Jeremy Stewart
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Posts posted by Jeremy Stewart
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19 hours ago, Kero Tide said:
I need to keep that very much in mind.
I have been trying for years to stop being the one who moves out of the way of people when walking in the street. Sometimes I succeed, but most of the time i fail. I'm not the confrontational type. I hate contact and I hate conflict. I've only very recently told people I don't do cheek-kissing (this is the French way of greeting people - I fucking hate it) and sometimes i still do it: when people are too insisting or when I care too much about their feelings or when I'm just caught off guard, and the conditioning takes over.
Yet I love the contact in a Muay Thai context. I enjoy the violence and I actually do enjoy hurting people - and being hurt too, just as much, maybe more. I find it so much easier to take space in this context.
But I don't want my personality/mind to be fractured and dispersed. I think it may be a lot easier to have different personas than to build yourself as a whole person. Having Alter Egos sounds very cool, appealing and romantic. It's a popular trope in pop culture. You see it all the time in super heroes. I was drawn to it for a while - as a sort of trendy thing to aspire to.
But when I think about it and after reading your take on it, it does sound way more badass to simply be whole, just completely yourself all the time. Also to be accountable to everything that you do, and not just be like "well, can't help it, that's my other persona / the demon inside me / the addiction / bla bla bla". Like Eminem with his Slim Shady. "I can be an asshole, and a monster and a psycho because that's not really me actually. That's my other darker me." -> it sounds a bit like escapism. The ring can be a place where you escape. You think you're dealing with whatever troubles you deep inside that created that fracture in yourself by being a monster in the ring, and maybe it does help a little. But if you're ONLY "dealing" with it in the ring and never outside of it, what happens when you can't be in the ring anymore? When you don't have your mean to escape, to let off some steam, what then?
I guess that's what happen then. You're more likely to break at some point. It's too fragile to be split. Look at what happened to Voldemort and his horcruxes. Lol.
Kero, mate. I really like your openness. This comment is in no way advice. I'm definitely not anyone to have the temerity or arrogance to advise someone on how live. But there is so much truth in what Kevin wrote. I'd kill to be half as good a wordsmith as he is. He is so correct in as I understand his statement, people who develop alter personas all ways come apart eventually. Occupying your own space doesn't entail being an arsehole about it, if it's genuine. My Kru, I first met him when I was 19, I'm 48 now. I was at a gym and he was visiting and the aura he gave off was just incredible. And he has to be one of the most approachable people if ever met, but you were very aware his space was his space. He's nearly 70 now and the same way. So I guess what I'm saying is be true to who you are.
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23 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
There is also always a suspicion for me that when people put on alters that those masks can break, if you push on them hard enough, that the fighter, or even the person in life, doesn't really, really, really believe that that is who they are. And that there can be a kind of fragility to that path. Yes, you can put on masks to grow into them, to give permissions, that's a tool, but what is is stronger, like a slowly growing oak tree, to really become what you dream.
I firmly believe in what you just said. If you push someone with an alter persona, they eventually "drop their nuts", as we say here. I love your reference to Sylvie's discomfort with adopting such an approach and her stock (which is already very high in my value) has risen exponentially. I regard myself as Muay Matt, this fits with my psyche and the way I am in general, that's not say I'm a pugnacious type, I'm just confident in who I am. I'm a firm believer in being true, if you aren't the only person you're truly hurting is yourself. One has to be able to look in the mirror, so to speak, and like what they see.
I keep forgetting to let you guys know what an impact you have had on me. I was always convinced that I was the only one who intellectualised on martial theories, most of my friends don't grasp the concepts I come up with, my kru does, but he's a rarity and I have the utmost respect for him and the impact he has had on my life. As a rule, I have shied away from the internet and discussing things in such an open format. Shit, I don't even facebook. I discovered Sylvie on YouTube after several years absence, and I really can't verbalize how much I was impressed. I enjoy your writing, Kevin. The obvious thought, research and knowledge you put across is truly amazing. Watching the evolution of Sylvie, of course as a fighter, but more importantly as a woman has been amazing.
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On 6/11/2019 at 12:53 AM, Coach James Poidog said:
will quickly comment on this. Maybe the term used by westerners, instead of mechanized, is structured. I truly believe we crave structure. I had a coach teach that mentality to me from the system he used and honestly since I started using it, its been easier to teach people. Ive never taught outside the US but I have taught a lot of people from other countries that move here and they respond just as well to a structured system. I wonder if its a by product of how we a re raised and taught growing up. If it doesnt have something to do with comfort. Similarly to the essay above, we crave structure because its familiar and familiarity breeds comfort
100%. You and I are the same age. I'd surmise even though we are from different countries our schooling and formative educational experience would be similar. I.E. everything by rote. So I truly believe structured learning like you said (a better term,
), is what we crave as it's what we respond too. However, thanks to Sylvie and something she said, I've adopted a try not to try sort of approach and just let it flow. In how I conduct a class eg. Instead of trying to plan a class down to the minute, last detail, I just let it happen as it plays out, if that makes sense,my own personal training and the way I encourage my students. As it stands at the moment, I know I teach better, I know I train better and the students are performing better. All because the aspect of self criticism has almost totally disappeared. And one thing most people are really good at is being over critical of themselves.
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2 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
One reason why this patterned teaching proliferates is that it fits in well with our mechanistic world, another reason is that just like in the world of commerce, making widgets (discrete units), and selling and moving them quickly, is a very keen business model for the production of knowledge. You can just stamp them out and put them in a relative assembly line. I'm not saying that all patterned instruction is like this, but we should understand that there is a certain cultural, commercial and paradigm-based balast to all of this practice
For westerners and particularly beginners, I truly believe they expect a mechanised, structured and organised system of learning any martial craft. I'm only relating this to martial crafts, however it could applied to almost anything westerners engage in. I feel this it is the only way a westerner feels he/she can gauge the value of whatever they are taking part in. So it fits perfectly with your last sentence. My personal opinion is, there's not many westerners that could be taught in any other way. Of course as you gain experience, mental and physical and of course if you are inquisitive enough, your attitude will change and the sandpile will become the driving force as opposed to the sheer mechanical process.
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48 minutes ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
This stuff goes way, way back for Thailand. The oldest recorded fight between a farang and a Thai is from the 18th century when a French Man challenged a royal champion. The Thai champion just retreated (and probably teeped and whatnot) the French boxer became totally enraged. It was so humiliating that the Frenchman's brother then
That really exemplifies the western idea of domination. It's really a macho thing. I myself like the I will get you to do what I want with out you even realising it was my idea and not your own. To me that is real domination and control of your environment. However when it comes to physical confrontation I am the total opposite, I like to impose my will and assert my dominance in a quick and timely fashion, there is very little subtlety involved.
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1 hour ago, threeoaks said:
I am interested to read this. I always thought of the killer instinct as more of a buried quality that is either there or not (perhaps dependent on trauma or some combination of genetics and nurture). Then the instinct should be trained for self-control, but there are examples of people who don't like fighting but who must for economic reasons (in Western boxing; I'm not familiar with how people talk about it in Thailand. You can distinguish domination from aggression and that is elegant but it still takes a certain amount of aggression to want to push people around. You typical submissive person does not try that). I've definitely seen fighters at the gym quit fighting cause eh, they are not really fighters? Too sweet? Have you had athletes you could not bring this out in? Is this why you ask the question, James?
I've always thought the same. You either have it buried somewhere inside you or you don't. Some people fake it but they come undone especially when things don't go there way.
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15 hours ago, Coach James Poidog said:
I think most people do. The "game face" as its called. I always wondered how deep people went though. In a fight, its pretty much kill mentality until the bell or your opponent is unconcious. How does one train that with control? What are the visual or auditory cues to get you to scale it back before you hurt a teammate? The reason I ask is because for everyone its different. Not the kill aspect but the control aspect. Also, we always hear about the different ways to condition our minds towards battle, but what about battle at the right time?
I have always had the ability to switch it on and off, as well as the mental clarity in training not to go over board on my partner. I really don't train it, I guess because of the areas I have lived the majority of my life in, you have to have it and keep it honed. So for me it is definitely a subconscious thing, no special mental exercises or physical cue training. I would make the assumption one of the visual cues associated with sparring would be the look of fear your partner may express orva look of surprise, like Whoah, Dude and audio cue would definitely an exacerbated sound of pain. I'm a very controlled type of person and never engender these experiences in a sparring partner unless they're being complete dicks.
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11 hours ago, Coach James Poidog said:
I was curious to hear how people train their killer mentality without actually taking it out on their training partners
In my mind, I'm bashing your face in. People that know me, reckon they can tell, when I switch on the killer as you put it, James. They say they see it my eyes. I seem to flow better when I put it on.
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22 hours ago, threeoaks said:
Jeremy. The dread of paralysis, yet you train. Absolutely inspirational, as is training when you know you are not the same athlete as before. I experience this daily as a person who is no longer young, but was once an absolute grinder, more than anyone around me. Much less difficult (aging is after all a privilege since the alternative is death). But my competitiveness blurgh.. it requires constant simmering down. Thanks for your example.
Thanks.
. It's just the way I am. I really don't see anything special in it. I'd rather be in control of what I do than let any,"Maybe it might happen", control me. That isn't to say, I do things Willy Nilly. My left leg is compromised, I still teep and check well with it, but body kicks are a definite no no. Sometimes even low kicks. I think this has lot to do with the hip rotation at impact. But then simple things, if I don't do them correctly can lay me up for a good stretch. It's funny but embarrassing, I got stuck on the toilet once because I turned to use the toilet paper instead of what I usually do and take the roll off the holder. 
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There's nothing wrong with competitiveness and the simmering down with age is a good. As we get older we get wiser, or so my grandma used to say. We just gotta train in a way that suits. Sometimes that more easily said than done, depending on one's nature. Me, I tend to obsess and this leads to mistakes, leads to injury which can lead to down time. I don't do down time real well.
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One of the most stylistically appealing fighters that I have had the pleasure of training with and observing is a young woman about Sylvie's size. When you watch her and then compare her grace and ease to your own efforts, it's like comparing a butterfly to an elephant having a mud bath.
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32 minutes ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
Maybe we are getting somewhere as to the original question of the OP. Does a Martial Craft become a Martial Art simply when it passes into the hands of the Rich?
And even more problematically, is this the case with all crafts and arts?
You smashed it with that one. Craft (as in trade) in my opinion is utilitarian in nature, neither beautiful nor ugly, but extremely useful. Once a craft becomes within the purview of the rich it changes it's essence. I love that term, martial craft. I've never been a big fan of the term martial art and have only really used it for convenience.
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45 minutes ago, threeoaks said:
May your dream come to fruition
. I have a friend and coach who has broken his neck (pro rugby) such that if he takes a blow to the head he’s looking at paralysis. He mainly does BJJ now (which actually seems more injury prone AND injury friendly, oddly). I can’t imagine there aren’t risks but you do what you love. Glad you survived your injury.
Thank you. It's important not just for me but for others as well. I, like your friend, face the dread of paralysis in whatever I do. My injury was to my back. Just the feeling of being able to do something is so mentally important, I can't really describe how important. Everyone tends to focus on only the physical part. You get used to pain, you get used to discomfort, but it was my experience that the mental part is the hardest part. It took 18 months to learn how to walk properly again, then comes the frustration of not being able to do the things you used to do, this leads to depressive states of mind. It's hard to relate the emotional cycles. But I guess what I'm trying to say is, With perseverance and one bit of good advice you can still train. I may not be as proficient as I once was, but I have knowledge and wish to impart that knowledge as I am a firm believer, martial crafts are beneficial first of all physically and as a by product mentally.
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In the general class, some of the fighters turn up to train or help. There's generally a couple every class. They are very helpful and knowledgeable and a great help especially to the new guys. I know what you're talking about with the bullies. All of us, the more experienced students, the teachers with their own clubs and the fighters keep a very good eye out for the bully type. If one is found they usually get toweled up and don't come back. We have a very tight nit sort of thing, not cliquey but tight and don't take kindly to wankers.
Sorry Sylvie, the above is in reference to where I train, not my own school. I never have any intention to train fighters,
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22 hours ago, threeoaks said:
Jeremy thank you. I am interested to read that the schools are generally egalitarian in Queensland. I am back East in the US, and grew up out West (which is probably culturally more like Queensland). I love the story of your big woman. OMG. I am very tall too and its strange being a bigger woman - you are constantly challenged on your gender (as many muscley women of all sizes are; I reckon Sylvie has written about this). Three months and a huge difference! You must be a great coach.
Thank you, Three Oaks. I don't consider myself to be great, but I do consider myself to be understanding and above all I love teaching people, especially those that don't fit the norm. Queenslanders are generally laid back and pretty accepting unless of course you're a dickhead, then we let rip. My dream (which I'm attempting to make come to fruition), is to have a school where being the norm is not the norm, so that people (especially those that have trained before, but not limited to) have a place to come and find or rediscover their sense of self worth, especially those like myself that have life changing injuries that they may feel excludes them from training at a regular school. I still train at my original muay thai school, that's my choice and I'm willing to put my body on the line because it makes me feel alive. However, not all people have that same mind set. Thank you again for the compliment
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Basics, basics and more basics. I'm really anal about balance. I don't mind spinning elbows and I'm really partial to the spinning back kick to the liver. You can take the boy out of karate but you can't take the karate out of the boy. Ahaha. Back to balance, before you can do anything, you have to be able to move and maintain balance. Some people have a great deal of trouble understanding this.
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In my opinion light sparring in the physical sense is hard for a beginner as they don't have the technique down enough to go light. I actually start my students off with reciprocal drilling, starting with 5 for 5 and soft, once they get the gist of the combination they go 1 for 1 and soft, under my watchful eye. Once I feel they exhibit enough control in drilling, they then spar. This may take 1 week or 6 months, depending on how I feel the student can control themselves physically. At my school, sparring is done with solid contact, with the idea of enjoying it, (I don't run a fight gym). Where I go for training, beginners are always started off sparring (if they want to spar) with the more experienced students and instructors. This is so there is no ego involved, the student knows he/she is with someone who is there to teach and help and not bash.
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In all of my years associated with the martial arts, there have always been women involved either as instructors or students. Each and everyone of them has/had the respect of the class. I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but I've always found martial training, be it Karate or Muay Thai to be a pretty even playing field where you earn your respect regardless of sex. At least that's been my experience. Bare in mind, I come from Queensland and in American terms we were and still are considered rednecks. Of course there has been the occasional knob head, both male and female but they have usually left of their own accord or have been asked to leave.
As a teacher, I have one particular female student whom three months ago wasn't very confident in herself. She's a naturally big person. Anyway she could not kick higher than halfway up her own shin height. Now, she's kicking almost to head height, she's 6'1". She feels more confident in herself and the secret to bringing her out of shell was something I learned from Sylvie. Try not try, let things just flow.
I do think in general, women are more eager to please and seem more attentive in regards to learning.
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2 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
Why can't you access to the General Forum? You should have access to everything above. There is a Woman's Only forum which is in the lower half of the the home page, which only women can write in, but the major forums are open to everyone.
When it said select forum, the first one on the list wasn't in bold and that was the selection I wished to place this conversation in. It's no big deal, I just would have liked to place it in the right spot.
It is a pleasure to be part of this forum. I really enjoy it. I love the whole concept of what you and Sylvie are doing. The patrons you have deserve a big congratulations for having the faith to support such an endeavour. And the effort you guys put into it is amazing. We the viewers, commentators and general fans get to benefit greatly.
In particular, I have real fan boy moments with each Muay Thai Bones podcast.
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I couldn't access the general forum part. Thank you, Sylvie and Kevin for creating such a space. It's wonderful to be able to converse with people of a like mind and without the presence of trolls. I have been absolutely mesmerised by Sylvie's YouTube channel since discovering it and joining 8limbs has been a great thing. Thank you too, to all the contributors for their intelligent and well thought out questions and answer. This place provides a lot of food for my brain.
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11 hours ago, Coach James Poidog said:
This might seem like an odd question to bring up, but a peer posted in an American muay Thai forum about the traditional music being played during competition. He asked if people (coaches and fighters mostly) felt the music was too loud, specifically to hear the corner during the fight. In seeing the responses I thought, more for curiosity sake, it would be a good question to ask the international crowd. If asked, Ill put my feelings in a comment below.
I'm asking the question, James....
. My opinion is more or less identical to Sylvie's.
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My first reaction was wow, this is cool. But, I can see how to western eyes this may appear over the top.
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21 hours ago, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu said:
I'm a bit inspired by Coach James's recent thread about kids "fighting" (they're sparring, but James is bothered by it and in his mind used the word fighting in his title, which I think is significant), but also because I just was watching some hard sparring at my gym here in Thailand.
Here's the set up. In the West, we tend to have this "holier than thou" attitude toward "technical sparring" over "hard sparring," usually accompanied by some kind of credit to how "technical and light" sparring in Thailand is. Okay, sure, I've seen very little sparring among Thais in which they're trying to hurt or knock each other's heads off (I have seen some), whereas I have seen that kind of sparring in Thailand but usually when one or both of the people participating are not-Thai. This said, when Thais spar with shinpads and gloves, it's not "light." The word for sparring in Thai len cherng, literally means to "play techniques." That's the point, and usually the spirit of it. But it's not "light" in the sense that the West tends to characterize it as for their own uses and purposes. It is more "lighthearted," but the actual power of strikes and intention is well over the 60% that I'd qualify as "going light."
I was watching two sets of sparring at my gym yesterday. The first couple were both not-Thai. One guy was from India, the other from Italy. The Indian guy always goes too hard, as judged by me for what's appropriate for practice. But he's never told by the coaches to turn it down, which means they see a purpose to how hard he strikes. He also tires easily. And they never put him with someone who is close to a fight, because they know he goes this hard. The Italian guy has way more experience than the Indian guy and, while he got battered pretty good by hard leg kicks and punches in the first round and a half, he took the lead with clinch and knees to "win" the sparring - as if it were a fight, judged by others. The thing is this: the punches and kicks were 100%. The emotional stress and intention was 100%. And the guy who goes too hard, by gassing and ultimately being bettered in the end, his disappointment was 100%. All of those elements are important for learning how to fight. You have to deal with real stress. You have to deal with the consequences of coming out too hard, too early, if you don't have the stamina to keep it going. You have to learn how your power overwhelms someone and then doesn't. And likewise, the Italian guy has to learn that you can't only practice going in and having everything controlled for you. I was pretty impressed by the way he handled it, honestly, and I'm not very generous in things I like about this guy. As an important note, while nobody was told to take their power down, there were shinpads, large gloves, a referee and spectators to break the two men when things were too heated or stagnant, or to stop the time early if needed. It's still being supervised, just not interfered with very much.
The next couple were two Thai boys, both about 14-16, same weight as each other but a gulf in experience. One has been training and fighting since he was 8 and surely 100+ fights, the other a handful of years with only 20 or so fights. One loves to go backwards (the experienced one) and gets yelled at for it, the other likes to come forward and strike pretty hard. They both kicked and punched less than 100% power, but not far below that. There were exchanges when the power would go up, but then it would come back down. There was never any "danger" throughout that match, unlike the other one. The biggest difference, however, was the emotional charge. There were moments when the two Thai fighters were amped up a bit, the dominance was real. But they weren't trying to hurt each other. They were trying to dominate each other and shut the other down. It wasn't like that with the non-Thais; there was an element that felt not in control with them, an emotional derailment that felt dangerous... although the Thai men who sat around the ring to watch found it incredibly entertaining.
So here's my point: there is a purpose to hard sparring. There is purpose to "technical" sparring. There is an art to both, and I think both are required for the development of a fighter. But what's "light" about Thai sparring is not the power of strikes; it honestly is in the "asshole factor" of emotional energy put into the sparring itself. It's a lack of control that makes hard sparring dangerous or not worthwhile, not the power itself. Stress is an important training tool. Disappointment is a training tool. Gassing out is an important training tool. To only ever advocate for some kind of pantomime sparring robs fighters of those tools.
This was Jame's original post discussion that lead to these thoughts:
Wow.... So many thoughts and expressions, all of them valid. My two cents worth is as follows. I find that when you spar with young men in particular, they feel they have to go all out as an expression of their manliness. I call it the old bull, young bull. The old bull, me, is calm, not tense and is there to play around and have fun. Your contact is solid but not over the top. The young bull by comparison, still hasn't figured out his place in the world, subconsciously everything he does is about his masculinity, he's all tense and wants to have fun but doesn't have any real idea how to go about it. So, as the old bull, sometimes you have lay the smack down and drop a couple of bombs. If this is done in the correct manner, with the right intent shown the young generally pulls his horns in. Sometimes they don't and things can escalate, but it's been my experience that these types are just pricks and aren't used to being put in their place.
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Right cross.
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Meat and three veg first. If you eat that, then we'll add some gravy. But seriously, every lesson contains, left, right, left hook, low kick. Without fail. This is because, you must have something so ingrained in you, that when the shit hits the fan, it comes automatically.
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Fight Aggression: Alter Personalities OR Growing Who You Are?
in Muay Thai Technique, Training and Fighting Questions
Posted
Exactly why training is so important, I reckon. No abuse on my behalf but kinda left to my own devices and just angry at the world. Training was I think what gave me a compass, I watch a lot of mates get in way more trouble than I did. I've lost a mates to drugs and violence. But the one constant was training, I got a trade, I got a wife, I got a couple of kids. I've ran a couple of successful businesses and I truly believe being able to train and have positive people around me has made all the difference. I'm not saying I haven't made some really fucking stupid mistakes in my years on this earth, but without the release of hard physical training and discovering through that what you're really made of and who you truly are deep inside, those mistakes would have been far more damaging.