Thailand is one of my favourite places in the world. It is a place that instantly makes me feel joyous and excited to be there. The people are so kind and welcoming, the palaces and the gardens are beautiful and vibrant with colour, and you always end up trying some fruit or traditional dish you’ve never had the chance to try before.
On my second visit to Thailand, I decided to try out Muay Thai after having some experience of martial arts at university. Yokkao Gym in Bangkok is located at Sukhumvit Soi 16, a thirty-minute taxi ride from my hotel and behind the main street. My walk to the gym had me slightly intimidated as all I could hear down the road was loud music, beats pumping. I was then overtaken by three men in Muay Thai shorts who had finished the 10km run in Benjakiti Park (an optional part of the training at Yokkao) who ran into the gym with sweat dripping down them ready for training.
However, soon after I arrived and I was quickly welcomed by one of the other students into the group. I found that the trainers at the gym were very serious about Muay Thai but were also very friendly and funny. I remember one of the trainers was particularly amused about me being both British and Indian and joking with me about how that could be, as the stereotype of the British in Thailand was that they were cold and severe in contrast to Indian people who they thought of as being very happy. They were quick to crack jokes at our expense and acted as if they knew and had been training us for years.
The training sessions were around 2/3 hours long with the trainers working with each person for three intervals of five minutes inside the ring at a time. They would work with you on your kicks and punches making sure your technique was good and showing you how to improve each movement. They would also condition you to think about how to defend yourself well during and after every move so you would be in a better position to attack. After the 15 minutes was over, you would work using the punch bags. The level of energy and focus from the people around me carried me through the two and a half hours of vigorous body conditioning and technique training inside the ring without me noticing how quickly the time was going or how hard they were making us work.
I was fortunate that the first person who worked with me was Kru Manop (Saenchai’s trainer). He helped to correct and improve every kick and every punch I made. I have never learnt so much in 30 minutes before nor have had someone focus on the way I was moving in so much detail, as each trainer was doing for each student. The gym was buzzing with energy and people wanting to learn how to improve their skills.
Being in the hub of Muay Thai in Bangkok at Yokkao, having our training sessions being taken by Muay Thai fighters like Singdam, getting to meet the Muay Thai legend Saenchai and making friends with people at Yokkao was something that made the experience unforgettable.
RUPA SUCHAK 