Traveling offers excellent opportunities to watch some of the most exciting sporting events around the world in action – Muay Thai in Thailand, rugby in the UK or New Zealand, capoeira in Brazil.
But if you’re going to travel halfway across the world just for a sport, why not consider bringing home more than just memories? Here are just a few of the coolest sporting skills you can learn abroad:
Muy Thai
This full contact martial art sport became popular in Thailand during the 16th century, and is characterized by its combination of punching, elbowing, kicking, kneeing, foot-thrusting, clinching, and neck wrestling techniques.
Training camps geared toward foreigners in Thailand have English-speaking instructors are often located in destinations that are desirable to tourists, such as the Fairtex training camp in Bangkok and the Rawai and Tiger Muay Thai training camps in Phuket.
To ensure you’re getting the most from your training, make sure you choose a camp that can guarantee you at least three or four one-on-one rounds with a personal trainer each day.
Rugby
One of the roughest team sports in the world, rugby was developed in the UK in the 1830s and was popularised in the 1850s and ’60s.
While not originally developed in New Zealand, the game is beloved by the Kiwis, and one of the best places to train is at the New Zealand Sports Academy in Rotorua.
There, individual players are taught passing, tackle technique, defense, unit skills, and back attack skills, as well as the more psychological aspects of the game, such as tactics and game planning. Courses run from one to twelve weeks, depending on how intensively you wish to train.
Surfing
Is there anything cooler than watching an experienced surfer ride the waves? Maybe just one thing: riding them yourself. While there’s no shortage of surf camps around the world, one of the best places to learn the sport is on your vacation to Australia.
Two camps-Surf Camp Australia and MojoSurf Academy-stand out for tourists, as they feature well-established training programs as well as all accommodation, food, and transport in the price of the tour. The latter offers intensive surfing training courses that can last up to three months.
Capoeira
The national sport of Brazil is a martial art form that combines self-defense skills, superb acrobatics, dance movements, music, and song into one wildly entertaining game.
Salvador is the birthplace of the game and thus the nation’s hot spot for training camps. The best camps include one-on-one training with capoeira mestres (masters), activities ranging from maculele dancing to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and all transport and accommodations.
These sports training camps are truly once-in-a-lifetime experiences, but they are often much more costly than a typical vacation. Sell your unwanted electronics back to musicMagpie for cash to help you start saving for your trip.