Leaderboard

The new Karuhat shorts we made are pretty incredible. There's something about them when they are right there in front of you that just is a bit electric, like how he is. In celebration of him, and these new shorts, we're giving away a pair of these. All you have to do to enter is write on this thread what is about Karuhat which makes him like no other fighter. You can writing anything from a breakdown of his fighting style, his techniques, to how he makes you feel as a fan of his muay, or what he means to you. If you follow Sylvie and me you know he means a great deal to us. Anything that substantively expresses or explains his specialness. Please only enter if you are a fan of his. There may be more than one prize offered, but first place goes to the answer Sylvie and I find the best or most interesting. We'll run this give away for about a week. Forums aren't too popular, so there will probably be very few entries, so you'll likely have a pretty good chance to win the shorts! This is in celebration of those who support our forum and longer forms of thoughtful communication. You don't to be fancy in your answer, just sincere and thoughtful. If you are new to the forum your first post may be automatically held for moderation due to anti-spam, nothing to worry about. The shorts are pretty amazing, you can find them here. 100% of the earned profits go to support him, so if you want to buy them in support please do! Below is a quick video of the shorts, followed by some photographs. If you don't know Karuhat yet, you can find all the links to video documentation we've done of him. He is very likely the most documented Golden Age Muay Thai fighter of Thailand, thanks to the support of the Muay Thai Library Project. You can find those links here: And, as always, I'll drop the Muay Thai Scholar footwork edit as a key introduction for those who don't know him. I've watched this thing 100x:

I wrote a poem to Sylvie about Karuhat once: "Karuhat, The king of cats, He has a hat, full of clapping bats And lots of friends, in as many flats He's not a brat. But if you act, Like a twat, He will pat your back and you will fall, In a friendly pit full of hungry rats." And this has been my input, lol

So, the title of the forum thread kinda says it all "what makes karuhat special, like no other fighter" Well, it's just that, he is not like ANY other fighter that I have seen, met or fought. Back in 1993 I was in Thailand for the first time training and fighting as a wide eyed teenager, full of red bull and dreams of Lumpinee Stadium! Before I went to Thailand I had studied Samart, Chatchai and Kongtoranee so made my home in Sityotong, fighting on small shows in Pattaya. I had seen video of Karuhat before then but did not know his name or where he trained. I went to Lumpinee one night with the camp to watch Chatchai fight and was lucky enough to be back stage helping out with massage and bandages etc. Considering that there were so many quality fighters in the old Lumpinee warm up area as soon as one character entered all eyes fell on him, like a magnet drawing a hushed attention to him, "Karuhat had arrived" He quietly and methodically arranged his shorts (sans label of course) bandages, warm up shorts etc into a quiet little corner and made his preparations for battle. (I still did not know his name at all then) My Thai was poor and I did not know how to ask. For those who have never been the Old Lumpinee stadium was a strangely magical place, when empty, just an old shack with barely spinning fans and a dusty stink to it, but on fight night a magical place indeed! Chatchai had fought and lost a close decision as the main event was about to start, he, and the other fighters form all of the other gyms hurried to catch sight of the small mad entering the ring with a slight smile and more than a slight swagger about him. "Karuhat had arrived" I was dragged by Kru Yodatong to "watch, watch" and I watched as he explained with his hands as i could not understand him. He placed on hand horizontally at chest height "Boonliai, Chatchai, Dekkers, Numphon, Sangtienoi" then he took his other hand and placed it at his chin level, again horizontal "Karuhat"; he was explaining "there are levels to this" and he is above them all! There started my love affair with his style, grace, power, swagger, smile, style (yes I had replica shorts made up and even a side part in my hair). It was the timing, the bravado, the slickness and the speed that excited me and prompted me to try and copy him in every was at the start of my career. He stood out, he gave and received so much respect with ease. But for me the one thing that makes him stands out is when after winning at Lumpinee, was that I got to say hello to him and share a few moments. In true Thai style, it was less of what was said (very little apart form me prostrating and saying in a strong English accent "Sawadee Krup") He pulled me us and asked "nak Muay"? I nodded, he then did the ultimate Thai thing of squeezing my muscles on my arms, shoulders, and legs, he kind of looked me up and down, I was not muscular, I was not strong and he could see that but what he mimed next will stay with me forever "He spoke in Thai but I didn't understand - I did understand what he meant though" He gestured like a big strong fighter, he pushed his nose down like it was broken, made some clumsy punches in the air, then shook his head, waved his finger to say NO. Then the poined to himself, showed a couple of teeps, a couple of pivots and japs "bop,bop" he said, then he brushed his hand over his face as if to say how handsome he was and no scars "YES YES" and a thumbs up. He was telling me to fight smart because of my frame - then a little smile and he was whisked away for a press conference. So, that's why for ME he will always be so special, he made time for a farang kid in the middle of a room full of experienced amazing Thai fighters. So, I just want to thank him! Thanks for letting me rant and geek out over him for a while :)

S&S... Swagger & Smirk.

Yodsian! The superstar. You guys do a great job at highlighting what really blew me away about Karuhat, and that's his flow. His fights with Veeraphol are some of my favorite fights in any combat sport, ever. Like some stuff directly out of Dragon Ball Z. It's not just his technical prowess, which is incredible in its own right, but it's the speed at which he maintains it. I think calling him "The Fortress" makes a lot of sense, but more appropriately, in my opinion, he's like a floating castle in that while he's as imposing and impenetrable as a fortress, a fortress has more permanence, it's grounded and rooted and never moves while what makes Karuhat impenetrable is the opposite; his freedom of movement (and the LEVEL of that movement, importantly), his range of motion and the pace at which he uses them is hard to equal. Maybe impossible to equal when he's at his best. He's so comfortable doing such high level movements it has to be incredibly difficult for his opponent to stay focused and react appropriately. It's almost ironic in how imposing Karuhat can be, when he's often the smaller, more unassuming fighter. His prowess is evident in not just how fast he moves and reacts but in the moves he makes themselves: to be able to flow from one movement to another as effortlessly as Karuhat demonstrates how intelligent he really is, how efficiently his brain makes decisions and how practiced and measured he truly is. He forces opponents to match his pace, and that's quite a pace to match. If your brain isn't built like his you're basically doomed to play his game the whole fight, and odds are your brain is not built like his. Besides Karuhat the fighter, Karuhat the person is a treasure. I obviously do not know him personally, but his presence in the ring is so unique it's impossible to not gleam some insight into his character. So often you can freeze-frame and find Karuhat across from his opponent, hands all the way down by his side or on his hips, a half-smile on his face, making a pose that's almost like an invitation to his opponent. He'll nod his head and gesture toward his opponent with one arm, almost as if to ask "Are you enjoying this as much as I am?" And watching your sessions with him on the Muay Thai Library, his personality is still there. He's still that same superstar from his prime. The only thing that's changed about him is his age, the number itself. He's still as youthful as ever. I'm actually amazed at how young he looks. That's something that impresses me about Thai fighters in general is how YOUNG they all still are. Here in the west there's definitely a tendency to think of men in their 50s and over as "geriatrics", senior citizens. Seeing the way all these golden age nak muay move around still, there's nothing old about them. It really changed the misconceptions I had myself about the way humans age, and Karuhat in particular genuinely blows me away. I mean, looking at him from the back, you could mistake this man for a 20 year old. His youthfulness you can tell is more than just him being in shape and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, too. You can see his youthfulness in his face, in the way he smiles and in his eyes. His love for Muay Thai has kept him young, in each session with Sylvie you can see just how much fun he has doing it. You can pause the sessions randomly and look at his face, and it looks like he's posing for a school portrait! And again, I do not know him personally but you can just FEEL the warmth in his smile. Karuhat's energy is so absolutely unique, he really is a superstar in every way. You can just feel how genuine he is, and you can SEE how intelligent he is, in his eyes and in his body. No other fighter conveys the same dominant-but-friendly air that I feel when watching both his fights and his sessions with Sylvie. The gorgeous shorts aside, I just hope Karuhat and the other wonderful men you and Sylvie work with are aware of how much love they really have outside of their community in Thailand. If I could afford to I'd rather just buy these things in a heartbeat, buy a pair for my girlfriend, hell I'd buy a pair for each of my cats. These guys absolutely inspire me to be a better person, not just a better fighter. They've given so much to the art of muay Thai but the ways they've helped change me are much larger than any sport.

I love watching Karuhat fight, he -and his style- is so artistic, so inteligent, like im having a conversation with a Magistrate in my country (im a lawyer in my country and the best way to learn is to hear it directly from the judge/magistrate that signed the sentence, if you have the chance, wheter in class or in any context, its like finding milled gold) mixed with ballet. Smart, eloquent and beatiful. I dunno, maybe im a little crazy -plus the language barrier-, but there is nothing -and no one- like him, in my humble opinion. Awesome giveaway, sir, and ¡those shorts KICK ASS! Greetings from México! Margaritas are on me, folks.

see the highlights here I've known Poda (his play name), now fighting under the name Sirichai Klong Suan Plu Resort, since he was just a little teenager. He was from a small gym in Chiang Mai and he's ethnically Hill Tribe, a minority in Northern Thailand, which makes his success a pretty big deal. He would come to the gym I trained at, Lanna Muay Thai, to clinch with our Thai fighters prior to his fights in Bangkok. He was so disciplined that his trainer, Oley, would just tell him to do x number of knees on the bag and then he'd leave, knowing Poda would do it. I remember my trainer at the time Den, watching him and saying, "I want a gym of my own but I need boys like this. Hard working." At that time, Poda was sold to a gym in Siracha, down below Bangkok, and he changed his fight name to Tanadet Tor. Pran49, which is how he's called in the Muay Thai Library, teaching his unique Long Clinch technique. He fought a lot for that gym and they tried to change him quite a bit, to varied and diminishing success. Eventually he left the gym without his contract expiring and he's been teaching up in Chiang Mai for the past few years. Only a bit more than a month ago he moved down to Singburi to train under Kru Diesel (formerly at FA Group), a true Muay Khao builder, which I was very excited about because Poda is a thousand percent Muay Khao and a lot of the difficulties he faced in his career path seemed, to me, to be due to his gym trying to alter him from that gift. After only a little more than a month in Singburi, training Muay Khao for the first time in years (this is hard work) he's back in the ring for the first time in 3 years. I was more nervous for this fight than I am for most of my own, Kevin and I both shouting for him to lock. It was a spectacular reintroduction in to the ring, noted by everyone with eyes. Sia Boat, head of Petchyindee Academy and promotion (meaning this promotion, as well as the gym from which the opponent hails), came in after the fight to congratulate Poda and in this clip (watch it below) exclaims how impressive it is to fight like that after 3 years off, as well as telling the interviewer he has no desire to experience his lock for himself. Kru Diesel is also beaming, when asked how he feels he says he's proud, but that he doesn't take full credit because Poda is so diligent and hard working, so he's easy to teach. Watch Sia Boat congratulating Kru Diesel and Sirichai Next up for Sirichai (Poda) is said to be Praew Praew, also a Petchyindee fighter who is a serious challenge for anyone standing in front of him. They're just throwing him right back into it! I'm just stoked to be seeing him back in the ring after all this time. I'm a huge fan of him both as a person and as a fighter and I think under Kru Diesel he really has an opportunity to launch along a path that's suited to his strengths, rather than trying to roll the extraordinary out of him for the sake of a smoother kind of ordinary. If you want the latest in Muay Thai happenings sign up for our Muay Thai Bones Newsletter

Some additional background on Sirichai. Lots of people know him from our Muay Thai Library session with him teaching Long Clinch, a really unique use of a clinch technique that is often only transitory. Below is the free trailer clip: You can watch the full hour with him in the Muay Thai Library here, it's one of the best and most interesting clinch sessions in the entire Library: As a sidenote, I strongly suspect that his unorthodox Long Clinch use, which involves a low head, was eventually shunned by his first BKK stadia gym Tor. Pran49. If you lose doing unorthodox things in the stadia it can make the gamblers angry. Lots of experimental techniques and approaches get pruned by this fear of angering the gamblers. From what I recall they tried to make him more of a puncher towards the end. Because Kru Diesel has his own system, is famous for locking fighters, and Sirichai has a very good lock since he was young, I suspect we won't be seeing much Long Clinch from him now. That being said, we are thankful for being able to document his Long Clinch technique, and even writing an article about it and editing together this film study of his use of it through the first years: you can read that article on his Long Clinch here As Sylvie says, we've known Sirichai for such a long time. He was incredibly self-driven, disciplined and quiet. If you want to know just what he was like as a fighter, we even filmed these two rounds of him destroying someone in the clinch at a festival fight 8 years ago. As you watch his fights today you can stare back at the skills and techniques he used back then, and see a continuity. And, now that he has one of the great Muay Khao krus of Thailand, we can also see what Kru Diesel's hand can do with such a diligent fighter, that already has a strong foundation. Sometimes fighters just have to find the right trainer to grow their possibilities. Here he is clinch wrecking 8 years ago: We filmed with Kru Diesel and with Sirichai for an upcoming Library session only a few weeks ago. While there Sylvie interviewed Sirichai about his upcoming first fight. It gives a glimpse into what he is like as a person.

For me the trickiest part of shadow kicks is that a target actually interrupts the overall trajectory, so not hitting anything kind of makes the balance difficult. If your kicks on pads and the bag are fine, I recommend kicking a few times, then just back up so you "miss" the target and try to throw your kick exactly the same as when you hit the target and see what that looks/feels like. Then you can recreate it and do it a gazillian times.