Not Your Typical Summer Camp Experience

The Thai Boxing Association 2014 Camp is over.  For those of you unfamiliar with this annual event it’s five days of intensive Muay Thai training in the wilds of Oregon.  30 miles from the nearest cell tower, about 150 very dedicated Muay Thai practitioners set up tents and sleeping bags among the mountains, pines, creeks and mosquitos of the beautiful NorthWest.

Mosquitos and mountains are the least of the challenges.  Getting up before dawn (and coffee) every morning for the 3 mile run, then stance drills for an hour before breakfast, then 5 hours of constant training..  This isn't your typical Summer Cap experience, or even for those who just want to show up, this camp is invitation only.  Classes are taught by the highest professionals, including but not limited to : Grandmaster Surachai Sirisute(Founder), Ajarn Bryan Dobler, Ajarn Bryan Popejoy, Ajarn Rex, Ajarn Kim, Ajarn Greg Nelson, Khun Khru Scott Elliott, Khun Khru Sam Adams, Khun Khru Natalie Roy Brown, Khun Khru Scott Anderson.  You have to earn your way in.

This was the 9th year GR’s own Kru Aaron “Juice” Veverka attended, and recently he’s earned the additional right to bring a guest.  This year it was standout MT Assistant Instructor, Russ Herbert.  For the last two years GR has been sponsoring the experience, helping to defray some of the costs for the trip and fees.  Investing in Juice's skills helps everyone at GR.  The camp will be in Portland again next year, anyone thinking about upping their game in Muay Thai should think hard about attending.

At the end of camp this year Kru Aaron was awarded Full Instructor Rank in the Thai Boxing Association of America.  Juice is the only Full Instructor in Ohio.  Congratulate Juice when you see him at the Academy on his achievement.  The very interesting video of his test is below.



Juice shared with us a typical day at camp:  You start with a 1 to 3 mile run in the morning followed by stance drills, then an hour for breakfast. Then it is time for extreme drills and/or station training, then an hour for lunch. We received boxing training that took up between 1 to 2 hours a day immediately followed by station training. Stations are as follows: Heavy bags, Shadow Boxing, Thai Pads, Timing sparring and Plum (clinching). Often some of the stations were doubled or tripled.  Thai Pads were at least doubled daily, other times tripled. Every station was a minimum of four rounds at 3 minutes a piece. Other days it was 8 rounds per station. You can see where this gets a bit tiring after a while. After that we often did 3 on 1 drills followed by 8 count body builders. We did 140 8 count body builders alone at the end of the day after our workouts.

As far as camp, the weather was rainy for the first two days, then cleared and heated up on the third and fourth days.  The intensity level was incredibly high! On the first day after trading all day we did 170 8 count body builders!  We worked plenty of rounds on the stations, averaging 70 to 74 rounds a day.  Usually we have a heavy bag station, Thai pad station, shadow Boxing station (which is much harder than it sounds), timing sparring and clinch stations.  We had 7 people test for Apprentice, which is a new record for camp testing

Russ Herbert had a few notes also:  Thai camp was as grueling as it was technically  beneficial.  Learning from legendary Muay Thai and boxing legends such as Ajarn Chai Sirisute, Ajarn Leonard Trigg, Ajarn Greg Nelson, to name a few, was a privilege and honor .  4 days of intense technique, conditioning and discipline defined the camp...not to mention the 180 8-count body builders that ended the first day of camp.  Techniques covering stance/footwork, kicks, knees, elbows, and boxing were explained in detail, and then group stations drilled them into us for hundreds of rounds and reps.  Similar to running a marathon, just to be able to finish Thai camp is an accomplishment...and your conditioning, technique, and knowledge are greatly improved!  A great experience!!

GriffonRawl is proud to sponsor Kru Aaron Juice Veverka's annual trip to the Thai Boxing Association of the U.S.A. camp.  It's rare to have such motivated and dedicated coaches that want to not only improve the gym and its members but actually make the time to better their own skills and rankings nationally and GriffonRawl MMA Academy is proud to have Juice on staff.

Written by:  Bob Donaghy