Muay Thai Training

[Slaya]

I have been taking some muay thai lessons (or so I believe) at a local little dojo place for a couple months now. I'm seriously confused since I have seriously dug up tons of info on muay thai (How I came to find this place). I'm thinking that the lessons I am attending aren't muay thai any more. Apparently what I've heard from other people are that it was originall an Aerobics kick boxing class, then people stopped comming and the instructor changed it to Muay Thai (where I come in) and then he said he was going to attempt a little more fitness in with it. Lately, all I've done was throw punches, occasionally an elbow and a knee. As for thai kicks or push kicks, we haven't thrown those in atleast a month. Technically we threw about 2 minutes of thai kicks but it was so short I don't necessarily consider it training. I was wondering if this is even Muay thai, because I am paying to learn muay thai, not take some Tae Bo class. Is this how the classes are supposed to go? By the way, the lessons I attend are in groups with other people, not private lessons.

[Nips]

Yep - I'd say your instructor is full of shit. Are you sparring? Doing bag work? Because these are both CRUCIAL components of Muay Thai, and one of the characteristics of it which make it's fighters compete so well versus other styles

[cowpaste]

That sounds awfully fishy to me too. Would you happen to have a website or anything like that to check out?

[Slaya]

No website unfortionately, it's a little place that seems to be more for karate and TKD. I don't really wanna say anything bad against the guy since he's nice for someone who got me to sign up and give him money under false pretenses. But yeah, this is all i got on him "Chris Brough's Elite M.A." There is no sparring or bag work, lots of pad work with partners, but thats it. I actually don't think they have a punching bag... Now, I've seen some people that have been taking his class for years now, and have checked out a couple posts on this forum. Some people say sparring should wait till the student is experienced and such, I can understand that. How ever, I am not exactly new, I've been doing it for a couple months now, and there are students that have been attending class for years and from what I have seen, never sparred with anyone else in the class, perhaps privately but not freely in the class.

I saw the Weapons 9 thing and was thinking about joining that since this place seemed to be more "straight foward" MT.

[Little Apple]

Yeah, I'm sure the guy's nice and all, but he's not giving you what you're paying for. I wouldn't waste anymore time or money there, it's not doing you any good. Good job doing your homework.

[Juicefree]

Does he make you wear leg-warmers ?

[Nips]

^ ahahahahahahahahaha.

Yeah, seriously, this guy is being pretty blatantly decieving. Good job on the homework though. Go somewhere else and learn some real Muay Thai.

[Slaya]

I honestly can't tell if the "homework" remarks are sarcasm or not, but none the less. I probably will try to attend Weapon 9 in months to come or mid next year because of the distance it is from my location. My current "decieving" dojo is roughly 5 minutes away.

[lookin2fight]

Id say YEAH ditch the leg warmers and tell "Billy" to keep the change. Maybe go pick up some real MT classes and then go back and challenge him to sparring match in front of his class. Beat his legs in until he cant teach classes for a couple months.
I think people are a little too nice sometimes. S*** man you got str8 took. Of course he was nice to you were paying him for adult aerobics classes. Seriously i would probably call him out in the middle of his class. F*** that! I mean you work for your money right, not to give it to some "nice" scam artist??

[WildWest.]

Dude, your "Muay Thai" class is a joke.

You said you hardly do any thai round kicks?? WTF?? Thai round kicks are one of the first techniques you learn and you should do them repeatedly in class.....they are sort of the cornerstone of the art. No bags, no sparring?? I'm presuming no grappling, no 1 on 1 semi-sparring techniques where you learn to counter and attack from an opponents attack, and I'm presuming little conditioning??

This is McDojo shit. Honestly, how can guys get away with marketing a fitness class as Muay Thai?? It's insulting to the rest of us who train properly.

No offense to you Slaya but find a genuine club if you want to learn MT.

[Slaya]

Yeah, I figured as much. I'm not too sure if I can simply quit this class and get the balance in which is left over for what I signed up for, but if I can't I'll probably just stick with this guy till I'm done then try to go for Weapons 9. The only negative about Weapons 9 is in New Brunswick and pretty far, and it's like 25 bucks more but thats nothing big. If you guys know of any places that teach an "authentic" MT more around East Brunswick, Woodbridge, places like that I'd be greatfully appreciated.

[thai_me]

Slaya, I agree with everything that has already been said. I would go and not ask for, but demand my money back and tell him why so he knows he's doing somthing wrong. (He might actually think what he's teaching you is MT) I wouldnt hang around and wait for his lessons to finish. His classes sound like tai-boe to me, not even kickboxing, not even self defence let alone thai boxing.

I would ask him face to face about his credentials, who has he trained, where did he learn thai boxing, has he ever fought in MT....(not i think the last one is essential as a trainer). You'l figure out pretty quick if he's full of crap or not. Dodgey classes like these who call themselves "thai boxing" arnt embaressing to the sport, they are just an embaressment to themselves. Everyone knows what MT is, these guys are just out to make a quick buck.