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I don't mean to imply that ALL of Muay Thai is not aggressive. The point I try to make is that aggressiveness is not in and of itself a positive quality, but dominance always is. Sometimes that looks aggressive. Dieselnoi was aggressive; violent, even. I love him. Rotdang is fun to watch, he's very "aggressive," but also unaffected when he's hit back. Kevin and I used to follow the UFC, we don't anymore. The fights just aren't as good, as far as my eyes go nowdays. That's fine, it's just not interesting to me anymore. Even when I was watching it pretty regularly, the problem with MMA in general to me was the caliber of knowledge from each fighter was pretty low. It's like being able to ask where the bathroom is in 5 different languages, but can't hold a conversation in any of them. But there are some fighters who had depth of knowledge in one martial art, like Lyoto Machida. He was interesting to watch. Rousey, before she tried to become more "well rounded" with shitty boxing, she was interesting to watch as Judo player against very different skills.

Hi Sylvie and Everyone Else! I was curious to hear your (and everyone else's) thoughts on the UFC and other similar western fighting, apologies if you've answered this question before. You've very clearly fell in love with fighting from the perspective of the non-aggressive, composed and unaffected Thai ethic that makes up Muay Thai and I wonder what your thoughts are on the predominant western and aggressive style that fights like the UFC play to. This might make for a really interesting topic on Muay Thai Bones! Thank you for all of your time and effort!

Greetings all, This is my first post on the forum. So id like to take the time to say hello! I am looking for the groups opinion and advice to a little problem/situation I have run into over the last few years. In the first handful of years training/fighting I spend the early mornings before my 8-5 office job for a jog/bag work/ solo training. Then its off to work then anther 1-3 hours of training with my teammates. I about 30 or so fights later I spend most of my time teaching classes and training the more greener and novice fighters. Lately I have been trying to find a balance to make my own training more of priory. The last 4 months I have been commuting into Chicago 2-3 days a week which is about a 1.5 hour commute both ways after work. That has become very exhausting task with many late nights. Lately its been hard to find a balance between teaching/training in my hometown and making a commute to try and upgrade my game. At times it steals the passion and true love I have for Muay Thai and Kickboxing away from me. I have taken a brief trip to Thailand after college about 3 years ago for a handful of weeks I often dream about return for a longer period of time but life always seems to get in the way. Well there is my sob story. LOL Can anyone share any common experiences and have any advice or uplifting words of encouragement? Best!

Hi all! What are your thoughts on doing partner drills without shin guards? Shin to shin contact sucks, does it keep sucking, or do you get used to it? What's the prevalent opinion on training without shin guards in Thai gyms? Do fighters train without pads prior to competion? Thanks! Gilles

Eyes change when you spend a ton of time looking at a particular fighting aesthetic. You see things you would never have before, and you ignore things that otherwise would have been interesting. I don't know what happened, but the UFC just got very, very boring to watch. A lot of it has to do with MMA spacing, which involves lots of circling out, some of it has to do with the relentless hyping of every fighter as the greatest, or the baddest, or whatever. Ugh. It's exhausting. And, then some of it is what Sylvie said. I know people have enthusiasm for hybrid rules, and a whole new fighting style, but in some ways it feels like someone made up a sport called "basket-baseball-foot" mashing together basketball, Baseball and football. Yeah, putting the skills of each into one sport definitely makes you have to compromise and modify, but what I really miss are acme performances seen in the reflected history of decades and decades of development. It also is a little disappointing that the UFC hasn't really see a single high level, elite Muay Thai fighter, ever. The picture most fans have of Muay Thai in the UFC is basically just versions of western kickboxing, which isn't Muay Thai at all. I wish I enjoyed it more. I miss the good ol' days of the WEC, when we were just falling in love with Muay Thai.

I haven't seen a lot of drilling without shinguards in my gym here in Germany but my experience is certainly limited. We never used shinguards when training Kali though. Of course we also kicked less than you do in Muay Thai. It does help with control though. I think a good way to go might be a rule our Kali-trainer gave us for drills that involved taking direct hits that could potentially be damaging or cause long time bruising. An example was front kicks to the stomach-area where one partner would practice the kick and the other would just take it on the stomach to practice breathing and flexing the stomach muscles with good timing. The rule was: start low intensity and the one on the receiving end gives the commands. The only two commands allowed are "good" if intensity is fine or "harder" if intensity is too low. The idea is that this way it should be possible to train well and increase intensity without it ever getting TOO hard. Remember: you'll do this taking turns so the next kick will be yours to take!

I watch my trainers let someone be "wrong" for a really, really long time with no correction. Then they'll make a small correction, enforce it, and then let it go. Kevin's reference to the Inner Game of Tennis is really good because it's about the learning process, and correction, critique, and commentating really don't help that at all. Very often, people are already over-thinking and not feeling, so over-verbalizing is counter-productive. But in terms of where the line is, to me the most important aspect was raised by LengLeng: did this person ask? If you offer a small point, unsolicited, did they then ask for more?

Ramsey Dewey said recently that corrections are the lowest form of coaching, and to an extent I agree. If you go to a muay thai class and look at the guys sparring, you see them sweeping kicks, teeping, countering well and it's not like those techniques are specifically drilled again and again (especially when it comes to sweeps) with meticulous corrections to perfect it. Unless you're doing something quite wrong, everything falls into place with practise and time!

I think it's good that you ask about these stuff. Some people are hungry for advice, some people learn better without too much interference. So I guess it's about feeling your way forward. My husband is a crossfit coach and I join his classes now and then. Some time back in one of his classes I saw a woman doing squats with a weird form. Since I think I know everything about squat depth I tried to get the attention of my husband and sort of whispered that he should check on her form. He just brushed me off. And afterwards he told me she squats like this because she has this injury she is struggling with. And I realised it was definitely not my place to think I could have any educated opinion on how she should move just from joining one class with her and that I shouldn't think I know my husband's work better than him.

How long are you thinking of staying? How many sessions or how much hard work? Mostly, is this something you want them to really dive into, or you want to to be a part of other travel and vacation like experiences? Chiang Mai is really a nice city to experience these things in. For one, it's lots lots to do and see. Secondly, in the North it's culturally more conservative and traditional, so you will get less of the touristed Muay Thai subculture (not saying you won't get it there, but generally the city has a kind of conservative quality). Also, there are female Muay Thai fights pretty much every night of the week in the city, so they can go and watch some fights and maybe enjoy that and be inspired. Once you let me know how much time and how deep of a dive you want them to take (do you want them training twice a day, coming back to the hotel wiped out?...or, do you want them training once a day, or even less?) maybe I can give a few recommendations?

It always amuses me when people ask 'Can you recommend a Muay Thai camp in Thailand?'. It is a big country, did you want to narrow your options down a bit? Being the capital and home of the main stadia, Bangkok has the highest number of gyms. It's a bit chaotic and traffic is terrible, so it's not everyone's cup of tea (personally I love the place), but you can get excellent training there and there's plenty to do. Or, do your daughters (and yourself and your wife of course) like the idea of going to the beach after training? Then look into training on one of the islands. Or, do you like the idea of being in a pretty big city, but a lot more laid back and less traffic than Bangkok plus some great nearby scenery? Then look into Chiang Mai Or, do you like the idea of training at a gym in an area of the country that few tourists visit? Then look into training at a gym in Isaan Or how about up in the mountains? Then look into a place like Pai. Most gyms that are open to foreigners will be used to training beginners, so that shouldn't be a worry. You'll see this posted elsewhere on this forum, but when you do decide on your location let your daughters try out a few different gyms first before committing to one.

Has Kru Nu ever been in the library? I realise that there's a ton of footage of his work with Sylvie, but I'd be interested to see his style!

There is a loose theory floating out there, to which both Sylvie and I subscribe, which is that the arrival of shin guards has really changed the level of fighting even in Thailand. In the Golden Age, and certainly before, there was no such thing. We reason, and I think Karuhat helped support this if I recall, that the absence of shin guards produce far more control and balance in Thai fighters, across the board. Just something to keep in mind.

It's a great thing to get used to if you AND your partner have good control. There's not a lot of shin-to-shin contact without shinguards in Thailand. Trainers and folks sparring will kind of use the bottom of their foot to "kick" on the leg, if it's blocked, rather than go shin to shin. But kicking the arms, legs, and sides of the body with control and bare shins is totally fun and much more realistic to what kicks will feel like in a fight that doesn't have pads. You'll often see one pair of shinguards split between 2 people, so your blocking leg has a guard and your kicking leg doesn't, but in a same-stance pair it's the opposite, so their blocking leg also has a guard and their kicking leg doesn't.