Muay Thai athletes practice physical strength, technique and competition tactics.
In 2010, Thanh Hoa province began to build a force to train and coach Muay. At that time, many other localities such as Hanoi, Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, this sport had developed very well. Coach Dinh Cong Son, a veteran athlete who had won many glories in Pencak Silat for Vietnamese sports, was chosen to lay the first bricks for Muay. With the efforts of teachers and students, the sport quickly achieved success.
After the 9th National Sports Congress in 2022, the veteran faces of Thanh Hoa Muay such as Bui Thi Quynh, Quach Thi Hoai, Nguyen Thi Ly... will retire one after another. The coaching board determined that the Muay team needs to aim for specific goals for each tournament, focusing on training the next generation for the long term. Especially creating a young generation capable of competing for medals in important arenas such as SEA Games, Asia, and the world .
The coaching staff and collaborators of the Muay team have been sent to all localities to search for talents and develop this martial art. Through careful selection, many young faces have been discovered. Through the process of screening, training, and education, meeting the criteria of physical strength, technique... the selected athletes have made great progress.
“As a combat sport, the risk of injury is high, so the selection is more rigorous and many families are worried when their children participate, especially when recruiting from a young age. Besides, many times we have to “compete” with other localities when recently units from other provinces have also come to Thanh Hoa to “hunt” for potential young athletes for themselves,” Coach Dinh Cong Son shared.
Up to now, Thanh Hoa Muay team has 1 coach, 1 assistant and 32 athletes. Of which, there are 13 provincial athletes, 13 youth athletes, 6 gifted athletes.
To help athletes have a good training space, Coach Dinh Cong Son boldly proposed to the Sports Training and Competition Center to use his own money to build a training facility right on his family's land in Dong Huong Ward (Thanh Hoa City) and was approved. Not only investing in a fighting arena and professional training equipment, Coach Dinh Cong Son also built quite spacious accommodation and food with air conditioning, washing machines... for the athletes.
The team's coaching staff is always proactive in creating lesson plans, with separate exercises for each athlete and each weight class to promote each person's strengths. At the same time, there is a systematic approach, prioritizing key investments for talented athletes, capable of winning medals, striving to maintain achievements in weight classes and strong events at tournaments. For Muay athletes, the training period is very important, so the lesson plan is also very strict. Each day, athletes must practice about 6 hours. Of which, about 3 - 4 hours are high-intensity training. In particular, for athletes who have to lose weight to qualify for competition, the training plan is more difficult, such as eating light meals, high-intensity training, training clothes, raincoats inside, and jackets outside.
“To become a professional boxer, I practice hard and at the same time cultivate my spirit and determination,” young athlete Ngo Thi Hoai Thu shared.
In addition to focusing on the athletes' cultural studies at school, Coach Dinh Cong Son also lets them study English 3 sessions/week to improve their knowledge and communication skills, especially when they have the opportunity to compete abroad.
With the perseverance in nurturing talent and the passion and love for the job of Coach Dinh Cong Son and his team of assistant coaches, despite being "born later", this is one of the sports that has brought many medals to Thanh Hoa's high-performance sports in tournaments. Thanh Hoa is also in the top 3 provinces and cities with the best Muay Thai results in the country to date. Many Muay Thai fighters have also demonstrated their talent in regional, continental and world competitions.
In the national team, Thanh Hoa has contributed 3 outstanding, young faces, who have won many prestigious medals for Vietnamese sports, including: Han Thi Thuy (67kg class) currently has 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal at the world championship, has won gold medals in 2 consecutive National Sports Festivals; Nguyen Thi Phuong Hau (63.5kg class) has won gold medals at the world championship and SEA Games, Nguyen Thi Huong (71kg class) has 2 silver medals at the world championship. In the domestic arena, these athletes have continuously dominated, winning a series of medals of all kinds.
At the 2024 National Muay Championship, the Thanh Hoa Muay team excellently won 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 3 bronze medals in the two age groups of youth and championship. At the 2024 National Muay Club Championship, the Thanh Hoa Muay team also performed excellently with a total of 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 3 bronze medals in the two age groups of 15-17 and 18-40.
Head of the Training Management Department, Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center Nguyen Ngoc Hai, said: “Balancing both tasks: developing and searching for young fighters, while maintaining the form of key fighters, Thanh Hoa Muay is showing its effectiveness in developing evenly, ready to compete for the top spot with units in the top group of the sport such as Hanoi, Binh Duong or Thai Nguyen. In terms of long-term orientation, the fundamental solution is still training, selection, training, competition, combining key investments, and promoting the spirit and hard work of both teachers and students. The Center will focus on activities related to nutrition, sports medicine, training, and competition to improve the level so that high-performance sports can break through and reach new heights.”
Article and photos: Anh Tuan
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/xay-nen-tang-vung-chac-de-muay-vuon-tam-251102.htm
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