Denive Balmforth's Muay Thai boot camp shows astonishing Hull FC commitment

How did you celebrate your 21st birthday?

For many, it would be a night on the tiles with friends or a gathering with the family. If it fell kindly, it might have been a holiday overseas. For Denive Balmforth, his 21st was anything but the norm.

Balmforth spent his off-season in Phuket, Thailand. But it was anything but a holiday. Instead, the hooker entered himself into a high-intensity, gruelling, and demanding Muay Thai training camp that lasted a month.

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It was all with a desire to return to pre-season training fitter, better and in position to kick on after a promising start to his professional career.

"I went over there for just shy of five weeks and did a Muay Thai training camp," he told Hull Live. "It's like a boot camp, you train twice a day and you're very restricted in what you can eat. You're running a lot.

"I did it last year but I've done much better this time around. Last year was a bit of a stepping stone because I wanted to go and travel too but this time, it's been well and truly about coming back in good nick and that's what I think I've done.

"It's secluded; it's on Fitness Street, it's a mile-long street of gyms and clean eating restaurants. The main reason I did it was the mental resilience because if I didn't do that, I'd probably find it hard to do stuff off my own back at home. Being over there and learning something new with the Muay Thai was really enjoyable at the same time as being really hard."

It meant Balmforth gave up time with friends and family in the off-season for one of the big birthday milestones.

"I went with my mum, it was my 21st birthday so she wanted to come with me, then I did three and a half weeks with myself, then the last week my partner came, so I did five weeks in total."

After a breakthrough season with the Black and Whites in which he made 15 appearances, you wouldn't have held it against Balmforth had he let off a bit of steam in the off-season.

"But then I look back on it and what I could have done if I was in even better nick. I was carrying some loose weight at the end of last season so I just thought if I was down, light and moving better, what could I achieve? Hopefully, I get another shot this year and do things properly."

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