Warrior Way Martial Arts | Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu | Muay Thai – (248) 960-4884
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Hard work, discipline, and respect earned. Keep training, keep leveling up 🥊🔥
Training Like a Champion!!!
With over 200 professional Muay-Thai fights, Matee Jedeepitak is one of the most decorated Thai fighters ever. Warrior Way sat down with Matee for a Q&A session about his training.
WW: What was your training regimen like in Thailand? Can you share some of your experiences with us?
Matee: We trained every day. We would wake up at five-o’clock in the morning and go out for a team run. My dad drove a motorcycle behind us.
There’s no faking it when it comes to running. My dad wouldn’t allow us to slack off either. If he felt that we were being lazy, he’d get directly behind us and lay on the horn. Finding the motivation to train is no problem when you have an upcoming bout, but when I wasn’t slated for an upcoming fight, I’d try to convince the younger guys to slow down.
During our runs, three warnings with the horn were all you would get. After that, my dad would threaten to run us over! I remember not taking him seriously at first. I thought for sure that there was no way he would run his own son over, but I soon found out how wrong I was [laughing]. Even after knocking me to the ground with the motorcycle, he made me get up and finish the run. When I got back to the gym, I was digging gravel out of my hands. Talk about motivation!
Typically, after our run, we’d get a five minute break. Then, we’d have to shadow box for 3 rounds. After that, we would hit the pads. Those of us that had an upcoming fight would hit the Thai pads for five rounds, while those who didn’t have a fight would hit the pads for three rounds. Then, we’d spar. After the sparring session, we would go back to hitting the pads for five rounds to improve our conditioning. The advanced students were paired up with the intermediate and beginner students to help shorten their learning curve. Then, we’d do two or three-hundred high kicks, followed by the same number of low kicks. Next was push ups. After that, we’d do two or three-hundred sit ups while our abs were hammered with a pad. That is what a typical morning session would look like at our gym.
Once the morning session was over, we would shower, eat, and then head to school. After school, we had to run back to the gym for training. It was three miles from my school to the gym.
Those who didn’t go to school had to run four or five miles. After arriving at the gym, we had to shadow box for three rounds, followed by five rounds of pad striking. Then, we would do thirty to forty minutes of clinching. Clinch work was round-robin style, where one person stayed in the middle while three others cycled in. If you threw your opponent down, you stayed in the middle, and then the next guy would come in. This was a good exercise to see how you react when you’re tired. This kind of training toughens your resolve and helps you learn.
Training in the afternoon also consisted of four-hundred high bag kicks, two-hundred knee thrusts, and two-hundred low kicks. Like the morning session, we’d do push ups and sit ups. Then, we would jump in the river and do water chops so that the water would splash in our face, making our eyes tougher. Sometimes my dad would make me stand in a fighting stance with my hands behind my back while he slammed a bag into my abdomen. Occasionally, the students that had an upcoming bout would punch each other ten times in a row in the stomach without gloves.
Training was grueling. We had to train every day, seven days a week. After a fight, if you knocked your opponent out and didn’t get hurt yourself, you would get 1 or 2 days off. If the fight went the distance, or you got cut, you would only get 2 or 3 days of rest. If you got knocked out, you’d get seven days off. It may sound extreme, but that is what it takes to be a champion.
Interview - 2004
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Congratulations to Chris Durden on his promotion last night to brown belt. Brown belt is a huge accomplishment in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as it represents approximately a decade in the sport and one step closer to ⬛️⬛️⬛️🟥🟥⬛️
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