Hello everyone!

I've been using Myles' excellent facilities (overcooking it a bit there Mike but carry on Ed.) on and off for around 4 years now - I started going to the Riverside Gym for rugby pre-season fitness when I was at school and since then I've been going whenever university commitments are alleviated. The reason for this post is that I'm currently in Phuket, ...Thailand, where I have been training Muay Thai boxing for the last month. The camp that I'm living in is called Sinbi Muay Thai, and is (as far as research and my experience here suggests) one of the more 'authentic' gyms on the island.

We typically begin our days at around 6am for a morning run (10k for people like me, up to 20k for the resident fighters(!!!!)) before training begins at 7.30am. The sessions tend to be around 2-3 hours, starting with another jog and then half an hour skipping and stretching. We then split up in to groups - some use the heavy bags (which initially are absolutely merciless on the shins) and the others go into the ring for five three minute rounds with a one-on-one type pads session. After each period we swap - that's to say that those on the bags go into the ring and vice versa. All of the sessions are completed in rounds, and no other breaks other than 30 seconds to 1 minute pauses between those rounds. The afternoon sessions follow a similar format although there tends to be more sparring (sometimes just boxing sparring) with no elbows allowed. We train six days a week. There are resident farang (non-Thai) and Thai fighters here.
 

Started by Sinbi Taewoong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinbi_Taewoong), the camp is home to some very serious trainers, all of whom were ranked in the top few and many at Rank 1 at Lumpinee or Rajadamnern Bangkok stadiums, the top stadiums in the country, and indeed the world. The gym was recently graced by the presence of Saenchai Sor Kingstar, widely accepted as the best pound for pound Nak Muay in the world, owing to his friendship with Sinbi - I hope this indicates to some extent that Sinbi MT isn't a tourist trap like some of the other gyms here.
I don't mean to rabbit on so I'll stop there, but Myles kindly requested a couple of photos. I'll be sure to add some wearing a Riverside T-shirt.

If anyone is sufficiently interested in coming to Sinbi or indeed any other Thai camp, I'd be more than happy to provide as much information as I can, at least from the perspective of one who had done nothing like this before coming here. All I can say is that you'll come back in ridiculously good shape having highly improved your boxing/Muay Thai skills. That said, the first few days, or weeks, are pretty damn painful..! Humidity and heat are quite a serious combination.

Best wishes, and again, I would encourage anyone with the slightest interest in doing something along these lines to look into it and have a serious think. I can almost guarantee that you won't regret it.

Mike Maris