What Actually Happens

Nothing about a beginner class assumes you have done this before. Here is the shape of it.

Wraps

Your hands get wrapped, and a trainer will do it for you the first time. It takes longer than you expect and it is not decorative — it holds the small bones of the hand together when you hit something.

Warm Up

Skipping, shadow work, or a light circuit. Ten minutes, and in Bangkok humidity it is enough to make the point that this is exercise.

The Basics

Stance and guard first, because everything else fails without them. Then:

• Straight punches — familiar to anyone who has thrown a punch, and still wrong the first thirty times.
• The teep — the push kick, the sport’s jab, used to control distance.
• The roundhouse — thrown with the shin, not the foot, turning from the hip with the whole body behind it. This is the one that feels alien longest, and the one that makes muay thai look like muay thai.

Elbows and knees may appear depending on the session and how you are doing.

Pads

The part everyone remembers. A trainer holds Thai pads and calls combinations while you throw them, and the feedback is instant, physical and honest. It is also where you discover exactly how fast your hands drop when you get tired, which is much faster than you would guess.

Stretch, and the Aftermath

Sessions usually close with stretching. Expect to ache in your shins and hips tomorrow — the shins from kicking pads, the hips from turning them over.

What Surprises People

• How tiring an hour is. Heat plus unfamiliar movement compounds.
• How much correction you get. Trainers correct constantly. That is the value.
• How little of it is aggressive. Beginner sessions are technical and good humoured; nobody is trying to hurt you.

What to Bring

Shorts, a t-shirt, water, a towel. Gloves and wraps are generally provided, and the one-to-one option at $44 includes shorts to keep. Nothing needs buying in advance.

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