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A discussion of the form of the photographic (film) essay, and how it answers some of the problems facing Muay Thai photography today:

One of the struggles of photography in today's incredibly fragmenting but also homogenizing digital age is how to tell stories, convey ideas, through still images. One can stand out from other types through unique lenses or even camera choices, but also the form of expression itself is often extremely platform-determined. Feeds on Instagram feed people. In the film short of still photographs above I'm experimenting with some of my priors. I want to use telephoto lenses to penetrate contexts, and get in touch with the very affects of a fighting scene. I'm usually focused on fighters in this way, but in this case it's a ringside gambler at a provincial festival show. Aside from his face, it really was his shifting, expressive hands which seemed to work in a secret language (invoking gambling signalling itself, but really was a close-to-the-vest unconscious reaction to everything happening in the ring), that called this short into being. Successive images somewhat breakdown by also simultaneously participate in a "film" meaning, I think allowing still photography a certain avenue of reading it wouldn't otherwise have. The sound track and the spare, poem-ish voiceover work in two directions, against each other some I think, providing a frame for the images...and allow me to give some conceptual focus to the images. My overall theory is really that the bodies of gamblers are participating with the bodies of the fighters in very significant mirroring ways...and this mirroring is central to the production of traditional Muay Thai itself. You can see the theory argued here: As this is a Muay Thai photography subforum, I share this example as a way that I am trying to push for a certain degree of photographic communication that seems almost impossible now. There are no real gallery walls on which photographs will stop-motion-frame express themselves. There are no magazines whose glossy pages will flip and say something. As photographers we need to discover/invent new ways of linking photographs together for a renewed perception of the uniqueness of what a photograph is...the way that it slices life off into a single, graspable, eternal form, that doesn't want to be lost.

This is the related article theorizing how how local Muay Thai gambling created a complex ecosystem laboratory of fighting skills:

above is my photo essay on the Muay Thai Gambler, meant as a commentary on some of the gentrifying, tourism-oriented transformations that Thailand's traditional Muay Thai has been undergoing, particularly since COVID put such a dent in its tourism economy. As various Entertainment versions of the sport have adjusted the rules to favor foreign tastes - and to produce Western winners - one of the more substantive but also hidden aspects of these changes is the marginalization, if not outright removal of the Muay Thai gambler. As I've discussed elsewhere, the Muay Thai gambler arguably has been a core engine of developing traditional Muay Thai's complex and varied fighting style, and as the in-person (and this is important, because online gambling has a very different impact on the aesthetics of the sport) is sidelined if not banished in the sport, it risks shaping itself in a quite deskilling way, more and more meant for unknowledgable, uninvested consumption. To take an example from American sports. Can you imagine if 1950s baseball was redesigned not to appeal to baseball's fanatic fanbase, and instead was meant for the Japanese or Chinese tour groups? Fans, especially in-person fans, collectively shape what a sport is. How it is trained and how it is fought/performed. In sidelining the in-person gambler - this goes from ruling them out by law, to putting them in one location, in darkness, and turning the sport's face toward the unknowledgeable and uninvested, the very anchor of the sport is at risk of being lost. I'm here to present the OTHER side of the story, as complaints about gambling in Muay Thai - by both Thais, and in echo by Westerners - with strong associations with corruption and undue power, are quite common online. These are definite problems, and political pictures of corruption are very important in Thai history, going all the way back to the 1920s when King Vajiravuhd first outlawed gambling in Bangkok, only to eventually rescind it with an exception for Muay Thai because of how damaging it's removal was to the sport. Yes, the shrunken gambling pool has given rise to very powerful gambling whales that have outsized control over fight decision outcomes, which exacerbate the small kaimuay crisis of the sport (small gyms cannot "win" dependably in Bangkok, and eventually have to surrender all their home-grown talent to mega gyms). This is only to argue that some of these trends against the in-person gambler, some of the gentrification of a sport which at root is very working class, provincial and agrarian, some of the tourism reformation, risks undercutting the very substance of who is watching the sport itself. This is what is at risk when a sport and art is made primarily for export. When you watch in-person gamblers in the provinces, ringside, you are looking at the very weave of fighting itself, as it is reflected across their impassioned and knowledgeable investment. To sever this connection, especially in the name of globalization, is to radically change the sport itself.

Thanks Kevin, that makes perfect sense. There is a ton of stuff that one could delve into. For the purpose of Muay Thai I think and feel that you've summed it up very succinctly and accurately.

If you mean this: "Thai gyms themselves, will be very willing to make unfair matchups for Westerners", in the local scenes this often will be large size advantages. But, the greater sense is that in the West there is much more of a "fairness in sport" corrective to any natural desire to just have advantages, it pushes back. In Thailand this really isn't there in the same way. It is - and its more complex than this, but - natural for someone above in a hierarchy of power to push DOWN on those below. If you can bully a matchup disadvantage this is actually at least part of a version of a social "good". It's really is gambling that instead works as the corrective (though, this is ideally so). When you don't have gambling, then you are more in the realm of power-flexing. It's important to keep in mind though, advantage taking isn't exclusively a Thai cultural thing of course. I recall private messaging with a Western owner of a big Chiang Mai gym and them saying quite proudly that his gym had won 19 straight fights vs the local Thai competition. My private, to myself response was: This sounds like these aren't well generated matchups. To the guy it was just proof at how good their gym was. The next level of this though is that the Thais running the matchups (in Western owned gyms, its still often the Thais that have all the social power and decision making, Westerners rely on Thai connections) are perfectly happy to dominate the competition, in a cultural sense that is different than some Western mindsets.

Good Lord! There's a PHD right there waiting for someone into comparative sociology. Can you please explain 'unfair matches for Westerners a little?' I'd be fascinated to learn more.

There is a cultural dimension worth mentioning here because it goes against a lot of our Western sport assumptions. Because Thailand's society is still largely traditional, and because Muay Thai itself is founded on a certain kind of social capital agonism (which is to say, social standing of gym owners and such is what is actually at stake in variously gambled on fights), "fairness" is not really the goal of much match making in Thailand. That is to say, the Western, somewhat amateur-coded concepts of competition, in the abstract, don't really apply. Instead, putting your thumb on a matchup, forcing disadvantages on your opponent is a sign of your social standing, of your social power. For this reason there is a kind of tidal current in the traditional form of the sport which pushes towards uneven matchups. The disparity goes to the glory of the more powerful agent. Thais - and I don't want to be homegeneous about this, but just being quite general about it - don't really think twice about this kind of top down thumb-on-the-scale, at least not the same terms we in the West do in the light of abstract "equality". It's about hierarchy, and fighters are representing a contested hierarchy of powers. Its for this reason why a gym will be reluctant to take a weight disadvantage, for this can signify a lack of power. Importantly, what corrects this tidal current towards unfairness is gambling itself, at least in principle. If powerful gyms push too hard on the scale, moving towards unfairness, nobody will bet on the fight. Gambling has been a corrective, pushing towards more or less "fair" in matchups. If people are willing to bet, game on. This corrective aspect of gambling though, in trad Bangkok stadia Muay Thai, has been under erosion for some time, as powerful gyms also have aligned with or are powerful gamblers, so the very odds of particular fights can be unduly swayed fight to fight (and again, this thumb on the scale is a signature of social power. It's criticized as "corruption", but it also reads as a respected ability to flex and dominate). The complicated thing is, when dealing with big, powerful gyms in a commercial milieu, without gambling, or at least without it being dominant, in terms of a soft power tourism of Muay Thai, powerful gyms even owned by foreigners (but socially run by Thais), and Thai gyms themselves, will be very willing to make unfair matchups for Westerners. Not only does it help with the overall economy of the sport, a local tourism economy, it actually fits into the traditional hierarchy concept that domination, thumbs on the scales isn't necessarily "bad". It can be a sign of social power in a traditional way. The notion of "fairness" isn't the overriding one in many of these exchanges. This is very hard for Westerners to understand, because it goes somewhat against our framework for sport. You may be given advantages in part because this is a social power flex, if your gym is very powerful in a scene. (Local gambling very well might correct some of this.) This is one reason why Sylvie has steered clear of being represented by big gyms in match-making. What often happens is that once a fighter becomes dominant in a more traditional space, they stop fighting more or less, or fights much less frequently. They will not take on big weight disadvantages to equal match ups because this is a sign of lower social power, and gamblers won't bet on their fights. This is likely why Dieselnoi retired at such an early age, for instance. Not so much that he ran out of all opponents, but because social power displays and gambling interests no longer aligned. The social power of foreign-focused Thai gyms is very hard to gauge. They may have great importance is local Muay Thai scenes. The equality corrective of gambling may not be in full force. It's enough to say that its a complicating aspect of Muay Thai match making. Because Sylvie has wanted to fight as much as possible, she moved away from this complication as much as possible. She didn't want a thumb on the scale if it could be there, and instead took increasingly extreme weight disadvantages that a Thai gym would never really take (due to how it looks). It's not an ideal solution at all, but it was the one we went with. There are all kinds of problems with it, including Sylvie having to become fairly fluent in Thai and building her own fight booking network of friendships and relationships all over the country, in a very idiosyncratic way, and of course at times taking on extreme weight disadvantages. It was our way of avoiding many of the thumb-down power structures in the sport, which can produce wins and some great opportunities but also can be quite imprisoning of opportunity as well after a stretch of success. This relationship to power in-balances in a traditional culture and the idea of fairness we can import into Thailand (to be clear, there are also ideals of fairness as well in Thailand, they are just folded in with older forms of social power expression) makes the question of "authenticity" a very shifting one. A very brief checklist may be: Is social power disparity power involved? What are the weight differences? Is there gambling as a corrective influence? Of course larger bodied fighters can do very little about weight differences often, as the pool is limited, but it is always a factor. They may have to take on those conditions to participate at all, that's how it is. Also, notably, weight advantages often make up for experience or skill level differences in matchups. I only note it as part of the equation.

Not your chosen location, but Pattaya has Rambaa's gym which is famous for its fairly traditional training with lots of Thai boys, and Western fighting kids being folded into it all. He's got a pretty good system developed over time, preserving both the old style gym and welcoming foreign young fighters. Also Silk Muay Thai is a kid adapted gym with much more of a Westernized training style (and much more modern/western accommodations). They also have Thai kids developing out of the gym, and put on trad fight shows, so its a hybrid space. The owner Daniel's kids train and fight there, so the whole thing is very kid conscious, and its well connected in terms of fight opportunities.

Two previous articles on the subject: and also previously this

Im late to the feast, but reading the starting post and the answer, I do agree. You TS are probably better trained than most debutants I do see in Thailand form the hundreds of videos from there... So dont worry too much... What is the big difference, they dont use protections... And thus, the hits hurts for real... Make sure your belly muscles are super top trained - and be prepared it hurts and thus be prepared to endure sharp pain. Also, to continue to fight althought you got elbow in the head and its bleeding... Essentially, what Kevin talks when he recommends a months preparation to toughen up, to get used to the atmosphere. I have seen more then once decently trained debutant fighters, whom immediately break up as soon they notice it hurts for real. Or they start to bleed... "ref himself did looked and stopped the match" told the otherwise top trained guy... My comment: But the ref didnt stopped the match because it bled, he stopped the match because he saw the foreigner got scared and had enough for today... Ps. Another note: they very seldom use the throw in towel. They KNOW the tradition, but its very seldom used. Most thais do their best to fight into the end... Even if they occasionally dive, ie allow themselves to be KOed. Begging the ref to stop do happens but its most often foreigners whom do so.

Anything stitched can be restitched! Most cities have a cobbler/leather worker who can fit the required foam. I'd imagine that foam selection is pretty difficult.

I have a pair of twins I got at the small shop at Lumpinee in about 98 and have some sentimental value to me. The leathers amazing still but the foams gone crunchy and hard like yours. One of my good friends has a student who refurbishes gear. He's looking into foam to replace the foam in the pads for me. I'll let you know how he gets on.

This is the problem with assessing if Thai Muay Thai fighters knew how to "box". If you watch their Lumpinee fight in Muay Thai (watch it below), one might think that Dekkers had a big "boxing" advantage, Den Muang hardly really throws his hands, uses a ton of open side kicks, and basically goes back to the ropes and covers when Ramon combos forward. But clearly Den knows how to box, as he outboxes Dekkers in their boxing fight. Muangsurin gym was one of the best boxing gyms in Bangkok at the time. But Golden Age Thais show their boxing acumen in the ring in Muay Thai very differently, not necessarily by "letting their hands go" (other Muangsurin fighters like Saensak and Samransak did throw their hands a lot with power). Somrak, another great Thai boxer, often would seldom punch in the Boxing ring. This goes to the limitation of today regarding forward advancing hand combos as "boxing" in Entertainment shows. Real, deeper boxing skills come from actually training and fighting in boxing, and don't necessarily show up in how much you use your hands. ht to Brian for sending me this fight. at Lumpinee:

I've had a pair of Thai pads for a very long time, maybe 15 years? They were stored in a box for a long time and recently got to them, and they are stiff. Hard like concrete lol. I think they were stored in a garage for most of their life. They seem unusable at this point. Is there a way to restore these pads? Thanks

My background: Ive been training for 6-7 years now at various intensity, mostly abroad with camps in Thailand every year, had a couple of fights at home and in Thailand. I poured enough in my training that it imprinted on my life like a second layer. I take muay thai into other sports, what I learn in the ring sip into my daily life and the opposite is also true. Yet for a long time I resisted the idea of putting too much brain and thinking into my training. ( no idea why, it just wasn’t the right time). I was researching and reading and watching videos but they mainly addressed the how and rarely the why. Bringing intentionality to my shadow work was limited to trying to visualize an opponent, remember to adjust speed and power - sometimes - and connecting dots between possible strikes depending on distance. I think I was trying so hard to be present in sparring, that mental effort of creating systems, making sense of the why of each strike, looking at more subtle aspects of controlling the space, the distance was something I almost perceived as inhibiting the ability to flow. The why is becoming important to me lately, being taught combo also doesn’t really resonate so I’ve started to do more research on it and was very surprised to find… little resources on it ? Its kind of scattered around in online contents, fight analysis, and literature but I couldn’t find anything that put it all together in a comprehensive way. Any recommendation you would be happy to share (aside from the Muay thai library which is awesome!)? Thanks !

The journey should change us. We should not travel a journey contrived for our convenience. I experienced similar working in the Middle-East. People had to live with 'face' and real social pressure, none was projected onto me, at least none that I understood. I love Sylvie's Muay Thai and her approach to fighting, the respect that she shows to the retired fighters and her coaches. Unfortunately, 'All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.' Money corrupts. All relations are social, but those mediated by money and social hierarchy are corrupted too. More power to Sylvie's project! Keep it real!

As someone who loves this sport, it’s hard to hear, but months of symptoms from one sparring kick is a major warning sign. It’s not necessarily about having a 'glass jaw,' but your brain might just be more sensitive to trauma than the average person. In a real fight, the adrenaline is high and the shots are 10x harder if your recovery was that rough in a controlled environment, a fight could do permanent damage. There's plenty of joy in being a technical nak muay without the amateur fight trophy. Please prioritize your long-term health over one night in the ring.

Hey guys, Im a 19 year old college student who's been training kickboxing for almost a year and a half now, I'm planning to go train muay thai at Sit Thai gym in Chiang Mai for 2 months this may. How do I find a place to stay there? Also, how reliable is it to pay an advance for a place I see online, and arriving there to my place, Any help would be appreciated, Im really confused about acommodation

Always appreciate the perspective you and Sylvie bring to the table. Having watched her journey towards that 300-fight milestone, it’s clear that her path has been anything but the 'sanitized' version most Westerners experience. The struggle to find 'authentic' Muay Thai today often feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack of commercial gyms. Looking forward to your breakdown of those two biggest areas of difficulty it's a conversation the community desperately needs.

Hi, Does anyone know whether this gym is still open please? My first time back in Thailand in 6/7 years - and would like to train here again if possible. TIA, Steve

There’s a certain fluidity in Muay Dek that seems to evaporate once the gambling pressure or the 'entertainment' requirements take over in adulthood. It’s like they stop fighting to express the art and start fighting to satisfy a specific market. It’s a shame because the technical peak of the Golden Era felt like it had the best of both worlds.

Hey all, I think training twice a day can be really effective, but it depends a lot on your goals, experience, and recovery. Personally, I usually do a lighter technique-focused session in the morning and then a more intense conditioning or sparring session in the evening. It’s a good balance between improving skills and building strength without overdoing it. The most important thing is listening to your body. Make sure you get enough rest, eat properly, and stretch between sessions. If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend gradually introducing double sessions rather than jumping straight in. Curious to hear how others approach this—do you prefer focusing on technique or conditioning in the second session?

Sylvie’s advice on under-recovery is still the gold standard for anyone heading to Thailand in 2026. The "don't prepay" rule is especially relevant now since trainer lineups at gyms change so fast you really want to test the vibe first. Starting with one solid session a day to build a streak is way smarter than burning out on doubles and hitting a wall by week two. Even if these tips have been around since last year, the reality of Thai training culture hasn't changed.

This is the art of Muay Thai.