7. Your shins will hurt. You will get bumps and bruises. There is no way around this, but there is an end in sight. You don’t need to go kicking trees and hitting yourself with bamboo to make your shins hard. There are a lot of strange “wives tales” when it comes to shin conditioning.  My take on it is this: 1) Kick the heavy bag often. 2) When you do get a bump, bruise, or pain of practically any kind on your leg, shin, or foot ice it. 3) Rub out your shins and legs with Thai oil before training. Massage out the bumps and bruises (yes this will hurt a little, but nothing worth having comes easy, remember?). I was not gifted with hard shins. There was a bunch of soft tissue on the top of my shin that gave me grief in the beginning. My legs were always so bruised that my Thai coaches used to point at me, laugh and call me a “leopard”. Only their English was hard for me to understand and I thought they were calling me a leper. During my first 2-4 years of training I came home from the gym and put packs of frozen peas on me from my feet to my knees for 30 minutes while eating dinner and watching TV. Then magically, one day my shins didn’t really bruise much anymore and when I caught the occasional knee or elbow to the shin in sparring, I was pretty much okay. For more on this see my Muay Thai injuries blog.

8. Don’t buy cheap gear. Invest in some quality equipment. I can understand why at first you might buy a cheap pair of gloves because you are not sure if Muay Thai is for you. But once you have been training for a bit and want to take it seriously you’ll want gear that lasts and is protective. With most gear the price indicates quality. So yeah, that $50 pair of gloves will wear out much sooner than the $100 pair. With most brands you really are getting your money’s worth. As far as style and brand, that’s a personal choice. Ask your instructor, fighters, or advanced students at your gym what they like and read online reviews… and for God’s sake do not buy cheap headgear and mouth guards.

9. You don’t have to fight. You don’t even have to spar. No one is going to think any less of you if you don’t want to. Crazy people like training that involves getting punched in the face. Fighters are insane, we acknowledge this and don’t think any less of people that want no part of it. Sparring will definitely improve your Muay Thai, but it’s not necessary to being a welcome contribution to your gym. If your gym insists on everyone sparring or pressures you to spar too early in your training, just find one that doesn’t, they do exist.

10. Be a good partner. Learn to hold pads well. Not only will being a good pad holder make your fellow students appreciate you but it will also make you stronger. You don’t have to think of exciting flashy combos to call out for your partner. Some of the world’s best pad holders keep it straightforward and basic. Just call basic punches kicks and knees, keep the pace up, work on your footwork while holding and hold pads with a good amount of resistance. Communicate with your partner about the right height, angle, and resistance of the pads. They will be grateful for your thoughtfulness.

11. Don’t forget to breathe!  Breathe out when you strike, breathe out when you hold pads, pushing against your partners strikes and breathe out when you get hit in sparring. You don’t have to make funny grunting noises if you don’t want to, but at least breathe out and tightly flex your abdominal wall.  My first coach told me to say “hush” when I strike.  It helps your power in a big way, and ’til this day I still make kinda funny “hush” noises all the time.

12. Don’t expect to get proficient at Muay Thai training just once a week. If you want to get decent at the sport, start training three days a week. If you want to get good at Muay Thai, train five to six days a week. If you want to be great, get so obsessed with Muay Thai that at least once you get asked to stop training because the gym is closing.