Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

In reading Campagna Technic and Magic, which argues the metaphysical roots of the mechanization of the world, we can see where the replicable "combo" in a series fits even in pictures of representation. The subsumption and deprivleging of the specifity of the art.

Honestly though, its shocking how many subtle skills these boys have, skills (or perhaps...qualities) that grown men (& women) who have devoted themself to the sport/art for many years, don't have.

There are two schools of thought on this. Padholding is now used, often, to teach techniques, but in Thailand's past it was much more of conditioning, rhythm-making training mechanism. Kaensak said it was used to "charge the battery". One reason why it could work in that way was because the kaimuay was full of training many other aspects of fighting, including lots of play-sparring, and timing building training. A better approach, given that kaimuay training has been somewhat lost to the sport, is to use padwork to build your own sense of control and rhythm taking, turning padwork much more into a dialogue. But...this takes an advanced, experienced padholder, usually a former experienced stadium fighter, who can work in that way. You want to build and change intensities, work at different distances, etc. One of the most important (and neglected) things in fighting is control over distance, and varying tempo/intensity. When you have a good padman, these things can be work with.

The grassroots of Thailand's Muay Thai, consistent of networks of small kaimuay gyms and local side-bet fight scenes in the provinces are left with two impotent choices: join the stream of endless labor supply to Entertainment aggression fighting, getting knocked out for content...or, enter Bangkok gambled stadia fighting, and lose to big gym name fighters the promoters are building, carefully sculpting your muay so fit within a conservative spectrum of fighting...ie, when you lose, it can't be blameable on a singular, pointed out mistake you have made. Blame has to be dispersive, because you and your gym have little social power. In either case, its the grassroot kaimuay who are feeding Capital Muay. The problem is that Capital, in its scissoring of the sport, pushing it towards rudiments, strips it of its complexity, a complexity that traditionally reached its apex in the Capital (in the 1970s-1990s). The source of this complexity though likely resides in the provinces themselves. That argument:

Trad Muay Thai Not Dead Yet. This Incredibly Skilled fight between 9 year olds. Femeu spacing and timing, linking strikes with eyes & rhythm, not in memorized combos, rounds of Muay Khao fighting, fluid knees upon knees. Old School Ruup, Sanae, art & dominance. It's beautiful that this kind of developed muay can still happen in Thailand, it tells us that grassroots the art, style and knowledge is still living, despite the onslaught embrace of Entertainment values, mostly made for foreigners. Though, as can be seen in other young femeu fighters, as these young fighters grow into the Bangkok scene they will likely lose a lot of this art, as betting pressures and a general conservative, simplifying cultural force will rob much of the fluency and expression. At this age they reflect very significant aspects of Golden Age fighting, things very hard to find in the sport now, but the trends of the sport then strip away the freedom and continuity. We have a historical condition now where the art & really sophistication of the sport's legacy exists in the provinces, whereas in the Capital Thailand's Muay Thai has be contorted by capital interests, both in its Entertainment varieties (made for the non-Thai tourist/consumer) AND by the compressed, illiberal, online-fueled betting culture of stadium fighting. Entertainment Muay Thai dumbs down the vocabulary and expressive value of the sport, attempting to create a violence-oriented, casuals product (altering the sophistication of the sport, and its essential Thai dominance over aggression DNA); and stadium betting Muay Thai, because of the oversized power of gambler influence, drains away the complexity of the art, as fighters and small gyms are forced into stylistic straight jackets, avoiding risk-taking, and creative intricacy. Broadly speaking Entertainment fighters know, in the extreme, their job is to get knocked out (a notable Thai Entertainment fighter said this to me), and grass roots fighters in stadium Muay Thai know their job is to not lose face, leaving no room for the development of the kinds of skills and expression that we see in this fight.

This is very good. Berardi on control. What this says of the liberatory potential of Trad Kaimuay Muay Thai.

Nabil kinda told the truth about O Muay.

Watching this fight today. Two insanely skilled 9 year olds. The beating heart of trad Muay still alive.

Reading Berardi, I become convinced, that we must find a way to island the knowledge, protect it from its encryption. The only thing I can think of...is a place...not a means of expression or communication. A topos. But these are at most gyms or museums. It does not come to me yet. But, we must prevent or forestall, retard encryption.

It's crazy. Sylvie dropping knowledge from her years of experience in Thai gyms, a slowly evolved observation on the hidden dimensions of hierarchy and fighter evolution, and people in comments proposing theories on what is REALLY happening, you know, based on no connection to kaimuay culture. We live in a time when the simulation of knowledge (and perspective) is the purpose of exchange. Heading toward pure simulcrum. They haven't a clue, she gave them a clue. The internet is anti-knowledge.

I believe we need to take an anti-knowledge stance towards Muay Thai, in this Age. This is to say, anything that measures is to be shunned. I've not always done that, but I'm coming to see that simply is not the direction. Cadence is an interesting question. Not the cadence that measures, in the sense of the unfeeling cadence, the cadence which cannot see. But also, and more importantly, every spatial coordinate, anything that maps on neutral space. Any gridding.

I recognize that I have loved you through the art of Muay Thai. I used its script to speak beneath surfaces.

"Thai fighters are lazy"...think about all the things implied by this statement.

The Knowledge Mill There is a very interesting dilemma that has gradually arisen, as the totalization of cognitive Capitalism takes its hold on the world, which is that so much of our information sphere has become a knowledge mill. This is to say, we all work producing knowledge and perspectives to feed into the mill, day and night, such that the meaning of our knowledge, our experiences, becomes asymptotically less and less. It just wants to be fed. And we grist it all, feeding it back in. As the producer of perhaps the greatest documentation of a fighting art, in the history of the planet, and art full of nuance, culture and history, as well as great efficacy, how does one keep it from just being ground up by the mill and losing all meaning? Just another set of details, coordinates of interest, to be mapped and ultimately colonized by pure consumption? We've purposely made much of the documentation hard to digest for such a mill. Hour long videos of narrative structure that force investment and discovery by the viewed. We've made it hard to mine...but still is lacking, other than this mode of resistance, an appropriate expression and conversation of that knowledge, something that honors its meaningfulness. I've felt myself grow sensitive to this milling, and feeds are populated by advice and social-credit expertise, increasingly a flood of nonsense (from a certain perspective). Just let the mill mill, I say. But, its more than that. It needs a positive form, resistant to that churning mouth of it all.

Recommended.

An "ontology of positions"

Simondon and the Infinite grammatical positions of Becoming from the same work I see some parallels in transition a fighter can make between gyms in Thailand, in years as they elapse, as a fighter you ARE your techniques (not of striking, but of training). Avatars of oneself unfold, in series of successions. In the passage below swap out "technology" with techniques-of-training, perhaps, to make the most sense of where I am heading.

Kem's Muay Thai in the Khaoyai Mountains below Korat would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for someone in your position I think.

Positioning the extraction of techniques from Thailand's trad Muay Thai, into a globalizing culture of technique bent toward expansion. Fredrico Campagna, Technique and Magic.

I have long thoughts on this, but I simply can't get myself to write them. The audience for this kind of information simply is crumbling in the face of waves of near-mindless, replicating "content". I sense the ability to even discuss these things is being lost on a slope of consumption.

More and more I am convinced. You fight exactly how you train...which does mean you execute the strikes you have trained.

Yesterday I was quite surprised to hear Chatchai Sasakul telling us that people problematically slowdown their punches, and lack the natural acceleration that is necessary at the end. The "shape" of their punches is all wrong. I was surprised because this validated what I wrote 2 years ago, exactly that. I got a lot of flack from internet authority types.

Regional Golden Age Muay Thai - Khon Kaen Hanging with Karuhat I asked him: Are there any more good fighters from Khon Kaen (where he is from and famous for very femeu fighters like Pudpadnoi, Himself, Somrak, etc)? He shook his head. No, there was a very big stadium there, like Lumpinee. They had a big card every Saturday, broadcast on channel 4 - which I take to be a local broadcast. The stadium was the focus of the region's entire scene of Muay Thai. The stadium closed maybe 20 years ago. He said he fought in the stadium maybe 4 times.

Two recent photos with the Blade Runner Aesthetic:

This thread relatedly expands on the cultural aspects and difficulties of shooting in Black and White in Thailand, and reflects on the history of Muay Thai photography in the country: