Oliver

It's true. Same same opening jam jars, parking cars correctly. Ya know.

This is quite interesting, so many opinions out there on best gloves to hit pads with. Some friends tell me small, for training better accuracy, and so they feel closer to the gloves you fight in, so just 10s or 8s for girls. Other friends say heavier gloves train your arms better in keeping your guard up, but that might be an Eastern European thing rather than Thai, dunno. Sparring 16s for the boys. At my gym trainers even went and checked our gloves and if somebody had 14s they made them change and use the gym's spare 16s instead. And they were super serious about it.

Is it possible to get a recommendation for one of the old Patreon videos that covers blocking body kicks? Obliged

Obliged

FA always interested me but I never tried it unfortunately. If you're a western guy, will they give you a Thai to clinch with every day, or do they just pair up the farang with eachother? Appreciate if anybody knows

Dude, fully agree. Running sucks, def the least fun part of training. But damn does it make a difference after doing it a while. Don't even mean the better gas tank it gives you or the mental thing somebody said, but personally found the shots you throw on pads come out way more powerful, especially body kick. Actually, be interested to know if anybody has ever got the same benefits from running by doing swimming? Because where I live right now it's cold and rainy. Cheeeeers

Thx. Really liked Ari neighbourhood too

Never trained at FA but did think about it - is it true that it's very overcrowded? People tend to say this so wasnt sure how much truth there is in it. Small gym isn't a big deal but the numbers being too high can make me think twice. Obliged

What the minimum time rental for those places? Can you get those at short notice for the short term?

Nothing really that bad, probably not enough to qualify as 'issues' or 'struggles'. First of all, if you're working hard enough you shouldn't even notice things that probably should piss you off, you're too exhausted to realise or care if you do. Second, even if there is something it's thankfully rare, like a psycho weirdo 1%er joining the gym. Then, at least you get a funny story out of it. And third, for a lot of guys - at training it's a hell of a lot better than anything else you got going on in life, so why complicate it? Hard as the training is, it's definitely better than working bullshit job. It's nowhere near as bad as douchebag co-workers you have to put up with, nowhere near as bad as a moron you share a house with who knocks on your door complaining about loud music when it's only 3pm on a Sunday afternoon. At training there's none of that, so it's better just to be grateful. 99% of people are cool and you're lucky to be doing the most fun sport ever. Maybe the psycho weirdo 1%er is the only thing that really comes to mind. But it really is a 1% thing. In Thailand it's the westerner who wants to be king of the white people - never shuts up, demands attention, long stories filled mostly with lies, comes to the dinner table where 4 of you are already sat chilling, talking & laughing - and immediately talks over everybody and tries to hold court. This dude also tends to suck the Thai dick as hard as he can to try and ingratiate himself. Don't really use terminology like toxic masculinity / fragile masculinity to describe this guy, personally not remotely into any of this political / ideological / gender stuff. He's just a worm.

We know you know.

100%

Yeah, came across this in my research of this, apparently the US and UK have the highest rate of cat and dog ownership, but Asia not so much. Guess I'll just have to get a goldfish or somethin...

I know right. Was one of those things that totally disgusts you but then you gotta keep a straight face because you're not in your home culture any more. Awful. This, and one time in Cyprus were the worst - a dad beat his little daughter in the middle of a coffee shop and nobody cared. Wanted to force feed him cinamon from the shaker until he puked. Scumbag.

Thanks for the info, that kinda makes sense. One time we were walking down the street and one Thai friend just randomly smacked a cat off the top of a brick wall for fun and I was like...wtf... But nobody else was remotely surprised. Guess that kinda thing is normal.

Hellloooo. Wasn't sure what section to post this in. Anybody ever taken their pets to Thailand? Was wondering how you got on, whether this was a shrewd thing to do or not. Last stay in Bangkok, there seemed to be a lot of stray cats and dogs around the sois. Are your indoor pets from the west in more danger from fights etc if they weren't raised in that environment? Appreciate any experience ppl have. Many thanks Ol.

Shortest answer so far and the most perfect one.

So many fighters signed and so many fight cards through the year, means the good fights are way more spaced out now than ever before. So you'll get a good headlining match up and the rest you could take it or leave it. Back in the day there weren't as many cards so their business model was to stack the deck so the whole main event and even prelims were solid, and the thing would sell.

...that really doesn't sound good. Ask your trainer, maybe he'll tell you to lay off holiding pads for a while. I was told the same thing because of my injured wrist, simply told not to hold for anyone until it was better.

Yeah neck injuries are horrible, especially when you wake up with them. The worst is where you can't twist your head to the side in one direction. Neck and back pain or injuries have happened to maybe 50% of friends who train, either in this or jiu jitsu.

So you could say Judo and Sambo in the former Soviet Union, very well state funded and were the military and police martial arts for the officer class.

That whole weirdness with Anderson Silva towards Demian Maia during the fight in Abu Dhabi? Apparently that's what that was all about.

Am curious about that free standing heavy bag idea too - be interested if ppl have good experiences with them. In terms of the money bracket, it's either that, or those smaller tear drop bags that weigh like 40kilos that could work in my back yard. Not sure which way to go.

With those Femeu fighters, of course we see their cool jedi mindtrick moves, but a lot of them also have a real solid body kick when you watch them in training. (Even a lot of their tricks & feints etc are off or involve the body kick). Like.... stunning when you watch them throw just one of those on a bag... the delivery speed is crazy, disgustingly powerful on impact, and right back to sender with re-obtained guard, and every detail of that one attack and transition to the next detail is seamless. So is a a BJJ guy throwing up an armbar from the guard - there's like 9 details and steps involved in that 1 attack, and he has to make sure all 9 are right and bleed into eachother, for the whole thing to work. But to us it just looks like 1 thing. Drilling the strong side rear body kick on the bag over and over were the orders given to me, but it's also the running, personally. We hear this advice millions of times from good guys further down the road than us, that running is everything blah blah blah. But after a while you realise it kinda is super true, and they're right that running tonnes every day makes your body kick stronger. Dunno why, it just does.