I’m Tadej, 17 years old, and I’m doing a three-month full-time internship at Fight2Win as part of my e-commerce studies. Naturally, I also train in martial arts myself. I boxed for a while at first, then switched to Thai boxing, and alongside Thai boxing I also started doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Thai Boxing Training
I train Thai boxing twice a week at Sportcentrum Eagle Gym.
An average training session at Eagle Gym looks like this: When you arrive, you can change in the changing rooms, put on your cup and start wrapping your Handwraps.
Warming Up
Before you really start training, you obviously need to warm up. First, get moving and loosen up by alternating shadow Thai boxing with push-ups, squats and abdominal exercises such as planks, sit-ups and mountain climbers. It is important to loosen all your joints, such as your neck, shoulders and hips, by rotating them. Finally, stretch your shoulders and legs.
Sometimes we then use a set of punching shields for 25 low kicks, 25 power kicks and 25 teeps per leg. By then, you are properly warmed up.
Combinations
Once we are warmed up, we put on our Shin guards and gloves and start working on combinations. We generally start the first round with a jab, straight right, left hook and low kick to get our punches and kicks going, and then we really begin the combinations.
We usually spend about half an hour doing different combinations, such as jab, cross, hook, stepping out during the hook, low kick, then stepping out again and throwing another low kick. My favorite combination is jab, cross, switch, power kick, jab, cross, switch, hook, power kick. We do the combinations in rounds of two or three minutes.
Sparren and Extras
Then the trainer calls for mouthguards. I use Shock Doctor’s double-braces mouthguard because I have braces on both my upper and lower teeth. Once everyone has put in their mouthguard, we start sparren, with two-minute rounds and half a minute of rest. Sparren often lasts 20–30 minutes, after which we do a short cooldown. The cooldown consists of rotating the joints and doing some brief stretches.
Besides my training sessions at Eagle Gym, I also do some small exercises that complement my Thai boxing training. I try to practise with a reflex ball for 10 minutes, five times a week. This is good for my hand-eye coordination and
at the same time trains me to move and evade punches by switching stances and applying slips, slipping and rolling.
To improve my footwork and build extra explosive calves, I make sure to jump rope at least twice a week, usually for three rounds lasting between two and three minutes.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
I train BJJ three times a week at BJJ Rotterdam.
Danny, the head coach, learned his Jiu Jitsu from grandmaster Rickson Gracie, and he tries to pass Rickson’s philosophy on to as many people as possible so they can learn about and experience the power of Jiu Jitsu. That power lies mainly in problem-solving, which is something that strongly appeals to me about Jiu Jitsu.
Before we start training, we lay out the mats and put on our Gi, or a 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 indicating your rank—white, blue, purple, brown or black. Traditionally, a Gi is white, but nowadays we see many different colors being used in BJJ.
After that, we warm up with running, butt kicks, high knees, joint rotations and lunges to warm up the knees and hips. If it fits with that day’s training, we also warm up by running through shoulder movements and practising ebi's or other important movements.
Once we are warmed up, we have an hour of technique training, during which we alternate between the following positions:
Mount: You sit on top of your opponent, who is lying on their back, while controlling their upper body.
Back mount: You are behind your opponent with your legs around their waist and control over their upper body.
Side control: In this position, you lie on top of your opponent across their chest, using your weight to maintain control.
Guard: You lie on your back with your legs around your opponent to defend or attack.
There are also variations within these positions, such as half Guard, open Guard and the North-south position from Side control, among many others.
All positions are covered in detail in turn: first, the trainer explains what we are going to do, and then demonstrates how to do it.
You then practise these positions yourself with a training partner while the trainer walks around to help. Every so often, he gives the whole class some additional details that you can then apply.
After an hour of technique training, we test ourselves during sparring, with six-minute rounds and 30 seconds of rest between rounds to switch partners.
During sparring, you and your sparring partner can choose the position you start in, often a position that one of you still struggles with or would like to work on.
After sparring, we do a short cooldown with movements such as standing rock climbers, more joint rotations and a focus on breathing.
Gym
Before I started training Thai boxing and BJJ, I went to the gym five times a week. At the gym, I mainly did exercises to build muscle. Examples include bench press, hamstring curls, barbell rows, leg presses and various other exercises for my arms and shoulders.
During the two years that I focused fully on the gym, I gained around 17 kg. That was necessary to some extent. The downside is that training only at the gym without doing mobility exercises and/or stretching can leave you with short and stiff muscles.
Now I approach my gym training differently: I still train with weights twice a week. I still focus on strength, but I keep BJJ and Thai boxing in mind.
Now I do more exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, medicine ball slams and cable rows. Although it is not popular in the martial arts world, I only do two sets per exercise if the exercise is not specifically intended to build muscular endurance.
For me, two sets are enough to make progress without overloading my entire body. Of course, I make sure that by the end of my set I am either at failure or genuinely unable to do any more.
