This Guy Did 30 Days of Muay Thai Training, Then Fought an Expert
After getting repeatedly and easily crushed in sparring on the first day by his coach, Jessie Magusen, it becomes clear that in terms of his skills, William's only way is up, and so he commits to a month of Magusen's workouts, training twice a day every day in addition to taking regular Muay Thai classes.
In his first session, William learns the basics of blocking, countering, and catching kicks. "It might sound simple, but I was actually having a hard time with it," he says. "Figuring out which side my opponent was going to kick from, as well as keeping my balance when I blocked the kick was a struggle... I knew I'd have to work on my technique before trying this out for real, since one bad move and my ribs would be done for."
By the end of the first week, he begins to notice that he's making some progress, and is able to keep his balance more easily while sparring. "The technique is feeling more natural," he says. "Fortunately, the martial arts training I've done in the past has translated over to Muay Thai quite a bit. However, the one thing that hasn't translated over is a high pain tolerance."
To get the absolute most out of his month-long training, William visits the Muay Thai Academy in order to take some pointers from its founder, Muay Thai champion Kru Puk, and then invites calisthenics athlete Chris Heria to join him in some sparring.
Finally, on the 30th day, it's time for William to put everything he has learned into practice in a sparring session with a seasoned fighter. "I'm not going to lie, I was pretty afraid to do much the first round," he says. "I clearly have a long way to go if I ever want to step into an official fight, but one thing's for sure: I have come a long way since day one."
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