Pad Work in Thailand

[stapesmk1]

Just a quick one....

Ive been watching lots of videos and it seems to me that a lot of the padwork done with non-thai students over there is single shots, 2s, 3s and "see it, hit it" type work.

Is this because of the language barrier, the standard of the student, the humidity/heat or just the way they do it over there? Ive read that they only ever spar at about 60% much like a technical spar or flow roll over here.

Cheers

Stapes

[Shaun.R.]

yer thats kinda how padwork goes, it depends. once you know your trainer well you can start doing as you want, or if you kinda let on you wanna do what you want. language barrier is not a problem. most is see and hit it tho

sparring depends where you are training, thais only spar because we do. they dont spar each other they just fight. so some places the concept is lost and they just fight you lol some places like the most commercial gyms will spar you at whatever pace and power you want. most the time you will spar againt other western people tho.

its all about clinching with thais tho

[Xanthic]

Just a quick one....

Ive been watching lots of videos and it seems to me that a lot of the padwork done with non-thai students over there is single shots, 2s, 3s and "see it, hit it" type work.

Is this because of the language barrier, the standard of the student, the humidity/heat or just the way they do it over there? Ive read that they only ever spar at about 60% much like a technical spar or flow roll over here.

Cheers

Stapes

Stapes,

Most of the padwork there is reaction hitting rather than working specific combinations. Padworking with Thais is pretty much power with every shot but they still correct you everytime you make a mistake or stop you to make small technical adjustments. It's just the way they do it.

Sparring wise - they do light sparring generally due to fighting so often (every week/couple of weeks) so most tend to be a little banged up to say the least which means sparring hard is out of the question.

Since you're heading over to TMT anyway, look for Kru Moo who heads the Advanced Muay Thai. Fucking awesome coach, awesome clinch and just an all round awesome guy. Every pad session I had over there was with Moo.

If you want to get some good, solid boxing sparring in, go to Kru Yod. Out of both my visits to Thailand, over 10 weeks, sparring with Yod still sticks out in my mind and was one of the highlights of my visit.

[maz]

totally depends on the pad-man, some are shit and cant be bothered to hold but some are ace...just like here really!
they do put emphasis on power but will correct you when they see something they're not happy with.
they like it loads when someone works their arse off on pads. if they think you cant be arsed then they wont either, tho that works both ways! have a look at who looks like a decent pad man and try and get them each session.