renegade
11-04-2005, 20:21
I live near Oshawa, Ontario, Canada and I'm trying to find a muay thai place near me but I'm turning up zilch. Here's the closest I've found so far, but none of them are actually muay thai strictly speaking:
Leo Wong's
-offers "thai kickboxing" but the instructors are actually a 4th and 5th degree BB in TKD. no sparring for at least another year they told me. The club itself is actually a TKD club, been around like 32 years, some olympic background too, but all that is the TKD part though.
Glenroy Browne's Integrated MA
smaller place, glenroy is the sole instructor, been teaching since 1989, he is teaching MMA now. has TKD and JJJ as his 2 main disciplines for his BB backgrounds, some dabbling in JKD and something else. So basically the kicking, punching, and knees/elbows I was looking for from a muay thai place would be the same kind you would see in MMA if I went here, which is ok I guess even though I really had my heart set on muay thai. I'm told you're fortunate to find a place that offers striking and grappling in one spot though so that's a plus. the only thing that got me a little leery is that he said you can start sparring from day 1. He kinda said no when I asked him if his club was more geared towards people who already have MA experience but I get the impression it might be because they spar from day one, the teaching was described as (paraphrasing):
"we let you do some light sparring when you first begin just to see what you can do, and to see what habits you already have and we build on those. There's no kata or drills here, we work with the fighting style and habits you already have, and correct technique if it's obviously being done wrong altogether"
So I'm really going to have to take him up on his offer of a free first class in order to understand how his place works. I have a few yrs of experience in a traditional MA, but glenroy's seems like it'd be more for people who are already boxers/kickboxers/amateur fighters going in.
Adam Gibson's Martial Gym
Another TKD/Karate place, he also teaches kickboxing but again... not muay thai. But he says he knows how to teach muay thai knee/elbow strikes, but won't allow anything except punches and kicks in actual dojo sparring for safety reasons which is understandable. His club is isn't a fighting club it's a dojo, so if I go here, I'll be going to learn the full enchilada that goes with TKD and/or karate, and kickboxing will be a side part of that but not the main. He said his teacher was an undefeated kickboxing champion, but I can't remember on what level, so that impressed me. don't know how long his gym's been established but his own personal experience is around 20 years.
Me? I'm looking to learn muay thai, I'm also looking to learn striking that will be of real, practical, solid real-life use. So it sounds to me like I'm probably looking more for a fighting gym than a martial arts dojo I guess. The choices are hard though so I'm going to pick the week I have off later this month and go sample all 3. But I was hoping someone here might know the area and be able to suggest more clubs around here I should check out. Toronto itself is out of the question, I hate the city, no offense ;)
Leo Wong's
-offers "thai kickboxing" but the instructors are actually a 4th and 5th degree BB in TKD. no sparring for at least another year they told me. The club itself is actually a TKD club, been around like 32 years, some olympic background too, but all that is the TKD part though.
Glenroy Browne's Integrated MA
smaller place, glenroy is the sole instructor, been teaching since 1989, he is teaching MMA now. has TKD and JJJ as his 2 main disciplines for his BB backgrounds, some dabbling in JKD and something else. So basically the kicking, punching, and knees/elbows I was looking for from a muay thai place would be the same kind you would see in MMA if I went here, which is ok I guess even though I really had my heart set on muay thai. I'm told you're fortunate to find a place that offers striking and grappling in one spot though so that's a plus. the only thing that got me a little leery is that he said you can start sparring from day 1. He kinda said no when I asked him if his club was more geared towards people who already have MA experience but I get the impression it might be because they spar from day one, the teaching was described as (paraphrasing):
"we let you do some light sparring when you first begin just to see what you can do, and to see what habits you already have and we build on those. There's no kata or drills here, we work with the fighting style and habits you already have, and correct technique if it's obviously being done wrong altogether"
So I'm really going to have to take him up on his offer of a free first class in order to understand how his place works. I have a few yrs of experience in a traditional MA, but glenroy's seems like it'd be more for people who are already boxers/kickboxers/amateur fighters going in.
Adam Gibson's Martial Gym
Another TKD/Karate place, he also teaches kickboxing but again... not muay thai. But he says he knows how to teach muay thai knee/elbow strikes, but won't allow anything except punches and kicks in actual dojo sparring for safety reasons which is understandable. His club is isn't a fighting club it's a dojo, so if I go here, I'll be going to learn the full enchilada that goes with TKD and/or karate, and kickboxing will be a side part of that but not the main. He said his teacher was an undefeated kickboxing champion, but I can't remember on what level, so that impressed me. don't know how long his gym's been established but his own personal experience is around 20 years.
Me? I'm looking to learn muay thai, I'm also looking to learn striking that will be of real, practical, solid real-life use. So it sounds to me like I'm probably looking more for a fighting gym than a martial arts dojo I guess. The choices are hard though so I'm going to pick the week I have off later this month and go sample all 3. But I was hoping someone here might know the area and be able to suggest more clubs around here I should check out. Toronto itself is out of the question, I hate the city, no offense ;)