LengLeng

I am not saying cultural appropriation is not complicated or an issue or something that keeps happening and harms minority cultures. I am all in on that. But since white people have a tendency to make everything about ourselves, CA has become something we use to police each other forgetting the original issue and what is healthy, respectful mix of cultures. I have such an issue with white people secretly enjoying being top of the food chain and carry their white guilt gladly. I am really interested though in the the issue of CA and muay thai. I haven't visited many Western gyms (only 1 actually) and in that gym they tried to respect the thainess of it but unfortunately the female trainer said Sawasde-krap instead of Sawasdee-kaa having all the students repeating back (I know women can use male particles but I do not think this was the case here). I do not feel that there is CA happening with muay thai, not the same way as in yoga. It is my experience that everybody rates the thai muay thai highest as the most pure version of it and western gyms just trying to imitate the best way they can. And that thai muay thai trainers and gym owners are well aware of this and use it to their advantage. But I do feel there is a westernization of muay thai happening in Thailand with more action-filled shows and I believe Kevin wrote about this and linked it to how Thailand escaped being colonized by civilizing itself and how it has civilized muay thai.

there is a thread here where Sylvie and Kevin give a lot of good advice.

I think it's sad and awful that this is happening but it's not a new phenomenon and comes with international trade. When I was in university this was part of my studies and I later worked with this to some extent. I wonder if you could claim Myanmar people have the intellectual property right over lethwei or similar. @oliver lol at your tears. I believe sometimes the criticism abt CA is relevant but most times it's just stupid. Had people from my own country stress abt whether wearing chitenge (type of textile) they bought in Cape Town is CA. I stressed a bit abt wearing mongkol and doing the ram muay but I asked Thai friends to help me get the blessing right and got someone who's an expert in ram muay teach me properly so I wouldn't disrespect the culture. I hope I didn't. In Myanmar I sometimes wear the htmain (longyi for women) and thanaka (yellow paste on your cheeks that's also good for your skin) and the Myanmar people get so happy and come and tell me how beautiful how I am whenever I do this. But I'm reluctant to post any photos of it as I don't want uneducated Western friends gonna come with lectures. CA is basically mixing cultures and of it's done respectfully I believe it's awesome and beautiful. And it's pretty much part of human cultural evolution.

But CA is when a culture borrows/steals/appropriate elements from another culture. In this case, well he misappropriated yoga and the culture of which he is a member and used it to con people from another culture. He sort of made the cultural misappropriation happen and made a lot of money while doing it. Something tells me CA is not really the proper term for what's wrong with that whole situation.. But to get on topic. Are all Muay Thai gyms outside Thailand CA? And if yes, it's that a bad thing?

i dont know but people were idiots for thinking there's a national championship in yoga in India.

Well.... I mean, there's so much other CA going on in yoga. At least, as an Indian colleague told me, Bikram is a true Indian con artist.

Yeah very disappointing. WLC is run by some powerful Myanmar business people though (of at least one as far as I know)..one of them recently posted on Facebook he wanted to buy a village in Sweden that's for sale. Maybe they two could team up .

I actually worked on something similar years back. It related to the San people of Namibia and their right to their own traditional medicinal knowledge. Many western companies profit on selling devil’s claw and the hoodia plant for various ailments which is based on the Sans's people traditions and knowledge and whether there is a way to protect or patent/trademark indigenous people's knowledge. Basically the companies would have to ask the San people for permission and give them parts of their profits. There's a group of lawyers working on this in SA I believe. Another case related to Biltong, spicy dried meat from southern parts of Africa that started gaining popularity in Europe. I discovered that a European person had registered the name Biltong as a trademark in the whole of EU and by talking to various EU offices I found out there are some ways to contest it. In this case we didn't move forward as the trademark was about to expire and the holder didn't renew. But it is a really interesting question. What makes a person want to register a sport based on thousand years of tradition in another country? Only money? And whether that's even legal. It would be interesting to find out. I guess you could ask him?

I looked him up did not seem to have any particular connection to Myanmar, rater Thailand and Cambodia. But couldn't it be someone linked to WLC or something as part of the plans of making lethwei more internationally known? There are many scenarios where an American person can hold a trademark but it could still benefit Myanmar people. But I am fully with you regarding your concern about this. Interestingly enough that the trademark muay thai is up for grabs...

I would say train through it and do more for your recovery. This article is my go to when I feel like Im overtraining: https://8limbsus.com/muay-thai-thailand/myth-overtraining-endurance-physical-mental-muay-thai

Thanks a lot Sylvie.

That's so true!

Thank you very much for your advice and it's also comforting having my emotions validated. With the language barrier and me still navigating the culture, I've opted for an acceptance approach. Like I don't understand it, but I'll accept it. It's tough this shit but would it be easy everybody would be doing it. I think you're right about talking to the trainer, hopefully I can create a bond with him so I understand this better.

No it didn't. But if you read your reply to me again you can see you made a lot of assumptions based on my post - without knowing anything about me - which would put me in a position to have to explain and defend myself. I'm a big believer of talking honestly about feelings. I have a blog and Instagram where I write about my vulnerabilities because it helps me grow to face them. And I have many readers thanking me for sharing weaknesses. This is also why I'm such a big fan of Sylvie, she is very very brave in her documentation of her journey. By exposing herself she helped me tremendously. Occasionally, there are people using this to put you down. It's ok, I get it, not everybody understands. But I don't enter into discussions when the intent to help does not appear to be there. Emotions are present in any gym. I've seen so many Thai fighters get angry and tired and upset and I see how the Arjans manage it. Sometimes they just let the boys punch it out on each other, other times they mock them. Martial arts is very much an emotional journey. And I have close relationships with many of my former trainers because of allowing an emotional bond. ...and with my current trainer, we're very close and we get angry at each other all the time. Bickering, laughing, mocking each others or shouting at each other. I'm very grateful for this relationship. In no way am I ashamed of having one deeply emotional reaction to this particular sparring situation. Of course it feels embarrassing. But I'm interested in exploring my reaction as it will help me, not only for my next fight but also in life in general.

Thanks man!

Right. Please feel free to join me for sparring at one of my lethwei gyms in Yangon and we see who gets emotional .

I never been KOd but as it has been described to me it's basically "lights out and you wake up on the floor". But white I've seen a couple of times. Never in Thailand where you sometimes get hard sparring and the punches hurt and give you a bit of a shock wave. This white is is more from getting punched directly in your face. It's only for a fraction of a second but it's like looking into a snow blizzard. This case I lost my posture dropped my hands while 5-6 punches rained on my face after already having taken some hard blows on my jaw. And when I saw white I just got panicked a bit and disconnected and fell backwards and sparring ended. I don't feel it caused any damage though. It was a bit humiliating but ok. And thanks yeah, might be good in general to do a check up. As soon as I can get to a country with proper healthcare .

I don't know...ego issue because I got a lot of punches in and he wanted to put me in my place or I got it wrong and this is his way of teaching. Another trainer told me to not worry, he angry when he spars with him too but he way better so he uses his anger to trick him to make mistakes. When I train with that trainer and I get heated he interrupts the sparring and tells me to kick bag "because you cannot fight when angry you lose easy". From this experience I realize I really need to work on my mental game and not let my emotions weaken me. I'm usually not this sensitive bit the last months, well I feel it affects me. Which I guess is so great with martial arts, you cannot hide from your inner turmoil. It will show.

Hi. I'm not in BKK anymore, I'm in Yangon (forgot to update my profile). I know what you are referring to, I've seen it many times, and this was not the case in my situation. It was a dude losing his temper (which is definitely very un-Thai an un-fighting in general). I don't believe we shall exotify everything that happens in foreign gyms, sometimes people are jerks. In this case I'm not gonna do a big deal about it but I'll probably not sparring with this trainer again as he has an ego issue.

Earlier this week I was asked if I wanted to spar with a trainer I haven't sparred with before. I haven't really worked with him much but I respect him as a trainer and asks him technique questions when I can. He was also featured in the Lethwei episode of Fight World on Netflix and I sort of respect him as an authority. He is around my weight, a bit shorter and now not very fit but clearly has his strength and all his movements intact. It is always weird sparring with a teacher, I don't want to go too hard. But I was cheered on and told to go harder and use more combinations. Clearly he was better (obviously) and he let me feel his punches. I kicked him pretty hard and at one point I didn't hold back but attacked with some punches. And then he just had a go at me. Let the punches rain on my nose and forehead and my jaw started hurting and I felt overwhelmed. I could feel he got angry and that sort of shocked me. I respect teachers a lot and it's a shitty feeling having a teacher angry at you. And I dropped my guard, I lost my posture and he came at me until I got scared (had a recent head injury and I felt panic and thought that maybe this is really bad for my head I need to stop). It's not like he used 100% power but suddenly it went white, I fell backwards and I started sobbing. He sort of apologized went away. I gathered myself. Went to him apologized and thanked him. But obviously if felt shitty. The trainer I usually work with took me to another room and practiced my very recently displayed obvious weaknesses with me on the pads while I kept sobbing feeling embarrassed and just tired. Since then I've been training. And the trainer has not acknowledged that this was any issue at all. And I don't really know what to make of the situation. On the one hand I feel shitty like I was put in my place. And on the other I just feel this is fighting. Some people be like that. Opportunity to learn and mature emotionally.

I have no quick fixes for this but I get a lot of blisters and wounds on the soles of my feet and what I usually do to avoid bacteria and fungal infections is to wear socks and ankle protector to keep socks from coming off. I put antifungal antibacterial creme on at night together with baby powder. I also tell myself the burning pain is a good way to get used to pain. And it's annoying to train with socks but I tell myself it's a good way to practice balance and a slippery canvas.

@AndyMaBobs wow thanks for all this. Really interesting.

I visited a traditional family style lethwei gym and saw these wooden things. They weigh maybe 1 kilo each, look like wine bottles and you use them to strengthen your wrists as in the video. I've never seen this before and was curious if they are used in muay thai gyms as well? And also curious about other wrist strengthening techniques used. VID_20200517_131629.mp4