Why you need to be kind of crazy to be a successful fighter

Wait. There’s an art to being crazy?

Fuck yea there is!

If you are a Muay Thai fighter, you have to admit. You are kinda insane.

You have a little section in your brain that most normal people don’t have. Most normal people wouldn’t want to push themselves to the physical and mental extremes that you do. Normal people wouldn’t make it through one of your training camps. Normal people definitely would not be able to fight a 5 round war in front of hundreds of blood thirsty fans.

In order to truly be successful, you need a healthy dose of ‘crazy’ as a part of your every day diet. Think about it, most successful painters and musicians were/are crazy, so why not you?

You are an artist too. You dedicate your life to a physical martial art that pushes you past your normal limitations and fears. Just like any painter, you start with a blank canvas when you enter the ring and it’s your job...

Heavy Bag Drill to Increase Kicking Balance For Your Teeps

Movement is balance.

The body is balance. If your chest is overdeveloped, your shoulders will round forward. This is both ugly and…not so pretty on your body. If your right is dominant, you’ll forget to use your left. This can quickly spell disaster when a certain action from your opponent requires a reaction from a certain side of you.

Balance of the body and equilibrium are both necessary in fighting. A strong foundation is balance, a strong foundation is power, and power…equals knockouts. Train your balance with this Muay Thai heavy bag drill and you’ll be like a cat, always landing on your feet and always being in a good position.

Muay Thai Heavy Bag For Better Teeping Balance

Flowing between soft and hard is an excellent way to train your body. Now here’s an entire workout you can shape around your training.

Drills make skills, and the more you train on this wonderful tool...

Great Fighters Are Fed, Not Bred

Want to train and fight in top condition? It all begins with your diet.

Let’s get this out of the way: I am not a nutritionist.

I am, however, a former fighter who, like most of you, is always searching for tools and diets that will improve my daily living.

We all know that nutrition is the foundation to our performances and well-being. Below is a list of three superfoods that have helped me tremendously. Keep in mind that we are all different and what may work for me may not work for you.

Superfood

BEET JUICE

Beet root contains essential minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, sodium, zinc, and copper, just to name a few.

According to a 2012 study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, consuming nitrate-rich beetroot improved running performance in healthy adults. In addition to that, in 2014, the Medicine and Science in Sports...

My Frustrations, Anxiety and Eventual Enlightenment Inside The Muay Thai Clinch

I HATED the clinch.

Whenever clinch training would go down I would try to find an excuse to miss out on grappling with the other fighters. I wasn’t proud when I would opt out of clinch class, but my fear of being embarrassed, getting kneed at will, and being tossed around like a rag doll would always win over.

I SUCKED at the clinch.

Mainly because I would always avoid training it!

Although I was well aware of the fact that I would always back out of clinch training, I would try to make myself feel better by telling myself that I’m a good enough fighter to do well without engaging on the inside. Who needs the clinch when you can just knock people out with your hands right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately, I had to learn this through experience, which in hindsight was probably the only way I was going to actually learn the importance of training and accepting the Thai...

Muay Thai Diet Tips To Improve Your Training Output

The following post is by James B who works with professional fighters as nutritional coach.

NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS AND GREEN VEGGIES ARE AN IMPORTANT TO ANY ATHLETES DIET.

I saw a need to optimize the Muay Thai diet because there are a lot of people training and fighting at an elite level who don’t know how to eat to improve performance and recovery, or how to eat to cut weight properly. For some reason proper nutrition strategies get over looked in Muay thai and I’m here to put an end to it!

My philosophy for a fighter’s diet is simple: Plenty of fresh, whole foods. Clean air and clean water, combined with hard training and genuine rest.

In this post I want to show you some things you can do to change from an average diet, to a performance diet for athletes. These may seem like simple tips, but you’ll have to trust me – they give the biggest return for your efforts. These steps help fighters make...

How To Prepare For The IFMA World Championships and Other Muay Thai Tournaments.

The following is a guest post by James Bee who works with professional fighters as nutritional coach.

With the IFMA world championship games only weeks away, I hope everyone attending has been eating and training well. No doubt most of you have to meet at a weight class.

In this post I’m going to list the foods you should be eating and how to calculate your calories to get your weight spot on by the time you’re in Langkawi. With this goal in mind, you know you’re going to have to cut and monitor daily calorie intake. The strategy – consume all the nutrition you can get in as few calories as possible.

If you don’t need to lose any weight and just want to maintain your current weight, your formula for daily calorie intake is this:

To maintain current weight: Body weight in lbs x 13 Cal

IF YOU’RE IN BETWEEN THESE WEIGHTS, DO YOUR OWN CALCULATIONS,...

The Two Main Philosophies To Dealing With Challenges At Your Gym

We all have either heard or seen it happen before.

A guy walks into the gym, says he’s a street fighter, and wants to challenge someone to a fight to prove how badass he is. The next thing you know, he finds himself crying in the corner of the ring in a fetal position due to the brutal body shots or massive head kicks (like in this video) he was bound to get hit with.

Although it’s the most common outcome we hear when a “street fighter” challenges someone at the gym, there have been other endings that will make you think twice before accepting a challenge from an outside fighter.

For example, I had a first hand experience where I saw a self proclaimed “street fighter” knock someone out cold with a telegraphed head kick… and that [email protected] came out of nowhere.

The guy walked in (probably around 160-170lbs) and wanted to challenge the pro MMA fighters (both over 200lbs)....

Advanced Muay Thai Techniques

How To Set Up The Low Kick

The Muay Thai low kick is a crucial technique that helps limit your opponents movement and deliver some serious damage, which could eventually lead to a fight stoppage.

As you progress as a nak muay, you need to learn how to set up certain low kick techniques so you are able to land them without the risk of getting them checked or blocked.

Take a look at these 6 Muay Thai low kick techniques and try adding some of them to your bag of tricks.

6 Muay Thai Low Kick Setup Techniques

Here are the 6 muay thai techniques you’ll find in the tutorial video:

1. Fake and Drag – Fake a low kick by turning your hip slightly and dragging your back foot. This will ideally draw your opponent’s leg up to try to check your attack. Once they plant their foot back down, that’s when you throw the low kick.
2. Stiff Arm – Use a stiff arm or a long guard to drive your opponent back. As your opponent steps...

Padding & durability are the two primary differences between gloves meant for boxing and those for Muay Thai. Read this beginner’s guide to choosing appropriate Muay Thai gloves.

CONSIDER THIS ABOUT YOUR NEXT PAIR OF MUAY THAI GLOVES 

The first thing you need to understand is that boxing gloves and Muay Thai gloves are different. Really different.

Most of the time, people refer to all gloves that have the fingers covered in a mitten style construction as “boxing gloves.” This is generally accepted because they appear identical and it’s just easier to say.

In reality, there are key subtle differences between the types of gloves that may make the difference in your training. Those differences are the things to consider when buying your first Muay Thai gloves.

Here’s some advice for the novice nak muay looking to pick up his or her first pair of gloves for the gym.

Be able to tell the differences between Muay Thai gloves and...

“Fighting is 90 percent mental, and the rest of it is in your head.”

The psychology of fighting has spawned more Yogi Berra-style quotes than I can count, but they all seem to agree on one thing: mental toughness is key.

Throughout the history of combative sports, certain fighters have found ways to “weaponize” their minds, using mental toughness to break their opponents in the way others use speed, conditioning, or technique. This article aims to give you tools to add this kind of psychological weapon to your arsenal.

In today’s special guest post, the Warrior Punch team offers up three psychological techniques you can use to build an iron mindset.

Whether you’re a boxer, nak muay, karateka, or a white-collar worker trying to build up the courage to ask for a promotion, these mental strategies will help you manage self-doubt, maximize performance, and find strength in scary situations.

1. Draw Strength from Your Skill; Trust Your...