It’s more than just learning martial arts

I love teaching Muay Thai. I get excited to teach people how to punch, kick, knee, and elbow other people while defending themselves from someone trying to return punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. I love to crack jokes about learning violence, breaking other humans, and how without pain there is no Muay Thai. These are my favorite things to do, and they are also the least important things I do with The Clinic Muay Thai Gym.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important that I do what I advertise. I say I will teach Muay Thai to anyone who walks through the doors, so it’s pretty important that I do it. But we live in the modern world. Technology has my knowledge and then some resting in your pocket (or in your hand if you’re reading this on your phone). So why would I choose to do this (honestly I ask myself that a lot for other reasons but I can save that for my therapist!) knowing there are online coaches possibly more qualified than me? Because I’m doing what technology can’t despite its claims: building a real community.

This is a theme I bring up a lot in my blogs because it is so important and I think people lose track of it sometimes. Community is what all humans strive for. We are social creatures at heart. From the beginning we formed tribes. In school we all found our clique. At our jobs we find our social circles. We’re all trying to “find our people.” We all have moments where we feel alone, and most of the time these feelings are quite negative. Being a part of a strong community can help. This is one of the missions I had from the beginning with The Clinic.

I know at times this gym seems silly. Where most gyms name themselves after the martial art, the location they are in, or some tough sounding name, we chose to name ourselves after a doctor’s office because I thought it was funny with my last name. You can read about that here. When we barely had any students, I was still having a costume class for Halloween and an ugly sweater class in December. As we grew, I added an 80s night class, a BBQ, and then a hawaiian shirt class. Yes, part of why I did this was for the simple reason that it was silly and fun, and I like silly and fun things. But it was also to help us build stronger bonds.

This is a hard sport. You have to train all the time, doing the same things over and over to get decent, let alone good. We have to hit pads, hit the heavy bag, shadowbox, spar, do drills, do cardio, lift weights, and so on if we ever want to accomplish our goals. We can’t do all of those things alone. And even the ones we can do alone, it’s so much better to do it with someone who cares about you. Someone who wants to see you improve. That doesn’t happen in a gym where everyone is in it just for themselves. I tell the fight team all the time they need to show up for fight team sessions as much as possible. It’s easy to think, “I’m not fighting anytime soon so why should I show up?” But what if your teammates felt the same way when you were in fight camp? You wouldn’t be getting good sparring in or have good partners for drilling. Even on the solo training parts, do you push yourself as hard when you are alone as you do when your friends are cheering you on?

And that is just the obvious Muay Thai side of things. Sometimes life just kicks us to the ground and we need a place that can pick us back up. That’s what I always strive for this gym to be. I’ve said this to some but I’ll say it here to everyone. If you’re having a rough time, come in. If you’re worried you’ll be grumpy, or angry, or whatever, I’m fine with that. Just come in. If you’re worried you might snap at me when I’m coaching you hard please know that I’m an adult. I’ll be fine. I get it. I’ve been there. Please come in (unless you’re rough time is caused by the flu or something like that, then keep your butt at home). We are better as a community than we are as individuals. As the old proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”