GYMS & WHERE TO TRAIN

Lethwei is Myanmar's national martial art. Traditional matches are still fought throughout the country, especially during holidays and celebration festivals such as Thingyan, and in ancient times matches took place in sand pits instead of rings. In modern times the sport is kept alive in Lower Burma, in Mon State and Karen State, where matches are held for events such as New Year's celebrations, and it has historically been associated with the Karen people of Kayin State.

This page is deliberately short. It names only clubs that published sources mention, and it dates each description to the source it comes from. It gives no prices, timetables or contact details, because we cannot verify them, and those sources do not show whether any club still operates today. If you plan to train in Myanmar, confirm every practical detail yourself before you plan around it.

Listings from 2014–2016 describe Thut Ti Lethwei Gym as a lethwei gym in Yangon. They give its camp owner and promoter as Win Zin Oo, who is also listed among the trainers of Golden Belt champions Lone Chaw (2006 and 2007) and Tway Ma Shaung (2007).

Around 2012, Lone Chaw moved into coaching and joined Thut Ti as head trainer and teacher under Win Zin Oo. He later left Thut Ti to form his own camp with the help of his father. The source is not consistent about when he stopped fighting, so we give no retirement year or age.

We give no address, opening hours or fees for Thut Ti, because we have no source we can stand behind for them, and we cannot say whether it is still open. Confirm any detail yourself before you plan around it.

Nagar Mahn (also spelled Nagamahn) is described in a 2022 source as a lethwei club in South Dagon Township, in the south-east of Yangon. It is listed as the team of champion Too Too and of Tun Lwin Moe. Its head coach, Kyaw Soe, is listed as Too Too's father, and he trained Tun Lwin Moe. Burmese outlets reported Too Too's death in military custody on 26 April 2023; this was never officially confirmed. We found nothing showing whether the club still operates.

Tawwinirra is described in a May 2022 source as a lethwei gym in Bogale, in the Irrawaddy Division. According to that source, Tun Lwin Moe opened it in 2022 and trains aspiring lethwei fighters there. We have no later information.

We have no sourced booking guide for lethwei gyms in Myanmar, so this section is general advice only.

Entry and safety: Check your own government's current travel advice and Myanmar's current entry requirements before you book anything. Rules and conditions change, so do not rely on any web page, including this one, for visa or safety information.

Contacting a gym: Do not simply show up unannounced. Contact the gym in advance, introduce yourself, explain your martial arts background, say how long you plan to stay, and ask about fees and schedules directly.

Level needed: Some striking experience in Muay Thai, boxing, or kickboxing before you go will help you get more out of any camp. Be honest with coaches about your experience and about any injuries.

Etiquette: Be respectful of the gym and the people in it. Ask what the house rules are and follow them, arrive on time, and offer to help clean up. Ask a coach's permission before filming or photographing.

We have not found a published source naming a dedicated lethwei gym outside Myanmar. The sections below therefore name only gyms that published sources connect to a documented fighter; where we found none, we say so.

Dave Leduc is a Canadian-Burmese lethwei fighter born in Gatineau. On 11 December 2016 he became the first non-Burmese fighter to win the Lethwei Golden Belt, after defeating Tun Tun Min. His listed team is Patenaude Martial Arts (2009–present), and he began his martial arts training at the academy of Sifu Patrick Marcil in Gatineau, Quebec.

Artur Saladiak is a Polish Muay Thai kickboxer who lists FSC Muay Thai as his team; we found no source giving its location. He made his lethwei debut on 10 June 2017 at WLC 2: Ancient Warriors, and on 2 June 2018 he beat Saw Ba Oo at WLC 5: Knockout War for the inaugural WLC Light Middleweight World Championship. On 9 May 2021 he fought at A1 Federation Gala 6, the first-ever lethwei event held in Poland, sanctioned by the Polish Lethwei Federation and the World Lethwei Federation.

Adem Yilmaz is a Turkish-Australian fighter who faced Tun Tun Min and Dave Leduc on International Lethwei Federation Japan (ILFJ) cards in Tokyo — a 2016 knockout loss to Tun Tun Min and a 2017 draw with Dave Leduc during Leduc's Golden Belt reign. We found no published source naming a gym for him, so we name no Australian gym.

Tiger Muay Thai is a Thai mixed martial arts and Muay Thai training facility in Phuket, Thailand. Dave Leduc's biography says that Myanmar's lack of training facilities led him to move to Phuket to train there, and that in April 2016 he competed in the Tiger Muay Thai Tryouts and won a place on the professional fight team. Cyrus Washington and Naimjon Tuhtaboyev also list Tiger Muay Thai among their teams.

The reality for most aspiring Lethwei practitioners is that there is no dedicated Lethwei gym within driving distance. This is not a reason to give up. The Art of Nine Limbs can be studied by combining resources from related disciplines, watching recorded fights, and building a focused home training setup. Here is a general step-by-step approach.

Step 1: Find a Muay Thai Gym

Muay Thai shares much of its striking vocabulary with Lethwei, so a good Muay Thai gym is a sensible place to build stance, footwork, timing, and conditioning. Look for a gym that emphasizes traditional Muay Thai over cardio kickboxing — you want heavy bag work, extended clinch rounds, and hard sparring. Prioritize gyms with fighters who compete.

Step 2: Supplement with Boxing

In Lethwei, punches are generally favoured over kicks, so hand technique matters. Add boxing sessions to work on the jab, the cross, the hook, head movement, and defense. If your Muay Thai gym does not offer dedicated boxing sessions, consider adding them at a separate facility.

Step 3: Add Wrestling or BJJ for Clinch Control

Control in the clinch matters in Lethwei. Wrestling or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can teach body control, balance, and positional awareness that carry over to standing clinch work.

Step 4: Study Recorded Fights

Watch full fights and pay attention to pacing, clinch exchanges, and how fights end. The World Lethwei Championship, which last promoted an event in 2020, has an official YouTube channel.

Step 5: Find Sparring Partners Open to Lethwei Rules

Technique without live application is theory, and live work needs willing, informed partners. Start by discussing Lethwei with your training partners at your Muay Thai or MMA gym. Agree the rules before you start, begin with light technical sparring, and graduate to harder sparring only when both partners are comfortable and wearing appropriate protection.

Home Training Setup

A functional home training space can be built on almost any budget. Shadowboxing is the simplest solo method: drill combinations, footwork patterns, and defensive movements. Add a jump rope for conditioning, a heavy bag for power, timing, and distance management, hand wraps for bag work, and a pull-up bar and resistance bands for strength training. Later, a double-end bag adds timing and accuracy work, and a set of Thai pads allows partner pad work at home.

Vincent Giordano's multi-part documentary series Born Warriors documents the sport of Lethwei; its first instalment premiered at the Myanmar Film Festival in 2014. In 2018, Frank Grillo travelled to Myanmar and featured Lethwei in the Netflix documentary series FightWorld, whose episode “Myanmar: Crossroads” is centered around Lethwei.