skribs
Grandmaster
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2013
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I've been doing BJJ for the last year and a half, Muay Thai for the last several months. Both at the same gym. The Muay Thai coach is one of the black belts in BJJ.
I absolutely love BJJ. I am 100% planning on continuing BJJ. But I'm not entirely enjoying my Muay Thai experience. I really dislike the sparring. I don't like getting punched in the face, which is pretty much a given. Yesterday, I took a bad groin shot. A little bit of drama between me and my coach about protective gear. He gave me a hard time about not wearing a cup, but he also has never told us to put more on than gloves, shin pads, and a mouthguard. He sees it as our responsibility to decide what gear to wear (we're adults), I see it as his responsibility as coach to at least recommend the appropriate gear when he tells us to put gear on. When I mentioned I don't want to spar anymore, he seemed to begrudgingly accept it, but gave me a hard time about it.
As some of you know, I would eventually like to open my own TKD school. I much prefer the TKD style of sparring (at least, the TKD sparring I'm used to). No head punches, no head kicks before you're an upper belt. You can punch and kick to the chest as hard as you want, but the chest can take it. I always had fun in TKD sparring. I always have fun in BJJ rolls. I don't have fun in MT sparring. It doesn't help that I'm 5'5 and pretty much always the smallest person, especially in terms of reach.
As a counterpoint, there are three reasons I'm thinking about not quitting. 1) I do enjoy the rest of the class. I like learning different ways of doing technique than we did in TKD. I also like seeing a lot of the things that are done similar to TKD. 2) I want to make sure I'm not just reacting to the bad shot I took yesterday, and that I'm not happy as a whole. 3) I feel like if I can't handle Muay Thai and open a TKD school, it kind of makes me a fraud. Although at the same time, one of the reasons I want to open up a TKD school is because I think the sparring in TKD is safer and more fun than the sparring in MT.
I don't know if the purpose of this post is to vent or to get advice, but it's there if people want to comment.
I absolutely love BJJ. I am 100% planning on continuing BJJ. But I'm not entirely enjoying my Muay Thai experience. I really dislike the sparring. I don't like getting punched in the face, which is pretty much a given. Yesterday, I took a bad groin shot. A little bit of drama between me and my coach about protective gear. He gave me a hard time about not wearing a cup, but he also has never told us to put more on than gloves, shin pads, and a mouthguard. He sees it as our responsibility to decide what gear to wear (we're adults), I see it as his responsibility as coach to at least recommend the appropriate gear when he tells us to put gear on. When I mentioned I don't want to spar anymore, he seemed to begrudgingly accept it, but gave me a hard time about it.
As some of you know, I would eventually like to open my own TKD school. I much prefer the TKD style of sparring (at least, the TKD sparring I'm used to). No head punches, no head kicks before you're an upper belt. You can punch and kick to the chest as hard as you want, but the chest can take it. I always had fun in TKD sparring. I always have fun in BJJ rolls. I don't have fun in MT sparring. It doesn't help that I'm 5'5 and pretty much always the smallest person, especially in terms of reach.
As a counterpoint, there are three reasons I'm thinking about not quitting. 1) I do enjoy the rest of the class. I like learning different ways of doing technique than we did in TKD. I also like seeing a lot of the things that are done similar to TKD. 2) I want to make sure I'm not just reacting to the bad shot I took yesterday, and that I'm not happy as a whole. 3) I feel like if I can't handle Muay Thai and open a TKD school, it kind of makes me a fraud. Although at the same time, one of the reasons I want to open up a TKD school is because I think the sparring in TKD is safer and more fun than the sparring in MT.
I don't know if the purpose of this post is to vent or to get advice, but it's there if people want to comment.