Leaderboard

[admin edit: some of the photos in this thread were lost due to a probable attack on our website, unfortunately. We recovered most of the thread. Thank you to everyone who supported us through this.] Hello all. My name is Tim. I live in California and in a few days I’ll be leaving for Bangkok, Thailand to train Muay Thai Lertrit under the guidance of General Tunwakom. I contacted Sylvie some months ago about her participating in interviews for my masters thesis. I ended up spending hours talking with her husband Kevin. The next thing I know, I’m buying a ticket to Thailand. When Kevin proposed I come to Thailand to train with General Tunwakom, I was somewhat skeptical about the proposition coming to fruition, let alone the project turning into a full feature on their websites and media channels. But they made it happen for me. I am so very thankful for the faith both Kevin and Sylvie have in me and the opportunity they have presented me with. Thank you, thank you, thank you to both of them! I started training martial arts at age 17 and it’s been an all consuming venture since. I’ve trained in various disciplines of boxing as well as Brazilian Jiujitsu, and Kung Fu. Currently I’m a Jiujitsu blue belt in the Carlson Gracie organization and I hold a 7º black belt in Kung Fu San Soo. I’m not a fighter by any means however. Fighting as never been an interest of mine. I just like moving. Despite my recent academic achievements, I had an incredibly difficult time in school - I didn’t learn to read until the 6th grade and spent most mornings of my youth throwing heavy objects at my mother in an attempt to avoiding going to school. I sought refuge in sport. I've never been a natural athlete though, I had to write L and R on my shoes for during my first year of high school American football to know which direction to move (left or right), but moving my body was mediative and made me feel like I was a person. It’s what I love about martial arts - the meditative repetition of learning something, not until you get it right, but until you can’t do it wrong. I’ve learned more about my self and the world in the hours spent learning a punch or kick than doing anything else. It was my faith in martial arts which took me back to school. After achieving my black belt I thought: if I could apply half of the effort I put into getting my black belt into school, then it would be no problem. It was true. I always found away to make school about the things that interested me - food, skateboarding and of course martial arts. My master thesis seeks to blend theoretical sociology with martial arts. Which brought me to Kevin and Sylvie. They have presented me with this opportunity I feel is much bigger than me just traveling and training. I don’t know how to process the whole thing. Sitting here trying to articulate my thoughts has been has difficult has writing my thesis. I have all sorts of anxieties and fears about traveling and my skills as a martial artist. What if I miss my flight? What if my kicks are really bad? What if I say something dumb on video!? But anymore, embracing the things that make me anxious, embracing the things I’m afraid of are my favorite things. They make me better as a person. I’ll need to plan well so I don’t miss my flight. If my kicks are bad, I’ll throw 1,000 more. If I say something dumb, I’ve already said a million dumb things, I’ll try better. I expect I’ll be uncomfortable and cry at least once. I also expect I’ll learn much more than Muay Thai. I hope to make all my instructors proud, both the ones who have taught me to punch and kick as well as the ones who taught me to think and write. I hope I have fun and give the General peace of mind that he’s teaching the right student. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who will take the time to read this and comment back. More to come. tm

Two background articles on this project: The Lone Master In Need of a Student – Saving Muay Lertrit Legacy Projects: Documenting 3 Student Weeks with General Tunwakom a video clip of General Tunwakom

Hi Tim Don't get too anxious, just make it on that flight. You've got a battle buddy here now! I'm gonna be out there training with you and I've been living in Bangkok off and on for the last 4 years so. If you need anything at all please feel free to message me here, LINE (tylerbyers1 is my ID), or on Facebook and we'll get you sorted out. I went out last weekend and trained with the General during the seniors class, it was a total blast! Everyone there is super friendly and helpful. I had a bunch of older Thai folks coming around correcting my form as the General expects students to teach everything they have been learning. It's a wonderful philosophy for creating a good learning environment and I think we are going to have a lot of fun. I've taken the next month off school so I've got a lot of free time on my hands. Let me know where you are going to be staying and I can do some prep work to make sure you've got everything you need (i.e. mass travel info, where to get groceries/food, cheap massage, etc.). I look forward to meeting you soon, have a safe flight. - Tyler

Hi there. There are quite a few options in Bangkok, as you mentioned most cost around 8000-12000 month for 2 sessions/day. My advice is to check gyms you are interested in on facebook or instagram to get an impression of what kind of people train there at the moment. It is so hard to recommend a place as trainers change, students change and so on. Organize accommodation for the first few days in Bangkok and visit a couple of gyms to get the feel for it. And then pick the one you prefer. If you want to fight, ask other foreigners at the gym if the gym helps you arrange fights and how well they prep you. Some gyms let their students wait forever, promising them fights that never happen... Also at the moment it rains quite heavily now and then in BKK and some places get flooded easily. Might be worth to keep in mind when looking for a place to stay. Some gyms in the city that might be of interest to visit are: FA Group in Chatuchak (thai fighters and foreigners, they sometimes have quite a few larger guys) Attachai (Onnut) Muay thai academy/Rompo (Klong Thoey) Superbon trains there Numponthep (also in Klong Thoey. Mix Thai fighters, Japanese/Chinese and some westerners. Currently no one heavier than 65-70 kilo training there) PK Saenchai gym (Thawanchay, Rodlek and others train there) Sathian gym (Sangmanee trains there if I am not mistaken) ...and then all the camps found here: https://muaythaicampsthailand.com/category/bangkok/ You can also ask here: https://www.facebook.com/MuayThaiCampsThailand/ Good luck!

We are hoping for a conversation and dialog. I'm excited for this!

Hi, I'm looking for advice regarding a gym to train in, i've trained 6 months in phuket (back in 2010) and about 3 months in chiang mai (san kaempheng, specifically,) i'm 105kg 6'4 and have had 4 fights in thailand (i've been very inactive and have around 11 years experience), from looking online gyms in BKK seem to be very expensive? often near 40,000 for training and accommodation, firstly, can anyone recommend a good gym in bkk, for western fighters. as i don't know bkk at all how easy is it to get accommodation? (as with everywhere in thailand i found you might pay 12,000 through the gym or 5k for somewhere you found of your own merit) looking to go for around 90 days and ideally fight, any help would much much appreciated, thank you kap

Thank you for all the help was able to get this done today. I was not sure what temple to go to so I just want to the one near my condo here in Jomtien and the ladies out front said they do not do it here and actually called the monk that was closest and wrote down the address (in Thai) for me to give to a motorbike taxi. I went and spoke to a motorbike taxi and he was happy to take me not yet knowing why I wanted to go to this temple. We got to the the temple (Wat Thong Phatthana Ram) And he asked if I wanted him to wait. I said sure and then explained why I was there and showed him the Mongkol. He offered to help me out after asking if I spoke Thai and I informed him not enough lol. We walked up the stairs of the first small building where the monk was and he was super happy and friendly especially after my taxi driver told him why I was there. I said I need to get an offering and the monk insisted I not worry about it. It seemed like there was no one else even at this temple. At first I was feeling bad and unprepared. He insisted I not worry and he said him and I were the same. I placed the Mongkol on the plate. and my driver retrieved an envelope that I put 100THb in and it was placed on the tray with the Mongkol. At this point I was instructed to sit with a few incense facing the buddha statue on the monks right side. I did the 3 wais to the buddha then I was told to repeat the chant the monk was saying and did so I believe 3 times . I placed the incense in the pot in front of the buddha ,Then 3 more wais and moved back in front of the monk. I now handed him the tray with the Mongkol. He retrieves a small bag with gold leaf and a small jar with white paste. He dotted the Mongkol with the paste and applied a gold leaf to it. He then places it onto my head and I wai to him as he recites a chant and sprinkles water over me. he removed the Mongkol handed it to me and had me place it back in the tray as I did the 3 wais to the monk. He made sure to remind me that it was not to touch the ground and must be kept up high. The monk was very friendly and laughing. I respect the Thai culture so much I am always afraid I will do something wrong in these situations but it seems I am alway over stressing them. It was a great experience. I will be making a video of the for my site soon. Thank you again for your help!

This right here. It's very hard to preserve gym culture, and have "reach". It's one reason that for several years Sylvie pretty much said nothing about her own gym, and promoted so many others...hahaha.

I've been waiting for this! Looking forward to reading it. Feel free to delete this post if it's only meant for your updates!

I have a special place in my heart for a long hook into low/quad kick. Always puts a smile on my face, even if I'm on the recieving end

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm, hope I meet your expectations!

We haven't run into this, though we've only used it a few times in Bangkok. But, it's very funny, there is a condo unit we rent out in Chiang Mai sometimes when we can't find a room and when you park your car and head to the elevator you see LOTS of signs that say: "This is ONLY for residents, no short term stays". What's so hilarious is that almost nobody you run into in the halls, or by the pool, looks like they live there. They put up those signs because the entire place has kind of turned into an AirBnb hotel, I'm guessing. But very interesting that you've had that experience. I suspect that AirBnB has become so prevalent and grown so fast it's basically over run all the customary ways of doing things. Even hotels now are on AirBnB trying to give the impression that they are residences.

Yeah there is a lot more competition in kyokushin than kickboxing, I think it's the appeal of karate to kids and parents - and because of knockdown also drawing peopel from kyokushins offshoot styles. Although I wouldn't say we need to reach agreement, because I'm not really disagreeing with you

I asked my friend on this point because he knows more about it than I do. He said that Kurosaki wasn't Oyama's student, they both trained Goju Ryu together. They founded KK together. They had big differences on where they thought karate should go from there, Oyama was a big believer of knockdown rules karate, in his opinion it was more realistic to keep karate bare knuckle and restrict punching to the face - Kurosaki basically wanted kickboxing. Kyokushin competition as itself now is huge, Holland, Japan and Brazil are the big three as far as that's concerned and those fights are brutal. Oyama himself was a lot of hype and marketing (not that he was PURELY that) but fighters that he trained definitely live up to those ideas. Those dudes can walk through anything, their conditioning is that tough.

The problem was a particular, historical problem. I'm sure there is no contemporary Thai who thinks about Japanese Kickboxing as anything at all. The tensions around the 1982 World Championships were apparently VERY high. The Japanese didn't steal techniques, they copied the commercial product of fighting, put on 3 weekly televised kickboxing shows, made huge iconic stars (probably through lots of fixed fights), and then tried to bring it over to Thailand. That, apparently was the problem. As to taking the "Thai kick" or the whatever, Thais wouldn't care less. Maybe on the forums and conversation spaces you visit this is a big deal - because westerners are all about authentic technique, etc, because gyms commercially sell themselves as holding authentic technique - but Thais couldn't care less. There is so much variety of technique in Thailand it isn't even funny.

I think this is a huge problem when discussing this subject. One part of that problem is I have no idea what you are referring to because Sylvie developed outside of US gym culture, and all the online history. Everything she's done is far removed, and me as well. My opinions mostly formed far from any of the talk of Muay Thai's superiority. I'd run into old AX Forum stuffy from Googling, but it's a different world for me. I don't have fighters to defend, a gym to run, students to attract. I'm only really interested in preserving and acknowledging what is special about Muay Thai, because we neck deep in it, and we personally know and are closely connected to many of the legends of the sport who are now being forgotten, not only by westerners, but by Thais themselves. But, I understand that this kind of talk, the kind I'm putting forward, probably connects up with all sorts of western conversations about martial art vs martial art which honestly I'd run away from a million miles an hour. Thais don't talk or think like that, at least how I've seen. They don't even think about comparisons. If they saw another martial art they might think such a thing is silly, or that it's totally worth stealing because Thais love efficacy. I think it was only in the period when Thais felt that the Japanese were stealing their art, creating their own copycat sport, and then kind of staging its superiority, that they were like: Hey, fuck off! But all the same, other Thais were very willing to fight on Japanese TV and fall down for one of Fujiwara's amazing 99 KOs too.

AirBnB might be a good option, but for 90 days I think it would get expensive since the rates are typically similar to nearby hotels. I've only used AirBnB a few times in BKK though so my experience is limited. The one thing I would caution about AirBnB in BKK is that it is technically illegal and you can have issues with the building jurisdiction. Last time I used AirBnB I stayed for two weeks while a friend was visiting and we basically had to sneak past the front desk every time we wanted to enter or leave the building. Security didn't care, but the management hassled us a lot even though we went with the owner of the room and told them we were friends with the owner and would be staying for a couple of weeks. My building rents rooms on a monthly basis for about 9,000 baht plus electricity/water but I'm in Thong Lor and pretty far from most of the gyms so it's probably not a great option. I'd check around On Nut area though, there are a lot of places close to the BTS that are renting for 5,500 and lower.

That is so awesome. Love those photos.

Thank you Kevin, I truly appreciate all that you and Sylvie do for the culture. You both have dedicated your lives to help share and inspire this amazing place and people! With my site I try to just give people a little insight into training here and the amazing culture in order to spark that interest for others to take that step to start their own journey and experience everything that Thailand is.

Just a note on FA Group, one of my friends who was training there recently just left because he said there weren't many people training there at the moment. As has been mentioned, all gyms go through cycles so it can be tough to determine what it is like without physically going to see the gym. Accommodation is plentiful in BKK, though finding somewhere that will let you pay month to month can be a hurdle. Check on the BANGKOK EXPATS Facebook group, there are some real estate agents who might be able to find something for you. You can also try DDproperty and Renthub. Figure out your gym situation first, then find a more permanent housing situation. You definitely don't want to be traveling across town every day just to get to the gym. Attachai's would likely be a good gym to check into though their prices are pretty high (22k a month last I looked). That area should have lots of cheap apartments/food around, and the gym (or Emma if she has time) might be able to help you find a room for a short term stay.

I can understand that. (Also because her gym seems incredibly nice.) But also gym culture being so dependent on atmosphere and the people training. A group of people coming to train can easily change things. I used to train with my husband, but now I am more or less alone training due to his work. And I feel my current gym changes with each group of people that comes and goes. I always wonder how it is for the thai fighters who sleep and train at the gym.

These fights happen more than is acknowledged, but video of them is rare. So Kevin and I put up this one with Buakaw, one of the best female fighters in Thailand, who has run out of opponents and probably wasn't training very much at this time. But that's also super common.

I am also surprised, but maybe they do not market heavily as they focus on their thai fighters? I also heard something about 24000/month for training and accommodation (and food at the gym if I am not mistaken). I haven't heard from anyone who has been there long-term though. I have never been to yokkao but the image they send out on social media is not really what I am looking for. And I feel a lot of thai gyms do not get the reach what they deserve, but maybe that is why they are so nice haha. For example, there is one gym in Saphan kwai (Punrith) I used to go to when I first started out. Only girls working there including admin, PT and two tomboy trainers, one of them a member of the thai national western boxing team who also became a friend. Sadly both trainers left and I have not been there to try it out since. Back then I did not understand how great that was for me to have women as trainers. It is not a camp though and currently targeting Thai middle/upper class.

It's crazy that people aren't drawn there, and instead all flock to something like Yokkao. I mean, Yokkao is great for a certain kind of traveler. Lots love it, but many are looking for a fighters gym. Very interesting. I had no idea, to be honest. Would love to hear someone's personal experience there. I just assumed that because I heard nothing, nobody was going and there was a reason for that. I thought it was something like Pinsinchai gym.

Have not tried it myself but a friend has and yes, seems open to foreigners. Apparently very nice and clean. If you look at their instagram there are some westerners training, but I do not know whether there are certain conditions attached.

+1 for Boon and Super Export Shop here as well. The Top King store isn't too far from Super Export Shop either. They only open Monday to Friday, though. I really like the Twins shop in Suanluang Square (if you like Twins gear, definitely head there). There's a Fairtex store close by, haven't been in there though. Action Zone is pretty close to Suanluang Square as well, they offer pretty good discounts. There's a good guide to the different Muay Thai stores around Bangkok on Muay Thai Citizen: http://www.muaythaicitizen.com/where-to-buy-muay-thai-gear-in-bangkok/

If there is an assistant to the monk somewhere, that's always an appropriate person to ask. If there's nobody to ask, you can tell the monk that you would like a blessing ขอให้พรมงคล (koh hai pon mongkol). It's appropriate to offer something to the monk before he does the blessing. You can often buy these at the temple, right at the front and they come in kinds of packets or baskets of pre-set items. Usually they're toiletries or things that are needed to be shared by the monks for day-to-day living. But you can always offer fruit, flowers, packaged foods like soy milk or those yogurt drinks. It doesn't need to be (and likely shouldn't be) fancy. Once you've communicated what you're asking for, put the Mongkol on a tray or just hand it to the monk (women can't hand it directly, so put it on a piece of cloth that the monk will have in front of him, or on a tray). On your knees, bow to him 3 times, touching your hands and forehead to the floor like in the Wai Kru in the ring. Then sit with your feet behind you or under you with your hands in a "wai" as the monk does whatever he does with the mongkol. He'll likely bless you at the same time, with the water splashing, but once he's done with the mongkol he'll put it back on the tray or cloth or hand it back to you. Wai to him the same way you started, the 3 touches of the head to the floor, thank him and leave a donation in an envelope at the appropriate place in the temple for this. Don't give it to him. Put it in the box or whatever they have there. The amount is up to you, but 100 Baht is perfectly enough. But the fruit or gifts you can give to him at the start, after you've done your first "wais". In my experience, monks LOVE blessing mongkols. They get excited to see farang fighters doing this. So, just smile and be polite and any of the miscommunications or awkwardness is no problem.

You hit the nail right on the head... And those people feeling entitled to "offer" (read: impose) their opinion are men more often than not. It's fucked up. I have been guilty of this in the past and I am grateful to have people around me who have educated me.

When I first started training there was a big scary guy like that, and I jumped in sparring with him on my second week. He kicked me in the head three times consecutively but didn't hurt me once. Was a cool dude. One time we had a guy who was pretty alright at fighting come in, and he was roughing up the newbies, and the big scary guy kicked the shit out of him for it.

When the trainer says, OK sparring, find a partner. You pick the biggest, scariest looking meathead in the room, like 30kg heavier than you. 8/10 times he will be the most controlled, nicest and friendliest person there and you won't get injured. It's the little guy with a ying yang tattoo who has problems with over-aggression in sparring.

They're all autistic. I'm just gonna go with the first name option. Just like any normal class.

Wow, such helpful posts! Thank you guys so much. @SunAndSteel, I really appreciate that you mentioned how your reasoning changed and what was wrong with it. That is/was exactly what my reasoning was: I wanted a full holiday with a pure MT focus. But, you can only train twice a day and I do want to experience all of the beautiful culture and nature Thailand has. I'm thinking, pick two locations, and find gyms in those areas. Regarding Yokkao, your experience sounds great! There isn't too much on the internet so it can be difficult to do research. However, I have seen that people say the Yokkao gym is in need of a clean and sometimes health and safety is an issue. I have no idea how accurate this is: what would you say to that? Was there any thing negative about your time there? I will also definitely check out Khunsuek. Regarding private lessons, is there anywhere online where you can check the fighters schedule/upcoming fights, so you can try and deduce if they'll be in the gym? Thanks so much for the helpful responses guys!

This is an offshoot of a previous thread I started, on the "light" versus "hard" sparring and how that kind of divides down the emotional line, rather than the physical power of strikes. I wanted to ask my trainer, Kru Nu, about this. He's been teaching Muay Thai for 25 years or so, grew up in a gym that had the very, very early westerners who lived and trained in Thailand, has raised countless Thai boys to be stadium fighters and champions; and has had his fair share of "what the f*** was that?" experiences of people losing their cool in sparring and things erupting into potentially dangerous situations. My impetus for asking Kru Nu about this subject was two fold: 1) the "Thai sparring is so light," refrain I hear from westerners is often one that I've failed to witness with my own 7 years' experience living in Thailand. Thais don't spar super light, at least not the way that I see it performed by the westerners who are trying to mimic what they deem to be "Thai style sparring." And 2) I've seen some pretty intense sparring under Kru Nu's supervision, where he doesn't tell people to turn it down, whereas I - and probably most coaches in the West, would have done. With very little kids, like 7 and 8 years old, when they're clinching they aren't allowed to throw knees. Kru Nu tells them explicitly, "if anyone throws a knee, it's a foul." That's so they don't hurt each other, because they don't have control of themselves yet. They're tiny, so the impact is relative to their size, but I think it's more of an emotional precaution - they don't have control of their emotions yet and so they'll knee hard and hurt each other. They're emotionally not in control, so if they get mad they don't have a stick in their hand at the same time, so to speak. Most of the time, sparring or clinching with little kids like this ends because someone's crying. They're learning how to control their emotions way more than they're learning how to do proper technique, although they do get a few pointers here and there. Mostly it's just spending time in the water, as I like to say, and learning not to cry about it being too cold or deep or whatever else. Back to adults. The teenaged Thais in my gym have mostly been training for a lot of years, so they've gone through the emotional bootcamp long before they ever get big enough to really do any damage to anybody. We have one young fighter, Maek, who is often my clinching partner, and he's new enough and young enough that he gets a little emotional sometimes. He's ignored most of the time when he gets like this, or he's teased to put him in check. But he's pretty big, 60 kilos at only 13 years old, but a little butterball so he goes with partners who he outweighs but is shorter than. So, with his weight he can do some damage, but with his size and age he's kind of not so dangerous. In contrast to this, the westerners who come to train in Thailand are mostly pretty big, compared to me and Thais. They can do damage before they have any kind of skill, or moderate skill, and they've done usually no kind of emotional formation by a culture that esteems "jai yen yen," cool heartedness. So, you've got giant babies. Yesterday, my regular sparring partner and I were told to go spar but to go "bao bao," which is Thai for gentle. I've never been instructed to go light before. The reason was that both Carabao (my sparring/clinching partner) and I have fights in a couple of days, so a clashed knee or bruised eye or ego is not on the ticket. I fight often, Carabao doesn't. So, the instruction to go light is more to do with his fight than mine, but interestingly, Kru Nu has credited Carabao's wins in the past with being my clinching partner. In clinching, nobody is ever told to "go light." Just maybe to be more careful with hitting with the inside of your thigh instead of with your kneecap. So, this sudden "go spar, but bao bao," thing got me thinking. I wanted to ask Kru Nu about how he does sparring at his gym. I told Kru Nu that westerners seem to think that sparring in Thailand is all really light. He frowned at me when I said this, like "why?" I laughed. I don't know. But then I used the example of this Indian guy, who I referenced in my other thread. He goes too hard (in my eyes) with everybody. He's not out of control, but his power is enough to do damage. In the example I gave in my last thread, he sparred with an Italian who also goes quite hard. Hard vs hard, and Kru Nu said, "they like that, so I give for them." But I reminded him of a match up that was not a syncing of likes, where one guy didn't like to go hard. A few weeks ago he was sparring with a fellow from Spain. The guy from India is cracking these leg kicks and has good boxing, so he's touching up the guy from Spain and then just bashing his leg. The guy from Spain is not super experienced, but not totally green. He does okay for a round, listens sincerely to my advice to teep with the leg that's getting kicked when I talk to him between rounds, but ultimately lays down and sparring is ended with a "TKO" late into round 2. I thought that was shitty, honestly. I asked Kru Nu (yesterday, not when this happened), why he let the sparring go like that. "Because I want the guy from Spain to understand that in a fight, if someone kicks you hard here (he chops the side of his hand into his leg), you cannot ask them to stop. And you cannot stop. He has to understand." And, as I recall, the next sparring session, Kru Nu put the guy from India with Team (Thai, stadium fighter) and he got worked, which Kru Nu had said was, "so he can understand." Keeping everyone in check. I nodded my head in understanding when I was listening to Kru Nu. It's what I was saying about hard sparring, how it teaches you that you have to figure shit out under duress. You have to know what contact feels like and how to hide your fear, your shame, your pain, but you also have to be able to not get upset yourself. If you're going to hit hard, you have to know you'll be hit hard back. Kru Nu actually pointed at me, poking my shoulder as I sat next to him on the ring for this conversation. "Sometimes Carabao kicks you too hard, I know, I see," he said. Honestly, guys, I know Kru Nu sees everything but I totally assumed he was not clocking the times that Carabao is hitting me hard. "But you don't get angry, I know you are okay. And if you want, you can show him that you kick hard too and then he understand." I know there are times I've lost my cool in sparring and clinching when I feel like I'm being hit too hard. I've been punished for that by Kru Nu before, basically by him telling me to get out of the ring and go kick the bag and he ignores me for the rest of the session. But I've also learned how to control that shit myself. With Carabao it's a bit harder, just because of his size and the relationship we have in the gym, but with Maek I've learned how to take a too-hard strike, hit him back hard as a warning shot, and then use the next shot as an immediate comparison (much lighter), to let him choose which kind of strike he wants. You hit me hard, I hit you hard, but we can always go back to this. And know what? He always tones it back down. No words spoken. No looks. No complaints. No calling "dad" over, and the escalation in emotion is super short. But I wouldn't know how to do that if I'd never been hit too hard in sparring; if I'd never been overwhelmed and wanted to cry. When Kru Nu lets these big Western dudes bash on each other, he's giving them the same lessons that led me to where I am now, but on a much shorter timeline. These two go hard, they go hard together. This guy goes hard with someone who doesn't reciprocate and he doesn't read the temperature, make him go with someone who will touch him right back (Team) and then some to keep him in check. It reminds me of the Cesar Milan approach to reconditioning aggressive dogs: put them in with the pack and a natural order will shake out, pretty quickly. I remember taking our dog Zoa to a dog park in New York and she was growling and nipping at some dogs who came to sniff her. I immediately thought to go control her and Kevin told me to wait, let it sort itself out. Sure enough, within 3 minutes the group had figured itself out and Zoa was playing chase with a dog she'd just been ready to fight with. You can't control everything. And if everything is always controlled for you, you never learn to control yourself.

Now that we've totally revamped the Roundtable Forum, with new software that will be regularly updated with the latest latest stuff, I'm starting a new features thread. This software is so awesome we're still stumbling on very cool stuff built in. If you find something you like screenshot it and share it with others. The first thing is simple, but not completely intuitive. How to Quote someone when answering a topic or a comment. You just drag your cursor over the part of what they are saying and you'll see the quote option pop up next to the highlight. It looks like this: When you hit quote the entire highlight will be dropped down into the comment box, with a citation of who wrote the original and when. That way people know exactly the parts you may be referencing in your thoughts. The part that isn't super intuitive is that you can quote several parts of a single post, just by doing the same highlight again. You can in that way quote a part, respond to it, then quote another part of interest, respond to it, and so on. The new quote will just pop in wherever you left your cursor in the comment box. And, even better, you can quote from more than one person, in a single comment, in the same way. Just highlight the words of someone in the thread, hit "quote", and then scroll to another person in the thread, and do the same. It makes for a nice, neat way of ordering the conversation. This is on desktop, I'm not entirely sure how it works on mobile.

It doesn't elevate to the same degree that the Golden Kick that I see among the top fighters of Thailand does. His explanation of kicking "up" and then more or less twisting it in is what it looks like when they do it, but it's not two separate parts, which his is. It's like his has a joint and the Golden Kick doesn't... it kind of bends. When Karuhat does it, it's like his foot traces the line of the opponent's body, right up the side, before bashing inward. But you never see it take that turn toward the body. You can see that moment in the video demonstration, as well as the fight examples included therein. Almost like a word that can be pronounced as either one syllable or two.

The explanation sounds a lot like the Golden Kick, although the execution looks a bit different to me. That might go down to experience. The "up the side of the body and then twist to turn it over" is very much a Golden Kick. It would be interesting to me to learn where this pedagogy originated, for it to be so widespread in the UK. I don't think we have a "standard" way of teaching the kick in the US and a lot of the kicks I do see are more "roundhouse", akin to Karate. I reckon that would be from the backgrounds of the teachers in all these different schools, a lot of whom come from Tae Kwon Do or Karate and then turned to Muay Thai after many many years in those other arts. So it's hard to change what your body knows already. Did the UK not have a Tae Kwon Do and Karate phase the way the US did?

100 percent this. Ive seen a lot of cross over in the different styles Ive trained in. Just training in greco roman wrestling you see some cross over to Thai clinching. I think the shared origins, the whys of an art starting, makes it so we will definitely have so.e cross over some where. I also think this is where innovation to you style can come from. Bjj is a relatively new art in comparison, but its evolution in the short time its been around is incredible and its all because no one limits themselves in how they create with it. I see a lot of that ability to evolve quickly available for muay Thai, especially clinch fighting. Just in the different ways of fighting muay Thai you see how imaginations evolved.

You see this in Muay Boran styles like Muay Chaiya, at least as it is taught in Bangkok by Kru Lek. You get a real sense of "defense first", but defense itself has an offensive structure, or the difference between offense and defense is really blurred. This always struck me as the sign of a style's proximity to actual warfare. The very first rule of warfare fighting would be "Do not get killed", and then "Do not become disabled". When you see styles that are founded on rock solid defense (and in my book "evasion" is not rock solid because you can evade, evade, evade, and once you fail, you are dead - or, when a second attacker arrived) it just feels like it's the warfare logic. Those Chaiya, Lertrit styles, where defense becomes wounding, and you are always only a move or two from finishing the fight. That feels very realistic to battlefield demands.

The new software updates to the forum have a very handy, fast way to get updated on all the activity that has happened on the forum since you were last here. Especially on mobile. You'll see the little newspaper icon at the top (circled red in the screen shot). It will give you a super browse-able list of new comments and posts. As you can see by the green circled item you can filter everything down too. Additionally, in your profile settings you can choose how you want your notifications will occur, and you can set up following particular forum members and other cool stuff. There is also a very robust private messaging system in the forum you can use to cross-communicate. There are so many Easter Eggs in this software I'm provably just scratching the surface. If you run into something cool share it with everyone, if you would.

Lisa... this never goes away. It changes, like you have only a moment of shame, or glimpses of shame, or rounds of shame, or you feel it like an echo... but it never fully goes away. And there are times you don't have it, when fights go great and you feel awesome, and then it appears again and your thoughts are "what the f***, I thought I was over this." It's okay. Firstly, the fact that you fought yesterday and are already trying to get over your shame is a really good sign. The thoughts and emotions are still fresh, so it's a bit raw feeling, but lots of folks try to hold on to those shitty feelings for a long, long time because they feel like they SHOULD be ashamed, even when it's time to let those feelings go. It's good to feel them for a short time, I think. They have meaning. But the feelings and the fight are not necessarily a 1+1 equation. Consider this: when you're sparring in your gym, you know everybody. You know the space. You know that you're training, even really hard sparring has a slightly different intention and emotion to it. "Doing well," or whatever you tell yourself in training is under conditions that are not as similar to a fight as we think they are. We think creating the physical conditions, like getting hit a lot, will prepare us. But the emotional unknowns are a big deal. It's incredibly hard to recreate those in familiar spaces. So the fact that you blanked in your fight is not unusual at all. The way I see it, if you hadn't put in the work and then blanked in the fight, that's shameful. Folks who don't put in the work, that's a shame. But you get to keep all the hard work you put in in the gym beforehand. Losing a fight doesn't change any of that. Kevin and I call it "shitting the bed," when a fight just goes totally the wrong direction from what you know you're capable of. If you wake up and you've shit the bed, you're embarrassed and ashamed, don't want anyone to see it are afraid they will, etc. But it doesn't mean you don't know how to control yourself. It means the conditions for that situation to take place were all in line. There's nothing wrong with you to have performed the way you did. There's nothing wrong with you to feel the way you do. But don't hold either of those as permanent states. Just wash the sheets and move on.