Sparring is not about injuring the opponent but rather having fun, realising your mistakes and getting better, sharpening all your techniques so you can be a killer in an actual fight. This is real sparring, not injuring anyone rather having fun plus at the same time strengthening and conditioning the body
I agree, sparring is realizing you are the teacher, and the student. at the same time you must also see this in your opponent. You have much to teach your opponent, and you have much to learn. Saenchai takes this a level further and had alot of fun with it
More like hardwork. Unless you got stick legs you can get legs like that its just most people will quit legs are the most draining to train the toll on the nervous system
G SAM Most Muay Thai sparring in Thailand are light and technical because the fighters need to fight every one to two weeks, and cannot afford to get injured during training. They had to fight for food and get the gym running.
@The Rock the muay thai legend Dekkers was Dutch, absolute badass. Dutch and UK muay thai is brutal stuff, the Thais tend to be more technical but that's not always the case. Beautiful sport.
true, however the sportsmanship of muay thai is far superior to most other combat sports. its not all fun and games, agreed. nak muays wouldnt be so fierce if that were the case. however they are the type of guys/gals that enjoy the rough stuff, and usually arent too ego driven
I actually love how saenchai has fun with his sparing sessions,you can tell they are going at it, but never look to hurt each other. Goofy dude and an absolute god in muay thai, not enough respect can be given
Man, sparring with a thai guy like those must be just so wholesome and nice , they put their feet, elbows, knees and punches on the right places but always with the amount of strenght that wouldn't hurt you nor trigger things to escalate , must feel good to have people like that at your gym
Absolutely love the joy they bring into sparring. Compare this to the ego driven nonsense that goes on at Mayweather's gym and it's clear who has been doing this longer. Respect.
Culture vs culture maybe? My Kru old and very traditional, conservative. He loves to lecture us that Muay Thai is over a thousand years old, most superior etc, everything Thai is the best. He's so biased, but such a cool guy. He insists on light sparring that pressures what you perceive as your partners weakness. This gives your partner practise at his/her weakness, and makes you better at noticing weakness and controlling the bout. Your partner does the same. This ebb and flow of testing each other and pushing where you think the other might fail, lightly, is real sparring, not bashing each others brains out like gorillas. Gyms like Mayweathers try to expose the strong from the weak, no worries about the guy that loses, he's a loser who needs to get better. According to Kru Tan, good Thai gyms look to develop each fighter into the strongest they can be, to promote the gym, further the sport and enrich Thai culture out of a soft sense of duty because it's the national sport. Chalk and Cheese comparing this to a fight club; another 950yrs and those gyms might be the same, but I doubt it. You'd need to kill the "bigger is better, win win win, it's all about you" focus.
If they really wanted to. But they are true thai fighters, they know when to hurt and when not to. Foreigners need to learn this. Too much ego will not get you anywhere.
Check out Roufusport out in Milwaukee. That's where the Pettis bros train as well as one of the few MMA gyms in US Saenchai visits whenever he comes here.
I keep seeing these comments. What “gyms” are you all talking about??? Ya I am sure if you are going to some little “mma” gym in the US there are people trying to KO the other. But you think that is only in the US???! 🤦🏽♂️. You obviously have never been to Thailand my friend 🤦🏽♂️. You wouldn’t make it five minutes with the sparring they do. They have to be “proud” over there to even get noticed. You have 12 year olds full power Knockin people dead in sparring. Same with Top Team. This is not a “sparring session” as the title says. This is Saenchai messing around with one of the top students. Brother the best advice I can give anyone who inspires to be in the UFC over here in the states is this, Do whatever it takes. If this is what you truly want then move near one of the top gyms. I am at BlackHouse in LA. I was at TAM and moved down for Tony “the real champ” Ferguson. Do whatever it takes. Go to TriStar or AKA, ATT, BlackHouse etc. there you will get competent coaches who will not allow amateurs to be disrespectful (which is what you really meant by “proud”. Everyone in martial arts is proud, at least they better be)...😉
Warpath1337 You really should! Just stay away from money machines like Yokkao and Tiger Muay Thai, unless you just want to have a vacation and train a bit
Just know if you are going there for a vacation gym, That’s what it will be a vacation with a little bit of bag work. If you go there to be part of the camp you will get obliterated tell you leave. It’s a hard thing. The Thais has to come from nothing and put in their time. Running the gauntlet. They either coddle to the Westerners paying a lot of money to “train” there. Or they are furious money let you skip what every single one of them had to go through and give up. I would say a better option is going to Bang Muay Thai or one of the major MMA gyms here like ours BlackHouse or TriStar etc. The only real way to go to Thailand and learn like these kids do, is to go there as a kid and go there poor. Start low and go throw the gauntlet, but again you will find that the Thais are a proud clan that will see you as a notch on their belt 😉
This is a perfect example of 'hard' sparring while preserving brain cells.. Actually beneficial to muscular and bone conditioning too! Don't get why guys have to throw hard head shots lol that's ego driven sparring imo
1:15 That's a beautiful and really impressive sweep from Manachai. It's very sneaky and cleanly executed, and it's really impressive to sweep Saenchai so we'll.
Every sparring session should have no malice. Fighters should go in with the intention of improving and not to release pent up aggression. This is dope💪
So humble! Saenchai knows he lands the cartwheel kick, so he drops to the floor on a counter body kick half of a second later on purpose, to make it an entertaining exchange for both fighters.. You gotta love that.
I don't think a smile left my face through this whole video hahaha absolute legends. I wish the west could see this style of life perspective. No ego, no point to prove, just being kids enjoying life
If I have at least half of Saenchai's fitness levels when i'm 38 I'll be a happy man. Guy is a machine. And Manachai is 22, imagine how good he'll be in a couple of years. Crazy natural talent in Thailand. Thankyou Thailand ❤💪🦵🦶👊🥇
The Thai guys who fight at my gym are an absolute riot as well, its never a dull moment and they are real jokers too. Thai joke and mess around hard but they train even harder.
Saenchai is like a lion play fighting with his Cubs acting like their bites (in this case strikes) hurt him to give them confidence. Seems like a great guy, every video all the students are smiling having a great time while training like professional fighters (probably are) this was a beautiful sparring match.
