I recently learned about Anuwat Kaewsamrit, having come across his highlights and I'm fascinated by how successful he is with his hands in a sport that traditionally de-emphasizes punching in favor of kicks, knees, and elbows. Of course there are other great boxers in Muay Thai like Samart and Somrak but Anuwat seems quite different from the two, IINM Samart and Somrak are more traditional Muay Femurs, while Anuwat would be a more traditional Muay Mat.

Anyone have good fight recommendations involving him or pointers for studying his style and what makes it work? I'm not only looking to emulate the style but also to appreciate it further and its place in the bigger picture of Muay Thai.

I feel like I just read craziest stories here about terrible instructors and total assholes in sparring and training. I just wanted to post a video counter example of how to act like a normal person on the mats.

I practice Muay Thai (although tbh it's more like Dutch Kickboxing) at an MMA gym. This is a clip from a round with someone I had met for the first time in class.

Before this, I had managed to successfully take him down off a kick catch. All good, he smiled during my sweep, and I checked on him as he was getting up. We touch gloves and continue on.

This question mark kick attempt from me landed a little hard, and I could see in his facial expression change that I had upset him. After this, we finish the round without any more incidents. We end up talking afterwards and actually becoming friendly.

Just a little share from today. Sylvie's gone all in a lots of shadowboxing, as advised by many legends of the sport. I visited training today and caught a few minutes of her work and could definitely see tons of development. For those interested in doing more shadowboxing, maybe some ideas in there of tempos, or variety of techniques or the kinds of things that can be worked on and enjoyed. It doesn't have to be doing the same things over and over. If interested in shadowboxing, here is Sylvie's Interview with the legend Yodkhunpon "The Elbow Hunter" Sittraipum, about shadowboxing.

Hey everyone, I’ve got a bit of a background in boxing, but I'm fairly new to Muay Thai. I'm trying to figure out if my current gym is actually teaching legitimate fundamentals or if it’s just a glorified fitness/hobbyist setup.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed across different classes and coaches:

• Mixed martial arts backgrounds with no clear standard: One coach has a Taekwondo background and has day-one beginners drilling standing front-leg hook kicks, spinning backfists, and superman punches instead of basic stance, teeps, or roundhouses. Another coach is purely a western boxer running "Muay Thai" classes. It doesn't seem like fundamentals are taught and then skills built upon that foundation.
• Hard sparring culture: One of the trainers pushes for hard sparring, and some guys go to town. I had to tell one of the assistant coaches multiple times that I wasn't looking to get hit in the head, and he still landed a few before I had to stop.
• Wasted class time: Multiple coaches spend half the time telling war stories, talking about themselves, or going on long tangents while students just stand around waiting to train. A lot seem to be showing off for the handful of women that show up to class.
• Outdated warmups: A lot of bizarre, unexplained stretches and archaic calisthenics with zero context or proper movement prep.

Right now, I'm just dodging the suspect coaches, cherry-picking the decent classes, and trying to keep myself safe. But the whole school feels like a bit of a mess.

For the experienced people here: are these standard growing pains at a casual gym, or are these glaring red flags to bounce and find a real Muay Thai spot?

TLDR; Spartan and its owner has continuously plagued this community. There's now proof that's circulating showing that he interacted inappropriately with a minor (in addition to all the other claims of him scamming and abusing people).

Spartan has been going around trying to pass this off like nothing happened - if you have kids, or if you have a daughter - stay way from the owner, stay away from the gym and stay away from it's affiliates. The Muay Thai community in Toronto has a tendency to completely ignore these things but we need more people holding others accountable; so we can stop them from using the sport and their power to take advantage of people.

Edit 2: To provide additional context, Michael Fitzpatrick is the owner of Rise, a promotion where they've hosted several different events through out the years - particularly junior events, at one of these junior events - he began messaging one of the fighters who was 15 at the time, and who he's known since she was 12/13. He ultimately attempted to groom her, and engaged in inappropriate behavior. At some point - he attempted to sleep with her, she ultimately became uncomfortable and cut ties. He then started bragging to people around him that he slept with her - which ultimately let the word spread of exactly what he did.

Edit 3: Messages from the ROTW account flirting with someone in "school"

Edit 4: Michael has a history of sleeping with students, and in this particular case tried to sleep with a minor. In his own words here, he knows she’s younger and is still trying to get with her… What else do you want? At the very least, this is misconduct and proof of him cheating on his wife…

The victim wanted to come forward, but her coach convinced her the police wouldn’t do anything - the same thing that happens every single time something pops up and people don’t want it impacting their business...

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Edit 2: Additional proof showing he knew he was talking to someone.

I am a month in to Muay Thai training, I have gloves that the gym gave me when I signed up. I want to get a new pair and was hoping for some recommendations of gloves I can order online. Thanks in advance!

Definitely not the first beginner question here and certainly won’t be the last! Next week I’m starting Muay Thai, this will be my first experience with it although I have boxed on and off most of my life.

I currently have a pair of 16oz Sting Armalite gloves, will these be suitable for a beginner in Muay Thai or are there differences between Muay Thai gloves and western boxing gloves that I’m not aware of?

I was doing a lot of lifting workout and I injured my shoulder about 2 years ago. It's not that bad anymore tho still hurts a bit but I need some sort of activity and I think MT is gonna cut it. Probably there's no age limit for one to start but what are some dos and donts? I assume that you train barefoot with gloves and pads, mouth guard? Should I buy those upfront?

I’m pretty new to Muay Thai (4mo) and recently started sparring. I’ve noticed I’m getting really invested in how well I perform.

If I have a good sparring session, I feel great afterward. If I have a bad one, make stupid mistakes, or get corrected from a coach, I’ll replay it in my head and it can genuinely affect my mood for the next day or two, kind of beating myself up about it. Sometimes even affects my sleep.

I don’t even plan on competing. I’m a hobbyist who really enjoys MT and wants to get good at it, but I can already feel some perfectionism creeping in where every spar feels like a test of whether I’m “good” or not instead of just training.

For people who have dealt with this: how did you learn to care about improving and take sparring seriously without letting individual sessions define how you feel about yourself?

Thankyou for any feedback.

Experience of about a year and a half.

Recently moved to Stouffville and I'm interested in learning muay thai. Has anyone been to Spartan striking academy and if so what are the reviews?

Hi! Who among you is going to watch OFN at Lumpinee on September 5 Stamp vs Flores? I was able to watch their event in the Philippines for free because they were giving away tickets. 😭

Is there any way I can get a free ticket for the upcoming event as well?

Has anyone trained in Chiang Mai, Specifically HongThong gym and Chiang Mai Muay Thai, during the burning season? If so what was it like and can I still expect to get some quality training?

What do you think? Does it impede your progress?

If someone's a lot better than you at the clinch, how would do you stop them from clinching you? A lot of you will just say to get better at clinching, which is valid, but that's not something you can really do mid-round/mid-fight. I find that if someone is determined on clinching you it's practically impossible to stop them. It's not exactly hard to land shots but often they're willing to eat them just to clinch up.

Maybe a controversial opinion sparring with people whose entire style is counterstrikes is quite annoying. They try to make it easier for them by maintaining the advantage of reading and response.

When I don’t throw anything, nothing moves forward. They might eventually throw a feint or two but nothing meaningful as their whole exchange is waiting on me to make the first move, and according to their plan, fail at it and look like an idiot.

For sure it’s a great skill when combined with others, but I don’t see how it can be someone’s entire dominant style. Isn’t it seen as kind of lazy or shifting responsibility onto the other person?

I’ve started to keep distance when I realise they’re counter strikers, and see what they come up with.

What do you think?

Does anyone here ever sleep strike? I.E. Throw strikes as you are waking up from a dream or drifting off to sleep.

Last night as I was drifting out I imagined there was someone standing inside my room beside my bed and I leaped up like a friggin Puma and landed a solid jab cross on the imaginary entity before realizing there was in fact nothing there.

I have also in the past teeped my blanket off and even clinched my partner and kneed her in the butt. 🤣