I personally enjoy doing thai-pad drills, and I practice the muay-thai 15-count several times a week either with a partner or on my heavy-bag (some people just don't like holding for those thai kicks
). Obviously, doing a pre-set drill will not automatically make you into a great fighter. However, it does have several positive effects:
(1) Physical and mental conditioning: If you do the 15-count all-out for 5 or 10 rounds, you will not only toughen your body, but you will train your mind to allow you to keep performing well after your body has given up.
(2) Muscle memory: By repeating kicks, punches, elbows, knees, etc. over and over, you build positive muscle memory for these techniques. Also, certain combinations of these techniques are put into muscle memory that can be used later in sparring.
(3) More effective techniques: Proper repetition of technique leads to more powerful, explosive, non-telegraphic technique. Also, by working out when you are fatigued, you learn to relax, and relaxation brings speed, power, etc.
(4) Keep your guard up: If you train the thai pads with a helpfully-sadistic partner, anytime you drop your hands due to fatigue or bad technique, he/she will pop you in the face. This obviously builds the good habit of keeping the hands up.
Obviously, to make the techniques practiced in the 15-count (and other) thai pad drills effective, you have to take them into sparring and practice them against a resisting opponent.
Take care and train hard,
Jim
Burton: Regardless of what you have the rest of the class do, please make Shelton and me do the pad drills. I'll make sure he has a big meal beforehand
)