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Whatever fits my wallet.

I hardly train at all right now, but I just love my Thaismai Gecko gloves. Everytime I see them, or even think of them, they make me happy.

Jeremy, do you teach a kids class? I imagine it would be a lot like teaching pre-teens and even younger. By strict (and Id get them to operationally define that) they might mean structured. So maybe 10 mins (play it by ear) warm up of basic exercises. Then maybe some balance work to help prep them, then 15 mins of stance and basic punching with focus on shifting weight. It might not hurt to find games that they can do that fit the sport. Coach Patrick feom Valor Muay Thai has a great kids program that works for everyone, he might have some suggestions. I know hes posted in the forum before. Kevin might be able to tag him.

Name your favorite pair of shin guards, gloves, etc and why. Longevity? Fit? Comfort?

With Stamp Fairtex about to fight probably the hardest fight of her career since she fought Loma years ago and bumped her head on the ceiling of "unfightable", it seems like a good time to just take stock in the elite female Muay Thai fighters of Thailand and the orbits in which they are stalled. These are female fighters with hoards of experience, fighting since they were very young, and now find themselves packed with all the things that could make them the best fighters in the world, if they were swept up into elite training programs and promotions. Watching Stamp ascend from what she was, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, maybe a B/B+ local fighter in Chonburi, to a celebrated, and somewhat transformed star by ONE, really calls back to all her sisters in Thailand who indeed were much more celebrated, much more unbeatable than she. There is a sense that the immense talent of female Muay Thai fighters is languishing. Lommanee - One of the most intriguing talents in all of Thailand. A surreal sense of space and distance, she basically Cadillacs through fights (a complement in Thailand), finishing of rounds and score cards, her talents topped with a sweet lead arm elbow. She trains out of Santai Gym now in Chiang Mai, but really her fame came years ago before her current situation when she reached the ranks of the "unfightable". She's fought nobody of elite talent for many years, with fights falling through, or opponents supposedly ducking. As with many top, top Thai females at this stage of their career one never knows how fight ready they are at any particular time. They've been training and fighting since they were kids, developing skills like nowhere else on the planet, but without regular fights or even daily training challenges it can all stagnate dramatically. One of the best female Muay Thai fighters in the world, just sitting there on the shelf. Probably the only person in the world with a winning record against Loma in Muay Thai, who is also on this list. Sawsing - Could be the most weaponed, and charsimatic fighter of the list. She can fight and dominate at any distance, but above her skill she possesses a kind of fight nobility, a pride and ascendant spirit that is like no other. This is a superstar in waiting, ready to burst onto the world scene, who has been an emblematic star in Thailand since she was maybe 12. She's been shaped by the hardcore Bangkok gym Dejrat and the Old School values of Arjan Surat, there is no female fighter in all the world like her. But, as a mother, and an owner of a gym her attention is divided, and her progress as a fighter in terms of opportunity and training in doubt. a photo montage of one of Sawsing's 2019 fights, above Loma - can lay claim to perhaps the best female clinch fighter in the world. She has been a fighting star out of Isaan since a little girl, and she shut the door on Stamp's ascent years ago, defeating her in a big showdown of the "unfightable" ones. Nobody has her sense of timing in the clinch, developed at a very early age. She is on her own level in this. She is now at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket who took up her sponsorship maybe a year ago (?) helping her transition to MMA where here clinch awareness and sense of counter fighting space pay off dividends, especially against opponents who are not ready for it, and are expecting a Muay Thai star to be a big, powerful "striker". That isn't really her game. She's an elite, elite grappler. Unleashing her on an unsuspecting western talent pool is a little like introducing someone to a fighter with an arm bar game that nobody has really seen. Loma is climbing the ranks at Invicta, and has largely moved out of and away from Muay Thai (I heard she is skipping the IFMAs this year, where she has rung up Gold many times). Loma, as an Invicta MMA fighter, above Amp - Amp is maybe best described as The Best Female Fighter in the World that nobody knows. She used to fight Muay Thai under the name "Pizza", finishing up her career with an absolutely dominant performance against much hyped Japanese champion Little Tiger, taking the WPMF World Title (seen below). She then dropped out of Muay Thai (often this is due to contract disputes, but I really don't know) and has been training in BJJ and MMA seriously in the last few years. She blasted back onto the fight scene, for those who were paying attention, by a very unexpected win vs Loma in MMA, beating her at every distance in a rather short fight. While Loma's clinch is a hot knife through butter against most, Amp's solid base and own high-level clinch (not the same skills, but still, accomplished and uncommon) allowed her to neutralize Loma's confident move toward where she expects to rule. I'm sure pretty much everyone who didn't know her was surprised by just how good Amp was. And she might be as good as any female fighter in Thailand, still in her native art of Muay Thai. She also possesses an incredible outward magnetism of confidence that you don't often seen from Thai female fighters, check out the Thai language interview of hers below - you watch her talk, and you just want to see her fight. She's over at Phuket Top Team when she trains, though I'm not really sure there is a promotional avenue equal to her talents immediately apparent. watch this interview with Amp, above watch Amp vs Loma, above watch Amp's world tile fight vs Little Tiger, above *I include the fights and interview because of everyone Amp is the most little known in the west, though she very well may be as good or better than anyone on this list Chommanee - For some time could lay claim to being the best female Muay Thai fighter in the world. She has a beautiful. unorthodox switching style that makes her very hard to read, a master of distance and tempo-change, there is maybe nobody more beautiful to watch when she is on top of her game. Unfortunately she does not train very often (I believe) or maybe very hard. She is almost the epitome of the wasted talent of Muay Thai, just unimaginably loaded with instincts and knowledge, but with no career path forward there is no real program for her to develop her talents further, or even maintain them at the razor sharp level that made her a nightmare to face. She's had several losses on big stages over the last few years, and you can't help but think that this is really due to inactivity, . By the time of their early 20s elite female fighters are often losing or dimming their skills due to inactivity and loss of focus, just when western fighters are finding their feet. Chommanee, as talented as any female Muay Thai fighter anywhere, anytime - above Thanonchanok - Like Chommanee an extremely talented fighter, but unlike Chommanee her connections to famed Kaewsamrit gym and the the WPMF organization has kept her fighting for world titles and facing relatively high level talent throughout. She's very likely the most decorated female Muay Thai fighter ever in Thailand, a perennial holder of the WPMF belt through weight classes as she grew. She has great hand, is an artist at managing rounds, and a beautiful demeanor that is tough, stylish and intelligent. Because of her belt opportunities she does regularly cycle back into shape, but there is also is the sense that she is always almost-out-of-shape at any particular time, so you never quite know which fighter you are getting. When at the top of her game as good as any fighter in the world at her weight. Thanonchanok, perennial WPMF World Title Holder, above Phetjee Jaa - The great Phetjee Jaa who has faded largely from view. She gained fame fighting and beating boys on television until the government cracked down on those shows calling them inappropriate. Her clinch game, when she was fighting regularly, is the only clinch game that I've ever seen that might be equal to Loma's. But unlike Loma who was largely a counter kick scorer in Muay Thai, she had a complete striking arsenal to go with that clinch attack. Samart told us that she was pretty much the only female fighter he knew of who could really fight. Her family managed her career in maybe something of traveling sideshow way, putting her in show fights with her brother, I'm not even sure of the full nature of some of her wins, and ended up demanding unreasonable fight purse sums when she gained fame. There were accusations that she backed out of proposed Loma showdown fights a few times when both seemed the best at that weight, and then she moved out of Muay Thai and to the Thai National Boxing Team, I suspect motivated to go for the big financial payoff of Olympic Gold. She owned almost all the opponents she faced, many of them ridiculously. She beat Stamp pretty definitively, giving up weight. In fact she would fight up in weight regularly (something not all top fighters would do), but as she bumped her head against opportunity at 16 or 17 it pretty much pushed her out of Muay Thai. Now that she's been developing as a boxer for a few years it might really be that she's the best fighter of the bunch. Combine Olympic hands with a mad teep game, and some of the best clinch fighting females have ever shown, and that may be something like no other...but we may never know. above, Phetjee Jaa amateur boxer Stamp - Stamp is the only fighter of the list who wasn't an elite fighter in Thailand itself, when at the height of her Muay Thai development. She was maybe a B/B+ level fighter in Chonburi before Fairtex picked her up, and it was looking meager before joining Fairtex's brand new MMA fighter program. She had lost to Phetnaree (a solid, rising fighter at the time), and to Phetjee Jaa (who beat Phetnaree for a WPFM title), and it was very unclear where she could go. The reason she is on the list is because more than any other female fighter she received the training and fight promotion opportunity that could expand what she was as a fighter. She was given the space to grow. She gained confidence, aggression, extended the length and ferocity of her combinations, and grew to a new level. It's not really sure how high of a level that is because her ONE victories were not really against elite world talent. Her fight vs Alma is the first step into that proving ground. No matter how it turns out, Stamp is feasting on the kinds of stimulation and growth that one would wish so many other Thai female fighters could see. The fascinating thing about Stamp is that there are 100s of female fighters in Thailand, right now, about at the skill level she was at before taken up by Fairtex. In a way she represents the whole of Thailand potential. You can watch one of the best Muay Thai documentaries ever made, Todd Kellstein's "Buffalo Girls" which followed Stamp as a young stadium fighter, above Stamp Fairtex, above These are really the top tier of great Thai female fighters right now, in varying degrees of semi- or soft-retirement, or inactivity, or passing onto other sports and opportunity. There are others who are just below this tier, fighters like Buakaw (I could have easily replaced Stamp with her as Buakaw indeed passed into "unfightable" status like the others on the Thailand circuit, while Stamp did not, but it felt important to include Stamp, and limit it to 8), Saifaa, Dokmaibaa, Mesa, Nong Biew, Faaseethong, Faa Chiangrai sitting there full of mad talents and skills found nowhere else in the world. The difficulty with almost any fight vs the elite of Thailand is that one is never quite sure how honed the blade is when it enters the ring. In terms of skill-set, fight intuitions and hard-fought ring experience there are no fighters like them on the planet. I'll probably be editing in and updating this post over time, adding information.

In one of Sylvie's videos, I think it was with Sagat. His eye's just lit up, I can't do the feeling I got from seeing that with words that do it any justice. I'm pretty sure all I could come up with was, wow look at his eyes. But those eyes were a great insight to him at that very moment in time.

In my humble opinion, that you take the time to ask for advice and that you reflect on this task like you've done here, really shows how dedicated you are as a teacher. It makes me really happy. I'm pretty sure it goes well and I'm very curious to hear how it pans out. I have no experience whatsoever in teaching and I would look forward to hearing your perspective on this experience.

Hi "Coach" Jeremy, (great way to be referred to if you don't like "titles". ---it helps clarify what you do and what they are there for... When you say "Mentally Challenged" kids, have they been specifically diagnosed with a condition? Do they have Down syndrome or do they have ASD--Autistic Spectrum Disorder? or both?

If interested in this topic you can read my p4p Best Female Fighters in the World Top 10 List made last August, due to be updated. P4P Top Ten Female Muay Thai Fighters in the World

I fully believe you're correct. When I first attempted to get back into training after my injuries, surgeries etc, I had a lot of cognitive problems, I couldn't remember jack shit. I mean, I could be shown said combo and literally 30 seconds later, poof, it was gone from memory banks. They way I remedied this was literally just to random shit in shadow, not imagining a fight or anything. Just throwing any shit I could. To anyone watching I must have looked like a mental patient. The other thing that was helpful was those hidden picture comparison games. You know the ones where something is slightly different and you pick the difference, like the one's we played as kids. What I'm getting at is, for me patterned fighting no longer worked. It had reached it's ceiling with me and my mind and I was forced by necessity to change. This experience overall has made me so much better at many things. No third eye opening kinda stuff, but definitely more open to attempting things from a different perspective, instead of writing your Latin roots 1000 times each, ahahaha.

No James, I don't teach a kids class. I've often been asked, but have always declined. I don't have any reason, other than I'd rather not deal with their parents, LOL. I've been giving a lot of thought and sort of come to the conclusion to interact with them as you suggested. I'm also going to ask the physical trainer that takes them for a class every fortnight how he keeps them engaged.

I will be sure to keep everyone up to date. I'm excited to give it a go. Thank you for the compliment.

Mind you I went for five years in a pair of shitty mma guards that came with a package deal at an old gym of mine, but these feel like a #^*#}} CADILLAC when compared. Comfortable, thick, color makes me happy. What are your favorites, Coach James?

Re the typical "snake charmer" music, which isnt everyones cup of tea. Esp not with the newbes. - Although you get used to it with time! You often hear the same newbees comment and even critisize the music, that is why I do comment. OK, my point. What is the alternative? The risk is big, they would instead play such a loud "training friendly" music, as they often do in warming up - even sometimes in Thailand, before the matches... Is this "music" better? I myself dont like it, and I dont understand how you can perform optimally with such a meaningsless loud "music"... It may be just me, but I cant with this sort of music if I shall focus on anything more than superficial routine work. Classical music would probably be better. Best probably something especially composed for such purposes. Anyway, as long there is no especially composed / choosed, suitable music - lets keep to the traditional Thai "snake charmer" music. And if it can be done by a live orchestra, whom is deeply knowleable with the Muay culture and Muay fights, and thus, can skillfully adapt, follow and lead the matches - yes, it may easily be the optimal - having the traditions and culture as heavy plusses...

In everything we do in life too if its going as it should. At 48 I dont train like I did at 30 or 15. My style "evolved" from a take one to give one, tank style fighter to more muay Femur out of necessity from too much damage in my youth. Seeing these fighters turn coach and evolve is like sipping fine wine. Makes me excited for all the fighters I love watching now and where they will head in the later years.

All of this. Ive had huge classes and still make sure new students are taken care of as much as the advanced and fighters. Part of my culture is that fighters help with new students 1) to keep my yap dow lol 2) to give the new and younger students a different perspective on what I teach and 3) to keep the fighters humble. Doesnt hurt that it also helps them anchor in the techniques they think they know lol. Ive been guilty of yapping too much, but teaching kids class helps cure that. I try and keep the instruction informative but quick. Ill revisit it often if needed. This is all the structure I was taught and was talking about. How to keep people happy and invested while getting what I want outve it. So far its working.

Apologies, to be fair that was a bit of a bitchy rant on my part

Attempting to bend the thread back to it's general theme a bit, for those reading across the posts, the concept or critique of patterned training in the west is perhaps, from the position of Self Organized Criticality, one in which the notion of error and correction produces a real ceiling on development. It causes us to view errors as broken pieces of a machine of techniques to be repaired or replaced. I've elsewhere made the connection between patterned fighting, and the more broad commercial requirement that patterns facilitate promulgation. Meme-ishness below. In many ways this isn't really something so much to blame, as to simply recognize as a phenomena. For things of one culture to promulgate in another culture there has to be some sort of grafting of the one onto the other, very often including extreme translation. People are going to experience this as a bastardization, or a distortion. Perhaps, but it is almost an necessary one. In the widest view we just need to recognize it. On a more personal level, when dealing with one's own Muay, and thinking about the patterns within it, this thread is about maybe thinking about one's progress not in terms of Bell Curves, but instead in terms of possible Power Laws, where exceptional leaps are expected as part of the process.

That's actually a really good idea, teaching people how to hold. Sounds ridiculous but this is actually the reason I left and went to live in Thailand, just to have someone to hold pads for me. Like... legit, it was worth it just for that. Yeah maybe it was just bad luck on my part - there was 1 decent gym back home that wasn't so bad, but the rest I tried were cults. And yeah, usually those trainers would spend more time trying to seduce the new hot chick than taking care of fighters. One was a semi crook, lied about his fight record and never sparred with his students. Actually, the funniest one? Never had the misfortune to go as this was in another town, but there was a dude teaching classes while wearing a monkol and armbands.

Yeah. Plus not just ambiguous and ill-conceived (or conceived when inheritance was the defining factor), but practically speaking not the best political rhetoric because it’s so blamey-pants (which puts people on the defensive).

It's actually a pretty crappy term. It immediately positions the problem, and more importantly its solution as academic, the discourse (hahahaha, yeah, "discourse") on it and its reality at a very rarefied level of class. And it isn't even rule by the father. It's really rule by all the sons of the father...perhaps filiiarchy.

I particularly like the phrase “general tide”. I’m always a huge fan of elegant ways to describe prevailing terms. I sometimes use the word “patriarchy” cause it’s accurate. But It’s painful to use, actually physically hurts, and many people (including myself as a teen) simply go blank. So a tide - beautiful. This is so interesting. I do an annual “wild goals for the year” sheet and what you write about Sylvie is true for me too. I write in the plainest terms, force myself to make elevated goals (and yes I meet them), but there is a feeling of looking around sort of furtively as I write. Wtf.

I still have the bruises from sparring with a coach last Friday! It was a two-hour sparring session (obviously most people don’t go and spar for two hours, rather if you attend during those two hours then you can spar) and most people do so in the first hour (the gym closes after this 2hr session. A lot of people don't stay until closing time), however I can’t usually make it until the second-hour, which meant I (little sparring experience, 72kg) ended up doing one round with a guy who’d been there a while (98kg, looked a bit tired but wanted some more practice). We had a good round but had to stop as his leg cramped up...which left me and the coach in the gym. Eight rounds later I was soaked in sweat, bruises growing, and grinning from ear to ear. Great fun and very worthwhile: while the coach didn’t verbally point out weaknesses (he’s Japanese, I’m English, we’re in Japan and he didn’t seem to know how much Japanese I speak), over eight rounds I had them pointed out to me the hard way . This week I attended some non-sparring sessions, talked with those coaches about the weaknesses I’d identified* and we worked on those via pads. It’s going to take a lot more practice, of course, to get rid of the bad habits which kept seeing me hit, but I wouldn’t have had them pointed out to me had I not been sparring with the coach. So, I thoroughly appreciate being able to spar with coaches. * After me throwing a right body kick, he would return it with a right low kick. I wasn’t fast enough resetting and getting my left shin up fast enough, and thus got a very bruised left thigh. Got to work on resetting and checking faster. The other was getting hit with his left hook after I did a right body kick. So this week I worked with my (other) coach on not swinging the right arm down when I kicked, but rather swinging it kind of across their face, to block any punches (I remember Sylvie having a video on this. The coach of the Thai national team taught this if I remember correctly...?).

I need to keep that very much in mind. I have been trying for years to stop being the one who moves out of the way of people when walking in the street. Sometimes I succeed, but most of the time i fail. I'm not the confrontational type. I hate contact and I hate conflict. I've only very recently told people I don't do cheek-kissing (this is the French way of greeting people - I fucking hate it) and sometimes i still do it: when people are too insisting or when I care too much about their feelings or when I'm just caught off guard, and the conditioning takes over. Yet I love the contact in a Muay Thai context. I enjoy the violence and I actually do enjoy hurting people - and being hurt too, just as much, maybe more. I find it so much easier to take space in this context. But I don't want my personality/mind to be fractured and dispersed. I think it may be a lot easier to have different personas than to build yourself as a whole person. Having Alter Egos sounds very cool, appealing and romantic. It's a popular trope in pop culture. You see it all the time in super heroes. I was drawn to it for a while - as a sort of trendy thing to aspire to. But when I think about it and after reading your take on it, it does sound way more badass to simply be whole, just completely yourself all the time. Also to be accountable to everything that you do, and not just be like "well, can't help it, that's my other persona / the demon inside me / the addiction / bla bla bla". Like Eminem with his Slim Shady. "I can be an asshole, and a monster and a psycho because that's not really me actually. That's my other darker me." -> it sounds a bit like escapism. The ring can be a place where you escape. You think you're dealing with whatever troubles you deep inside that created that fracture in yourself by being a monster in the ring, and maybe it does help a little. But if you're ONLY "dealing" with it in the ring and never outside of it, what happens when you can't be in the ring anymore? When you don't have your mean to escape, to let off some steam, what then? I guess that's what happen then. You're more likely to break at some point. It's too fragile to be split. Look at what happened to Voldemort and his horcruxes. Lol.

Apologies this might be slightly off topic. Not a coach, but a woman in a male space, and I reacted to this by Sylvie: and disgusted with myself for having an automatic sense of competitiveness. Not competitiveness in the sporting sense, like how men might get to enjoy having a spar to see who's slicker, but competitiveness in the "there are limited social resources here and I now have to protect my hard-earned position" kind of competitiveness.Which is shit. Which is why you get women throwing each other under the bus to be teacher's-pet, or creating cliques when there are only 3 of us, or not being supportive despite there only being fucking 2 of us. I completely understand where this is coming from, usually spots for women are limited and we all have to compete for that one spot above the glass ceiling. But I also find it unfair. I'm sorry to say, but not all women in a muay thai gyms are cool. There are various types, the hard worker, the one who flirts to get some teaching from the male trainer (no judgement it's an effective strategy), the super hard tough girl who talks to no one and will kick the shit out of your shins (understanding her too) or the "know it all" etc etc. The point is, usually guys have the luxury of having ten other guys as training partners to relate to and train with. Finding their favorite or the asshole they cannot stand. But as a woman you're expected to instantly connect with that other woman who shows up and if she's not cool, you're not being a good "sister". And that sucks. And it's simply the result from having too few other women to train with. And to me that's the most limiting factor being a woman training muay thai. The longing for a female partner to compete with and learn from and then handling the disappointment when she turns out to be not so cool. And that whole pressure of having to get along with a fellow muay ying and to not appear like that woman who likes to be the only woman in a male space.

Hi everyone, i've looked it up and it seems like in Thailand scores are way different than western fighters, any idea where could find in depth scoring system, or would be kind be enough to elaborate on that? What gives the most points? I've also noticed that you can kick someone in the back? how about punches to the back? i'n our country it's illegal to do such thing's, any more insight on things like these , what's not allowed , what's allowed and what gives the most points. Appreciate the time you take to respond! Thank you and have a beautiful day!

Only if you disturb your opponent, which means moving them off the spot, or psychologically affecting them. There is a secondary, more subtle way that it can score, and sometimes score highly. If you use it to "ring control" your opponent, meaning, juggling them in some way, appearing as if you are keeping them at the distance you want them to be, when you want them to be there. You can do this without disturbing your opponent physically or emotionally, and still score. But just a single, well placed teep that has no visible effect doesn't really score, at least by my observation.

One of the reasons I think that the traditional Muay music isn't necessary for Western promotions is that it's not live. Ever. The live version is great because the musicians not only read the action and respond, but also press the action by speeding up or getting louder, etc. It's like an orchestra pit under the stage of a ballet, versus those gymnastics floor routines set to a Michael Jackson mix (or something). They're not the same thing as each other. The use of the traditional music in the West is a nod to the traditions of Muay Thai, which I like. I wasn't allowed to do my Ram Muay at many of my fights in the US, first because they changed it so that only Pros were allowed, then they just cut the bullshit and said there's no time. There have been a handful of times in Thailand that I've been told not to do the Ram Muay (the Wai Kru bowing to your corner bit is ALWAYS allowed) due to televised shows not having time, or to speed it up and do an abridged version. I bitched about not being able to do my Ram Muay in America, quite a lot. I even said "fuck you" and did it anyway more than once. That said, keeping the music and butchering the art doesn't make up for it. People who do videos shadowboxing with a Mongkol on their head, it's got good intentions but what the hell is going on? If you're going to leave out some elements because they're strange to foreign audiences, that's fine. A Ram Muay is hard to watch if you don't know what you're looking at. The traditional music isn't easy on the ears if you aren't accustomed to it. But changing the movements, rule sets, and integrity of the sport - that feels more nefarious to me than the music. If they stopped playing it in Thailand, however (which, THAI FIGHT and other "international shows" have opted to do), I'd feel totally differently. It's a loss from the Thai tradition, it's a nod or not from the West.

Sylvie has written and spoken a lot about this. Here is a list of articles that will give you insight, it's a very different scoring system that prizes balance, dominance but not necessarily aggression, and what is called Ning, the performed in ability to be affected, check those articles out: 8 Limbs Us - Muay Thai Scoring But yes, you can be hit in the back, and even the back of the head, which is why there is very strong advisement to never turn your back in the ring.

There is definitely a place for it, as I said Ive had to use it and have also been on the recieving end with good learning coming from it. Just for me, 90% of the time, I cant be that guy because experience has taught me (as far as business goes) its more negative than positive in the states (specifically California lol). Ive even gotten to the point where I will only spar with specific people. If for some reason I need a hammer, Ill enlist one of my monster competitors and give them the green light. Thankfully thats rare. Most seem to get the concept of give what you want to receive and usually thats friendly competition not anger management lol.