Currently Reading: Petchrungruang Gym

J and I were arguing over the date that establishes the gym, Petchrungruang. Neither of us know for certain, I’m basing my number on a T-shirt that says 1986 and J is actually part of the...

What follows is just an expression of what I’ve personally seen in the two gyms that I’ve trained at in the last four years: Lanna Muay Thai in Chiang Mai, which is a western-oriented gym but...

above: photo credit: Lord2k Petchrungruang is unusual in that because it has a growing reputation in training Thai boys and is open in spirit, western boys who are serious about becoming fighters are brought by their...

first watch the mini- 8 minute documentary on PTT, the star of Petchrungruang gym, shot about 3 years ago when PTT was not yet famous. It is beautiful. In English voice over it tells PTT’s own...

Mornings at Petchrungruang are usually just me and Pi Nu. The gym is off the back of his house and when he was a kid it was a farm, then it became a gym when he...

My trainer, Pi Nu, makes eye contact with me and smiles. He motions for me to get in the ring for clinching and as I hop up onto the black canvas and wai to the shrine above the...

Many of my mornings at Petchrungruang are like this, with me the only person around. The Thai kids all run and do some light training at 5 am before school, and then the gym is open...

When Taking Pity Takes Too Much We have a new woman at the gym. She’s only trained a handful of weeks, ever, and will have her first fight at the end of the month. So Pi...

At Petchrungruang, there is sparring going on at any given moment in the afternoons. The little kids fly around the smaller ring with abandon, sparring for hours until they get tired and just stop. The older kids...

Yesterday I passed a booth selling T-shirts. One was a very typical black shirt with a highly stylized image of a Muay Thai fighter, with the word Muaythai (มวยไทย) in Thai above him. The other style...