muaythai family
What can we say about our stay with the WMC Muaythai Camp in Lamai, Koh Samui….? “WOW” Yes, that feels like quite appropriate wording! … About us: … We arrived as a family of 5- Brodie, Elise, William 10, Dre 7 and Mason 6. Now known as the “Muay Thai Family”. Brodie was longing for more ring time as fights within Australia have been getting less and sitting at 49 fights over 15yrs, he was wanting to step things up. Brodie is up at 4am each morning in Australia to insure he can fit in 2x90min training sessions, 8+hrs at work, plus training junior and senior members at the gym. Brodie wanted to try solely focusing on training and fighting for himself! The WMC LAMAI Brodie had visited a few times over his years and after a 6 week trip in 2012, he wanted to return to the WMC LAMAI for this training experience. As for myself as a mother of 3 young boys and partner to such an amazing athlete… Training is a must to keep up! I knew staying on camp would allow me to train in not only Muay Thai, but also at the Lamai Fitness gym. I myself have had 5 fights as I only started fighting in 2012. Our boys have trained in Muay Thai since age 5 and William has had 2 fights within Australia. The boys are very active and spend many days going from soccer training to Muay Thai. We hoped that on this trip the boys could soak up some knowledge training with Thai trainers too! Okay, so there is a piece of our back ground … Our stay:
When we planned to stay for a 3mth period we were welcomed even before our arrival! Ralph Beal and his wife Nikki had many helpful emails to help the planning process. The night we arrived was late and we were warmly welcomed by Dan (the go to guy) at the front desk and helped us to our room. The next morning we met with Billy (Lamai Fitness) who within minutes was drawing maps of the town and offering to help. If you can already see my point, very happy helpful staff! … Training was held twice a day and there were different options which allowed the whole family to train. The trainers were just as involved with the children as they were with classes and fighters. If you’re a lover of fitness, sweat and breaking Muay Thai down, you’ll love it! Brodie and myself built a repour with Pi-dang (WMC trainer) and spent many hours kicking pads, being shown technic ‘thai style’ and received many words of wisdom. William worked with Aui (WMC trainer) and he surly pushed him beyond what we thought he could of done … Both Dre and Mason had plenty of time with all trainers and even got to spar with some of the trainers children or family members .. Before each session we met up with others training and we would run 4-10kms together… These runs through the streets of Lamai where always enjoyable and we forever had the locals cheering us on. The final stretch of this run is majestic as you run down towards the gym with a gorgeous view of the ocean. I can’t say enough about the ladies in the WMC LAMAI café, from breakfast to dinners and everything in between they had it covered… The café options are unlike most and had so many healthy options that no one could get wrong. The ladies always ensured my boys were taken care of and were great to talk to. Oh and look no further- braiding hair for fights, they’re onto it and helping out with this too … The resident fighters were a constant support system. We would share stories, help with healthy eating ideas, encouragement all round, lunches/dinners/movies together and always good laughs being had. Although English was most peoples 2nd language- you never would know!
I used to think- How amazing is all these different cultures coming together and teaching each other so much… Plus for the children this was a bonus on the home schooling .. When fight shows were on we all went to support the WMC LAMAI team and the same respect was given back – Great times … Fight shows were constant for the “Muay Thai Family”… Brodie fought 4 times winning ¾ and 1 being a 4 man shot at a WMC belt on the Buakaw show. This was Brodie’s only loss out of his 4 fights, but was a great challenge against a Bangkok fighter! I fought once with a win, William had 1 great fight on the Buakaw show with a loss on points and young Dre had 1 fight two nights before we left Thailand with what we still call “An amazing 1st fight for a 7yrs old full thai rules!” … So as you can see our 3 months covered – 7 fights, around 1000 training hours, almost 4000kms of running, all being pushed in the Lamai fitness gym, 2 black eyes, heaps of what felt like endless sparring sessions, 50+ massages, daily beach visits, blessed by a few monks, a wild Songkran water party (Thai New Year) 1000+ fruit shakes, 1500+ electrolyte drinks (made at the WMC Café), way to many fried rices (on brown rice yummy), endless bags of fruit and maybe a few tears too.
After 3 months we call the WMC LAMAI our family! We would like to thank everyone that we were in contact with for your open arms and kind ways, it was received and made us feel great.
Till the next time, … Brodie, Elise, William, Dre and Mason “THE MUAY THAI FAMILY”
