Muay Thai in Richardson

What Muay Thai is

Muay Thai is Thailand’s national sport and the striking base under a lot of MMA. It is called the art of eight limbs because you strike with fists, elbows, knees and shins, and it adds the clinch, controlling an opponent’s head and arms at close range to land knees and off-balance them, which boxing and most kickboxing leave out.

At KŌVA the program is traditional Muay Thai, not a cardio class with gloves on. You learn the stance and the rhythm, how to turn your hip into a round kick, how to check one, how to cover and return, and how to keep your composure when someone is standing in front of you throwing back. The conditioning is real, but it comes from the work itself: holding pads, hitting pads, repeating rounds.

Who it’s for

Beginners, first. Tuesday and Sunday are all-levels classes and every session starts with fundamentals, so if you have never thrown a kick you will be taught how to throw one before you are asked to throw a hundred. Emmanuel coaches every Muay Thai class and scales the pad rounds to the person holding them.

It also fits people who already strike and want a clinch and kicking game, members building toward the MMA class, and people who want the fittest year of their life without staring at a treadmill. Whether you ever spar is between you and your coach; the Tuesday and Sunday classes are a complete program without it.

A typical class

Classes are 60 minutes: Tuesday 7 to 8 PM and Sunday noon to 1 PM. A first class looks like this.

1. Warm-up. Skipping or shadowboxing, then mobility for hips and shoulders, because kicking asks a lot of both.
2. Technique. Two or three strikes or a short combination, broken down and repeated slowly in the air. Beginners start with the jab, cross and round kick; later classes add elbows, knees, teeps and clinch entries.
3. Pad rounds. You pair up and alternate holding Thai pads and hitting them. Holding is a skill too, and it is how you learn to read a strike coming at you.
4. Clinch or defense. Controlled partner work at low intensity: catching kicks, checking, framing and turning in the clinch.
5. Conditioning. Kicks on the heavy bag, knees, core work. This is where the last ten minutes go.

Nobody spars in a first class. You leave tired, having landed real strikes on real pads, with a clear idea of what to work on next.

Sparring nights

Friday 7 to 8 PM is the all-levels Muay Thai sparring class, followed at 8 PM by MMA sparring. Sparring at KŌVA is for members a coach has cleared, and it is controlled: the point is to test technique under pressure with a partner you trust, not to win a fight in the gym. If sparring is a goal, tell Emmanuel. If it is not, nothing changes about your Tuesday and Sunday.

Gear

Wear athletic clothes you can kick in. KŌVA has loaner gloves and shin guards for your first classes, so there is nothing to buy before you walk in. Once you join, get your own gloves, hand wraps and shin guards, and a mouthguard before any partner work beyond drilling.

Muay Thai for women and kids, and what it costs

There is a women-only Muay Thai class Sunday 3 to 4 PM in a women-only room, coached by Nina, and Kids Muay Thai for ages 5 to 12 on Tuesday and Thursday 6 to 7 PM with Shamail.

The adult Muay Thai / Kickboxing membership is month to month with unlimited Muay Thai classes. All Access adds Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing and MMA. And because the MMA class runs straight after Muay Thai on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, All Access members can train both in one visit. Your first class is free, so you can take a session before you pick one.