Spider Mike's Muay Thai Training: 1 Week at Master Toddy's Gym

So I have now been at Master Toddy's Gym for one week, I did one previously for the first day, but I am kind of excited and need to get this off my chest, so I am updating you after only one week.

For the past week Master Toddy has been doing an audition for Tuff Girl show, so he has spent a lot of his time with them, but when he had time he spent with all the regular people training.

Day 1 - I had my first session and it was great, Master Toddy spent a lot of time with me in the morning and showed me a way to punch harder, this was on the pads, I kept making slight mistakes and he would change this and improve, I was very happy because I hadn't had technique correction in 6 weeks. I then went onto the bag and he helped again every so often, showing me and then going to help someone else, he was showing me a funny way of punching which was very strange but I went with the flow as I knew this was leading up to something later on (the punch wasn't twisting the wrist so much, similar to the toy game where the red man and blue man are boxing each other.) The other reason why I went with it was because he said he wanted to work with me and start me from scratch, so i am trusting him on this and going with everything he tells me, even if it looks and sounds crazy. :D
The afternoon session wasn't so good, just didn't feel much attention at all, Master Toddy was busy with his Tuff girl's program he was making and concentrating on this, so it was down to the other trainers, on this occasion I wasn't happy with instruction, just felt like they were going through the motions with me on pad, and no instruction on the bag, and thought this is going to be another 13 coins all over again. However, when it came to clinching, I worked with Nung and he showed me some neat tricks in the clinch. After training I spoke with Ajarn Sing that I wanted to work on blocks the next day.

Day 2 - The next morning my foot was hurting so I gave it a miss, well I am even lying to you, haha, nah I was feeling lazy so gave it a miss
In the afternoon session it was totally different, yeh I got a hard session, but in round 3 I was starting to tire, so the trainer slowed it down and worked on technique for round 3 and 4. After pads went onto the bag and Master Toddy was freed up a little and noticed something about my punch and told me I had to come back quicker. Next I worked on some clinching technique with Nung and sparring techniques with Bow. I then did knees and kicks on the bag. This day I was more please with everything as I felt the trainers actually cared about my improvement. I had renewed hope that this month wasn't going to be a waste of time or money.

Day 3 - Ok so this morning I trained in the morning, did my run on my own, I prefer to run on my own, I feel that every Thai person I run with runs slower than my grandma can walk, I ran about 4km starting to build the distance. This morning, I worked more on punches, defense and attack after the kick (kick and move off and punch), this is stuff I was enjoying, this is more light because it is morning. On the Bag Master Toddy worked on elbows, he had me, Bow and ouwan to learn how to elbow, he showed us the correct method and practice it on each other slowly, this move was a lot more effective then the current elbow I was throwing, I was previously hitting with more of my forearm, now he was getting me to hit with the tip of my elbow. Then he sent us back to the bags to work on it, after a while he came over to me and corrected my technique, every day it seemed to be the same, not a one time show of first day show you something and leave you to it, he would come back again and again and again if he saw something wrong or wanted to add something on. After bag work we did sparring under Master Toddy's and the other trainers eyes, We were told to fake a kick and throw a punch or fake a punch and throw a kick, first few times, this didn't seem to work, but after a while, once I got into the flow some were getting through.

Day 4 - So last day of the week, because Monday I was moving and came too late.
I woke up at 6am and ran with Jade and Bow, Bow was really funny in the run, because we would ask him several times when we got half way, do you want to keep running on or head back, and he was like, run on, then ask again, no run back, could make his mind up, haha. funny kid, in the end we kept running on and went through all the back alleys until we got back to the gym, with out those guys I would have got lost, lol.
When we got back to the gym, we warmed up and got into the session, I didn't learn anything new this morning, but Master Toddy went to one my trainer and told him to work on elbows and punches with me, and that's all we did. This helped me with improving my technique, I worked exactly the same on the bag, Master Toddy coming over several times to help me with technique.

In the afternoon worked a normal session with kicks and punches, knees and elbows, but the trainer focuses a lot more on the punches and elbows. Seems like here they want me to get the technique good before moving on, just what I need. In the clinching I clinched with a big guy, he was a little smaller than me but was a fat lad so had a a lot of weight, he was hard to clinch with, also I was a little worried about my ankle, so didn't want to trip him just in case.

Over view
Of the 4 days I trained so far I was happy, the trainers here seems to care about you improving and getting better and always have Master Toddy watching like a hawk for something, lol. I like the fact that the trainers will help you and also Master Toddy will come over and can see things the trainer can't sometimes.

In the week I have been here i have learnt

How to punch faster and with more power.
Elbowing people and being able to cut them.
More tripping technique and control in the clinch.
Better technique in sparring.

This was all helped by the trainers and people in the gym.

From my week so far this is definitely a place to go if you want to improve you technique and become a better fighter.

Check out the gym at
http://www.mastertoddy.com/