Choosing a Muay Thai gym in Chiang Mai

[plmuaythai]

I'm looking to go to thailand for a month or two to do muay thai while I have a break before starting my new job. Because I travel for my job, I've trained really on and off (usually like 3 months on and 6 months off) for the past few years at a bunch of random gyms. I want to train in Chiang mai, and I'm trying to determine if I should train at Lanna or Hongthong. My goal is to do amateur fights in the US once I start my new job and stop traveling so much for work. Do you have a suggestion on which gym is better for someone in my situation? Also, I heard that Lanna has a larger ring for men sparring and a smaller one for women sparring...is this true?

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Sylvie and I haven't been around either gym, in an active way, for a while, and never trained more than in a private session under the existing management at either. Maybe someone can hop on who has been around these gyms recently. Both seem to be supportive of female students, both have top notch head trainers (Joe Hongthong at Hongthong, Kru Daeng at Lanna), and both encourage fighting and are well connected.

The right thing to do, to be honest, is to go and train at one for two or 3 days and just feel the vibe, and then go and train at the other for 2 or 3 days, and feel the same. A big part of all this, especially between two gyms that are thought to be somewhat comparable, is just the feeling of the space, the feeling you get off of the krus, how they conduct training. By our experience you can feel pretty quickly whether you want to spend a month or two in a place or not. And sometimes you can walk in a place and get a big "get me the hell out of here" inner voice. A mistake many people make is paying for gyms in in advance. I know that some gyms try to get this to happen, and there may even be gyms that require it, but it's just not a good long term strategy.

You just have to go and feel your way. Even if you hear great reviews from people who are even IN the gym right now, they may be very different kinds of people than you. Nothing replaces intuition. We've sent a lot of people to both these gym, in a general sense, just because they have pretty nice reps, and support female fighters, but really it's how you feel when there. There is always the small chance that you wouldn't like either of them, for whatever reason. You could still pop over to Manop's gym, which is much smaller, or a more westernized gym. In Thailand it's almost always best to keep your options open.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

10 hours ago, plmuaythai said:

I'm looking to go to thailand for a month or two to do muay thai while I have a break before starting my new job. Because I travel for my job, I've trained really on and off (usually like 3 months on and 6 months off) for the past few years at a bunch of random gyms. I want to train in Chiang mai, and I'm trying to determine if I should train at Lanna or Hongthong. My goal is to do amateur fights in the US once I start my new job and stop traveling so much for work. Do you have a suggestion on which gym is better for someone in my situation? Also, I heard that Lanna has a larger ring for men sparring and a smaller one for women sparring...is this true?

I agree with Kevin that you ought to just try both before committing to one or the other based off of a coin-toss. Hongthong is big, has two rings, has female fighters and lots of westerners. Joe and Gen are awesome, they have some other trainers working for them but I'm not sure how many now or who's there. They're fairly technical, in the sense that they drill things. It's largely a westerner focused gym. And it's outside of the city, though not far.

Lanna (I assume you mean the one in the old location, under new ownership) is going to be largely Chinese, a few westerners, and some Thai kids. There are, indeed, two rings and women are only allowed in one of them. Daeng is the trainer to look for at Lanna, he's friendly and can help with any kind of technical instruction. They have some younger trainers, who are fun and playful, and as far as I've heard from their new structure, they are much more organized in their training than they used to be. They're right by the foothills of the mountains, near the university, you can walk to anything and get into the main part of the city in just a few minutes by a share-cab "song taew" truck.

You don't know how is at either place until you're there. Whether you have clinching/sparring partners your size or not. If there are women there at that time or not. If you like the training at either one or not. Check them both out and trust your own judgement based on the experiences you have actually in the space. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

On 6/13/2019 at 11:57 AM, plmuaythai said:

Do you have a suggestion on which gym is better for someone in my situation?

Maybe I can add this too, as a point of detail. There are really two important factors in one's experience in a Thai gym in Thailand. There is the general culture of the gym, which is the overall vibe of what is happening all around. Are the trainers lazy and not into the work? Is there a general sense of "This is happening, dive in"? Do you feel included or excluded? What are the qualities being expressed by everyone, the Thais, the farang, etc. This is like the high or low tide of the ocean, it floats or sinks all boats. It's hard to get a feel for this at a distance. It's going to impact people different, but more so because the feeling in a gym changes all the time. It depends on how crowded it is, which trainers are there, how much time the "boss" spends in the gym. The energy in the gym might be great one month, but then a top trainer goes back to his village and the gym is overbooked...then, not so great. That's why you have to go and see.

The second part is which trainer are you put with? By most of our experience longer term farang will usually end up paired with a particular trainer, at least somewhat. This has a huge impact on your experience. You can be in the shittiest gym in Thailand and if you connect with your trainer, and get a relationship where he wants to improve you, this can be an amazing experience. On the other hand, you can be in the best vibe gym in Thailand, but if you somehow find yourself regularly with a trainer who is reluctant or dismissive, or whatever, it doesn't make up for all the wonderfulness of the gym. You don't have a lot of control over this aspect of a gym. You can try and steer this, somewhat, but it's kind of a roll of the dice. That's why you want to be in gyms that generally have pretty good trainers all around. But, no matter the gym you find yourself in, working on your relationship with a regular kru or padman is the surest way of having a positive experience. You just need that one. That's why I mentioned Kru Daeng at Lanna. I know for sure this is a very fight oriented, excellent, fair trainer. If you go there, b-line to him, and tell him Sylvie suggested him. Budgeting a few privates with a trainer is also a good strategy if you see someone you really want be guided by.

So, whatever gym you are talking about, spend 2 days there and just take the temperature of the space. Then when you pick one, work hard on your relationship with your kru or krus.

[Xestaro]

Never been to Thailand but as it might be relevant here:
I follow Hongthong and Joe and Gen on Facebook and as far as I know Gen is currently teaching, training and fighting in Australia. Has been for a few months already I think. I don't know what the plans are for him coming back.

Joe does live streams during training on FB relatively often. Can't judge how much what you see there represents what it is like to actually be there but it seems people over all have a lot of fun.