look into a place like Pai. Most gyms that are open to foreigners will be used to training beginners, so that shouldn't be a worry. You'll see this posted elsewhere on this forum, but when you do decide on your location let your daughters try out a few different gyms first before committing to one.

Full disclosure is I’m new to muay Thai so keep that in mind when reading my thoughts I think an *occasional* reminder to ‘ pivot ‘ foot or twist hip etc Can be helpful and appreciated- at least to me It is. I like it. elaborating a great deal.... I’d say no, not routinely. Not unless you’re asked and quite advanced yourself. But thats in my gym. It’s small enough that our teacher watches every one of us like a hawk and if we need correction you can believe we’ll get it from him Some people however may not receive feedback from non trainers as well. You could always ask.

@guyver4 there is a thread I started on this called Unsolicited advice during training which might give you some views. Is your gym a place where people give each other feedback a lot? If it is I guess you just need to "feel" where the line is. Otherwise I would let these questions guide me: 1. Am I a teacher with a mandate to teach instructions? 2. Did this person ask for my advice? 3. Am I really experienced enough to know how to teach this particular movement/technique? 4. Why do I have this urge to give feedback to this person? Do I really want to help or does it originate from my own desire to seem knowledgeable? Learning is an individual thing. Gyms are full with people who overestimate their own knowledge and enthusiastically share their knowledge with others in a way that is not constructive.

Hey! I stayed there at the end of last year for about two months. I wrote about my personnal experience which was nothing short of wonderful in the following thread. Check it out:

Hello, I have been to Lamnamoons for two brief stints in two years. I really cannot say enough good things, I almost recommend you go to a sub par camp first to really appreciate what you are getting here. If you're asking about the camp, most likely you already know about his accolades. Know that he also produced both homegrown fighters right out of the community in Ubon including his prize pupil TV7 champion Robert Lamnamoon, as well as taken foreigners to higher heights like Sean Kerney. His English is very good and both he and his trainers have experience teaching abroad in places like Singapore and Australia. So this is not just a gym with a marquee name fighter and and more transients than an airport terminal. Lamnmoon built it, and they have come... Like most respectable camps, training is about your usual Thailand camp standard affair (run, rope, bag, pads, clinch till trainers think you've had enough, conditioning x2 a day, 6 days a week). They'll make adjustments for your fitness level but try to come in shape so as to maximize your time there. Lamnamoon's training team consist of himself and his longtime stablemates/buddies he has grown up with. They are very procedural in their approach and will pick up on where you need work and make small adjustments to help you improve. He has a small amount of rooms available at his house if you need accommodation (your morning run will be the 10km jog from his house to the gym), you can also stay at some apartments near the gym, but you'll be missing out on some of the best Thai food prepped by his wife/ the wife of one of the other trainers ( ok ok sometimes if he's busy his assistant trainers will go to their spots and buy food, but it's REALLY GOOD just the same.) If you are looking to just learn I have seen both Thais and study abroad come in for drop ins, if you are looking to fight he has connections for whatever level you are at, even debuting fighters, let him know and obviously show up. Overall Lamnamoon has really made it easy for foreigners to ease into the nitty gritty that is Issan. On a personal note I've never met a team of trainers who gave that much of a ish as they do here. They are not just associates, they are family, you will feel it when you come. The single drawback that I can think of is Ubon is somewhat of suburb, so if you're looking to get plastered and party it up on your downtime you're out of luck, but if you know why people come here, this really isn't a drawback. Any specific questions about logistics or anything I will be happy to answer. I'm a total fanboy of his operation.