How To Tell If A Muay Thai School Is Good?

I can usually tell when a person is feeding me bull, but since I am new to martial arts and and never been to a school, I would like some input as to tell what to look out for when your selecting a muay thai school|||It is very hard to put in words what you should be looking at (such as the angle the leg drops on a kick or such things) however their are certain characteristics you chould look for in an any school and they depend on your personal objectives.





Since you are adressing Muay thai I will assume you have a fighters mentality like mine. The simple way is to go in and watch a class or preferably several. Do they throw elbows and knees? Do they use the Muay Thai clinch when in closed corners? You can look in many differnt books and videos (you can usualy find reviews for good books) to see what you are looking for.





The most important things you should look at is the instructor. Titles and ranks mean little in todays age of unverified certificates so I always start with a simple GOOGLE of their name and see what i can find on the net. Also look at if their instructor has a solid reputation (again through GOOGLE if you can). Was the instructor ever a fighter? Virtualy all Muay Thai instructors were fighters, if so can you verify the record or results of any of his fights or titles he has claimed? Also of vital importance is %26quot;Does the trainer/teachers mentality work well with mine%26quot; -this can certainly doom your training if you have conflicting ideas of how or what you should train.





A couple of sites you may find interesting:


http://www.muaythai.com/


http://www.thaiboxing.com/ (This site has a list of schools)


http://www.usmta.com/ (This site also has a lsit of schools)





Be careful and have fun! Let me know if I can help with anything else





Ammendment: To answer the thoughts of Bushido and the like. I am not saying that GOOGLE will answer everything, but to try and find unbiased reports of fights recorded in a variety of journals or sites that post results. To say relying on google is bad because people can post anything, but then saying to go and talk to them alone is to me, even worse. It is easier to lie or mislead in person then it is to substantiate yourself online in more then a few articles. Furthermore, it matters little if one has said they fought in Thailand or not, as you may or may not be able to verify it (most often not). There is much to know and see about martial arts or Muay Thai specificaly. I stand by my statements and again say - Be careful, do research and have fun. Check as many schools as you can find, compare, teachers, students and environemnts.|||doing a google search or looking at the sights that list fighters and instructers wont prove anything.virtually anyone can put there name on the lists of the different associations etc. with little or no proof.the best way is to go to a couple of different schools and watch the way they train.also talk to the instructer and other students and find out how many of them have had real fights not just tournaments.if the instructer has fought in thailand or any of his fighters have you could safely say its a good school.|||Crutches on the wall, Huge first aid kits and Blood on the Floor. Thats what I%26#039;d expect to see.|||I%26#039;d have to agree with Bushido; don%26#039;t rely too much on Google, since anyone can post his name and join it up with any association.





I will be honest and tell you that I know next to nothing about Muay Thai. (OK... it%26#039;s a kick-boxing martial arts from Thailand, designed primarily for fighting... that%26#039;s all I know.) But I believe the general premise for finding a good school, no matter what the style, is the same:


1) Watch the classes. Look at how the instructor teaches and at the quality of the classes. Even if you don%26#039;t know much about martial arts, you can generally tell when someone is not giving their best, or when the instructor is not really paying attention to the students.


2) Talk with the instructor and maybe some of the students. Don%26#039;t be afraid to ask questions. Have them provide reasons for any statements they make- like, why they do things a certain way, etc. If the instructor is comfortable and honest with your questions, then he has nothing to hide and it%26#039;s probably a decent school.


3) Look around; check out other schools. You will see different levels of quality and different ways of teaching, so looking around may help you decide what you want to get out of Muay Thai.





I don%26#039;t know how much a decent Muay Thai school would cost, so can%26#039;t help you there, but if you can just look at the classes and see how they%26#039;re run, I think you will be able to decide for yourself.|||The easiest way is to look for the fighters it has and/or how they perform in tournaments, the results will tell you how good the school is.|||You can tell a good Muay Thai school if the instructor is Tuff on you and the dojo is sickin.