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April 21, 2024

Sitjaopho MT became popular for their technical sparring videos and beautiful muay thai technique on youtube. It is run by two twin brothers Pet-tho (nick name F) and Pet-eak (O), both highly accomplished fighters. F is primarily running the camp, as his brother O lives in Sweden with his wife. It is is located in the countryside of Hua Hin, a coastal city which is about 1.5 - 2 hours south of Bangkok. In the summer of 2018, I left the US to go train muay thai in Thailand. The prior year I came to Thailand on vacation to train for two weeks. I had an amazing time and decided at that point in my life, I needed something different. After researching gyms online, I decided to come here first. I ended up staying here 5 out of the 7 months I was in Thailand. It was an awesome and unforgettable experience. Training starts off with an optional run (not really optional for fighters) between 6:30-7:00. I usually ran around 6km (aka to the cockfighting stadium and back) but others would run farther, up to 10km. You get back before morning training, which starts at 7:30 am. The session starts off with some shadowboxing/jumprope while the other trainers roll in. Sometimes the trainers would call you the kick/teep/knee the bag, other times it would be shadowboxing line drills. Then, depending on the class size it would be padwork or padwork line drills. F would change things up to keep things fresh and he would even ask if we had suggestions on what we did. Afterwards it was either technical drilling with an instructor or sparring. They had a unique style of drilling at times which seemed like a hybrid mix of padwork and sparring. Pretty cool. The sessions often concluded with 200 situps and 100 pushups. The morning sessions were usually less intense than the afternoon sessions. They would wrap up around 9:30 am but sometimes would go longer. (F would often like to have Q/A sessions at the end). Afternoon training started at 4:30 pm. Again you could run (usually less than the morning) or skip rope, or both. I usually opted to skip rope and stay out of the mid day Thailand heat. Similar to the morning session, it begins with warming up/shadowboxing. Then it was always padwork (or bagwork until a trainer called you up for padwork). One downside to the gym was the training space gets quite limited when it gets really busy. After that it was usually sparring and then clinching at the end. The sessions usually wrapped up at around 6:30 pm, ending with situps, pushups and knees on the bag. One great thing about this gym is that the trainers are willing to spar, especially F. Sometimes during the whole session you would see F sparring with his students. Hes fun to watch and you see him pull off some crazy slick moves. He's also very good on giving you technique tips or answer any questions you may have. The trainers are all super cool (shoutout to Hin, Ah, Jaipet, Won, King, Dam). Padwork with King is amazing. If you want to fight, I'm sure F could arrange that easily. F was able to get me a fight within a month of training there. There are plenty of gyms popping up in the Hua Hin (Antza, Jomthup, Grand thai boxing) who host fight nights, and there are also students who fight on MAX in Pattaya. Jaipet, one of the younger instructors/fighters, was fighting often on MAX and doing well. Just be weary that the local shows get cancelled for numerous reasons (weather/low tourism/holidays) so be ready for that. Overall I would definitely recommend this gym to others (especially larger-bodied foreigners). You learn a lot from all the sparring and technique drilling. If you want to fight, they will train you hard and prepare you. A lot of good foreigners from all over the world come to train here. F is also a very good guy; very generous and accommodating with incredible muay thai knowledge. Hua Hin is also a very nice town. You have the beach on one end and mountainous areas inland. The cost of living is also very cheap if your staying near the gym. If you live at the gym, just a warning that it can get quite noisy at night with howling dogs. Another thing to note is you most likely will need a motorbike to get around. The gym is in the countryside and there are not many things within walking distance of the gym. F will teach you how to ride one if you ask. The main street with 7/11's, restaurants, and housing is a 5-10 min ride, with the downtown and beach area being around a 15 min ride. Pros -Good instruction/padwork (F is great at explaining techniques/ fighting mindset) -Lots of opportunities to spar with different people/instructors of different skill levels -Quiet, peaceful surrounding area with low COL Cons -Facility could be kept cleaner -Limited training space, can get crowded with a lot of people -Won't be training alongside many thai fighters (if that's what your looking for )