Training in Thailand: A muay Thai Journal

Part 2-Sityodtong, Pattaya

ProFighting-Fans.com Staff Writer, Matt King, poses with the statue of Kru Yodtong at Sityodtong Gym in Thailand.

I am still attending Wat Lam on a regular basis. I have begun to take some lessons from the other Thai trainer, Lam, as my regular trainer has been absent from the gym for a couple of weeks. I will talk about my experiences with Lam in an upcoming article. Right now I would like to focus on the training I received from a very well known gym located in Pattaya: Sityodtong.

MMA fans might recognize the name Sityodtong from its American branch, run by Mark Delegratti, which has, in the past, been the gym of choice for such fighters as Kenny Florian and Patrick Cote. The gym in Pattaya, of course, is the original and, unlike its sister gym in the US, focuses on pure Thai boxing and western boxing. It has produced many champions and is the gym of choice for many farang fighters such as Dzhabar Azerov, one of the contestants on The Contender Asia.

It has been a few weeks now since I visited Sityodtong, although I remember the weekend well, as it not only involved muay Thai but drinking, bar girls, ladyboys, and a proper full English breakfast as well. But I wont get into all of that. This is, after all, supposed to be an article about mauy Thai. Anyway, after arriving in East Pattaya (which is more quiet-and chaper-than the downtown area) having a meal at the Pussycat Club, being introduced to the bar girls, and having a game of pool, I left my friends at the bar to drink as I hoped on a motorbike taxi and made my way to the gym. The gym was mostly open air; That is, it had three walls and a roof. One wall was missing, allowing the sun and fresh air into the gym. Inside there were several heavy bags hung near the entrance, three rings, some tires, and weights.

As soon as I arrived a man walked up to me, introduced himself, and told me that he would be my trainer for the evening. I paid my 250 baht(a very good price for such a well respected gym) and started my session with a similar footwork drill that we do at Wat Lam, in which you switch your stance from left to right handed in a rhythm. The only difference was that at Sityodtong the drill was done on top of tires, which is less stressful on the feet and calves than doing the drill on concrete, as we do at Wat Lam. After the footwork drill my trainer called me over to do some rounds on the pads. He worked on improving my right round kick and teep, which are done a little differently there than at my home gym. For instance, at Sityodtong they put emphasis on pivoting your rear foot and to stike with the ball of the foot when performing the teep. At Wat Lam they tell me that you need to “feel” when it is appropriate to use the ball of the foot vs. the full bottom of your foot, and there is less emphasis on pivoting the back foot.

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After several rounds of padwork I jumped out of the ring and worked the same techniques on the heavy bag. I started to get bored after a while, but I was soon told to work on my clinch with some farang who were hanging out in another ring and met some guys from England who were doing a gym tour around Thailand. One kid had a fight coming up near Walking Street(a street notorious for its gogo bars and strip joints) the next day. I wanted to go see him fight but ended up staying in East Side Pattaya.

After clinching for about 20 minutes I finished up with a little more work on the heavy bag, then some chinups, pushups and situps. Altogether I was at the gym for about two and half hours. I got a decent workout but its intensity was nowhere near what I experience at Wat Lam. At the later gym I get worked until I have nothing left. At Sitodtong I got a lot of good technical training, but never really worked to the point of exhaustion as I do back in Chachoengsao. I would certainly go again, as the workout might not have been intense, but the technical side of the session was very good.

I would also like to add that the people who run Sityodtong are extremely nice. Ploy Sityodsong especially is an exceptionally nice person. She responded to all of my emails in a kind and timely manner and even arranged to have someone drive me to the nearest motorcycle taxi depot so that I would not have to walk there. I was not charged any extra for that service. For all of these reasons, I highly recommend Sityodtong if you ever find yourself in Pattaya(that is, if you can find the willpower to pull yourself away from the gogo bars for a few hours).

By Matt King
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer