Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

I love the history of Little Tiger Charlie. Things I could never know. A big fan of hers, though I haven't seen enough fights to make a solid judgement. Her technique is beautiful. As to throwing a lot of kicks, yes, these things score in Thai scoring too, but she throws a lot of low kicks and these are not really points in Thai scoring, unless they start to distort the opponent. Thai scoring, if you do not know, is also not round by round. The first two rounds really don't score except in context. It is all about progression. But in Thai scoring punching is devalued, unless it becomes effective. Kicks score more or less whether they have effect or not, as long as they are above the waist, if I had to generalize. Let me ask, and this could be a big difference. In Thailand the fighter going backwards is often seen as in the lead, defending their lead. In Japan is the Japanese fighter seen as the leader because they are the aggressor (as in Western fighting)? The way a retreating fighter is judged (generally) is a big miscommunication between Thai vs westerner fights. How do they regard that in Japan?

There are a few things that make me wonder whether it is Japanese owned. For instance it seems that when Thai girls go and fight there, and are clinch fighters, they seem to be prone to losing, with judging being done in a kind of non-Thai way (we know that Japanese female fighters tend to be poor in the clinch). It suggests that in Japan there is a more Japanese-fighter style bias in judging? Thais are pretty nationalistic, and still sore at kickboxing being stolen from them (some may say) it's hard to believe that a Thai organization would have so many Japanese champions in their national sport. They would find a way to stack the deck, I assume. But perhaps it is a business-first model, and they make money from Japanese followers. It could explain why there are WPMF Japanese country champions. I don't remember the WPMF having any other country champions, not even WPMF Thailand champions (perhaps I am wrong?) I also found it curious, though it is a different organization, that Little Tiger came to Thailand to fight Faa Chiang Rai who seemed to win that fight in a very "Thai" style WBC International belt fight, but the decision was awarded to Little Tiger, on Thai soil. Faa fought that fight in a text-book backwards fighting Thai femur way, perhaps you would disagree. That felt oddly political, as if Little Tiger was being protected, which isn't a suprise as she's a high profile champion, except that it was in Thailand. Faa Chiang Rai seemed to come out of nowhere to fight her (we knew who she was). But now Faa Chiang Rai is the 2nd ranked WPMF Miniflyweight, a weight class that is actually above her natural weight class, she is very small, putting her out of Little Tiger's weight category. So odd. It seems somehow that Japanese female Muay Thai fighters are a bit favored by the bodies at large. Not to say I don't love them, and love seeing Japanese fighters getting shine. It's just a feeling one gets. The fights between Little Tiger and Pizza are another curious example (though I never saw their fight in Japan). Pizza kind of destroyed Little Tiger in Thailand (WMC I think), after losing to her in Japan a few months before. Just owned her in the clinch. Little Tiger drew with Sosci (Italian), another clinch fighter, in Japan, when it would seem that she would probably have a big clinch advantage. Because so many of these fights are unseen, it's hard to tell, but the WPMF has a very strong Japanese flavor at times.

I find this stuff endlessly interesting. So much happens far away and seemingly behind closed doors. Can you tell me Charlie, is the WPMF Japanese owned? Or Thai? Do you have any idea?

Amazingly, it even applies to infants. I remember when we first came to Phetjee Jaa's gym (before where it stands now), and there was a woman visiting with a small baby. I forget what made it happen but suddenly the baby was being handed over the ropes to someone inside. Now this gym was basically nobody but Jee Jaa, her brother, her mother and father and the occasional visitor. They in fact slept under the ring. It basically was their home. But Sangwean jumped in alarm asking if the infant was a girl or a boy. As Sylvie mentioned, the same division of women and the ring is the same exact thing that keeps Phetjee Jaa from fighting at Lumpinee, we've seen him (and her) shake his head about that and how unfair it is. But then he enforces a very strong, conservative stance even down to infants. We have seen Jee Jaa sneak between ropes though, when nobody (her father) isn't looking. :ninja:

Hi Charlie, btw I love all the work you do, I follow you through Sylvie. The WPMF seems to do a lot of "Interim" World Championship titles in Thailand, which seems to mean that they just want to have a belt fight among top fighters, as a promotion for the show.. I'm not even sure of the status of these titles. I assume though that when the real belt is itself up for grabs that it would be between the top two ranked fighters. Honestly though, I've not seen many WPMF belts change hands. But recently Tanonchanok, who had held the Light Flyweight belt for more than 2 years just fought and lost it to Kwankao LukKlongtan who I think was the number 1 challenger at the time. It seems odd to have a Thai champion fly to Japan to fight the 4th ranked challenger when the 1st ranked challenger is a Thai in Thailand. But really anything can be expected. That's why I ask if it was for the championship belt, I wasn't sure. If so, interesting that Duwandawnoy has to defend her belt so fast after Tanonchanok held onto it for a very long time without fighting much. It does feel like the WPMF is getting itself together a bit, trying to get their titles updated.

So this is for the title Charlie? Duwandawnoy just won the belt and now faces the 4th ranked competitor?

I loved reading this review as I could really feel you Kay, your values, your person. And I got to see Sinbi in a new light. I could feel that beach, the combination of sweet relaxation and 4 hours of hard work each day. This is the amazing thing about gyms in Thailand. Not only can gyms change so much even over a few months, but personal expectations, and differences between people produce wildly different experiences. Back in September Sylvie actually recommended Sinbi to someone she didn't know on Twitter because of its reputation for training women - you can see the tweets here - but then the experience was far from expectation. In fact Michelle had such a negative experience she ended up taking a hit financially and flying up to Pattaya to train with Sylvie. She wrote about it here Disappointments and Falling in Love Again. Both experiences are quite real, right? I think the biggest key is getting your expectations in line with the way things are going to be, and figuring out what you are hoping for. It's a little like the question "What college should I go to?" You can be right next to someone having the time of their life, and be miserable. Or the opposite.

Hey Matt, I don't train, but I do watch very closely. Master Toddy's is a kind of an amazing place. You walk in and you think you are in an old Run Run Shaw movie set. You see a class of almost all westerners, and you think "Hey, this isn't going be very real." But Master Toddy is an incredible force of personality and mind. I was shocked at how hands-on he is in classes (which are not very large). He's developed a system of progressive drilling that is brilliant (Sylvie stole a few things for her own workouts after one session there). And he has a great eye for what needs improvement. But the biggest thing about Master Toddy is his enthusiasm. Thais are, as a whole, extremely uncomplimentary. Mostly they'll just push you through work and at best nod. But Master Toddy has a unique gift. He can instill confidence. What he says, and how he says it, from afar might feel cheesy (thinking back to his tv persona), but in real life, right there in front of you, it gives a blast of belief. I'm surprised at how effective it is, I saw it immediately infuse Sylvie with confidence. There are of course many different Muay Thai experiences to be had in Thailand, and its safe to say that none of them are like training at Master Toddy's. Master Toddy is just incredibly unique. I can see how some people wouldn't like it - it doesn't match up with boot camp fantasies of Thailand - but for some people it's golden. The "Thai way" of teaching is actually to just put you on a bag and let you figure it out for yourself, amid 100s and 1000s of repetitions. Very little instruction or correction. Master Toddy offers a different way of accessing Muay Thai. It would make a very interesting first stop in a trip that aims at seeing several gyms and fighting a few times.

When I say this is an amazing Thai soap opera there has to be a qualifier. Thai soaps are notoriously unwatchable, at least for me. Full of huge Thai stereotypes, silliness, sound effects, and at times offensive forced sex (rape) scenes, big rambling drama, they really push the patience meter, even when in Thailand there may be nothing else on TV. We don't watch them. But for us we kept running into this one which seems brand new, and were shocked to see Muay Thai being portrayed as a central theme in the soap. When we found it on we watched for few minutes, if only as a kind of observer, to see what stereotypes would surround pop culture, soap portrayals of Muay Thai. It wasn't until we sat down and binge watched 3 episodes that we found all kinds of pleasure (and information) in this innocent soap. We actually found ourselves laughing, repeatedly, at the portrayals (that were meant to be funny), and the surrounding story lines, as best we could follow. The plots are not complicated, and even though I had the aid of Sylvie jumping in, I think I could follow them despite having almost zero Thai myself. Whether it would be worth it for you, I don't know. Our 3 years here may have softened my resistance to some of these portrayals, and made watching things in a language I don't understand enjoyable, but I found it both hilarious (slapstick style, and I'm not a fan of slapstick) and oddly illuminating. As far as I can tell the story follows Phet, a young man who is the lead in his family's Likay troop. Likay (lee-kay) is a traditional form of Thai Folk Theater (this Bangkok post article fills in some details). Phet, through circuitous events finds himself wanting to join a Muay Thai camp (all of this in Isaan?) which is run by several women. The most prominent female is Pim, who also seems to be the star fighter of the camp. The title of the soap is Likay - Matsang (Folk Theater - Directed Fist), and it balances a tension between Phet's traditional dance theater troop - and its attendant (effeminate) almost boy-band masculinity - and the Kai Muay which is run by women. The camp emphasizes female fighters to a surprising degree. The stereotypes abound, and much is being said about Thai masculinity, of course in endless silliness. Also, the portrayals of the camp, with the men all training in clean shirts and discordantly in white sneakers (is it transgressively low class to see men hitting bags topless?), create a kind of Muay Thai fantasy space, that is half a cleaned-up Bangkok upper middle class, and half low-class and provincial mash up. Muay Thai figureheads like Khaosai Galaxy and Somrak appear in it, and the adventures are off the charts mad cap at times - the razing camp shower scene, leading to a near naked run through the camp at night has to be seen to be laughed at. But if you are someone who loves all things Muay Thai, and loves all things Thailand, I can't help but feel that at the very least it deserves peak. One of the more interesting things is the lead character of Pim, who could have stepped out of the Sud Suay Muay Thai campaign, aimed at making Muay Thai much more amenable to the middle class, and in particular middle class Thai young women. Her position and experience as fighter (and she fights two ridiculous fights in the first few episodes against a giant opponent named "moo daeng") gives her a strength, aggression and confidence in social situations which does not seem to have to be balanced by overly "feminine" qualities. Not knowing Thai to check her language, she seems like a woman who is just empowered by her fighting and Muay Thai, which makes for an interesting case of public image making. I'm not completely sure what the juxtaposition of Likay and Muay Thai is supposed to serve, but I am sure that it has resonance. Muay Thai and traditional dance performance (like lakhon) actually hold a very long history together, going back hundreds of years, each performed for royalty in celebrations. And now both Muay Thai and Likay performances can be found in the same festivals that countlessly dot the countryside and serve as the bed of Muay Thai in Thailand. And it isn't just in Thailand. Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema (1970s) was born out of the acrobatics and storytelling of Chinese Peking Opera as well. Fighting and dance go together, as any Ram Muay will tell you. You can find all the updated Likay Matsang episodes here streaming. Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 This is the first part of the first episode. If you can get through this you'll be more entertained later.

Always good to see these drills and how instructors teach elements.