Sangtiennoi gym

[Jorge]

Hello, my name is Jorge. I would love to go to Sangtiennoi's gym. It's as authentic as it gets and I can really get to improve my clinching. But I have some concerns. First of all, are there any egos at the gym? I ask because although I can say I don't suck at Muay Thai I am nowhere near the level of young Thai fighters my age, so I am worried that will be a target and I will get made fun of. I don't know, I hear that generally Thais are very friendly, but at least here in Mexico there are a lot of egos in the gyms where guys wanna prove themselves as men or whatever by picking on newbies, I don't know if it works that way in Thailand or not (Fortunately, I am passed that stage in Mexico, but again I am nowhere near Thais my age). Second of all, in your very useful review of the gym (https://8limbsus.com/muay-thai-thailand/sangtiennoi-gym-tough-traditional-muay-thai-legend) you wrote the bathrooms were "very thai style", what do you mean by that? Are they squat bathrooms? Are the showers filthy or doorless? I know if I am going to a authentic countryside gym I am not having exclusive luxury but I still would like to be in a hygienic place with standard-ish bathrooms. I know that as you wrote I can't have a "prince charming" gym, but I am concerned about this two issues and I would be very pleased if you could orient me. Thank you in advance.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Hi Jorge, I can't comment on what the people at Sangtiennoi's gym are like, as I've not ever trained there in a regular session and the last time I was there was many years ago. However, Sangtiennoi himself is a wonderful man and I've heard many good things about training at his gym. Hopefully somebody who has spent some time there, or has been there recently, can give a better idea of what the daily experience is like. I did see the fighter's dorms. They have air con, they're small, and if I remember correctly they are flush toilets, not squat toilets.

[Oliver]

Hey dude, 

It's good, for sure. Wasn't there for long, only 2 months. Basically my main gym closed because of Corona, so Sangtiennoi was the only gym in my research that stayed open and were willing to accept me.

Training very very good. Like... Not just good, but it's actually impressive how good it is. And they have a speed bag, which not enough gyms have in my opinion. Owner is a cool dude and so is his son, who also has great Hip Hop playlists for the stereo during training. 

The Thai dudes in Sangtiennois are very very nice, don't worry. Nobody will 'target' you, try to deliberately fuck you up in sparring, or make fun of you. They know we suck compared to them so they are very understanding and patient with our low ability level, they want to help.

But...if that does happen, it will be another foreigner that does it to you, not a Thai. But that's not the gyms fault, can happen anywhere.

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Oliver

[Jorge2021]

Hy again,

It's Jorge, better fighter, more experienced now.

Ok so here's the thing. First of all, thanks a lot for replying, I really appreciate as it helped me a lot.

Now my only concern is hygene.....

"Very Thai style" bathrooms, is what @Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu wrote in her article...

I defintely don't want to get an infection in the showers, or an infection in the wc either. Also it'd be great if they are flush toilets and at least most of them have doors, I don't wanna be like pick a boo on ppl doing their buisness

Also what are the dorms like? Are they clean? How's hygene? Do they clean them regularly/deinfect (you know because of covid) regularly or something?

 @Oliver How was your experience with hygene in the bathrooms and dorms??

I would be very thankful if you could answer me

Have a good one.

Cordially,

Jorge.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

I don't know much about the bathrooms, maybe someone can add to that. But this hour long video shows the gym and training, filmed since this thread was started:

 

[Oliver]

Hey dude,

Not sure how to answer to be honest. On clean/hygiene issues, kinda depends what you’re comparing it to? Or what your standard for clean is. If memory serves, there are 2 or 3 toilet & shower rooms, and yeah they flush, and yeah there are doors. But actually, nobody uses them.

Basically, past those 3 doors you walk on a little and there’s this outdoor porch type area. In the middle you got a giant concrete, square tank type thing, height of your belt, about 6 feet wide & 6 long. Filled to the brim with cold water and loads of those small plastic buckets floating on top. After training you all go out back and stand around that square tank, pick up a bucket, fill it, lift it, and throw it all over yourself a bunch of times.

I’m not kidding about any of this, and after training when you feel dead - especially in that heat - the bucket shower feels tremendous. Like, genuinely, a million times better than the traditional shower. Loved it.

As for infections etc… dude you’re gonna catch some shit eventually, it's basically inevitable. Almost consider it the cost of doing business. Not to get too much into this, but real quick – never got corona, but got sick with something else and needed surgery. Was fucked up for ages afterwards, and still not yet back to where I was before. But that wasn’t the gym’s fault at all, and not from a hygiene problem. 

 

[LengLeng]

To jump in on this with experience from a not very clean gym. We only had a bucket shower and toilet that didn't flush. Plus gym got flooded a lot in rainy season. Probably the reason I was mainly the only girl. For me, I only clinched with younger thai boys who knows how to handle hygiene. Some foreigners spread infections to others as they didn't know the importance of rinsing themselves afterwards. I got some rashes. Some toe fungus. (Sorry TMI). What helped me was rinsing body with water after and between sessions. Use my own gloves and wraps. And baby powder. Thai people are usually very hygienic even when sanitary standards are not that great. Whatever the sanitary standards, just keep clean, rinse, care for any wounds. My main health issues were bronchitis, knee injuries, muscle strains and the shingles. The shingles is somehow well known in thai gyms I believe it's due to training a lot and weak immune system as a result. 

[Oliver]

What are we really talking about here though, is this hygiene in general or a worry about catching Corona thing?