Thai Boxing and Hard Qigong

[wiz cool c]

Been doing hard qigong with my teacher for some time now. he lived in the shaolin temple for 7 years. He teaches me hard qigong and shaolin kung fu. He is a great teacher ,love the stuff I learn from him, but he teaches privately in his home. So little to no contact training. Well faith will have it a thai boxing school run by a teacher from Thailand is within a 5 minute walk from my apartment. Signed up three weeks ago and love it. hard qigong and thai boxing just work wonderfully together. I love getting hit ,and hitting targets to test my toughness. Anyone else have this experience?

[wiz cool c]

hello hello hello is there anybody out there ,is anybody in there, is the any one at home. pink Floyd comfortably numb

[Pete]

lol it's a little dead in here right where and how do you get hit in thai boxing? sparring or partner drills? never been to a muay thai class but it sounds like good conditioning

[Kellen Bassette]

I think Thai Boxing blends very nicely with Gong Fu in general.

[wiz cool c]

lol it's a little dead in here right where and how do you get hit in thai boxing? sparring or partner drills? never been to a muay thai class but it sounds like good conditioning

Both, the class is structured like this. Running for about ten minutes, then stretching ,then shadow boxing then you go on your own and hit the bags. The teacher will call you out one by one and work the pads with you. This is great body conditioning, those pads are not very soft and you are wailing on them with knees shins elbows. Push ups and sit ups are throw into the mix. And bag drills. And they spar often. Half of the time the sparing is boxing with no kicks, the sparring is somewhat light, but you are getting hit with hooks upper cuts to the body, a bit closer and tighter than most kung fu style sparring I have done.

Yesterday did a round of boxing style sparring with a fit strong beginner. The thaiboxing fighting stance keeping hands high work well for blocks against punches to the face and head. I could feel my ying qi gong arm training is very useful. My arms felt like steel when blocking. The few times I got caught in the stomach,get to test my body training. The previous week when sparring more advanced students and getting punched in my face, get a chance to test my iron head skills;]. Feel it is great supplementary training for the body conditioning that is part of my hard qi gong training.

[wiz cool c]

I think Thai Boxing blends very nicely with Gong Fu in general.

it really is, it is like applied kung fu. I am sure sanda will do the same, but I haven’t had a chance to study sanda.

[Kellen Bassette]

it really is, it is like applied kung fu.

Indeed, that was my impression when I first trained MT. The addition of the more developed Thai clinch game seems seamless from a Gong Fu base.
On the surface, it may appear foreign to some, but even sport MT, (from Thailand,) is very much based on traditional martial arts.
Some may disagree, but I asked a Thai kru about Muay Boran, and he said it is the same as Muay Thai. He told me if you want to fight with the "ancient boxing" techniques, you just train the ones you want to use in the gym, along with your MT basics. While most Thai boxers stick to the fundamentals, you do see fighters who have one or two MB techs they like to surprise people with during fights.

That idea made a pretty big impression on me and since then I have always felt gong fu should be trained in this manner. Use a simplified sanda type base, appropriate to the core of your system and concentrate the majority of training on fundamentals, conditioning, (gong) and actual fighting. Then you will have better understanding to draw more from your system and integrate the more advanced or unorthodox material from a very solid base.

My two cents anyway.

[wiz cool c]

Yeah that is cool. I haven’t even gotten to clinch work yet, forgot about that. I also feel when I open my own school in the future will structure the class a bit like the thai class. In your experience in thaiboxing what was the intensity of the sparring? At this school they spar kind of light, but often and from the start, no knees and elbows. I imagine it is cause they would hurt each other cause they all have tremendous power. But in my opinion it really make a person a calm and cool and posed fighter

[Pete]

Indeed, that was my impression when I first trained MT. The addition of the more developed Thai clinch game seems seamless from a Gong Fu base.
On the surface, it may appear foreign to some, but even sport MT, (from Thailand,) is very much based on traditional martial arts.
Some may disagree, but I asked a Thai kru about Muay Boran, and he said it is the same as Muay Thai. He told me if you want to fight with the "ancient boxing" techniques, you just train the ones you want to use in the gym, along with your MT basics. While most Thai boxers stick to the fundamentals, you do see fighters who have one or two MB techs they like to surprise people with during fights.

That idea made a pretty big impression on me and since then I have always felt gong fu should be trained in this manner. Use a simplified sanda type base, appropriate to the core of your system and concentrate the majority of training on fundamentals, conditioning, (gong) and actual fighting. Then you will have better understanding to draw more from your system and integrate the more advanced or unorthodox material from a very solid base.

My two cents anyway.

nice! agree 10000000000000000% with those words i'm trying to do that atm starting with sanda basics...but i haven't trained properly in months >.<

[Kellen Bassette]

In your experience in thaiboxing what was the intensity of the sparring?

The guys I trained with would often have me spar with just boxing, (as you mentioned,) then we would spar with Thai boxing, but it was always much lighter than I was accustomed to. I've also heard this from other folks who trained in Thailand. I think because many fighters fight much more often than in the west, not unusual to fight every couple weeks, they like to keep sparring light, to avoid injuries I assume.
Might be different at different gyms though.

We also spent a lot of time doing just clinch training, which was much more strenuous than the sparring. The clinch was pretty much full power, but the knees and elbows were kept under control...

[Kellen Bassette]

nice! agree 10000000000000000% with those words i'm trying to do that atm starting with sanda basics...but i haven't trained properly in months >.<

Get yourself a heavy bag and work your basics everyday, if you got a partner have him hold pads...you stick with that daily and you'll be glad you did!
Time to get yourself back to work again!

[wiz cool c]

The guys I trained with would often have me spar with just boxing, (as you mentioned,) then we would spar with Thai boxing, but it was always much lighter than I was accustomed to. I've also heard this from other folks who trained in Thailand. I think because many fighters fight much more often than in the west, not unusual to fight every couple weeks, they like to keep sparring light, to avoid injuries I assume.
Might be different at different gyms though.

We also spent a lot of time doing just clinch training, which was much more strenuous than the sparring. The clinch was pretty much full power, but the knees and elbows were kept under control...

Good stuff thanks for the input. Have you done any sanda too. Has anyone here studied both? i have only had one short private lesson. How do the two styles differ in training and fighting? Besides the fact that sanda has throws

[Kellen Bassette]

Have you done any sanda too.

Only a class here and there. I have arranged my traditional material in a sanda format and trained for the rules of the sport, but haven't trained in a proper sanda class. I intend to though.

[Pete]

Get yourself a heavy bag and work your basics everyday, if you got a partner have him hold pads...you stick with that daily and you'll be glad you did!
Time to get yourself back to work again!

i have one of those free standing bags just been lazy! now nothing really feels "right" when im hitting it...probably that extra flab i've acquired! lol i'm going to see my shifu for a month in china, leaving sunday... hoping this will be the kick up the ass i need

Good stuff thanks for the input. Have you done any sanda too. Has anyone here studied both? i have only had one short private lesson. How do the two styles differ in training and fighting? Besides the fact that sanda has throws

i've been interested in MT but never been to a class so couldn't tell you much! i guess it depends on the teacher, when i started sanda we just did basic stance training and nothing else...literally hold the stance for a few minutes then step forward x100000000 step backwards x 100000000 seemed to go on for weeks lol worth it though! then we moved up to basic jabs then basic straights and onto kicks. when we had a decent understanding of that we started training with pads + full contact sparring

[wiz cool c]

Continuing training in hard qi gong/shaolin and Thai boxing as a supplement. Adding a little clip of my training in Thai boxing in china.