Jeremy Stewart

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.

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.

I'm asking the question, James..... My opinion is more or less identical to Sylvie's.

My first reaction was wow, this is cool. But, I can see how to western eyes this may appear over the top.

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.

Right cross.

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.

My Kru talks a lot about this. As he puts it, those little Thai blokes are masters of it, ever wondered how 55kg man can kick like a 100kg? This is force=mass×velocity. He can spend a lot of time talking about it.

It's not to far afield assessment. You can see it in general terms at a lot of clubs and gyms. The more genteel an environment a person comes from, the less comfortable they are with violence and the notion of getting hit, especially in the face. It's not always the case but from observations over the years it's an accurate one. Working class people generally don't react that way.The very notion of single shot death blows is far removed from reality and you can really only understand that viscerally if you come from a rough neighbourhood. Look at Alma Juniku for instance, she comes from Logan City. I don't know what suburb of Logan. I come from Logan. To most people from Logan, just merely existing is a daily fight. My point to that, is she feels it viscerally, instinctively that one shot does not make the kill. Such high and mighty deliberations on one shot kills can only ever be made by the rich, as they have the time to ponder such things. Here's a sad but funny anecdote on how people regard Logan City....... My son was out and about in Brisbane City. He starts up a conversation with a girl. She asks him where he comes from. He says Logan. The girl replies, don't people die in Logan?

My version do.

Thank you Kevin. I found the sections of the book you posted very informative and I agree the concept of do has been romanticized to fit within the ideals of a modern affluent world. I find in the above quote by Kano some relevance to the beginnings of my journey in the martial arts. My first art and love was Karate, I began training in a small rough mining town. Anyway, jump forward a bit and we're back in the back smoke and I wanted to continue my training. However believe it or not there wasn't much choice, the karate I'd been doing out west didn't exist in the city, This was in the eighties. There was a lot of as Kano put it, ill disciplined ryu around. I wanted to train at one of these ill disciplined ryu, as a lot of my mates did. My father didn't want me to train with these thugs as he put it, so I ended up at a kickboxing school that had it's roots in Taekwondo. So the point of my ramble is Karate at that time and place (at least a certain kind of karate) carried with it unfavourable association. With regards to the modern conceptualized ideal of do, there was none of this at my kickboxing school. We trained, and we trained hard and I like to think that training in a hard physical combat oriented environment by way of it's very nature reveals oneself to oneself, because in the end it's really only yourself you're fighting. I also think that training in the combat arts gives you a certain strength of character that pulls through persnal adversity like no other art form can.

I may be over simplifying things here, but it's all the suffix do. Do or way is seen to be a way of cultivating oneself or for want of a better way to describe it, the way to self improvement. So Karate-do, is a method of spiritual self improvement without a focus on the martial context of the techniques. Whereas if one practices Karate-Jutsu the emphasis is placed on the physical application of the techniques and there viability in actual confrontation. Spiritual edification coming second to the primary purpose in other words. Having said that, I don't see how you can have one without the other.

Evolution is what it's about, in my opinion. There's so much freedom in muay thai. To me, you can express yourself better in muay thai language than other martial art languages. You can take what you're given and truly make it your own. Your own dialect of a particular language so to speak. It's so adaptable and enjoyable and flows so freely between things.

I believe one thing we lose sight of is, all martial arts were borne of the need for either war or self defense, so it kind of makes sense that similarities in concepts and physical applications would be apparent across the spectrum of styles.

I love clinching with Kru, as he maybe nearly 70 but he's so subtle and relaxed when he turns and trips you.

I agree the ego takes a back seat. Combat sports can teach you a lot of things. I am nearly 50 and started with Karate when I was 15. I had always been fit up until I was nearly 40 when I suffered a severe back injury, which has left my left leg somewhat compromised, I also suffered two heart attacks in quick succession. My point to that is, if I hadn't trained in Karate and Muay Thai, I don't think I would have come out the other end with confidence. You get used to training through adversity and this I believe helped me over come probably the most life changing event in my life (my back injury). Also, with regards to training (post back surgery), the best advice I've ever received was, you can still train, you just gotta do it differently.

It's funny you mention it. I get to experience both ends. At my school, I'm like you, I may be the teacher but I don't consider myself the top of the mountain, I'm there to impart knowledge nothing else, however I know some students feel awry about sparring with me. But when I go to my home gym, where I learned the art and am still learning the art, I like sparring the young fighters as (1) I'm nearly twice their age and I find their energy contagious, (2) The fighters are the best to spar with as they can really help you out. Our Kru is nearly 70 and has been involved with Muay Thai since the early 80's and is a wealth of knowledge.

I think it may be as simple as they don't want to be punched in the face. People may also be under the false impression, if they train at a fight gym, they in turn must fight. The idea of sparring also scares a lot of people as they don't really understand what sparing is about. The general public may view bjj as a safer pastime. I teach 4 classes a week. 2 at my local gym and 2 in my shed. I get on really well with most people at my gym and heaps of people want to try muay thai, however they don't make the leap. I have been asked whether or not I teach mma, which I don't. All of the people seem content to stay with their 10am boxercise class. I have even made it clear, that I am not a fight gym and above all I just want people to come and enjoy the classes, raise your heart rate a bit ,learn a devastingly beautiful martial art with skills that are way more beneficial to them than boxercise. My classes are also aimed at people 45 and over, so they don't feel inadequate amongst the younger set. I could blab on ad infinitum, but my only guess as to why people don't train, is fear of the unknown.

Don't be shy to just play around with stuff. Clinching in my opinion is about feeling and being relaxed in what you're doing. I personally enjoy it but a lot of people don't because they don't understand the nuances of it. So just give it a go with your mate.

The humbleness and simplicity with which they express themselves in these interviews always strikes an emotive chord within me. I really cannot explain how it makes me feel. Joy, just doesn't cut the mustard, but it's the closest I can come.

I'm sure they'd appreciate any help as this would take some of the work load off of them and provide a direct link to him.

Fantastic. Thank you. Could you forward it to Sylvie or Kevin, please?

Fantastic.. Could you forward it to Sylvie or Kevin, please?

Wangchannoi Sor Palangchai. I reckon he's incredible. According to Wikipedia he's a trainer at Chor Hapayak Gym, Tambon Lam Luk Ka, Amphoe Lam Luk Ka, Pathum Thani. But I also read somewhere that he may be dead. I hope he isn't and that you guys can find out and maybe do a session. I'd be stoked.