A Week of Intense Muay Thai Training in Phuket

For around $1,300, you can live and train at Tiger Muay Thai & Mixed Martial Arts in Phuket, Thailand, for a month. You’ll have the opportunity to fight against another student in the ring, in front of a crowd, for up to three rounds. I proposed to my editors that I would write about Thai kickboxing and the demanding training at Tiger. Secretly, I hoped I’d discover a hidden talent, outperforming others despite being 48.

That didn’t happen. Instead, Tiger demonstrated fundamental issues of physicality to me. Like other enthusiasts, my interest in martial arts began as a way to defend against larger boys. I joined the ’80s taekwondo craze, wrestled poorly at 98 pounds, tried point-based striking, and dabbled in Brazilian jiu-jitsu until injuries took their toll.

Muay Thai appealed to me for two reasons. One, bullies and troublemakers seemed attracted to me. Two, I wanted to keep evolving and not let age dominate me. Growing old reminds me of childhood vulnerabilities, which I’d like to delay as long as possible. Becoming more confident, knowing others can’t easily harm me, improved my life.

Muay Thai helps with that, and evidence supports its efficacy. The national sport of Thailand, it integrates familiar boxing punches with kicks, elbows, and knees. It’s distinct for its knee and elbow strikes, and leg kicks using the shinbone. This brutality has attracted martial arts enthusiasts to Thailand.

People from around the globe visit Phuket to train at Tiger Muay Thai.

Tiger stands as the first Muay Thai gym on Phuket’s Soi Ta-iad, known as Fitness Street. This area resembles a post-apocalypse setting, teeming with Britons and Russians. The narrow mile lacks sidewalks, with about 10 fight gyms, six fitness gyms, 15 marijuana shops, and numerous other facilities. The mixed traffic includes pickups with Burmese workers and an overwhelming number of scooters. The street’s safety reputation is debatable; within 24 hours of arriving, I heard three scooter accident stories with grim details.