DO YOU MAKE THESE COMMON BEGINNER SPARRING MISTAKES?

By Evan Lee 

Sparring is the most important thing you can do to improve your fighting abilities. It is the closest thing to fighting itself and can be done safely if you follow the right rules and guidelines. 

Sparring is where everything you’ve done comes to the test. It will tell you what you’ve done well in training and what you must improve on. This will inform what your future training sessions and overall training focus should look like. 

However, when you are just beginning in the sport of Muay Thai and any combat sport in general, it can be very easy to get flustered and accidentally fight a bit too hard and aggressively. This is a quick way to get injured and lose every single sparring partner you have. You don’t want to be one of those dudes. 

Luckily, we are here to save the day. Sparring done poorly is terrible for you, but sparring done properly is the best possible thing you can...

RUN THESE SHADOWBOXING DRILLS WITH FOCUS, INTENT & CLEAR VISUALIZATION 

By Evan Lee

Beginners may be confused by shadowboxing and not understand the purpose of it. I’m here to change that. 

Shadowboxing is used often at the beginning of a training session. It is a fantastic way to get the body warmed up and ready for the training to come.

Furthermore, it is also a way to get your mind warmed up. In fighting and in sports in general, your mental preparations and skills are just as important as your physical ones. If you’re not mentally focused, you will not be able to play to your physical capabilities. Think about athletes who choke when the pressure’s on. Failing to do something they’ve drilled a million times before because they lose focus. Shadowboxing is an opportunity for you to think about and focus on the training that you have ahead and to build focus itself. 

But shadowboxing isn’t just a great mental and physical warm...

NAK MUAY! UP FOR A CHALLENGE?

By Sean Fagan

Quarantine sucks. The gyms are closed, you can’t meet up with your training partners, you’ve got no one to spar with, and everything just sucks. 

BUT! It does not have to be this way. Even if you’re stuck in self-isolation and you have no gym or anything at all to train with, you still have your body, your mind, and your creativity! And that’s all you need to keep improving. 

To show you that you can still keep improving your Muay Thai skills while in self-isolation, I'm launching a brand-new challenge:

"100 Kicks For 100 Days"

Not only is it a way for you to improve your Muay Thai skills, it's also FUN! And that’s something we all need right now. I want you to have fun and prove to yourself that you don’t have to come out of self-isolation worse off than you were before. I believe that you can come out an even better and stronger person!

Remember: tough times shape tough people. How are you...

INTENSE MUAY THAI WORKOUT WITH ZERO EQUIPMENT NECESSARY

By Evan Lee

We’re all locked in quarantine right now. It sucks to not be able to get into the gym and train. But that doesn’t mean we can’t keep improving our Muay Thai skills! We won’t let this virus get us down and keep us from getting after it. No equipment needed for this workout. 

Before we get into it, let me break down the benefits of body weight training first. Body weight training is a fantastic form of training whether it’s for building strength, power, or endurance. Plus, it is also incredibly effective to build an aesthetic body. Just think about gymnasts. Gymnasts are insanely strong, insanely powerful, and look like they’re all carved out of marble, and all they use is their body weight. 

It is also difficult to get injured or overtrain when you’re using your body weight. You don’t have to worry about losing tightness only to have a heavy barbell drop on...

THE MUAY THAI GUYS PODCAST: EPISODE #127

By Sean Fagan

Times are wild right now. For example, they're getting SO crazy that all types of animals are coming out and flooding out into the open. If you’ve seen that video of all the monkeys running out onto the road because there’s no tourists to feed them, you know what I’m talking about. 

But even with all that craziness, Paul and I are here to try and help you find a silver lining and find a way to make sure that you’re still progressing towards your goals despite what’s happening. Times are tough, but you can be tougher! 

If you can take advantage of this horrible situation and turn it into a positive, just think about all the problems in the future that you’ll be able to turn into a positive! If you can deal with this, you can deal with the rest.

With that being said, I hope that Paul and I are able to give you some good advice that you can apply to your life and help keep you strong...

HOW TO SHADOWBOX WITH MEANING & PURPOSE

By Randy Pilares

The world is suddenly at a standstill.

That’s the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently afflicting the globe. Office buildings, schools, places of worship, parks, and more are deserted as people have been asked to go on home quarantine.

The same is true for gyms everywhere. The usual hustle and bustle are suddenly missing as gyms have closed down indefinitely. Athletes, fighters, and fitness buffs have nowhere to train.

If you are a Muay Thai beginner, you are probably wondering, "Can I still train? Can I still make progress if I am on home quarantine and can’t get near my gym??"

The answer to those questions and more is a resounding - YES! Yes, you can still train without a gym, and yes, you can still make progress. Even when you are holed up inside your home and with limited equipment at your disposal.

You can make all of that happen through shadow boxing.

Why Should I Shadow Box?

Shadow...

NEW TO THE BAG? WE'VE GOT 20 BEGINNER-FRIENDLY HEAVY BAG COMBOS!

By Evan Lee

The heavy bag is one of the most valuable pieces of training equipment you can have if you’re training alone, if not the most valuable. But only if you use it properly, so let’s go over a few rules and key principles. 

The heavy bag is not to be treated as a punching bag. If you simply start blasting the heavy bag, you will not get much out of it at all. You may get some conditioning done. However, why just get conditioning when you can get more? 

The heavy bag can be treated as you would a sparring partner. If we can shadowbox like we have an actual opponent in front of us, why can’t we do the same for the heavy bag? 

If you’ve seen videos of boxers, kickboxers, nak muays, etc. working the heavy bag, you will no doubt notice that they move around the heavy bag a lot. They don’t just simply beat on the bag. They work combinations, evade, circle around, and do all...

THINK YOU'RE A SHADOWBOXING EXPERT? TRY THIS!

By Evan Lee

Shadowboxing is an extremely effective method of training, and it is training that can be done anywhere and without any training partners. 

However, this method of training may seem inferior to pad work or bag work because the same stimulus of a partner or impact on a bag is not there, but it is not inferior. It is a necessary supplement. 

When you are hitting pads or hitting the bag, it is easy to let yourself flail and let how powerful a strike feels tell you whether or not you’re doing a good job. “Blasted the bag with a kick and produced a loud bang. I’m doing awesome!” impact and how you feel is not a good judge. 

When you are shadowboxing, you get a chance to pay attention to your body, how it’s moving, how balanced you are, how smooth everything is, whether your whole body is working together, etc. 

These are all crucial factors in determining how effective of a fighter...

UNCONVENTIONAL DRILLS TO BOOST YOUR MUAY THAI SKILLS

By Sean Fagan

Muay Thai is hella fun. If you didn’t think it was fun, you wouldn’t be on this blog site reading about it!

While it’s easy to fall into the routine Muay Thai drills that we all love so much – roadwork, skipping rope, bag work, pad work, sparring, wash, rinse, repeat – those aren’t the only drills that combat athletes need in their training regimen.

Consistency breeds champions, but consistently doing the same things over and over again with no variation can also breed boredom, burnout, and – the athlete’s constant concern – injury. In order to be a beast at Muay Thai, you may want to consider doing some exercises that seemingly have nothing to do with Muay Thai.

Here are five non-Muay Thai drills that can help bring your fight game to the next level – and you don’t even need a partner, heavy bag, or ring to do them!

DRILL...

WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PRE-FIGHT MUAY THAI RITUALS

By Sean Fagan

In my opinion, being respectful should be one of your top priorities as a fighter and as a person. There are plenty of douche bags who fight for the wrong reasons and act arrogantly whether it’s in the gym or in the ring.