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There's a post on their Facebook page saying they haven't been able to extend the lease on the land their gym is built on. But it sounds like they're going to be opening new gyms in Ayuttayha and Kanchanaburi.

Short version I am a natural southpaw and starting to work on striking in both southpaw and orthodox stances. Work schedule does not line up with class schedules of local gyms, so working on this solo at home. Allready watched Karuhat, Samart & sifu mcInnes patreon sessions. Looking for advice on switching between stances in a fight, specifically: solo drills, possible pitfalls and which fighters to watch. Long version I am a natural southpaw, and have been casually training (1 class / week for a year) + 1-3 Heavy bag sessions / week at home (1-2hours at low - medium intensity). Not in shape (when going for a run, after 2-3 km I'm done). For the past few months I haven't been able to go to classes due to a new work schedule, but I still do heavy bag sessions by myself. In these heavy bag sessions, i'll do sets of about a 100 of single strikes & simple combos (e.g. 100 teeps, 100 1-2's, 100 knees, 100 midkicks, 100 elbows, ... ). I aim to do about 2000 strikes per session, with a couple hundred of each type of strike and about a 1000 teeps. For the last few weeks I've been dividing these sets evenly between Orthodox and southpaw stance. There's still a huge gap between the effectiveness of my strikes in southpaw and orthodox, but I'm definitely making progress. Since I plan to continue working on striking out of both stances, it seems like a good idea to carve out some extra time to work on actually switching between both stances. Usually I'd turn to Youtube for guides at this point, but I've found surprisingly little information on switching stances effectively. Most video's on this subject fall in 1 of 2 categories: The video explains "The stance switch". Which is basically the movement you'd make when throwing a switch-kick. (Which seems a little limited, if your goal is to develop a switching style) Videos like Sylvie's Patreon content, specifically the Karuhat videos. In these, you can see the way Karuhat is moving, which in itself is very helpful. However, these videos lack specific drills or exercises you can work on if you don't have a switching master to correct you. Rather than rambling on and turning this post into a long wall of text, at this point I'll simply list a number of questions, which could help me and hopefully others who want to work on stance switching: 1. What are some good fighters to watch for switching footwork? Already looking into: Karuhat 2. Are there any specific videos you would recommend (Patreon or otherwise)? Already looking at: On the forum: Tim's sessions with general Tunwakom (specifically the movement drill in day 1 vid 1) On patreon: all Karuhat sessions On patreon: session with Sifu McInnes On patreon: session with Samart 3. Do you know of any specific drills I can work on? I am Mostly looking for drills without a partner. However, drills with a partner will probably be useful for other readers, so please post those as well. 4. What are some pitfalls of stance switching, I should look out for? The answer that's all over the internet, is: Your defense will suffer. However, people never seem to feel the need to go into details here. I would appreciate any answers with specifics.

I watched Jaroentong's session a few months back, and completely forgot about it. After watching the session again last night, I am definitely going to go over some of his and Karuhat's switches in slow motion to see how they time their switches with the opponent's movement. As for the drills: I started thinking about drills for switching stance when watching some of the footage of general Tunwakom training Tim and Tyler. It seems like the very first thing he works on, is switching stance while keeping protected at all times: simply walking up and down, while staying guarded and balanced. I'm going to try the Tunwakom walk, as well as working on stepping back and countering on the heavy bag, like Xestaro suggests. These seem like some solid options to get started. As for Kevin's footwork suggestion, footwork is something I've probably been neglecting too much. At the moment my footwork is good enough that I don't fall over my own feet, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement. Yodkhunpon's footwork really is something special. In my mind, when working on footwork you should focus on being light on your feet, and never being unbalanced. However I'm not certain if there's better things to aim for. What do you think the focus should be when working on footwork?

Jaroentong is also a switching fighter. I'm not sure what you mean by drills for practicing the switch, as it seems you're trying to learn how to switch in the moment, rather than fighting out of both stances. I haven't been taught "how to switch," but rather Karuhat literally reversed my stance and I had to learn how to fight in Southpaw. When literally going from right handed to left handed or vice versa, in general it's just like walking into the opposite stance. Namsaknoi has a really nice galloping switch on a punch, but he doesn't stay in the opposite stance. He just switches on that punch. But I reckon you could use it as your switch and just stay in that other stance. Karuhat does the same thing, but from the opposite stance, which is meaningful because he's going from his "unnatural" stance into his natural stance for a power cross, whereas Namsaknoi's is the inverse of that, so you're landing into the non-dominant position. Sifu's "when to switch" drills and philosophies are the only time switching is talked about conceptually by a teacher in the Library. Otherwise it's my own take on what the switches feel like or mean. The dangers of switching are being off-guard for a moment as you're switching and landing into a position where your "open side" is vulnerable. But you just have to be aware of that and guard or set up the switch by off-balancing your opponent first. In general, don't switch stance in kicking range. Either closer or farther out. I'd choose closer. Karuhat often uses a simple step back (again, same as walking) when reversing his stance and then his attack just flows directly out of that. Almost nobody switches and does nothing. They switch on an attack or on a defensive step that becomes an attack.

Thats the beautiful duality of big guys that know their stuff. They can easily let go and be brutes but usually are so aware of their strength, they dont...unless provoked lol.

9 outve 10 times this is dead on. Ive rarely been injured by a heavier partner but the smaller more aggressive guys can do damage almost by accident.

When the trainer says, OK sparring, find a partner. You pick the biggest, scariest looking meathead in the room, like 30kg heavier than you. 8/10 times he will be the most controlled, nicest and friendliest person there and you won't get injured. It's the little guy with a ying yang tattoo who has problems with over-aggression in sparring.

Footwork is a very good place to start, as it's what allows literally everything else to function. For me, being able to "see" is the main difference between being overwhelmed and being able to wait out an combination and fire back. Everyone has patterns - ever single person - so generally you can start to read or see where those are and know when to counter in the middle of or after a flurry. There are different ways of being able to "see," but 100% it requires you to be calmer, which means focusing on your breathing and knowing literally what you're looking at (where are you looking when you spar? The face, the chest, the hips, the legs?). Trying different areas of focus is a place to start. Focusing on your breathing is a great start. Working on only one thing, like a hook or a kick and seeing when it lands and when it doesn't. All of this depends on you not being overwhelmed though, so step one is just focusing on how to bring your heart rate and stress down. I decide on some days that I'm just going to let myself get hit in the guard, so that I can find the holes in it, feel secure in it, learn to see out of it, etc. There's this guy I spar who hits too hard, so I practice this with him because I don't want to get clipped with his power if I'm open. And there's a guy I spar who is too fast for me, so I also use this approach with him, to find momentary openings.