Sunday, 7th of May 2017, we celebrated a victory of one of our trainees. Sergei Snytiuk from Ukraine, who had spent over 2 months here and was training with Christian to prepare for a fight.
Sergei is not a novice in fighting and has been in over 50 fights. Christian wanted to make sure Sergei walked away not only with a good experience and victory from the fight itself, but also with new skills, improved technique and endurance as well as expanded knowledge. Be it on how to clinch, how to strategize throughout a fight or how to reach his target fighting weight. If you are a fighter and need to lose a bit of weight, per Christian advice: change your diet only shortly before the fight, to make sure you have full power for the entirety of the hard training. So only 7 days before the fight, Christian had adjusted Sergey’s diet to lower carbs (mostly sugar) and Sergei then reached his target weight of 78 kg without having to go through more dramatic changes. The goal is to make sure you do not weaken yourself throughout the training period.
According to Christian the most important qualities in order to succeed in fighting are:
- Your endurance
- Your passion
- Your technique
Exactly in this order, too. No point trying to switch it around. When your heart is not in it, or you cannot last the 3 minutes or 3 rounds, what good is it to you that you have great technique.
Christian was in Sergei’s corner of course, throughout the fight, adapting the strategy as the fight went on. This is important, as the fight can dramatically change based on the strategy advice from the coach in your corner. The fight took place in the new Max Muay-Thai stadium and was televised nationwide on Thai Channel 8.
Christian assessed throughout the first round, that the opponent (skilled Thai fighter Pitakchai Sor Kittichai, with over a 100 fights) was trying to keep a bit of a distance from Sergej in order to avoid his powerful punches and to be able attack a lot with kicks. Sergei had a few stumbles when he ended up on the ground due to kicks from the opponent, so Christian coached him to disrupt this strategy of the opponent, regain control and stay close to the opponent to minimize his kicking opportunities and look for a good moment to throw a powerful punch. The closer Sergei could get to the opponent the harder it would be for the opponent to kick and the easier it would be for Sergey to use his power well.
Which is what happened at the end of a second round, when Sergei managed to get closer to the opponent, focus on the target and place a winning knock-out punch.
One of the things Christian makes sure for all the camp visitors is not only that they go away with having reached their goals but that they also learned something new. The trainers here will push you to your limits, but also ensure you are learning new things. Be it a new sport, new technique or new way to live a healthier life and change your eating habits.
For Sergei, Christian wanted to see that Sergei learns how to strategize throughout the fight for himself. So once he goes away from the camp, he has the ability to make good decision in the ring. He had the power. And now he has the strategic advice as well.
