r/MuayThai

Here's the gist of it. I'm 18, a first year at university, and I gave Muay Thai a go a couple weeks back. I got put with someone who did kickboxing before and he straight up bullied me.
I'm not unathletic, I play tennis a couple times a week and I genuinely love my gym.

I never did any combat sports growing up, and I can't help but close my eyes and look away once someone starts throwing punches at me. I genuinely don't know what to do.

My honest motivation to do Muay Thai is that I want to be able to genuinely defend myself. I get plenty of exercise in over the week from gym and tennis and I am healthy. However, in a troublesome situation I wouldn't be able to do anything no matter how many pistol squats I can do. I can't swim either - it's just about learning important life skills.

I have been going 2-3 a week since jan/feb but it has been so much. A lot of remembering combination, good form, guard up, foot work and doing that while hausted. Every time i spar i get demolished.

Fast forward a week ago, someone was aggressive and started to swing,. I felt like Goku on ultra instinct. Saw every punch before the dude even realised what he did and could easily dodge. I was going to do a cross-left hook-elbow but stopped myself after he went down with the left hook.

Went back to training and got demolished again.

I am proud of myself for the progress I actually have done but to be honest it was kind of scary and hope I will not get in this situation again. Still feel /am a beginner and have a long way to go.

Has anyone else been part of a gym they once loved, but over time realized that belonging seemed to depend on loyalty?

I still love most of the coaching team and a lot of the people there. My issue is more with the culture coming from the top/head coaches/owners.

Members are expected to be loyal, understanding, and not rock the boat, even when things are handled badly. But that loyalty doesn’t always feel reciprocal. There’s gossip, favoritism, blurred boundaries, and a lot of politics.

I’ve basically watched three responses:

Stay deeply involved, smooth things over, and tolerate a lot.

Stay, but emotionally detach and try to just train.

Leave for another gym after realizing the problems aren’t isolated incidents, but part of the culture.

I’m realizing I’m somewhere between 2 and 3.
For anyone who’s dealt with this, were you actually able to detach and stay? Or did you eventually leave?

What was the point where you knew you were done?

I'm 35, have trained muay thai and kickboxing with varying levels of intensity since I was funny, and fought competitively a couple of times in my 20s. I would like to build a consistent weekly schedule to start taking super short notice fights. To be clear, I have no interest in trying to do a camp or peaking at this point in my life. I'm at a point where I'm bored, and want to feel sharp enough to take short notice fights and maybe win. Not chasing belts or tournaments, I have a career, and fighter isn't it.

My question is: if I'm consistently training 5 days a week, with 3 S&C sessions lasting an hour each, is this enough of a regular schedule to be ready? It breaks down to 3 hours of dedicated S&C and 7 hours of boxing and kickboxing work each week.

Would love any experiences of folks who have done something similar