Patong Boxing Gym

[cc2709]

Hi all, in August/September of 2009 I spent 4 weeks at the Patong Boxing Gym (PBG) in Phuket, and here is my review.

 

First a bit about me, I am 43 years old, 6'1" tall and 215 pounds, and I had NO prior boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, etc... training. Also my goal was to learn something new, have an adventure and get into better physical condition, but most importantly my goal was to accomplish this without injuring myself. So take this review from a standpoint of a novice with ZERO aspirations to get into competitive Muay Thai or MMA.

 

The Training: At PBG there were 5 trainers, four were young Thai, Muay Thai boxers who lived and trained at the gym for their own fighting career as well as to provide training to others, the 5th trainer (Sosh) was the Master, he is 41 years old and apparently was a champion back in the day. I attended 2 training sessions a day (7AM and 3PM), 6 days a week (M-Sat). I was fortunate to train exclusively with Sosh, I don't know if it was luck of the draw, taking pity on the old Falang, young guys weren't interested etc... but I could not have been happier because Sosh was excellent. The training regime was typically:

 

1) Cardio - 5K run in the AM, 15-20 min Jumprope in the PM

2) Stretching

3) Shadow boxing

4) 4-5 rounds (4 min each) of pad work - this is when specific technique training or sparring occurred

5) Heavy bag for more punches and kicks

6) Sit-ups and weight lifting

 

Altogether about 90+ min per session. And this was progressive, I did not start out at this level on day one, I worked up to it. Also items 2-5 are all 1:1 training, so these were not group classes or situations where you had a trainer bouncing back and forth between students. Whether this is usual or just an artifact of being there during the slow season, I can not comment on.

 

The Facility: The gym is on the hill overlooking Patong, unless you are rooming on site, you will need transportation to come and go, in that it is 5KM to the town and straight up hill. The facility is new, it is an open air building with a ring, a large mat area for pad work and heavy bags and a small weight room area (weights were pretty old, free weights, dumbbells and 1980's vintage nautilus equipment), but they got the job done. There are fans to keep the air circulating but there is no aircon. Being on a hill top there was always a breeze, so not once was it ever too hot to exercise (note I did my road work early in the AM, in that Aug is not the time to run outdoors in the heat of the day unless you have outstanding conditioning). A clean bathroom with shower was onsite. Overall very basic, but clean and very functional.

 

The Safety: As mentioned before I had to work to the level of training I described before. All the instructors took great care to ensure you had properly stretched beforehand, they would do your hand wraps and they would do liniment massages as needed. As they brought you up the learning curve on the various techniques you would always start with no contact and then work your way up to ensure you new how to do the move prior to exerting a lot of force. They constantly were providing fresh water to drink, towel you down and douse you with water to keep your temperature down. If you had an injury, or bruise they would take it easy to heel (for example after the first three days your shins look like hamburger they are so bruised from the kicks, they would move to lighter "more softer" pads to kick as you recovered...). So overall safety was their top concern for the students.

 

Other PBG observations: While I was there there were 5 or 6 Falang students training for Muay Thai/MMA (all considerably younger and fitter then myself), and there were about the same number of people like me who were there on holiday with similar aspirations to me. Additionally people would come and go for a week or even an individual training session. Like everything in Thailand it was "Up to You". If you were serious about this and once you had achieved a certain level of proficiency and conditioning they would arrange fights for you, a couple of the "serious" students did that while I was there. As callibration, Sosh told me if I wanted to fight in a sanctioned bout I would need another 6 weeks of training and conditioning.

 

Logistics: They have a decent guesthouse and restaurant onsite. I stayed in Patong (about 6 KM away) in a guest house and rented a motorbike while I was there. If you are staying in their guesthouse you most certainly will need a motorbike, in that as mentioned you are 5KM from town, 8KM from Banglia road and the beach. Whereas it is easy to get a taxi, tuk tuk, motorbike taxi etc to take you there, unless you arrange one to pick you up you will be walking back (they don't cruise that area looking for fares).

 

Prior Conditioning: People ask me this a lot, prior to going to Patong I could run 6 miles on a treadmill in an hour. This was sufficient to get me started, but really it took me 2 weeks of training before my conditioning was such that I could accomplish the training regime I described above. Next time I will be in better shape prior to going to the camp. Some people there had less conditioning then I, and they accommodated (One man weighed well over 300 lbs of goo, and looked like he was going to stroke out walking up the path, but they slowed it down for him and he appeared to have a great time). Of course the younger more serious students looked like they were cut from solid oak. So something for everyone.

 

For me this was a wonderful experience that I would highly recommend and I would definitely recommend the Patong Boxing Gym to the novice/holiday goer. As for those serious about MMA or Muay Thai I really can not comment on the caliber of training because your expectations are very different then mine...

 

I have photos, but they are redundant to the website (with the website being higher quality and more thorough) so rather then posting, here is the link, which also has pricing etc...

 

http://thailandmuaythaigym.com/ (on the Youtube video on the website's homepage, the trainer is Sosh, but the student definately is not me )

 

Any questions just fire away

 

Thanks

Edited May 21, 2010 by cc2709

[Matt Analbirth]

I have to say I did it in BKK at a few gym. Lay out was pretty similar except before we got onto the thai pads, we did soft hitting into another trainers hands and legs where he'd warm you up for the combos etc that you'd expect when hitting the thai pads, and also fine tuned your techniques.

Then he'd do the same but with boxing style hand pads.

 

As someone who has trained fairly intensely for 2.5 years back in Oz at a good gym, this one was definitely more for the beginner.

I was lucky the group wasn't too big so the guy holding the thai pads got me to do more complex combos and moves such as spinning elbows and flying knees etc, and also gave me more rounds on the thai pads, so I got about double the amount of time.

 

So probably the best way to do it if you just want one or two holiday sessions while in P for example is to go to one and speak with one of the trainers about doing 30-45 mins or 1 hour if u really want on the thai pads. Do a run, do the stretching, then hit the pads.

Heavy bag is good, but wont make much difference for a one or two off on hols over the thai pads, as it's more for developing punching and kicking power and endurance for that power. And if you are like me who has had a big night drinking and f*cking (which sounds like everyone else here) you may as well just go for a bit of a run on the pads and sweat some of that out. It's the most intense part of the training they offer there.

 

If you are remotely fit you'll be fine. It would only be the sessions for fighters that would be more intense.

If you have never done Muay Thai at all, like you mentioned those training sessions for tourists are perfect and a good way to get a taste of what the fighters go through (very small snippet) when training.

[cheang]

sounds like a very fun holiday!

[ROIDFREAK]

Nice report.. I have seen PBG fighters but never trained with them since my sponsors are Tiger Muay Thai in Chalong, Phuket and we would regularly fight against Patong Muaythai guys at the old Bangla stadium.

 

Seeing it was your first time thats impressive that you trained twice per day but I guess your fitness level initially is good so that helped - I had a mate whose a copper in London go with me and pre book 6 weeks accomodation and training but he drunk every day and smoked and never worked out in London .. His first day at the camp he almost died..lol end of second day he quit.

 

IMHO training in Thailand is the best.

[cc2709]

Nice report.. I have seen PBG fighters but never trained with them since my sponsors are Tiger Muay Thai in Chalong, Phuket and we would regularly fight against Patong Muaythai guys at the old Bangla stadium.

 

Seeing it was your first time thats impressive that you trained twice per day but I guess your fitness level initially is good so that helped - I had a mate whose a copper in London go with me and pre book 6 weeks accomodation and training but he drunk every day and smoked and never worked out in London .. His first day at the camp he almost died..lol end of second day he quit.

 

IMHO training in Thailand is the best.

 

 

Thanks!

 

I did feel my age, if I went out the night before, and a had a beer or two or a cig, I would feel it the next day, but some of the young guys, they would have a beer and a cig before their training session (obviously not real dedicated) and then hit it hard....

 

I am going back to LOS in July/Aug, I would like to train a week in Pattaya, do you have a gym you would recommend, something out of the same mold of PBG?

[ROIDFREAK]

Thanks!

 

I did feel my age, if I went out the night before, and a had a beer or two or a cig, I would feel it the next day, but some of the young guys, they would have a beer and a cig before their training session (obviously not real dedicated) and then hit it hard....

 

I am going back to LOS in July/Aug, I would like to train a week in Pattaya, do you have a gym you would recommend, something out of the same mold of PBG?

 

Pattaya Kombat Club I have heard good things about. Fairtex is more geared towards simply making money, not about making you better specifically i.e they dont give a fuck Also Mr Poo is a well known instructor in Pattaya.

[Matt Analbirth]

Yeah Mr Poo is the man lol.

He is good to train with.

[celia19O5]

Yeah I have watched it on TV many times and I like it very much. However, it seems to be difficult to learn

[nbunter]

Hi all, in August/September of 2009 I spent 4 weeks at the Patong Boxing Gym (PBG) in Phuket, and here is my review.

 

First a bit about me, I am 43 years old, 6'1" tall and 215 pounds, and I had NO prior boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, etc... training. Also my goal was to learn something new, have an adventure and get into better physical condition, but most importantly my goal was to accomplish this without injuring myself. So take this review from a standpoint of a novice with ZERO aspirations to get into competitive Muay Thai or MMA.

 

The Training: At PBG there were 5 trainers, four were young Thai, Muay Thai boxers who lived and trained at the gym for their own fighting career as well as to provide training to others, the 5th trainer (Sosh) was the Master, he is 41 years old and apparently was a champion back in the day. I attended 2 training sessions a day (7AM and 3PM), 6 days a week (M-Sat). I was fortunate to train exclusively with Sosh, I don't know if it was luck of the draw, taking pity on the old Falang, young guys weren't interested etc... but I could not have been happier because Sosh was excellent. The training regime was typically:

 

1) Cardio - 5K run in the AM, 15-20 min Jumprope in the PM

2) Stretching

3) Shadow boxing

4) 4-5 rounds (4 min each) of pad work - this is when specific technique training or sparring occurred

5) Heavy bag for more punches and kicks

6) Sit-ups and weight lifting

 

Altogether about 90+ min per session. And this was progressive, I did not start out at this level on day one, I worked up to it. Also items 2-5 are all 1:1 training, so these were not group classes or situations where you had a trainer bouncing back and forth between students. Whether this is usual or just an artifact of being there during the slow season, I can not comment on.

 

The Facility: The gym is on the hill overlooking Patong, unless you are rooming on site, you will need transportation to come and go, in that it is 5KM to the town and straight up hill. The facility is new, it is an open air building with a ring, a large mat area for pad work and heavy bags and a small weight room area (weights were pretty old, free weights, dumbbells and 1980's vintage nautilus equipment), but they got the job done. There are fans to keep the air circulating but there is no aircon. Being on a hill top there was always a breeze, so not once was it ever too hot to exercise (note I did my road work early in the AM, in that Aug is not the time to run outdoors in the heat of the day unless you have outstanding conditioning). A clean bathroom with shower was onsite. Overall very basic, but clean and very functional.

 

The Safety: As mentioned before I had to work to the level of training I described before. All the instructors took great care to ensure you had properly stretched beforehand, they would do your hand wraps and they would do liniment massages as needed. As they brought you up the learning curve on the various techniques you would always start with no contact and then work your way up to ensure you new how to do the move prior to exerting a lot of force. They constantly were providing fresh water to drink, towel you down and douse you with water to keep your temperature down. If you had an injury, or bruise they would take it easy to heel (for example after the first three days your shins look like hamburger they are so bruised from the kicks, they would move to lighter "more softer" pads to kick as you recovered...). So overall safety was their top concern for the students.

 

Other PBG observations: While I was there there were 5 or 6 Falang students training for Muay Thai/MMA (all considerably younger and fitter then myself), and there were about the same number of people like me who were there on holiday with similar aspirations to me. Additionally people would come and go for a week or even an individual training session. Like everything in Thailand it was "Up to You". If you were serious about this and once you had achieved a certain level of proficiency and conditioning they would arrange fights for you, a couple of the "serious" students did that while I was there. As callibration, Sosh told me if I wanted to fight in a sanctioned bout I would need another 6 weeks of training and conditioning.

 

Logistics: They have a decent guesthouse and restaurant onsite. I stayed in Patong (about 6 KM away) in a guest house and rented a motorbike while I was there. If you are staying in their guesthouse you most certainly will need a motorbike, in that as mentioned you are 5KM from town, 8KM from Banglia road and the beach. Whereas it is easy to get a taxi, tuk tuk, motorbike taxi etc to take you there, unless you arrange one to pick you up you will be walking back (they don't cruise that area looking for fares).

 

Prior Conditioning: People ask me this a lot, prior to going to Patong I could run 6 miles on a treadmill in an hour. This was sufficient to get me started, but really it took me 2 weeks of training before my conditioning was such that I could accomplish the training regime I described above. Next time I will be in better shape prior to going to the camp. Some people there had less conditioning then I, and they accommodated (One man weighed well over 300 lbs of goo, and looked like he was going to stroke out walking up the path, but they slowed it down for him and he appeared to have a great time). Of course the younger more serious students looked like they were cut from solid oak. So something for everyone.

 

For me this was a wonderful experience that I would highly recommend and I would definitely recommend the Patong Boxing Gym to the novice/holiday goer. As for those serious about MMA or Muay Thai I really can not comment on the caliber of training because your expectations are very different then mine...

 

I have photos, but they are redundant to the website (with the website being higher quality and more thorough) so rather then posting, here is the link, which also has pricing etc...

 

http://thailandmuaythaigym.com/ (on the Youtube video on the website's homepage, the trainer is Sosh, but the student definately is not me )

 

Any questions just fire away

 

Thanks

Great gym train there as family Me ,Thai Mrs & son top people been back many times one on with trainer is the way to go not bad rooms either .Nice & cool fresh air up on hill for training