I’m not a Muay Thai guy, but it was really cool to get to go to a seminar with THE Muay Thai guy!
One thing I love about Off The Grid BJJ is the steady flow of visitors we get. Along with people who are dropping in for a class or two while they are on vacation, we’ve had people who are doing training at Patrick Air Force Base who show up for a couple of months, snow birds, and a black belt professional MMA fighter who came down to surf and train for the winter.
The vibe Professor Frank has created in the gym is a major driver. He’s welcoming to everyone, willing to teach anyone, and anxious to learn from anyone. He’s always bringing in former training partners and connections he’s made to come in and teach us a ton of cool stuff.
So while I usually don’t train on Muay Thai nights (there has to be some time for family), I was not about to miss the chance to learn as much as I could from a Muay Thai pro for three hours.
The stuff we learned blew my mind. I will say that my footwork and lack of coordination kept me from creating the lake of sweat I expected, but the guys who already have those skills got a great workout and every one of them were eating the information up. Personally, I can only compare it to going to the first time I went to a Pilates class and realized that I wasn’t able to get into the positions that made this an actual workout. Lots of room for improvement and a real eye opener.
We were constantly switching stances, mixing up punches and kicks, punching off of different feet, and changing directions. This seminar gave me a real appreciation for how wide open Muay Thai is to different styles.
To top it all off, Sean is a really friendly and approachable guy–great personality for a seminar where the idea is to come in and learn as much as possible in a short period of time. I have a sneaking suspicion he would also be a pretty tough task master if he was in the situation of training someone for a fight. He’s been there and knows what it’s like, so I’m sure he’d have really high expectation.