Everyone is wearing Thai trunks.

[47MartialMan]

Is earning shorts is the same as earning belts?
Besides, once something becomes exploited, it will change.

[OctaviousBP]

Actually KK, I made an interesting observation at my camp the other day. We only have a few pairs of shorts for the entire camp (shorts that have the camp name on them). When the kids train, they wear boxer shorts (believe it or not), and those that fight, get to wear the shorts. I thought that was kind of neat. In a way, that is how they "earn their shorts". Of course, that likely isn't the norm, but interesting none-the-less.

[Khun Kao]

In my gym, our requirement for wearing Thai shorts is that you need to purchase them.

Remember, "earning your shorts" is not a universal custom. In Thailand its practically unheard of.

[47MartialMan]

This is what happens when something becomes a fad.

Nothing stays the same

[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

[ChaunceyB]

okimura,

Where I train you have to pass a certain level before attaining thai shorts. But, for beginners who come in that already have them we do allow them to
wear their own. Like you it does not bother me.

[okimura]

I've been doing muay thai a year now and having just moved back home after school, I joined this new local gym. I've had four sessions so far and one thing that really struck me was that a majority of the people training there were wearing Thai trunks, including some very raw beginners. At my old gym, I was led to believe that you're supposed to earn your trunks. I thought there was a testing procedure in place and you got trunks when you passed. Was I misinformed? Why is everyone in that gym wearing Thai trunks? It doesn't bother me very much, to be sure. I just wonder if I got some bad info along the way.

Another thing I noticed was that this class practices some techniques that my old gym never did, like crescent kicks, or snapping kicks where the contact surface is your instep. All the kicking I did at my old gym was round kicks with the shin as the contact surface or push kicks (I don't think I've ever seen a crescent kick in a match between muay thai stylists). This too doesn't bother me. I just wonder what other gyms teach.