My name is Tadej, I am 17 years old and I am doing a full-time internship at Fight2Win for my e-commerce education for 3 months. Of course, I also practice martial arts myself. First, I boxed for a while, then I switched to Thai boxing and besides Thai boxing, I also started doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
The Thai boxing training
I train Thai boxing twice a week at Sportcentrum Eagle Gym.
A typical training at Eagle Gym looks like this: When you arrive, you can change in the locker rooms, where you can put on your cup and wrap your handwraps.
Warm-up
Before you really start training, you obviously have to warm up. First, get moving, jump around, alternate shadow Thai boxing with push-ups, squats, and abdominal exercises like planks, sit-ups, and mountain climbers. It is important to loosen all joints such as your neck, shoulders, and hips by rotating them. Finally, stretch your shoulders and legs.
Sometimes we then take a punching shield, 25 low kicks, 25 power kicks, and 25 teeps per leg, now you are really warmed up.
Combinations
Once we are warm, you put on your shin guards and gloves and start with combinations. We usually start the first round with jab, right cross, left hook, low kick to get warmed up and then really start the combinations.
Usually, we do about half an hour of various combinations like jab, cross, hook, stepping out during the hook, low kick, stepping out low again. My favorite combination is jab, cross, switch, power kick, jab, cross, switch, hook, power kick. We do the combinations in rounds of 2 or 3 minutes.
Sparring and extras
Then the trainer calls for mouthguards, I personally use the double braces mouthguard from Shock Doctor because I have braces on both top and bottom. Once everyone has their mouthguard in, we start sparring, rounds of 2 minutes with half a minute rest. Sparring usually lasts 20-30 minutes, after which we do a short cool down. The cool down consists of rotating joints and brief stretching.
Besides my training at Eagle Gym, I do some small exercises that complement the Thai boxing training. I try to practice with a reflex ball 5 times a week for 10 minutes. This is good for my hand-eye coordination and
meanwhile, I train moving and dodging punches by switching stances, applying slips, slipping, and rolling.
For light-footed movement and extra explosive calves, I make sure to jump rope at least twice a week, usually 3 rounds between 2 and 3 minutes long.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
I train BJJ 3 times a week at BJJ Rotterdam.
Danny, the head coach, learned his Jiu Jitsu from grandmaster Rickson Gracie, and he tries to pass on Rickson’s vision to as many people as possible. So they can learn and experience the power of Jiu Jitsu. That power lies mainly in problem-solving thinking, which really attracts me to Jiu Jitsu.
Before we start training, we prepare the mats, then we put on our Gi or rashguard for No-Gi on Thursdays.
A Gi is the traditional uniform for BJJ, consisting of a heavy cotton jacket, reinforced trousers with a drawstring, and a belt that indicates your rank - white, blue, purple, brown, or black. Traditionally, a Gi is white, but nowadays we see many different colors used in BJJ.
After that, we warm up with jumping, butt kicks, high knees, joint rotations, and lunges to warm up the knees and hips. If it fits the training of the day, we warm up walking on shoulders and doing ebi’s or other important movements.
Once warmed up, there is an hour of technique training, during which we alternate between positions:
Mount: Here you sit on top of your opponent who is lying on his back, controlling his upper body.
Back mount: You are behind your opponent with your legs around his waist and control over his upper body.
Side control: In this position, you lie on top of your opponent, across his chest, with your weight on him for control.
Guard: You lie on your back with your legs around your opponent to defend or attack.
Within these positions, there are variations such as half guard, open guard, north-south position in side control, and many more.
All positions are thoroughly covered in turn: first, the trainer explains what we are going to do and then demonstrates how to do it.
With a training partner, you then practice these positions yourself while the trainer walks around to help. From time to time, he gives extra details to the whole class, which you can then apply.
After the hour of technique training, we test each other during sparring, rounds of 6 minutes with 30 seconds rest between rounds to switch partners.
During sparring, you and your sparring partner can choose which position to start in, often a position that one of you still struggles with or wants to work on.
After sparring, we do a small cool down with movements like standing rock climber, again rotating joints, and focusing on breathing.
Gym
Before I started training Thai boxing and BJJ, I went to the gym 5 times a week. At the gym, I mainly did exercises to build muscle. Examples are bench press, hamstring curl, barbell row, leg press, and various exercises for my arms and shoulders.
In the 2 years I fully focused on the gym, I gained about 17kg. Something that was necessary. The downside is that you get short and stiff muscles if you only train in the gym and don’t do mobility exercises and/or stretch.
Now I approach my gym training differently: I still train with weights twice a week. I still focus on strength but keep BJJ and Thai boxing in mind.
Now I do more exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, medicine ball slam, and cable row. Although it’s not popular in the martial arts world, I only do 2 sets per exercise unless the exercise is specifically for muscle endurance.
For me, 2 sets are enough to make progress without overloading my whole body; of course, I make sure to reach failure or really not be able to continue at the end of my set.
