Thailand Memories

Padwork at Tiger Muay Thai in January 2010 with Kru Moo Nakorn. Definitely my favourite Thai coach out of everyone there.

If I remember correctly it was after a few rounds on the bag hence why I look a little gassed. It gets better at about 1.30… jeez, watching it again makes me feel tired!

Mr. Phaitoon Phongjeen aka Moo is 31-years-old and one the respected members of the Tiger Muay thai training team. Moo is known for his hard tempered disposition and being hard on his students. He loves his national Sport and take teaching it seriously as many former guests know after training with him.

From the Nakorn Sri Thammarat Province of Thailand, Moo is a 5 X Muay Thai Champion at stadiums from Bangkok to Hat Yai. With nearly 300 fights under his belt winning 70% of them, MOO comes from a family of Muay thai fighters with brothers owning Lumpinee and Rajadamnoen titles as well, and his father a former Champion.

Moo comes from a the teachings of Ajarn Pratun Rattanphan, a Master Muay Thai instuctor of multiple Thai champions. Moo, when not training is a family man enjoys southern Thai food and music.

Saturday 19th December 2009

Me working Fred's corner

Saturday 19th December had me cornering 2 fights at BBQ Beatdown, an unofficial ‘Smoker Fight’ event held every month at Tiger Muay Thai. With UFC names such as Roger Huerta, Chad Reiner and Dave Menne making appearances to referee and judge, the camp was almost full with people from the camp.

Skipping through the Thai fights, Brian Hyslop from Dinky Ninjas Fight Team, Glasgow was up against my neighbour and friend Frederik Jostelius. Both guys have fight experience with Fred having more so and a title holder back in Sweden.

Luke showing Brian some support!

DNFT and SBG have a good working relationship back at home and Ididnt want Brian going in there surrounded by people but feeling alone with no coaching so offered to help him out. Cornering Brian, I was a little flustered to say the least as I knew very little about both fighters except Fred was a talented wrestler and Brian, coming from DNFT and training with Paul McVeigh, had good hands and BJJ.

Me and Brian

The second fight was Fred Harrington and South African, George. With this fight, I knew Fred had better stand up striking and having fought Amateur rules at home in excess of 10 fights, he wouldn’t be bad on the ground. I knew george wouldn’t want any of the stand up so told Fred to keep it standing. Throw shots from inside clinch and to hit on the break… NOT to let it go to he ground. If somebody WANTS to take you down, chances are, they’re gonna be quite good.

Afterwards was unexpected. A trip to Patong which led us to Suzy Wong’s, an infamous strip bar where they handed you foam bats to spank the girls with. Hold on, not spank… HIT. Spanking would imply some sort of holding back. There was no holding back. The funniest thing about the whole thing was when we left and we were sat in another bar wondering why we left, so we went back. Such a great night, especially when witnessing one of the other customers go down on one of the girls… why would you go down on a woman in public? Not even that, why would you go down on a hooker?

Headcount before Patong

Christian, Brian and Me in Patong

Sawasdee Khrap

It’s hot, it’s humid and the training is hard… trying to keep your fluids up as well as keeping your hands up, shoulders relaxed and punches sharp proves quite difficult in the heat.

I’ve now been here a week or so and have met a few interesting people… as well as the obnoxious egotistical nobs who think a number of MMA wins gives them the right to bully and choose his gang… but you learn to ignore them, keep your head as well as your chin down and battle through the numerous rounds of thai pads and bag work.

So far, I’ve spent more time in my air conditioned room than explore but I’m slowly and surely coming out of my shell and meeting fellow fighters, especially in the last couple of days where a day at the local zoo always makes you smile… even when sat through the monkey show…

Training is almost the same as being back at home but more relaxed and longer. Once you get used to the heat and pace, you feel like you’re not cramming 6 hundred techniques in an hour… the trainers take their time with you, correct every single thing there is to correct to generate more power and more speed. Your foot could be slightly out when throwing a kick, they’ll move it to where it should be and then suddenly the boom of the Thai pad as you throw your hips into the kick like they ask you to sounds more and more attractive.

You start with 30 mins skipping or tyre bounce to warm up followed by up to 30 mins worth of running and stretching. You then wrap your hands and move to a bag or an instructor for 6 rounds of pad/bag work. You take a water break between each round after 10 push ups, unwrap your hands after pad/bag work and go into the technique part of the session where knees/elbows/blocking will take up around 30 mins. Then onto the sit ups, 200 sit ups followed by 50-100 push ups and maybe, just maybe, you’ll do 100-200 push kicks/knees/kicks just to sap that little bit out of you. Then more stretching, finish, grab a protein shake, shower then head off down to Momma’s to have a giggle and something to eat.

Tiger Muay Thai

A simple but hopefully effective post.

My dealings so far with Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket Thailand has been completely positive. I have sent numerous emails asking question after question to prepare myself for my trip over to Thailand in August. The replies were not only completely honest but my questions were answered no later than 48 hours after sending.

I look forward to spending 6 weeks with you guys and I hope any people looking to visit TMT in the future, has the exact same positive experience as I have so far.

My thanks go to Cori and Will.