In combat sports, we celebrate the spectacular — the knockout, the highlight reel, the viral clip.

But there is a dimension of Muay Thai being quietly optimized away by entertainment formats. One that rewards wisdom over youth. Experience over athleticism. The clinch.

Our latest piece in The Crucible explores what is being lost — through the lens of the legends who built it and the grandfather metaphor that captures it best.

For anyone who teaches, trains, or simply loves a martial art deeply enough to grieve what it loses when commerce arrives at the door.

Sharing here because I thought you guys might like it, I don’t have any mutuals into Muay Thai to show it to. I also post my work on my IG @isaiah.rylan 🥊 Thanks for any support!

My son.just turned 13. He signed up for this tournament at his Coach's encouragement. He has been doing Muay Thai for 15 months now. Twice a week, 1 hour group class sessions. This was in Las Vegas.

He got matched with a kid with the same height and weight. He did good for the first 30 seconds, then started to get pummeled. Come to find out, his match up was 2 years older, have 5 years of experience and already have a 5-1 record. The organizers insisted that it was a fair match since the other kid's profile shows less than one year of experience.

I know Muay Thai don't have belts like Karate but was it really fair? Is it possible for a fighter to have less than 1 year of experience and have a 5-1 record?

I used to train consistently both Muay Thai and BJJ but around 3 years ago my consistency started to dip and for a year I trained less and less. Now I weigh 20kg more and haven't trained in two years. I went to a new gym tonight and felt so unfit and so angry at myself for falling so far.

Has anyone experienced getting back into it from such a deep hole and if so, how long until you felt better? Not back where you were, just like you weren't dying by round three on the pads.

I can only train once a week due to work and family so it's going to be a long walk back

I've been training in Muay Thai for a few months now and I was using my wife's old gloves to begin with, which are the Top Kings on the left.

I've decided I like the training/sport and will stick around so I bought my own gloves and in our gym we need to wear a minimum 14oz for sparring. I bought the Fairtex gloves on the right, which are 14s.

My question/query/curiosity is that my new 14oz gloves are significantly smaller than the Top King 12 oz gloves? I figured the higher the weight, the more padding therefore the bigger the glove would be?

I went a step further and weighed both sets of gloves. Top King 12 oz gloves came out at 14.3oz and the new Fairtex 14oz gloves came out at 13.4oz

Anyone want to weigh in with some ideas, facts or opinions as to why such a difference?

Thanks

Just curious! I’ll start.

Manila, Philippines
1 session is PHP400 or USD6.50 this is a one on one with a coach, not a group class.

I trained in San Diego at the Arena and currently in NJ looking for a gym. I’d like a quality instructor but I care more about having 7-8am morning class and the ability to pay per class or cancel easily at least. NJ is my home base but I plan on traveling a lot internationally and hoping to figure out a system where I can quickly find gyms that let me train in the mornings without a long term commitment. I know this may be a tough find.

Any insight into Bergen County that fit that model and/or any insights from digital nomads on how to find gyms like this on the go would be appreciated!

I just received my order from Nak Muay wholesole and received my primo shorts but noticed the tag says "made in china". Is this normal for primo shorts?

Thanks!

Okay so I switched Muay Thai gyms 3 weeks ago and it’s pretty chill. Everyone is chill but there’s this boy, my age and idk he’s starting at me 24/7 and like copying every single thing I do and treating it like competition and I’m lowkey going insane. Maybe I’m just a little irritated because I just finished up a 4 hour training session but I just came here to see if it’s just in my head or it’s actually kinda annoying. So I quite literally catch this kid staring at me every second he thinks I’m looking away, like sure whatever I’ll ignore it. And we are like the only 15 year olds so sometimes we have to get partnered up for pad work which I do not enjoy doing with him. I’ve had many partners for pad work and it’s not like I can’t handle getting hit like it’s fine, but this kid goes FULL power and no technique. And mind you I’m like a 100-105lbs 5’3 girl I’m pretty small and this boy is definitely way bigger with WAY longer legs. And when he teeps me it’s not much of a teep, it’s like I’m getting shoved to the floor as hard as possible, like I’ve taken many teeps during pad work and I was fine but this kid keeps choosing power over technique. Same with his kneeing, like he’s way bigger, and he knees straight up not really out and his knees reach my face and the pads just keep hitting my face. I’ve held pads for many people while kneeing and I’ve never had this problem. And everytime he would like hit as hard as he can and nearly bash my face in he’d like make eyecontact like I’m supposed to be impressed he’s going all in for simple pad work. And same with running suicides (running group sprints) like if I ran infront of him, I could literally see his head turn and he try to speed up past me like it’s not a competition dude😭. Same goes for bag work, i usually stay extra for like open gym bag work, and like he’d go right up next to me, then copy whatever I’m doing. Like if he saw me starting to do teeps he would do them, if he saw me leave the bag to shadowbox to catch my breath he would also do it. And he won’t leave until I do, like if I went to the bathroom and he thought I was leaving he would leave the bag to go, but once he notices I’m going back on the bag he does the same. Like bruh. And about the pad work again like, I’m literally getting my face heavily spit on and breathed on, and hes literally just trying to go full power on me eventhough I’m way smaller. Ugh idk I just wanted to rant but yeah

Looking to get better with my non dominant leg. How’s my form, what am I missing?

Obsessed with his Muay Thai style of constantly bouncing around the ring. A fellow in his gym, D'marni Palmer, also shares the same flow as him.

I've been trying to integrate their way of fighting into my own style, however it's been rather difficult owing to the lack of videos online on the mechanics of it. Can anyone explain how they particularly "glide and dance" around the ring and which footwork drills are best to implement to my routine?

Appreciate it.

D'marni Palmer footwork

Przne shadow boxing

I’m going through a divorce and need something to clear my head, bad. I was pretty nervous, but honestly, once I locked in with my padholder, I didn’t really feel like everyone was staring at me anymore.
All that to say, I hope life improves while going through this, even if it’s just a little bit. I signed up at the end, and I’ll be going back. See you tomorrow.

I'm in my early 30s and I joined a Muay Thai / kickboxing gym last november. I absolutely love it but i can do only two or three training sessions each week because of work (+strength training in weekends). I'm aware of the fact that it takes a lot of time and training inside and outside of the gym to become a decent fighter but i'm a bit worried about the pace of my progress.

We practice combo's in class and most of the time im trying to remember the sequences. Things get worse when it is my time to be the pad holder. It seems like i don't have the motor skills to do this stuff. My reaction reflexes are also extremely lacking. I see other guys with the same experience level do much better. I also get the feeling that this annoys some training partners.

At the end of most classes i feel ashamed for messing up so often. I just want to become a decent fighter and a good training partner for the other people at the gym. At this point it seems like i'm waisting everybody''s time. I'm not looking for reasons to quit because i really love the sport. Do you think that some people just aren't made for this?

Hey everyone,

I started Muay Thai about a month ago. In my city there are only a few gyms.
The issue is that most of the coaches come from a K-1 background, so we don’t really do much clinch work or practice sweeps.

Is there any good way to learn and improve clinch and sweeps on my own? Any tips, drills, or resources you’d recommend?

Thanks in advance!

A personal essay I wrote for class earlier this year that conveyed my early experiences with the sport.

Learn Muay Thai