Private Lessons at Tiger Muay Thai. Ch 1, Pt 14. From Becoming a "warrior" in Thailand.

The Renaissance Man Project is an original non-fiction novel by Nathaniel Kostar, occasionally known as Nate Lost. Follow @natelost.

During my last week at Tiger, I decide to skip most of the group classes and instead take one-on-one lessons with Chokchai and another trainer named Nong, who Lars recommends as an excellent Muay Thai teacher. My thinking is that rather than spend so much time conditioning, I can use my last week to hone in on technique.

Now in the mornings I take a leisurely breakfast at Tony’s and wait for the beginner Muay Thai class to end. Then I meet Chockchai at the ring. Usually I’m a few minutes early, and it’s difficult not to crack a smile watching the group of exhausted beginners finishing up their morning class. It feels good to know I came…I saw…and I survived.

Chokchai, who works from sun up to sun down every day, is always happy to see me. Or at least he seems to be. If I were a cynic I’d say it’s because he’s making more money by teaching private lessons, but I’ve been around Chokchai for almost a month now and he’s consistently in a good mood.

The one-on-one sessions begin with jumping rope, then shadow-boxing, followed by twenty to thirty minutes of pad-work where Chokchai corrects my form and throws counter blows he expects me to block. My blocking has been a struggle since day one. I’ve had my ass handed to me in sparring respectively by a Canadian girl, a tough Scottish girl, and a chubby German and in all three sessions defense was a major issue. It’s good to hone in on it in both boxing and Muay Thai. Unlike the group classes, nothing is overlooked in these sessions. As soon as I do something incorrectly, Chokchai (or Nong in the afternoon), calls attention to it and we work on it until it’s fixed. We also spend more time sparring. Sometimes they pair me off with another fighter who’s taking private lessons with a different trainer, and we go at it in the ring. Although I’m generally not the better of the two, I’m starting to hold my own more and more.

After boxing in the morning, I usually lift weights and then I head to Tony’s for lunch. By now I’ve eaten at Tony’s just about every day for the past month, so there’s always someone I know to chat with and keep me company.

In the late afternoon, I meet Nong and we train in Muay Thai. If I still have energy, I go back to the gym in the evening to hit the bag on my own, or meet up with Lars for meditation or sometimes just to hang out and talk. Lars plans to be a physical trainer and to open a own gym back in Norway. Though he never went to college, he’s traveled all over the world the past couple of years and learned various skills he intends to bring back home. For such a young man (Lars is only twenty-five), he’s extremely knowledgeable. He’s spent much of his twenties learning from martial art masters, and he has the natural ability to convey the information he’s absorbed, whether he’s teaching meditation or just having talking shit in conversation. There’s no doubt one day he’ll be an amazing teacher himself.

(Training with Nong @ Tiger Muay Thai)

Chokchai and Nong call each other brothers, but it’s unclear if they have any actual blood relation. They look nothing alike. Nong is a knife; cut, chiseled, sharp jaw, and Chokchai is more like a spoon. But like Chokchai, Nong is always happy, always smiling and making jokes. He’s a confident, handsome young-man, and inside of the ring his competence is uncanny. He’s thirty years-old and still regularly competes in Muay Thai matches.

One afternoon, in between a sparring round, I question Nong about his career.

“I fight over 500 fights,” he tells me, his pearly white teeth flashing as he smiles proudly.

This sounds ludicrous, but when I do some research later to verify his claim, I discover that Muay Thai fighters often fight anywhere from 100-500 fights before their career is over, fighting multiple times per month (or even week) and (usually) retiring in their mid to late twenties.

“I fight for 11 years, professionally. Since 19. Once in Bangkok, I fight 100 times in one month. Only four times a month now,” he says.

“Oh, that’s it?” I respond with a hint of sarcasm that goes undetected.

“Yes, I fight Friday night. You come?” He says nonchalantly, as if he’s going to the movies.

“Oh yeah? Okay, I’ll be there.”

“Good. I hope I win. Now back in the ring.”

My technique, strength and conditioning have all improved since the first week, though flexibility is still a problem. I can reach higher with my kicks, and they are more powerful, but I still have a long way to go. Dramatic increases in flexibility, apparently, isn’t something that happens easily, or in a month. I do feel like I’m in the best shape of my life though. Pad work with Chokchai and Nong, which earlier in the month was exhausting, no longer wears me out. Sometimes at the end of workouts, Nong holds up his pad and for a minute straight I throw kick after kick. And despite my rocky start in the ring, sparring has started to be fun. I’m aware that both trainers and many of the fighters at the camp could knock me into next year if they really wanted to, but I feel more confident in what I’m doing when I’m in the ring.

One day when Chokchai and I are sparring I hit him a bit too hard and he calls time-out and leaves the ring to sit down. I can tell he’s hurting, and I feel terrible for punching a man in his head who has already taken enough beatings in his day (though he’s certainly handed out far more beatings than he’s taken).

I sit down next to him and put my arm around his shoulder.

“I’m sorry buddy. You okay?”

“Yes. Yes… Just dizzy.”

I hand him my water bottle and he takes a sip and pours some over his head. Beads of water trickle through his hair and run down his face onto the mat.

“You fought Pacquiao, huh?” I don’t know why I say this. Or why I say it in this particular moment with so little tact.

For a moment Chokchai says nothing. He takes another sip of water.

“After I lose,” he says, “Pacquiao want to fight me again. He call me and ask me to fight.” He smiles in recollection, but the smile quickly fades. “He want to fight in Japan. But he don’t offer enough money. So, I say no.”

I look over at him. This is one of the few times all month I have seen him look tired.

The conversation ends as quickly as it began, and before long he shakes off his dizziness and we go back to the ring to dance circles around each other.

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**

(Me and Nong)

The Renaissance Man Project has been in the works for many years and I'm excited to release pieces of it on Steemit. If you want to support the book please hit me w/ an Upvote & Follow @natelost if you're on Steemit. And if you're not on Steemit, you should consider checking it out, especially if you're a content creator.

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MAD Love.

Read Intro, Part 1
Read Intro, Part 2
Read Intro, Part 3
Read Intro, Part 4

Read Ch 1, Part 1
Read Ch 1, Part 2
Read Ch 1, Part 3

Read Ch1, Part4
Read Ch 1, Part 5
Read Ch 1, Part 6
Read Ch 1, Part 7
Read Ch 1, Part 8

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(Me and Chokchai)