My female muay thai team:Brainstorming thread (FEEDBACK WANTED)

[WhiteShark]

I didn't notice if it was posted yet but remember that holding pads is a great gateway to getting hit. Teach these girls how to be good pad feeders and a lot of them will switch to light sparring pretty easily imo.

[Torakaka]

I didn't notice if it was posted yet but remember that holding pads is a great gateway to getting hit. Teach these girls how to be good pad feeders and a lot of them will switch to light sparring pretty easily imo.

Hmm, I've never thought of that. Well I'm hoping people will be receptive to pad feeding, I know some people don't seem to care much for it though I figure that's mainly because they never really learn how to be good pad feeders.

[Wounded Ronin]

Well, I'm interested. Kindly keep us posted how things develop.

[retrograde]

Just a few ideas (though I'm no trainer, just a female fighter):

You said you'd wanted to do some strength building type stuff but there wasn't enough time -- you could encourage the serious and experienced students to either come in earlier or stay later to do this kind of thing under their own direction. Even a 15-minute circuit of fairly intense bodyweight and functional strength activities (squats, pushups, burpees, kettlebells, neck weights, whatever) would be really beneficial, wouldn't take too much time and I reckon getting students together to do "extra", self-directed training builds team work and self-discipline. If the gym isn't available, and the weather is ok where you are, it could be done outside.

I'd also encourage the serious ones to come in earlier to do road work (whether you're in either the traditional long jog or sprints and intervals school of thought, I presume you'll want your fighters doing some road work). Again, running together builds the idea of a team and I think tends to make people push harder than if they're doing it alone at home.

My other thought: Do you think that will be enough grappling/clinch work for fighters? My gym, and most other serious MT gyms I know, do a good half hour straight of hard grappling every night.

[inkskin]

Just a few ideas (though I'm no trainer, just a female fighter):

I'd also encourage the serious ones to come in earlier to do road work (whether you're in either the traditional long jog or sprints and intervals school of thought, I presume you'll want your fighters doing some road work). Again, running together builds the idea of a team and I think tends to make people push harder than if they're doing it alone at home.

.

That's what we do, and it really does encourage more teamwork in our group. On Thursdays we run sprints, and then 2 miles incorporating a hill. I can tell you that left on my own it is not something I would push myself to do, but with the group it isn't so bad. The encouragement from others is so helpful when my calf muscles are on fire and I want to stop.
There isn't one of us that comes from a running background so it is hard for us all. Since we started that, 4 of us run a couple of miles after class every other night. It has really helped our conditioning and is bringing us all up to speed instead of just one or two who would be inclined to do it at home. Though I can't think of one in our class who would do that at home alone.

[Torakaka]

Just a few ideas (though I'm no trainer, just a female fighter):

You said you'd wanted to do some strength building type stuff but there wasn't enough time -- you could encourage the serious and experienced students to either come in earlier or stay later to do this kind of thing under their own direction. Even a 15-minute circuit of fairly intense bodyweight and functional strength activities (squats, pushups, burpees, kettlebells, neck weights, whatever) would be really beneficial, wouldn't take too much time and I reckon getting students together to do "extra", self-directed training builds team work and self-discipline. If the gym isn't available, and the weather is ok where you are, it could be done outside.

I'd also encourage the serious ones to come in earlier to do road work (whether you're in either the traditional long jog or sprints and intervals school of thought, I presume you'll want your fighters doing some road work). Again, running together builds the idea of a team and I think tends to make people push harder than if they're doing it alone at home.

My other thought: Do you think that will be enough grappling/clinch work for fighters? My gym, and most other serious MT gyms I know, do a good half hour straight of hard grappling every night.

Thanks for the input :) All the "extra" team training work out stuff does sound like a good idea. Honestly, I just don't know much about PT type stuff since I haven't really done much myself. Having those that want to fight come in for a run before everything else starts is something I would probably add.

More clinch training, yeah, I like the sound of that... How do they do clinch training at your gym? Show clinch technique, drill technique, clinch sparring? The gyms that I've trained at have always heavily neglected clinch work so I'm curious how gyms that don't run things.

[Torakaka]

That's what we do, and it really does encourage more teamwork in our group. On Thursdays we run sprints, and then 2 miles incorporating a hill. I can tell you that left on my own it is not something I would push myself to do, but with the group it isn't so bad. The encouragement from others is so helpful when my calf muscles are on fire and I want to stop.
There isn't one of us that comes from a running background so it is hard for us all. Since we started that, 4 of us run a couple of miles after class every other night. It has really helped our conditioning and is bringing us all up to speed instead of just one or two who would be inclined to do it at home. Though I can't think of one in our class who would do that at home alone.

Agreed fully that running by yourself is way more of a chore than running with your teammates. Do you only do road work on Thursdays? What are the distances/sets/etc. that you run and sprint? Just curious as to how everyone works out their own training schedules.

[retrograde]

We run about 4km (I think, never really measured) every day before training, but it's pretty self-directed. There's a standard track we all do, though some prefer to do a much longer run. I personally don't think it's necessary to run further (nor does my trainer, but he doesn't seem to mind if people want to go longer), so if I've got extra time, I'll add in some hill sprints or more skipping. Once a week we also do a strength and conditioning only session (in addition to regular training, not instead of) that includes a lot of sprinting and cardio interspersed with mostly bodyweight, functional weight and plyo stuff. Those with fights coming up -- especially if they're dropping lots of weight -- will often run mornings as well.

As for grappling: we really just do about 30 mins non-stop of clinch sparring, with the aim of getting the dominant position, throwing knees and getting your opponent to the ground. The level of intensity and power is dictated by how good/experienced you and who you're with are. Fighters are expected to go quite hard (though only side slapping knees of course), total beginners will probably just be told to go quite light and concentrate on snaking the hands and landing knees. Most of the "learning" is done by going with a more experienced opponent, who will show you some stuff as you go (in between throwing you around like a ragdoll). The trainers will step in and show someone a technique or two if they see something they need to work on, but it's rare they would give us a particular technique for everyone to work as a drill. Mostly they will just comment, answer questions and give advice from the sidelines. This is pretty much how it's trained in Thailand.

IMO, the best way to learn to grapple (and to develop the neck and arm strength to do it properly) is just to do a lot of it.

That said, this way works for us because we have lots of experienced fighters and lots of people who have spent good stints of time training in Thailand, and most nights, there are more fighters than non-fighter training, so the knowledge is shared around and less experienced people learn what does and does not work pretty quickly. If you were dealing with a whole group of beginners, it might be harder. One way might be to rotate yourself through all the chicks there so they get a chance to grapple someone strong (I'm presuming) and experienced. I usually learn more in one night of grappling with my trainer than a week of grappling a non-fighter.

Also, fighters do several hundred knees on the heavy bag after grappling, and those with fights against strong grapplers coming up will often stay back to do chin-ups and neck weights.

[joest]

I've no business posting here as I am slacking in my own training and certainly far from a coach, just one thing that Ross Enamait keeps emphasizing: do not do conditioning or strength work before skill work. At least not before drilling new skills. Otherwise, you will be programming your fighters to perform movements slow.

You can do some conditioning work before working on very familiar skills, actually it''s a good way to prepare for fighting fatigued.

[GHemmer]

A lot of the woman in the kickboxing cardio class at my gym joined because there husbands told them about it, talk to the men at your gym and see if any of there wifes are interested.