Absolute Boarginners: a surprisingly good Thai-me

There we were, gathered on the exercise mats with no idea what was about to happen. Well, I had no idea at least. As soon as I’d entered the Thai Boxing taster session I realised I was a full head shorter than everyone else, wearing embarrassingly disused shorts and the apprehensive expression of someone who’s never hit anyone before in his life but has now turned up for an hour of boxing training.

Thing is, I’ve always thought I’m much more a lover than a fighter, although lover is probably still the wrong word. I essentially mean a person who responds to a fight at Smack by running away and buying a kebab.

Two weeks later, and I’m now signed up to a weekly Thai Boxing beginner’s Bootcamp session, at which I learn and try out the basic techniques of the sport. I’m the proud owner of a society t-shirt with Thai Boxing Club emblazoned on the back, which I wear as I parade around our student house. How did this happen?

You see, before Thai Boxing, martial arts had never been something I thought I could get into, and not just because I’ve always believed that in most fights my puny body renders me a pacifist by design, but also because I’m a colossal wimp. These facts meant, while other kids on the playground bragged about karate lessons, I was doing most of my kicking and punching from behind a joy pad in the world of video games, which has left me with a body type that I would describe, in a word, as “podgy”.

You win, Thomas, now go back to marginally beating my essay scores.

This is why it’s so oddly brilliant to reveal, in what I hope will be- come a regular Absolute Boarginners trend, that Thai Boxing may well be one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve had at University in a long time. I think it’s because it so aptly fulfilled the Sports Fair Sales Patter you hear during that opening fortnight at Warwick, that “give it a try, you might really like it” attitude that as freshers we all turn our nose up at.

As a third year, I was even more sceptical, something which never deterred Thomas Bridgland, Thai Boxing’s kit secretary, from trying to get me to come along. And as smug as I know he’s going to be while reading this, I couldn’t be happier he persevered. You win Thomas, now go back to marginally beating my essay scores.

Needless to say, having been more the receiver of punches than anything else as a child, and having last carried out proper exercise when Tony Blair was still prime minister, I was slightly nervous about what to expect in the Thai Boxing taster. Matters weren’t helped when I noticed how incredibly muscular some of the other new boxers already were.

It’s a testament to how welcoming and friendly the exec are that I was quickly made to feel at home despite my nerves. After a warm-up that already had my face reddening to ripe tomato levels, the club coach gave us a demonstration of a kick before we were paired up with another person to replicate it with pads. Instead of merely watching new members, the seasoned Thai Boxers circulated the room, showing club freshers how to improve their stance and make their kicks much stronger. Equally, they kept a keen eye on safety, making sure that the person holding the pads was doing it correctly.

I looked less like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and more like a middle-aged man kicking his broken down car on the hard shoulder of the M1.

Two of the lovely individuals I spoke to were the club’s President Iain and Team Captain Mo, the latter of whom is in charge of the Bootcamp training sessions I’ve since enrolled in. Both of them seem very polite considering that they could by now probably kill you with one well-aimed punch to the jugular. With their guidance, by the time we moved on to add punches and a left hook to precede the kick, I was beginning to really enjoy trying to nail my technique, although odds are from an outsider’s perspective I looked less like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and more like a middle-aged man kicking his broken down car on the hard shoulder of the M1.

If only my body had been programmed to accept the level of punishment all this kicking and punching was doing to it. Something all potential Thai Boxers should know is that there is a nice way and an honest way to explain how you’ll feel after a session. The nice way is that it’s a fantastic workout that you can really feel exercising all of the parts of your body at once. The honest way is that, even in short stints, it will completely push you to your limits until oxygen is about as foreign to your blood cells as a nice pint of staropramen is to a Pop! circle. By the end of the first taster session, a brief look in a mirror at my sweaty, destroyed body confirmed that it was the worst I’ve looked at university.

But as hard as it can be, the few sessions I’ve been to have proven that being able to hit the hardest and be the strongest really have nothing to do with how much fun you can have participating in Thai Boxing. I’ve hardly been able to find a better way to destress after a hard week of not doing my reading than punching the stupid out of a poor inanimate leather pad. Even if my punches aren’t the strongest and my technique isn’t there yet, it’s pretty empowering stuff.

Not only this, but it’s always great to see a club who are genuinely passionate about the sport they are teaching, to the extent that they don’t just want you to come and do the same thing every week, but actively want to see you improve so that by the end of the year you might be engaging in actual fights and competitions (although for now the pads will suit me just fine). There’s certainly more than enough opportunities to practice; Training sessions ranging from fitness to technique to full blown sparring for more advanced members take place five days a week, with an intuitive and functional booking system having been set up online for members to pay a small fee (only £2-3) for sessions in advance.

Now my eyes have been opened which, I suppose, is what Boarginners is all about.

But it’s not all serious boxing business; there are numerous socials. Unfortunately, due to particularly dweeby reasons I haven’t been able to attend one of these nights out yet, but they range from circling to club meals to what has been described on their Thai Boxing webpage by one exec member as “our legendary night of initiations”. If the club are anything like as charming as they are in the training room, I’ll definitely be sticking around to find out why.

I’ve been lucky enough to get involved in some great things at university, but rarely have I ventured into unknown territory as stridently as I have with Thai Boxing. The whole thing just seemed the opposite of what I would want to spend an hour every Sunday doing, and now my eyes have been opened which, I suppose, is what Boarginners is all about.

It’s been a complete validation that trying something new needn’t be a terrifying first step, but as simple as going to a taster and seeing what you think. In the case of Thai Boxing, I thought it was bloody brilliant. So next year (or even sooner) perhaps you too could be nervously standing on an exercise mat, in terrible shorts and with a slightly worried expression on your face. But you should definitely go for it, because post-university you might not get the chance!