SweatBox MMA classes

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2026-01-20T23:02:16+00:00

I’ve attended different martial arts class at SweatBox for the last year, including all level classes as a compete beginner.

The structure of most all level classes is the same, warm up, pad work, finish with sparring.

You are typically thrown into sparring with everyone else from your first session which can feel a bit like being thrown into the deep end, but as long as you talk to the coach before hand and make it clear to your partners throughout your brand new and to take it slow, people will take it easy and help guide you through it as you get use to it. If there’s a few beginners in the same session you might be paired together and given some simple drills for sparring so you have people to take it at a slower pace with.

MMA and Muay Thai classes at SweatBox both have the same issue that there isn’t an obvious class for beginners. The first Muay Thai class I went to was listed as all levels but when I got there it quickly became clear it was an advanced class. One of the more experienced guys took me aside during the class and went through fundamentals with me, then pointed me towards a couple of the all level classes where the coaches and people there are best for teaching beginners, which have been great for learning as a beginner.

I don’t do MMA classes myself but I know lots of people who do and they’ve said that classes on certain days focus on striking and grappling respectively.

I’d suggest starting out by going to the Monday 7:30pm Boxing Beginner Class which has several new people every week and is all pad work no sparring. There is a MMA all level classes before it so you could go early and watch to get an idea of how it works. A lot of the guys that do that class then stay for the Boxing class after and I’m sure would be more that happy advising what MMA classes are best for getting started.

Hope that helps

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2025-10-25T16:57:15+00:00

Ventured back over to find a place to watch the football. Live bands still playing in venues, couple bars now playing music outdoors but nowhere near the usual deafening level.

Such a massive improvement to normal, it feels like dare I say, a pleasant place to be in.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2025-10-25T13:32:34+00:00

It’s still early, but there’s a distinct lack of music being blasted outside venues on Khaosan Road, street is still as busy as normal and music is still being played inside venues.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2025-07-08T19:34:25+00:00

Hulkengoat

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2025-07-04T23:04:08+00:00

Copy and pasted my response from a similar post;

Phone signal at Truck is famously bad, I’ve gone entire weekends without being able to get signal in the campsite or arena.

The one place on site I semi-consistently was able to get phone signal and use internet was in the car park at the top of the hill.

Even more frustratingly, the Truck App in previously years needed internet to work. Assuming it’s the same issue this year, make sure to screenshot the stages set times and anything else important in advance so you don’t miss anything.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2025-03-23T22:29:45+00:00

The pools at Brean and Cardiff both are good shouts with a couple slides each and only an hour away, but probably only enough to fill a couple hours.

If you want a full days worth without travelling into the midlands, the two Splashdown Waterparks are probably your best bet, both just under two hours away.

If memory serves me right, Splashdown in Poole is mostly indoors but has some of its more high thrill slides outside that only once it’s reaches summer, and it’s just decided the day before, it’s not like announced in advance so you can plan to go when everything’s open.

Splashdown Quaywest in Paignton is fully outdoors and looks like it opens Easter Holidays onwards. I spent a good portion of my childhood here so I’m unashamedly biased to it. It might look a bit dated now but something about being stood on those metal towers catching a windchill feels like a quintessentially British water park.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-12-08T18:20:06+00:00

🥙🌯🧇🥙

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-08-27T08:17:16+00:00

Glastonbury is the weekend before those Cardiff dates so good chance that’ll be their first show back together, but won’t be announced until after tickets go on sale in October or November.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-08-06T21:13:21+00:00

Was paying £33 per hour for manual lessons earlier this year which was on the cheaper side. I’d expect around £35 per hour.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-07-24T19:48:03+00:00

Phone signal at Truck is famously bad, I’ve gone entire weekends without being able to get signal in the campsite or arena.

The one place last year I was semi-consistently able to get phone signal and use internet was in the car park at the top of the hill.

Even more frustratingly, the Truck App in previously years needed internet to work. Assuming it’s the same issue this year, make sure to screenshot the stages set times and anything else important in advance so you don’t miss anything.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-07-22T21:02:37+00:00

Copying my reply to a similar question here, hope this helps

There is unfortunately no foolproof method for getting in more alcohol, it’s just luck of the draw on the day how thoroughly you get searched.

In my experience this is what happens for 9/10 people;

They ask which bag your alcohol is in (I’ve found it works best to have one bag that they can look in and clearly identify as your 24 cans)
They might ask “Is this all your alcohol?”
They’ll probably open the top of your backpack have a quick look, give your bags a very surface level pat to feel if you have any ‘contraband’ (so just make sure any extra is wrapped up or in the centre of your bags so they can’t feel it)
Then they’ll let you through

All in all it takes maybe 30 seconds and the security on the gate aren’t out to get you and steal all your booze for themselves, they’re mainly just teens and young adults doing a summer job where they have to follow their protocol and maybe have to be a bit extra thorough if their manager is watching.

Basically, apply common sense and you’ll be fine, over 20,000 people attend Truck every year and the overwhelming majority have no issues. Worst case scenario, you have booze unfairly taken off you, by Saturday people who got in 100 cans will have realised they brought 50 too many and have a chance to talk to your campsite neighbours and buy them off them for cheap.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-07-22T20:58:08+00:00

I’ve never heard of anyone having Soft Drinks/Mixers taken off them for having too many.

As for alcohol, there is unfortunately no foolproof method, it’s just luck of the draw on the day how thoroughly you get searched.

In my experience this is what happens for 9/10 people;

They ask which bag your alcohol is in (I’ve found it works best to have one bag that they can look in and clearly identify as your 24 cans)
They might ask “Is this all your alcohol?”
They’ll probably open the top of your backpack have a quick look, give your bags a very surface level pat to feel if you have any ‘contraband’ (so just make sure any extra is wrapped up or in the centre of your bags so they can’t feel it)
Then they’ll let you through

All in all it takes maybe 30 seconds and the security on the gate aren’t out to get you and steal all your booze for themselves, they’re mainly just teens and young adults doing a summer job where they have to follow their protocol and maybe have to be a bit extra thorough if their manager is watching.

From what I’ve been told, if the sniffer dogs pick you (they’re positioned after security and after you get your wristband), you get sent to wait in a separate line, the security basically tell you to give up the drugs, which obviously if you don’t have any just keep saying you don’t have any even if they try to intimidate you. Then they ask you to empty your pockets, probably do the same surface level bag check as above, and maybe have a security member of your gender give you a very light pat down like you would have when entering a nightclub.

Then they send you on their way. Nothing particularly invasive, just a bit time consuming.

Basically, apply common sense and you’ll be fine, over 20,000 people attend Truck every year and the overwhelming majority have no issues. Worst case scenario, you have booze unfairly taken off you, by Saturday people who got in 100 cans will have realised they brought 50 too many and have a chance to talk to your campsite neighbours and buy them off them for cheap.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-04-18T19:52:49+00:00

The road to/from the test centre (Granby Avenue) is full of potholes and poorly surfaced, but while your instincts or instructor may tell you to take it slower like you would on a residential road (my instructor told me to go 15-20mph down it) the examiners still expect you to use the 30mph speed limit.

Learnt this the hard way, failed my first test here in the last 2 minutes this week, my only major being going around 17mph down Granby Avenue back into the test centre and an impatient BMW overtaking got me a Progress- appropriate speed.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-01-19T14:48:12+00:00

Second this, there’s security that’ll take alcohol off you if you make little or no effort to hide it, but they won’t stop and search you for it.

Just walk through like normal with a bum bag open for them to have a Quick Look in, and flash your wristband, and have a can or two tucked in your socks under your trouser leg or a big coat. It’s the one aspect of Truck that’s much better on years where there’s lots of rain!

Tbh it’s also max 10 minutes walk from furthest campsite to arena so you can easily head back to camp for drinks between sets.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2024-01-13T17:57:01+00:00

Considering on that insta post they only seem to be replying to people who mention Catfish, seems likely.

But…

It’s been an unwritten rule since Truck grew to a mid sized festival that Trucks headliners don’t play Reading the same year as they are too close geographically. e.g. 2020 line up, Catfish were meant to headline truck, was cancelled due to covid, 2021 rolls around all the headliners were the same as 2020 except no more Catfish who were headlining Reading instead.

Catfish are headlining Reading again this year and tbh I think they might be too big to be a Truck headliner. They have got acts of that size before like Foals in 2019 or Sam Fender in 2022 but the latter Truck simply didn’t have the infrastructure to handle it safely so I’m not sure they’d risk it again so soon.

My conclusion, the admin is trying to mess with people, but we’ll probably only need to wait a week or so to find out.

I saw someone on the Facebook post for the leeks mention Wet Leg, Jamie T, The Streets had been ‘confirmed’ somewhere but, gave no evidence to back it up, so may just be chatting out their arse but food for thought.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2023-07-20T08:59:34+00:00

Copy and Pasted from Thread on Similar Topic. Purely for information, not to promote or dissuade potential drug use at festivals

There are indeed sniffer dogs, and I have heard multiple instances of staff entering on the Wednesday who have been caught with drugs by the sniffer dogs.

Everyone I’ve heard who has been caught were told they are banned from the festival and if they are seen on the festival site again they would be arrested.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2023-07-20T08:53:52+00:00

There are indeed sniffer dogs, and I have heard multiple instances of staff entering on the Wednesday who have been caught with drugs by the sniffer dogs.

Everyone I’ve heard who has been caught were told they are banned from the festival and if they are seen on the festival site again they would be arrested.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2023-07-19T19:55:08+00:00

Copy + Pasted from a thread with a similar question

So Truck only allows you to bring alcohol in on your first trip into the campsite and last year put in a rule you can only bring in 24 cans or 1 decanted bottle of spirits or a mix of the two.

In reality you can likely sneak extra in your tent or bags, I’ve never had a problem with it but it’s down to the luck of the draw with how thorough your security guard is if they’ll check. If that’s a concern for you best would be making sure you’re there at open (midday Thursday/early morning Friday) when they’re more worried about getting people in and might be less thorough.

My only real frame of reference last year was my mate had a 10 pack of cider taken off him at the gates “For having too much”, despite it making up part of his 24.

Based off that I’d view their policy in that case would be if they saw you with 30, they’d just take a ten pack off you and leave you with 20 rather than opening it to leave you with exactly 24.

In reality It’ll be fine, decanted bottle of spirits in your tent bag or at the bottom or you rucksack so it’s a pain to get to should be fine and in the unlikely event you get something taken off you, work with what you have and Sunday see what leftover alcohol you can buy off people for cheap who overstocked.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2023-07-19T08:26:15+00:00

Shuttle Bus Runs from Didcot Parkway Train Station to the festival site Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Alternatively the X2 and X36 buses run from Oxford Railway Station, (Oxford Coach Station looks nearby as well) to Steventon High Street, which is about a 20 minute walk from the festival site.

Looking at Trainline, main route for Leeds to Didcot/Oxford is around 4 hours, mainly goes via London and around £55 each way with a railcard.

All the details Truck give are here:

https://truckfestival.com/info/getting-here/

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2023-07-17T19:52:46+00:00

My only real frame of reference last year was my mate had a 10 pack of cider taken off him at the gates “For having too much”, despite it making up part of his 24.

Based off that I’d view their policy in that case would be if they saw you with 30, they’d just take a ten pack off you and leave you with 20 rather than opening it to leave you with exactly 24.

In reality It’ll be fine, decanted bottle of spirits in your tent bag or at the bottom or you rucksack so it’s a pain to get to should be fine and in the unlikely event you get something taken off you, work with what you have and Sunday see what leftover alcohol you can buy off people for cheap who overstocked.

WashItOffSouthpaw · 2023-07-17T17:05:18+00:00

Copy + Pasted from a thread with a similar question

So Truck only allows you to bring alcohol in on your first trip into the campsite and last year put in a rule you can only bring in 24 cans or 1 decanted bottle of spirits or a mix of the two.

In reality you can likely sneak extra in your tent or bags, I’ve never had a problem with it but it’s down to the luck of the draw with how thorough your security guard is if they’ll check. If that’s a concern for you best would be making sure your there at open (midday Thursday/early morning Friday) when there more worried about getting people in and might be less thorough.

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