Muay Thai - First Lesson

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I am starting to take Muay Thai kickboxing classes. Last night was my first one. I have a few thoughts.

I think this is something I can really get into. I noticed several times that I had a smile on my face when I was doing the workouts - that doesn't happen too much for me. It isn't because I am not a happy person, I am not just the type that shows too much outward emotion.

The class had around 16 or so people, including one woman. There were six bottom level beginners like me, perhaps four or so intermediates and the rest had been doing it for a while and had earned their thai shorts (these shiny woukout shorts with thai script signify that they have passed the first level of instruction). The instructor had us separated into these groups for sparring.

All of the drills were done with a partner who held up their gloves as a target. We started out with punching combinations, that built upon the previous strike. So as an example, we would do a jab, then jab-cross, then jab-cross-jab, then jab-cross-jab-cross.

The first guy I was partnered with was an extremely overweight and out of shape fellow and he had nothing - nothing in his punches, nothing in his demeanor. He was just trying to survive. I never look down on this type of person - even though he was suffering, at least he was there, trying to improve himself which is more than most people in his condition can say.

Next I was paired up with the woman. She was very nice and even gave me pointers on how to improve my strikes. After this, we started to do punch/kick combinations. Again, the woman showed me the proper footwork to get the kicks off correctly. We both made many errors in this stage, but at least she could hit and kick with a bit of authority unlike the other guy.

After about 35 minutes of these drills (there was NO down time) we did a cardio/strength workout for about ten minutes and the class was over.

It was apparent that I have a lot of work to do on my strikes and kicks, especially working on the proper techniques. But I didn't do too bad for my first class.

I really want to earn my thai shorts and the instructor said that they usually are tested for in about six months. It may take me longer as I will only be able to attend classes twice a week (most go three or four times) but I will get them. It is a goal and goals are good for me.