Pain, Sacrifice, and Heart: All part of representing America

This past weekend Atma'Sphere Entertainment and the IMTF (International Muay Thai Federation) held auditions for "In Search of America's Muay Thai Team" which took place in Fontana, CA. In what is being described as "the evolution of Muay Thai" it was a day that can be summed up with one word "heart". If you didn't have heart you stood no chance of making it to the end. If you were not picked to advance, as long as you were standing at the end there was no reason to hold your chin down.

The day started early for the fighters at the tryouts, representatives from California, Nebraska, Nevada, Kansas, Oregon, Iowa, and Minnesota were all present to try and earn the right to advance and keep alive their dream of joining America's Muay Thai team. It was a mixed crowd ranging from world champions to fighters looking to break into the professional ranks, as well as MMA fighters looking for a shot as something bigger. Some notable fighters included interim WBC Muay Thai world champion Ky Hollenbeck, WBC Muay Thai national champion Joe Schilling, Roxy Balboa, Brandon Banda, Scotty Leffler, Anthony Castrejon, Drew Dober, Kenny Finister, Glenn Spencer, and Shane Oblonsky to name a few.

From the outset it was clear how important these tryouts were to some of the fighters. Scotty Leffler who less than two months ago had his jaw broken in a fight with Jose Palacios was to the surprise of many in attendance at the tryouts. His jaw had been wired shut for a month and a half and had just had it un-wired a week prior to the tryouts. When asked why he was there his answer was "This is the biggest Muay Thai opportunity out there, I couldn't pass this life changing opportunity up."

Many fighters drove over night from Northern California to be in attendance at the tryouts. Interim WBC Muay Thai world champion Ky Hollenbeck, WBC Muay Thai light heavyweight U.S. national contender Brandon Banda, Matt Lucas and many others left Friday night from the bay area to arrive in Fontana a few hours before the tryouts were set to begin, and most had to be back home that night meaning there would be no time for rest after the tryouts as they headed back on what was a seven hour drive for most of them.

Glenn Spencer worked from 10pm Friday night until 6am Saturday morning and headed immediately to the tryouts after work. The fighters that came from out of state not only invested financially in the journey in hopes of advancing and coming one step closer to their dreams, but like the rest after a long hard day of training the investment was as much physical as it was mental, and emotional.

Kru Bryan Dobler along with Ajarn Rex, Ajarn Kim, Kru Walter Michalowski, Kru Bryan Popejoy, Colin Oyama, and Kru Daniel Sullivan put these fighters through an intense workout that not only tested them physically but mentally as well. The day began with a run just short of three miles, something many fighters thought they would simply make sure they finished, however, it wasn't going to be that simple. Moments before starting the run the stakes were raised with a simple announcement "the last one back can pack their bags". The rest of the day consisted of shadow boxing, bag work, pad work, sparring, and conditioning. It might sound simple enough but when you have seven high caliber instructors such as the ones that were present a simple bag drill becomes much more difficult when you know they are watching your every move. In addition, despite there being air conditioning, it was kept off intentionally. Fighters were allowed to quit but when you decided to throw in the towel you had to let everyone know you were quitting or if you were to embarrassed sneak out the back door. If the workouts weren't intense enough if you failed to show the respect that has been a rich part of Muay Thai tradition your punishment was push ups, and in many occasions if one failed to show respect they all failed. This is called "In Search of America's Muay Thai Team" right? Train as a team, work as a team, and pay the consequences as a team.

The most fascinating part of the tryouts was that despite every fighter out there looking to punch their ticket to the next round the word team seemed to stick in every one's head. Not at one point can you say that any fighter was out there for their own personal gain. None of this was made more evident when near the end the fighters were dragged through some intense conditioning work. With the tryouts winding down and knowing cuts were to be made soon it would have been easy for any fighter to be glad to see another fighter not finish; however, when the going got tough, the team got going. As soon as fighters completed the final conditioning drills rather than walk away and gather themselves they all stuck around cheering the rest of the fighters until every single one finished. This was not the only time that this type camaraderie was shown during the days events, but it was definitely the most evident.

Grueling, hard, intense, difficult, exhausting, brutal are all others words that would easily suffice as the description for the tryouts but as mentioned previously "heart" is the best way to describe the tryouts for "In Search of America's Muay Thai Team". Every single fighter that made it to the end showed that they had it, although not all were selected it was evident that they could never be questioned when it came to that aspect of their persona.