Muay Thai and MMA Training: St Louis, Mo.

First and foremost...in this school we don't try to do everything; nobody can do everything and do them all well...much less teach them. We are primarily a striking school and compete in boxing and MMA. We do not teach kickboxing nor compete in kickboxing or TKD. We have a strong background in Judo and traditional Jujitsu that along with wrestling gives us a very good handle on submission grappling; combined with striking we have done well with UFC style Mixed Martial Arts competitions. We can and will do Muay Thai competitions....but in the surrounding area MMA is very big; there's not much call for Muay Thai events...yet. We teach our Muay Thai to complement mixed martial arts as well as our Judo. BJJ is the foremost effective style for MMA competition today...but one must remember it was derived from Oriental Judo and Jujitsu. They are not that far apart...NAGA has pushed that aspect of combat sports to a new level. We have done several NAGA tournaments and done very well. We plan to expand that program extensively because of it's benefit to MMA fighting. We also plan to bring up our Muay Thai competition to match our boxing program for the same reasons.

First gym was in the Soulard area of St Louis; started in 1989 and re-opened in Fenton, Mo. in 1995. After one year in Fenton the gym closed with the one owner in college and the other working overseas. Finally, in 2005, the gym began anew as SCR Fight Club in Sunset Hills, Mo.

Ben Thomas has been training in martial arts of some sort since he was 6 years old. He has experience in Judo, wrestling,(4 years Linbergh HS) boxing, jujitsu, and kick boxing with a Brown Belt in TKD. He is a certified USA Boxing Trainer, and holds Black Belts in Jujitsu, and Judo both with USJA. In 2000 he received his BS in Business Administration from the University of Illinois. From 2001 to 2005 he was the head trainer for the boxing program at the Webster Groves Community Centre after serving as Judo Coach for the Mo. School for the Blind. In 2005 he founded the SCR Fight Club, and has been training students there ever since. As a trainer Ben emphasizes proper form, focus, and conditioning.

The Muay Thai training was added to the MMA program because it is the best combination of stand-up strikes for this particular sport. It is also a great form of self defense for women as well as a solid form of combat for MMA. The Muay Thai trainer is the senior Thomas; he has competed in Laos and Thailand; is self taught and with recent trips to Thailand, has studied different methods of Thai pad training more adapted to MMA. He is also a certified USA Boxing coach and former Mo. State Certified manager with 9SG. He holds Blackbelts in Judo, Jujitsu (Nidan) and Karate (USJA) as well as being a boxing coach and trainer for US Army units in Bosnia (FOB Connor) as well as the CSA Guard force members in Camp Doha Kuwait.

Mr. Thomas has also trained Local National Iraqis in security (Site and PDS Teams) and weapons, as well as TCN's of British Gurkhas in Basra Iraq. He has also worked as a private security contractor (PSD) to the USA Army in Bosnia, Croatia and Kuwait and contracted to PMC's in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. His longest contract to British PMC's was in Iraq from the fall 2003 until the summer of 2006. He has also done short gigs in Israel (Beni Tal) and Mexico (Vance International) as well as Thailand and Burma for Mountain Hawk PVT.