Muay Thai Day One

If you've read my previous posts you would already know that I'm an MMA fanatic and it's a dream come true for me to learn all the styles of combat fighting. So to start my quest, I enrolled myself to Muay Thai and Boxing 2 weeks ago!

It's actually not easy to find a gym to train. I remembered a friend once told me that having the "will" and "passion" to learn MMA is not enough to be a good fighter. You have to find a very good trainer to be one. So I've spent several hours researching online about the best gyms in my area that offers Muay Thai and boxing classes. 

After several hours of searching, I found the Yellow Corner Boxing gym in BF. Lucky for me I have a friend who's also interested in boxing so I have someone I could bring along to check it out. Yellow Corner is situated in BF Homes Parañaque near Starbucks Coffee and Pancake House, so it's easy to find plus their rates were also affordable. Yellow Corner is also a member of PMAP and their lead Trainer is like the president of PMAP chapter in Parañaque. 

Yellow Corner BF

First day of our training we were introduced to our Muay Thai trainer, Mel (short for Melchor) and he instructed us to address him as "Khru" Mel instead of coach. He taught us how to do our "hand wraps" which is seriously not an easy thing to do coz you have to follow a certain pattern and pressure on the wrap for it to fit perfectly. Khru Mel even said that other gyms don't even teach their students how to do hand wraps, forgot to ask why though. After we're finished with the hand wraps, we're now ready to TRAIN!!!

Handwraps

grabbed from sylviemuay.wordpress.com

FIrst lesson: How to do the "Wai"

"Wai" is a common greeting in Thailand and in many far east countries and its just the equivalent of a hand shake or showing respect to somebody you are greeting. Khru Mel said that we have to do a Wai at the beginning and at the end of each lesson, or every time we see our instructor for the first time at the gym.

Second Lesson: Know your fighting stance (Orthodox or Unorthodox)

An orthodox stance is one where your left leg and left hand are the lead. With this stance, your power punches and kicks will typically come from the right side. If you are unorthodox fighter, your right leg and right hand will be the lead and your power will come from the left. If you are not sure which stance to take, try both and see which one feels more natural.

Third Lesson: Basic Muay Thai Strikes

Muay Thai is reffered to as the 'Art of Eight Limbs" because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact". 

 There is a very well known saying regarding Muay Thai techniques.

‘Kick loses to punch, punch loses to knee, knee loses to elbow, elbow loses to kick’


So here's our Muay Thai Day 1 Lesson.. Can't Wait for Day 2!!