One of our Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) students recently took to facebook to share his experience with us, after starting at TFC 6 months ago.
Here is what he had to say…
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Review from Travis Cromhout
TFC Review From Travis Cromhout:
For those of you that don’t know, I started training Muay Thai 6 months ago and also recently, BJJ at The Fight Centre – Brisbane. This post pays homage to everything that training Martial Arts has done for my life in such a short period of time, and why I’ve become such an adamant advocate that all people should have at least some training under their belt.
The first day that I walked into the gym it felt… different. I was nervous, almost scared of what the people would be like, truth be told, I’d likely watched one too many fight movies. Turns out the people that I met were more welcoming and happier to help me progress than I’d ever found in another sport, period.
This was the start of my realisations of how “wrong” everyone has fight gyms. The culture, the skills and the mindset beyond training is far from what you’d expect (in a good way). And hopefully by sharing my positive experiences I might be able to speak to any misconceptions you currently may have.
Training had its first impacts on my confidence, it helped me to walk taller in myself and through the teaching of my coaches and the betterment of myself and my abilities that they were sure to point out, I learnt to truly believe in myself. To believe that I was capable in ways I hadn’t yet even known and that I could take that confidence into everything I tackled from that point onwards.
The gruelling fitness and very nature of Muay Thai meant that tackling adversity became a way of life for me, and as many other fighters would tell you, for them also. The very action of even getting off of the couch to drag yourself to a training session that you know will ache afterwards develops a mental fortitude in an individual that has few parallels found anywhere else. Long story short, when you get punched in the face for fun, there’s very little else that intimidates you anymore.
Contrary to common belief is that fighting teaches you a respect for others in a way that you mightn’t have ever had before… One learns pretty quickly when going too hard in sparring that there’s “always a bigger fish”, and a few new bruises soon teach you to hold others in higher regards than you had beforehand. This couples however with the self-restraint learnt from training where you want to provide a place for those “smaller fish”, so to speak, to continue to grow in confidence and skill of their own, that the gym itself ensures “all ships rise on a high tide”.
This supportive mentality of fight gyms gives people a place to belong, where on the mats, everyone is an equal. Whether you’re a lawyer from an international firm, or the chippy from down the road, you’ll be respected and nurtured by people from all points of life as you learn alongside them and collectively grow together. Each individual seen for what they bring to the table and how they contribute to making the gym feel like a second home for all.
At this second home you’ll make friends, and good ones at that, who will not only give pointers toward improving your game but will genuinely ask how you’re going outside of the gym and really hear out your responses. You develop a mutual trust for your partners, who look out for you when you’re sparring and cheer you on in training, these people becoming some of your closest mates throughout the entire process.
And all of this comes without even reaching the physical benefits yet…
Fighters builds are INSANE, each looks a little different depending on style and in which sport they compete, but one thing remains constant is that lean, muscular aesthetic. My own experiences of training meant that I lost over 10kgs in under 6 months that I didn’t even know were there to lose and that for even the aesthetic alone, I’m the most happy I’ve ever been with my body, alongside feeling the most holistically fit I’ve felt in a lifetime of sports.I could go on for days (I know I’ve already taken a while), but I’ll wrap up by saying that out there is a perfect gym for what you’re searching for. If that is purely self-defence, you may want to look at a Krav Maga gym near you, if grappling is more your thing, perhaps BJJ is more your speed, or for striking, try Muay Thai or Boxing. Even if your goal is fitness, pick a combat sport that you can fall in love with and practice some skills that just might save your life someday. I can promise you won’t regret it
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How You Can Get Started
We would like to firstly thank Travis for the kinds words, as we love to hear that we are helping our members progress!
If you are interested in starting muay thai, boxing, or BJJ, you can jump in for a free session in one of our beginner classes run every day except Sunday!
