When training in Muay Thai, class builds a core aspect of learning the foundational techniques and honing skills under the guidance of experienced instructors. Taking what you learned in class and practicing it outside of class, however, also plays a significant role of practicing Muay Thai.
Training outside of class reinforces learned techniques, offers more profound exploration of specific skills, enhancemes physical conditioning, and cultivates mental toughness. Luckily, training doesn’t have any hard or fast rules when it comes to what you can or can’t practice solo to improve your game.
“The Code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.”
— Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
This sort of out-of-class training does not have to be a daunting task — keeping it simple always works best when starting out. Here are some simple guidelines to follow:
Keep it simple and flexible
By keeping the focus of training and your schedule simple, more options to train outside of class become available. You can practive Muay Thai almost anywhere and at any time. Keeping it simple could mean shadow-boxing — something accessible anywhere, anytime and a highly flexible training tool! For example, you could do this in the living room for 30 minutes daily.
Keep the focus simple. Try not to pick too many things to work on. Instead, work on one to two techniques or concepts. Having a simple focus allows the technique to become better and more efficient.
Don’t Rush
Rushing the technique in Muay Thai can lead to long-term effects that cause more harm than good — sloppy habits, poor form and a lack of control all become harder to correct over time. Taking your time working through the technique and making it as efficient as possible helps develop and improve balance, control, and timing.
Another aspect of not rushing includes working on something that a coach said to work on. Practicing something a coach recommended makes training outside of class simple — working on techniques and concepts from class can set the focus for the training session in a way that reinforces purposeful learning and supports consistent improvement. Slowing down and making the technique efficient will help grow Muay Thai skills.
[The Science of Striking in Muay Thai: How Physics Powers the Art of Combat]
Have Fun
Having fun during training not only makes the process more enjoyable, but it deepens understanding and supports better learning. It also comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. From trying new combinations to moving freely on the bag or shadowboxing with music, you’ll quickly learn that getting creative makes all the difference in having fun training outside of class. Training can be hard, but adding fun makes it feel less burdensome.
Try these ideas to add some fun into your training:
- Have upbeat, high-energy music to dance to in between rounds
- Talk to the air like you’ve got a pretend opponent (Example, “You can’t touch this!”)
- Create new challenges and do them
- Enjoy the journey Lean into whatever kind of training day you’re having and don’t fight the feeling.
[The Importance of Experimentation]
Ideas for training outside of class
Looking for some routines to try out on your next day training outside of class? Let these examples serve as your starting point. Having routines and training focuses outlined gives you something easy to follow, and they can change for any weapon in Muay Thai.
Shadow boxing routines:
- Start your combination with a specific weapon.
- Example: Start every combination with a jab.
- End your combination with a specific weapon.
- Example: End the combination with a teep.
- Only use specific weapons on either the lead side or the rear side.
- Lead weapon: Jab, hook, uppercut, switch knee, lead teep, switch kick
- Rear weapon: Cross, rear hook, rear upper cut, knee, rear teep, rear body kick
- Keep your hands up:
- While using lead or rear side weapons, hold a tennis ball or object up to the head as a reminder to keep the hand up.
- Change up what your arms and legs are doing on each side simultaneously — such as lead side boxing + rear side legs, or change which side is boxing and kicks.
- Examples: Jab + low kick, jab-hook + rear body kick, or jab-uppercut + rear knee.
- Examples: Cross + inside low kick, cross-rear uppercut + switch knee, double cross + switch kick
[Conditioning Specialist and Muay Thai Coach, Melissa Burdette: Martial Arts for Empowerment]
Bag Rounds:
- Try using the shadow boxing routines for bag work
- Work on power: throw single strikes or kicks with a focus solely on power
- Burnouts:
- 2-minute round:
- 30 seconds: punches for speed
- 30 seconds: alternating teeps
- 30 seconds: punches for speed
- 30 seconds: alternating teeps
- 3-minute round:
- 20 seconds: full speed and power with 10 seconds rest after the activity. Example: Punches for speed, 10 seconds of rest, skip knees, 10 seconds of rest.
- Keep going until time is up!
- You can also trade out speed for power
- 5-minute round:
- Start at 30%-40% speed and power. Build up both as the round goes on.
- You should be at 100% for the last minute
- Examples: Use punches for speed, 10 seconds of rest, skip knees, 10 seconds of rest.
- 2-minute round:
