Do You Have to Spar in Muay Thai? Meet Liz.
Liz has been training with us for a while now, and in her own words, this is her progression in three sentences.
Stage one: OMG, this is scary.
Stage two: OMG, I actually do not mind being punched in the face.
Stage three: OMG, I am so sorry for punching you.
She is still working on stage three. She apologises every single time she lands one in sparring, and we have stopped trying to talk her out of it.
Why we are telling you this
Because stage one is so relatable. Even for people who have stepped in the ring and look like they were born to punch people.
Walking into a Muay Thai gym for the first time is intimidating. It looks like a room full of people who are comfortable getting and giving hits, while you probably have never hit anything in your life. It’s loud, it’s scary and it’s easy to think, this is not for me! We’re not going to lie though, the stage between one and two is not weeks, it can be months or never. You see, you never really have to fight.
Liz chose to because she has the skills and realised that it was something she enjoyed. We divide our classes into beginners, intermediate, advanced, combat and non-combat.
Beginners don’t spar, in fact you can train up to an advanced level, Muay Power, without ever having to spar. If you want to give it a go, you’ll get a grading through skills testing or be approved by trainers, and that’s when you can step into Ring Craft, which is a supervised sparring drills combat class.
If you prefer the non-combat route, you will get to hit bags and pads hard. We teach proper technique so that you’ll be learning the combos and technique that you can use in the ring or in self defence. Whether you ever have to is a different story.
While Liz has a mean kick, she is also one of the most welcoming people in the gym. She loves partnering new people, and they love buddying up with her because frankly, she has nothing to prove and she remembers how being new can be scary.
If you want to start where Liz started, come to an onboarding session - JAI 101.
If you see Liz in there, partner up with her. She has a lot to share, and she may apologise to you at some point.
