Sharla, boxing gyms in our area?

[Sharla]

Yeah last thing i knew (no really up to date knowledge) there were only a few half good Muay Thai boxing places.

Some of them have a reputation for being a bit rough and ready in a couple of ways.

1) There are often huge mismatches in kickboxing bouts and you would find you usually win too easily or are defeated in a dangerous, physically damaging fashion. There is less in between partially because of the nature of the sport and partially because of the types of clubs.

I've seen some brutal matches where a girl who was a real athlete and had spent far longer training than competing was paired against a novice for a bout with knees. On paper they may have looked similar but in reality it was a mismatch and i think it took less than a minute for the novice girl to be completely obliterated with about 8 consecutive hard knees to the midsection.

I wouldn't want that kind of mismatched empty victory at the expense of a novice's organs and i wouldn't want to be the one in the novice club thrown to the wolves.

Baring in mind this is what can happen with a small female bout where they have less muscle and body weight to use against each other. I can tell you i can get punched by most girls my weight ten times and not really feel it much. A heavier person will have me watching their jab like a hawk. Small women's bouts are often fast and high scoring because what we can dish out to each other is less damaging.

It was bare knee bone and a lack of the basic ability to move out the way which dropped this girl. If it was a bigger guy fighting the damage would be bigger so as a heavyweight i'd be especially safety conscious. In your own gym you'll be the bigger one but in a bout matched up against another heavy weight you should be especially careful of who you trust to find you matches and put you into compete.

2) Some of the big places are known for being more into toughness and the coaches have a reputation of being more into physical discipline. I've heard of things like the coach publically slapping his fighters around straight after a bout out of dissappointment over a loss.

I couldn't put up with that personally - i know some would respond well to it but I'd just want to tell him to F**k off! I also think there is something wrong with a coach who will put 100 % of the responsibility for a win or loss on te fighter. A good coach accepts that they help to prepare their fighter and responsibility comes with that.

If you wanted to go into Muay Thai i'd generally suggest getting a good boxing foundation in a boxing gym first because especially in SA boxing coaches are going to be better at showing you how to box. It's logical really since they specialize in boxing and put 100 % of their efforts into that.

Kickboxing in SA seems to use fewer angles and bouts are sometimes just down to who can handle the punishment more but you're less likely to get badly hurt is you are already taught to use boxing angles i think.

Plus because you're not kicking or blocking with your legs you'll learn to move around the ring more and use distancing so if you bring in the legs with that base hopefully you'll use them more efficiently.

I started in kickboxing and went to boxing and i think life would be easier the opposite way around. I think it'd be a LOT safer too!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and let us know how you go!

[pikey dave]

yeah ,sharla its dave. we have mostly juniors at the moment,but a couple of bigger [nice] guys for sparring. not sure about the rest of boxing s.a. i'm not into politics , too many egos. how are you? hope all is going well, dave osbourn.

[Sharla]

Good thanks Dave

I think boxing SA is very political but I guess what i meant was it's easier to get the most of out interclub sparring etc if you don't have blow ups or fights with anyone.

Easier to avoid POing any of the egos and just to focus on the training.

So is your club looking at winding down over Christmas or is training still going strong?