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Only once but the dude didn't actually talk about it - you had to get to know him, but down the bar after a couple of drinks his stories came out... which were both shocking and hilarious - but also 100% true. Not a bullshitter at all. Fairly quiet guy in the gym actually, from Russia. Came up in sketchy places where these altercations weren't uncommon for young guys growing up. Extremely polite and courteous, with an understated cleverness to him, but also *really* fucking strong, *really* fucking athletic, and *really* fucking skilled. He'd be out getting trashed and high on god knows what every Friday night, then Saturday morning he rolls in to sparring session with no sleep, still wearing the same clothes, stinking of whiskey and ky jelly. Then kicks all our asses in sparring. Half way through training we're looking around wondering where he is, and it turns out he snuck outside for a cigarette break. Got curious so asked him once about Russian athletes and what made them so successful in so many sports, expecting more street fight stories or something. He just said one word in his usual stoic demeanour. "Attitude".

There's actually a "street fighter" who just started at my gym. He's really pretty humble, and seems like a nice guy. His technique is terrible and his overall athletic ability seems low. He's very quick to bring up his street fighting though. No stories, just likes to mention it. He still manages to do so in a humble way though. "This is all very new to me. I've only ever been a street fighter, so it's going to take me a bit to learn."

One of the really funny things I find with these kinds of knob jockeys is, they don't take the time to think about how ridiculous their bullshit sounds. Sure in a rough neighbourhood you're gonna have a lot of problems, but these wankers take talking shit to Mt. Olympus level. You never here about the times they got flogged up by the thin strip of pelican shit that they were picking on.

He forgot..... Vodka.

I usually pander to their egos and say something like, look I know you can fight but let's sharpen you up a bit. Some stay but most go. I've rarely had someone who reckons they can fight have the one thing that I look for balance. It doesn't matter how ugly your style is, if you have balance you got it made.

Ive actually had a few of these as well. I dont usually put them in the same catagory mainly because they do have that politeness and willingness to learn. That whole party hard then come and kick ass attitude is almost mythic. Theres a fighter who now owns a gym in Thailand, Im sure Kevin knows who he is, Skarbowsky I believe, who was notorious for this. He was on the ultimate fighter, brought in as a special coach by GSP. He schooled the mma guys on the show even though he had known habits that were contrary to what an athlete are supposed to have. Real interesting cat if you guys wanna look him up.

Yes this, oh lord. Always confuses me.

Here is a discussion zone for the Rambaa Somdet M16 Muay Thai Library session (published 5/17/2019), which is pretty chalk full of technique. There is so much in it is difficult to total. One of the coolest things in it is the Pistol-Whip Elbow that he teaches within the clinch. A GIF from when he first taught it to Sylvie a few years ago: In any case, this is a space where patrons (and others) can seek clarity or have back and forth on some of the details in Rambaa's fighting approach.

There's places to rent listed on here as well: https://www.bahtsold.com/ If you're after a cheaper room you're probably best off asking a local to point a place out to you once you're there, as a lot of places with cheap rooms won't advertise. When I was after a cheap place to stay a Thai translated my request to a taxi driver and he dropped me at an apartment block. I think I paid about 4K plus bills for a month for a basic room with cold shower. As has been suggested elsewhere, try a few gyms out first before committing. Once you've found your gym you can ask around about accommodation.

At one point I was working on a deep dive study into South East Asian martial arts, or Indochinese kickboxing. I was looking at Muay Thai, Muay Laos, Pradal Serey, Lethwei and noticing that they are quite literally the same martial art. There are differences in scoring like Pradal Serey favouring elbows, and Lethwei allowing for headbutts, but in terms of form, this is one martial art that has been spread around a long way. My initial hypothesis was that Bokator, the father art of Pradal Serey was likely to be the progenitor of all of these martial arts. However the more research I did, the more it pushed me to eventually scrap the article altogether. While the Japanese are very good at recording their martial arts history, South East Asia generally is not. It also didn't help that the Khmer Rogue destroyed so much of Cambodia's martial arts culture. While Eskrima/Kali definitely isn't close enough to be considered the same martial art, General Tunwakom's style looks very much like Eskrima. I think that's partly because of the influence that martial art appears to have had on his style, but also because the two martial arts share a lot of ideas to begin with. There's a distinct difference between Muay Thai, Lethwei, Eskrima etc. and Kung Fu/Shuai Jiao rooted martial arts like Karate, Taekwondo and Judo. The emphasis on knees and elbows, and unchambered kicks, give all of those martial arts a slower, more brawly aesthetic to them, when compared to KF/SJ rooted martial arts that have more fluidity and emphasis on iron body conditioning. If I had to really hazard a guess, and this is a stab in the dark, I think that Muay Thai and similar martial arts probably trace their ancestory back to India. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a degree of Kung Fu influence to it, but you're absolutely right. Muay Thai has a lot of similarities to other martial arts, sentiment in Cambodia is that Thailand stole Muay Thai from them. I was speaking to a martial arts historian who's fairly well known in these circles who said to me 'Cambodia says Pradal Serey is older than Muay Thai, and it probably is, but there's no real way of knowing'. The records are just non-existent. If you take a look at this demonstration though, this should seem awfully familiar to people from a lot of different styles.

I really enjoy the moments where he just stops everything in this one with "Muay Sai-Gon" (if I'm spelling / pronouncing that correctly). You can seen in how he moves, as well as his millimetre precision on technicalities just how much and how hard he would train. The Burklerk segment was amazing, even being able to characterise him in his movements. I also like the way he drills repetition with the way he teaches, not only that, but forcing them one after the other, letting the speed build the power while forcing you to figure out your balance and center after each shot. It is a genius way of drilling into your head what you have just learned, while also putting that pressure on to micromanage your feet and your defence to gain a solid understanding for what you're doing and why your are doing it.

Thank you so much for the encouragement! Please keep it coming!

I think where it does matter begins even before the ring. There are so many that end up missing weight or portray themselves a certain way on social media but dont seem to rise to that level prefight or during. I think a lot of that is the disconnect between their real selves and whatever personality they are as a "fighter".

Those were actually the guys I was talking about in the first post. They weren't 'proper' Muay Thai - but they definitely proved that it was possible for it to do well here - and from there we got actual thai boxers and westerners who trained in Thailand coming home and bringing it here properly.

I've met several types of people over the years. The street fighters are common, you also get the guys who have very clear mental problems training in their jogging bottoms with that weird look in their eye. One guy I met and ended up sparring with was a guy who was new to the gym. He wasn't allowed to spar because he had no gumshield, but I offered to do a few rounds with him light contact. I had a feeling about the dude because he was in baggy jogging bottoms and had thick unkempt stubble going all the way down to his neck - and he'd said he was 'watching the other guys to learn their styles'. For some reason I thought 'lets not judge the guy by his appearance, maybe I'm wrong'. The next thing I know this dude is dancing, trying to fight-dance, has his tongue hanging out of his mouth and when I warn him, he gets annoyed about it. I slap a few kicks on him but the dude is so physically unstable - that I have to call a quit. I say to him, there is literally no way I can spar him without hurting him, because he's messing around with shit that doesn't work. He's swaying so much that if I kick this guy he'll be knocked out. He says his style has worked on the streets, and I inform him that these guys are not guys on the street. They are trained MMA fighters. I talk to the MMA coach about it, and he said he had to warn the dude the day before. He said: 'listen, there are bigger, stronger men in this gym and at the moment they're being nice to you, if you keep acting the way you are then one of them is liable to hit you.' Ended up seeing the same dude the next day, he asked if I'd teach him a switch kick. He was MUCH better behaved. The dude never came back after that little mini lesson I gave him on his kick. I asked our front office lady about him, and she says: 'The lift doesn't go all the way to the top floor with him' and that he'd been homeless. He was an odd dude, I had to warn him not to talk to the kids in the Jr. class - because I knew his energy would freak them out. He wasn't an arsehole by any means but definitely someone I'm glad isn't here now.

^^^ Hahahaha that is hilarious!

Hello! I cannot really weigh in on this topic too much since I am fairly new to training multiple times a day and for a few hours each day. Also, sparring had to be put on hold due to a concussion. My intial inkling to this is a bit of a rough ethical question. On one hand this is a very ethical concept; on the other it can be more pragmatic. The approach that Sylvie was speaking of: sounds a bit like the makings of being genuine. Which, by many philosophical accounts is sometimes the best answer choice out of all the others. Perhaps, this question could be abstracted away to: What's more ethical: having a disposition true to ones' self (being genuine) in violent contexts; or having dispositions separate of ones' self (being disingenuous) in violent contexts? For instance, perhaps someone in the gym "turns on" the killer robot mentality; engages in sparring, and once the bell rings, they hug it out and show utmost respect for their partner. Is this person being disingenuous? Or is being genuine only limited to the moment and time that a person is following/against their ethical/moral/epistemological axioms? So, what I mean to say is this, is a person who turns on the robot killer mentality disingenuous in the moment they are being the killer robot; or are they being disingenuous as a whole? I apologize, all i have are questions. Never any answers haha Oh and, does it really matter if one is being genuine or not while in the ring? My knee-jerk response is yes. However, perhaps fighting is one realm in which being genuine/disingeuous doesn't really matter?

I'm sure you will do fine. I'm also really looking forward to following your progress with this, and like Kevin said, look at it like a conversation rather than writing a post to update people on your progress. You would be surprised how much you could Yammer on in a conversation if it was actually typed out There is no right or wrong thing to say, and you will have a whole community of people behind you who believe in your ability 100% Most of all, have fun with it. It will definitely be an experience you will look back on with fond memories

Best of luck man just have fun - very few people get a chance to do what you get to do!

Evolution is what it's about, in my opinion. There's so much freedom in muay thai. To me, you can express yourself better in muay thai language than other martial art languages. You can take what you're given and truly make it your own. Your own dialect of a particular language so to speak. It's so adaptable and enjoyable and flows so freely between things.

I was so happy with this session. I felt like Rambaa's approach to expressing his style through these techniques was really strong. I'm interested to see what other people see, because I'm pretty deep in the water and seeing through other people's lenses is so illuminating.