MT Instructors

[john888]

As a Muay Thai instructor I have faced some pretty strange situation in my classes. From breaking up full blown fights to coucilling students with no self esteem and motivation. I was just wondering what problems and challenges other Muay Thai instructors have come up against during teaching.

[Brian]

I am so fortunate. I have been blessed with perhaps the most wonderful students in the world. They are all so humble and willing to listen and learn. But with that humility and respect, I have found that many of them lack the belief in themselves. By and large, this is the most common hurdle what we face in our gym. These very fighters are talented in exceptional ways. They have heart, work ethic, technique and guile, but with my most recent effort, I spent as many hours in the back room giving her encouragement as I did standing in front of her with gloves or thai pads on or beside her on our daily runs and sprints.

I know what she went through. I feel the same way so many times myself. But when I do, I hear a pair of voices in my head. Khuen Khru Will Bernales "Don't sell yourself short man." Ajarn Surachai Sirisute "Suh, believe in yourself suh. You be you suh, don't let them make you think that they are better than you. Believe me suh, I know it... I do. I can do, you can do."

And for whatever reason, their belief in me, inspires me to believe in me. And this is a tradition I try to carry on with my students. I can pick up an arm and bend it this way and that, but to mold someone's soul is impossible for me to do. I try my best to be a friend and guide. To point the way, but in the end, it is they who must put one foot before the other and realize in the end that it was in fact their doing and not mine. This is the essence of the most difficult and common challenge I've come across.