Leaderboard

I like to watch a lot of Muay Thai videos on YouTube like Lawrence Kenshin, Muay Thai scholar, and of course Sylvie’s training vlogs. I see a lot of Golden era fighters/fighters like Samart, Somrak, Sagat, Nokweed Devy, and Coban and I’m not 100% sure what they’re fighting styles are. I think it would be cool to compile a list of famous fighters and they’re fighting styles. I think most of the ones I listed are Muay Femur stylists but if anybody knows and would like to share, I’m all ears.

Shadowboxing. Lots and lots and lots of shadowboxing. That's what Yodkhunpon always tells me. You train the muscle memory of lower body working with the upperbody and landing off of kicks into upperbody techniques, etc. It's like dancing, but practicing the transitions between the upper and lower body as a way to create balance. If you go against a sparring partner who is pretty good at combining their punches and kicks, literally copy everything they do, strike for strike, for a couple of rounds. It's like the "repeat after me" game of learning a language in school. Worth a try.

Sorry, just saw this! Yeah, I agree that is the most straightforward response to the circumstances I described. But ultimately I decided that my discomfort was like a weird made-up thing. No one in the gym with fewer n00bs was rude or annoyed or anything. They were all rad, like the trainer (whom I preferred to the alternatives). I just assumed the discomfort kinda randomly. And it seemed like a gym that aligned with my long-term interests more, so I just decided to use the opportunity to become less of a sook.

More drills or heavy bag work would be my recommendation. Get it flowing well outside of sparring before you try and take it into sparring.

Helllloooo. Will be needing a place to stay for 6 months in Bangkok around the Thong Lo area and can't spend much, so any accommodation advice would be greatly appreciated. Looking to spend around 5,000B a month (or less if poss) and only want a small room with a shower, nothing fancy, no air con, no elevators or condo buildings etc - don't mind if it's the most basic possible thing. Also, am not able to sign a 1 year contract etc, and can't really speak Thai beyond counting to 10, and my trainers can't speak English. So would love to hear suggestions around that price bracket. If this is unrealistic then sleeping at the gym is cool.

Hey guys so I'm fairly new to the sport, I've been training for about a year now. Anyhow whenever we do sparring sessions i either focus hard on the boxing part or the leg-kick part, how can I be sure to chain these two together and learn to use them both to my advantage, I'm about 6 foot 2 and 170 lbs, and I would say that my kicks are way more powerful than the boxing part. Thanks in advance.

Oh yes, teep is probably best counter, but I feel it takes a lot of experience and practice and balance to react like this if the opponent is very fast. But I guess being tall I really would benefit from focused teep practising. Funnily enough my first session back at the gym I had to do a never ending teep session. I heard your comment in your fight video that apparently you were teeped out of breath, but I really saw nothing of it didn't seem to bother you. And thanks a lot . I've been picked apart by one of my trainers for the way I reacted to lowkicks (and everything else) and although a good thing for someone to care, it's hard.

Sagat and Coban are definitely not Femeu fighters. They're both punchers "Muay Mat". It's funny, talking to Golden Age fighters, they all say that fighters used to be more rounded back in the day. They were specialists, but they also had way more weapons at their disposal in order to fight any other kind of style. But you talk to contemporary fighters and they say the old fogies were all "too specialized" and nowdays everyone is more well-rounded. I tend to agree with the older generation, in that theri styles were more distinct but their vocabulary in arsenal was flexible. Contemporary Muay Thai is more "Jack of all trades but master of none," kind of deal.

Teep always works nicely against "short range" and short stature opponents. I'm a shorty and I feckin' hate the teep. It also sets up for almost anything else, like the jab does. But, honestly your approach to this opponent in your fight was very good anyway. She landed some heavy punches that could have been complicated by a teep, but a good guard is just as good.

I'm hoping someone can direct you to some resources here. It's amazing how few resources we have in English, on tons of topics and elements of Muay Thai. It's one of the reasons I've tried to write and share as much as I do, because the library of information is just so limited. Good luck!

I would love this. I have nothing useful to offer at the moment but I'm always looking to find muay mat fighters to watch.

Woot. Fingers crossed the next person is uniquely awesome.

Hello, and thank you Sylvie for suggesting this. First I would like to say this is going to get a bit wordy cause a story like this just can't be told in just a few words. My name is Pat Cornett. I'm a Thai American that goes back and forth from USA to Thailand to visit family. I train Muay Thai at Sityodtong LA. When visiting family in Thailand, my family elders would sometimes mention the Legend of my grandmother's brother Sakchai who was a muay thai champ that was handsome and murdered. I didn't know how famous he was then. Family was very humble about it. On my last visit 2 years ago my auntie brought Sakchai up again. So I asked if we had any photos. Only one. And it was a big funeral one which had his real name and fight name written on it. I took a picture of it. Thai can be tricky but Sakchai Nakpayak can translate as winning with honor - phantom tiger or ghost tiger. Back home in the states I decided to Google his name exactly how I thought it would be translated. Only one result which lead me to an old muay thai forum which had a scan of my uncle. Little did I know this was a start of a big rabbit hole. One day I decided to message Sylvie and see if she's caught any word of my uncle since she's been around so many master's. I was chancing it. She took a picture of some of the pages my uncle was featured in that she owns. It has his record and a few details on his death. He beat almost all the top guys in the early 1950s including Sagat's grandfather Suk. It didn't stop there on my research. One day I decided to go back to that old forum to find any further info. One of the commentors who posted scans mentioned the authors name. Alex Tsui. And by golly he has a facebook! I've been talking back and forth with this author and he knows just about everything on Sakchai. He's actually a muay thai historian from China of all places. Alex has been sending me tons of photos and newspaper articles. And there are talks of a movie. I have dedicated a whole album to my uncle which is open to the public on facebook. I know this probably wouldn't mean much to a whole lot of people and by all rights there are still living master's and champs doing their thing fighting and teaching. But it's amazing to me. I was raised American by my dad. There was a time many years ago that I put my Thai culture aside and just wanted to fit in with the people around me. My parents divorced and finding another thai person was like finding a unicorn. Sakchai is from Chon Buri. Has a surviving sister. My family contacted her for me if we can find out his gym name. She doesn't remember. But author Alex believes it's called Rayong Blood. Sakchai had a brother who also trained muay thai but passed away. His brother had 3 kids which my family kind of lost touch with. We only know them by nickname. A son named Dtoi or Toy. A daughter who is about 60 years old named Dtauw. The other son's name my mother forgot. Their last names should be Prianprakdee. Anyway, this is my cool story. I hope you enjoyed it. I haven't come to the end of the rabbit hole and there is much more information out there. It's just not easy to come by Update: I made a video documentary

The documentary is here. Enjoy!

As another option (surely this won't work EVERY time but its another thing to probably practice and add to the arsenal) I've seen my trainer advise to just take a step back on a low kick (bringing your left leg back if you're in orthodox stance) since they can't kick what isn't there anymore of course. Also a "counter-offensive" option like the lowkick destroyer seems to work well when you use the large bony part of your upper shin right below the knee. Gives you some more surface to work with.

Yeah that is good advice, that movement comes a bit more natural for me anyways. Either way, back to learning lab...

Thanks for the comments, everyone. It seems like the gym is trying to find a new hire by the time the back to school season starts. They've been bringing in potential trainers to observe and assist with classes over the last week. It seems like progress, so I'm willing to be patient a little longer.

I love that too!

The very first recorded fight in a fixed stadium ring in Bangkok (1921) was between a man somewhere in his late 50s (muen muay Kueng Tosa) vs a 22 year old (Phong Prapsabok, the son of an opponent he once defeated).

Timing. If you come straight forward, you're walking into the strike like a punching bag. Cut angles, make them kick first (faking, timing) and then counter when they miss.

Lots of forward pressure, like Tyler said.

Have any video? Personally I'd walk forward while trying to catch the kick then hit them with an overhand shot (punch or elbow if you can reach) or repeatedly dump them on their ass to make them think twice about kicking. You can also use your hands to feint then teep aggressively to knock them off their base every time they go to kick.

Thank you for this beautiful story, Pat. Quite a magnificent relative (so handsome too). Look forward to seeing what else you find out.

Yes, I feel it's important. I am the only one that I know is training muay thai in my family. They watch it sometimes on the weekends, but that's just about it. They don't really show interest in trying to know more about my grand uncle. I don't know if it's a Thai thing to just leave it in the past, but I feel he's worth remembering. And not just for me but for our MT community. Who knows, had I known this as a kid I might have embraced my Thai culture more. Or the times I've been assaulted I could have used the knowledge I have now to better protect myself. Life can be tough, and we need all the help we can get. Muay Thai has changed my life. And gave me my life back after being injured. Couldn't even walk unassisted. I was 275lbs. Now 165lbs.

And come to think of it, street fighting is nothing like any form of sparring anyway. Street fights (generally speaking) are over in seconds - one or two hard punches/elbows/stabs and it's all over apart from possibly kicking any person who has been unfortunate enough to hit the deck. Anyone with any sense in a street fight will run for it at the first opportunity if they can (even the aggressor will generally run if the defender manages to get a good hit back). In sparring you don't generally leg it out of the gym after making the other guy reel. :smile: