Quote:
Originally Posted by Python  Okimura,
Was your last gym a T.B.A. affiliated gym? I ask because we test to earn our shorts here too, well up until very recently. It varies with each gym. One gym I went to in Des Moines several years ago claimed to teach Muay Thai and they used various colored Thai shorts to determine rank structure...well, they were just watered down TKD, NOT Muay Thai. So, I did not stay. They also did crescent kicks, axe kicks, and such. My guess is that the gym you are at now is much the same as that one. We have always earned our shorts, but my fight team has really grown now, and is in 3 different cities with 4 coaches, and many of them had already bought Thai shorts before coming on board with my team, so I have re-structured the level requirements to make them harder, and more indepth, and if they are fighters, then they wear shorts to fight and don't have to earn them before, but they still have a hard ass test for "level one student". Does this make sense?
If it were me, and I was used to real Muay Thai, I would not be happy at the gym you are at now.
Pete |
My last "gym" was a thai boxing p.e. class and a thai boxing club at a university, and our instructor was the TBA representative for the area. I don't know if he still is.
But you're right about the gym. I'm not terribly happy there. I only got a one month membership, so I won't be renewing it when the month is up. If I had to guess, I'd say some of the instructors there are former american kickboxers or TKD, despite their thai trunks.