muay thai sangha

the school i'm attending now is very different from muay thai i've trained before. the stances and techniques are different, as well as warm-up exercises and all. the concepts are also different, in that it focuses a lot on self-defense, and the possibilities in a fight outside of the rules of the ring. the teaching is very technical and relaxed. conditioning and strength training is up to you on your own time. i think i will have a much better understanding of balance and coordination after studying here. the class is rather small, with only about 5-6 students. there is the main teacher, or "kru" as they say, whose name is pedro. and there are two instructors in-training, marco and ivan.


here's pedro and me, standing in his beautiful backyard which he turned into a little school.
pedro is much, much stronger than he looks. his understanding of the physics and mentality behind martial arts puts him light years ahead, i think. he demonstrates takedown techniques on marco and ivan. making it look like picking up and throwing someone who is 180 pounds of muscle is similar to turning a page in a book. trying to learn the techniques makes me realize how difficult it actually is, and he makes it look absolutely effortless.
he covers a lot of different aspects of muay thai and self defense, as well as takedowns and grappling techniques. things like throwing or bringing your opponent down, and then gaining a dominant position or order to attack or put them in a submission hold. the fighting on the ground is not allowed in traditional muay thai, so i'm not used to it, but it's nice to learn something different. it's also really nice to learn a completely different style, being able to blend things that i like and make changes to things i don't.


i walk down this alley from my house to the main road, and about two minutes down the road to the school. it's not very far at all. there's probably about 20 dogs at the houses along this walk that go NUTS every time someone walks by. they run out to the street and bark at you until you get far enough away. i never feel threatened by them, though. especially in the mid-day when they are all sleeping in the sun, too lazy to chase me off.


this is the main training area, with a ring, padded mats, and all the bags. this is where we do the ground techniques, and sparring in the evenings.


this is where we train in the mornings, to stretch and warm up, and go over the details involved in what we will apply in practice the rest of the day. it's just a little dirt area. it's humbling. the whole place is very simple and basic. it's really nice.
anyway, it's about time i get ready for the evening.
i'm hopefully going to do a thai vegetarian cooking course on thursday, so if all goes well, i'll post something about that!