Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

If Attachai's is still closed by the time you get here, maybe consider heading over to Yodwicha's gym. It's a bit out of the way so you'd want to find accommodation nearby, but he's wonderful and his wife is wonderful and they absolutely can handle all levels of student. https://web.facebook.com/Yodwicha-gym-ยอดวิชายิม-109758933730799

Did the doctor do any kind of imaging to see if there's a fracture? I do remember my bones randomly hurting, a deep throbbing, months after an injury to them. I have dimples and bumps all along the bones in both shins that you can feel when you press and run your finger down the length of them. Those definitely hurt when they were getting there, but I don't feel my shins almost at all anymore. The fluid is a bit concerning to me, just in that I can't remember that being a thing that I dealt with for a long time after getting the lumps out. That doesn't mean I didn't have it, I just don't remember it. I also fought ALL THE TIME, so maybe I didn't know where the swelling was coming from. Is it swollen all the time or it comes and goes? Is there a coin-sized center spot or soft spot that you can locate against the bone?

Hongthong has connections to both local and must-travel-for promotions and would have a good likelihood of having someone relatively near your size for training. But of course it always depends on who is there at the same time, which is the same issue for whether or not you'll have fights. If they don't have opponents, there's not much they can do. But they have experience with bigger fighters, beginners, finding matches. They know where to look and have connections that give you the best chances. I'd go with Hongthong.

If you look up "Learn Thai With Mod" on Facebook you can get free, short lessons that teach simple greetings, questions, activities, etc. She and Kru Pear are wonderful at annunciating for correct pronunciation and tone.

This highlight compilation of Kingsaklek Tor. Laksong was posted on one of the Thai Language Muay Thai pages I follow. The titling is mine, I added it somewhat unnecessarily as he's always the red corner, but you never know whether links will be shared with the same context that an original share writeup offers. (Unnecessary information, but maybe you find it interesting: he's likely always the red corner in these chosen clips because the red corner is often (not always) the opponent who the odds favor before ever stepping in the ring. That means if it's a rematch, generally the red corner is who won the last fight. Or the more famous fighter between the two. Odds change all the time, at the drop of a hat, at a drop of rain, if a fighter looks left instead of right when he gets in the ring (meaning almost arbitrarily or even superstition), so for the "favored" fighter to be red, that means the odds favored them upon the making of the program and might no longer be the case by the time the fight starts.) There are a number of things to learn from this highlight, the first of which is that, without the indication of which fighter he is in each clip, you'd still be able to figure out which he is because highlight edits are designed to show the dominance of one side. That's one of the reasons I don't use or trust highlights for myself - they never tell the story of a fight, which is what I like about watching fights. Even the great OneSongchai tapes that are responsible for nearly all the Golden Age footage that most of us have seen on Youtube, they often edit rounds 1 and 2 together and then quickly get to the "action" of the important scoring rounds of 3 and 4, and the resulting "conclusion" of round 5. Often I'm frustrated by this, yelling at the screen about the edited first two rounds because, I mean, I want to know "how did we get here?" Kingsaklek is clearly very, very skilled. He's amazing and he's been so since he was just a kid. By the age of 14 he was already commanding a 140,000 Baht fighter fee. I'll put that in context: a mid-level fighter of decent skill and fame could command around 20,000 - 25,000 Baht fighter fee, maybe 30,000 Baht if they're the main event. And he was 14 years old 7 years ago, so that amount was even more impressive, taking inflation into account. I'm not arguing in any way that his talent is not superlative. But the edits, you'll note, are very quick. This means he's explosive, but likely not aggressive and relentless, the way the end result of this highlight video conveys. To be sure, there are a good handfull of moments within a single fight that can be clipped out and put together to make a really exciting highlight, so he is able to have many of these "highlight worthy" moments in a single fight and, indeed, a number of them are knockouts. But, as I yell at my TV screen, "how did we get here?" All those moments within the context of actual rounds and fights, where his opponents are also doing something to him, is much more impressive - in my eyes - to see how he was able to have that moment of dominance while the whole machine is on, rather than in a vacuum, so to speak. And finally, this is the most important point for me and one that Kevin and I have maybe touched on in a Muay Thai Bones podcast episode when talking about phenomenal "child" fighters. These fights span Kingsaklek's development over the years. Most of the fights are at Rajadamnern, the one where they're in yellow is at Omnoi and was likely a tournament of some kind. You can see his opponents get a bit better as the compilation goes on, indicated by how long the edits from each round are (meaning they went the distance, even with his dominant moments), and some have actual exchanges where the opponent gets a few good strikes in on him before he shuts them down. But something else you can see, if you have eyes for it, is how he becomes a bit more conservative as the compilation goes on. Yes, part of that is that his opponents are solid competition, but much of it - and I say this out of an estimated assumption about how money and Muay Thai work together in high-level stadium Muay Thai - has to do with the stakes. His flamboyance of movement in the first couple clips, when he's just a teenager, are outstanding. He takes risks and they pay off. As he gets bigger and visually older, he's more conservative; he's still confident, but takes far fewer risks so it's less performative. This is very illustrative of the progression of superstar "child" fighters to headline young men in stadium Muay Thai. Gambling, while a very important part of Muay Thai, is entirely at fault for this "cooling off" of young talent. Right now Yodpetek is probably the number one child fighter in Thailand. He's turning 13 this year, so near the age that some of these clips of Kingsanglek are. But he looks much younger than his age, Yodpetek still fights sub-40 kilos, meaning he's not allowed in the National Stadia yet. Since he's still fighting on the outskirts, the gambling is definitely already in place - in fact, the side bets are announced and boasted about in every single fight - but much of the money is coming from small-time or even de-centralized players. Once you hit the National Stadia, the money is huge but it's coming from bigger guns. It's a bigger deal if you lose, and so the flamboyant performances simmer into a more conservative fighting style. People watch Yodpetek and say he's the next Saenchai, so good at such a young age, imagine where he'll go! But look at Kingsanglek as the precedent, and he is one among countless: he will not stay what he is as he grows. Part of that is that his opponents will become better (fighting at 38 kg means most of his opponents are younger than himself and extraordinary talent at 12, 13 years old is more rare than the top fighters at higher weights and of more similar age and experience at the stadia), and part of it - a big part of it - will be the restrictive pressure of gambling money. I have no "conclusion" for this post. I just had all these thoughts while watching this pretty incredible highlight compilation and wanted to share what I see and think, the context I put it in, so you all can watch it with those eyes and contexts as well. To me, the progression of a "child" fighter is far more interesting than the out-of-context flare of a highlight video. I absolutely enjoy watching how amazing and skilled Kingsanglek is, no doubt, but I always prefer to see that skill in its "natural form," in the context of each actual fight. So, to youtube I go to stalk the origins of these clips, haha.

นิ่ง If you were to use it the way one would say it in Thai, you'd repeat it. The symbol at the end of the following version is the "repeat 1x" symbol. So it's "ning ning". It's not a necessary component at all, it just makes it more colloquial. นิ่งๆ

Thanks so much for your kind words. I'll try to get to the parts of your post that I am able to answer, I don't have my thumb on the pulse of American Muay Thai so I have no idea how to speculate there. Covid has had a big impact on Muay Thai in Thailand. It has shut down a lot of the provincial fighting, which was the true lifeblood of Muay Thai, put innumerable people out of work, shut down gyms and had many fighters quit for lack of income, created a different structure for fights so that the 3 round "entertainment Muay Thai" has become more prominent and traditional 5 round fights are only being put on by the Old Guard Bangkok promoters. The future of Muay Thai, in my eyes, looks grim. But for folks who like the "international" entertainment style, the future looks bright. It has not affected foreign fighters in a negative way; if anything, the opportunities have increased to fight on bigger shows (money/exposure wise) because they're these 3 round promotions that want every fight to be Thai vs Non-Thai. Likelihood that you can support yourself financially off of fighting alone is vanishingly small. Working online and teaching English seem to be the most frequent income bases for long-term stay in Thailand. For Muay Khao training I'd recommend training with Kru Diesel at his gym in Singburi, https://www.fighthousethailand.com/sing-buri

This depends a lot on your experience level, your size, and where you go. If you are relatively experienced and can be matched fairly easily do to your weight, you'll have pretty good chances of fighting. If you go somewhere that has ties to current promotions, like Phuket, Bangkok, or Pattaya (only Max Muay Thai is regular and that's starting in February, might change) then your chances of fighting multiple times are even better. During Covid the fight scene has severely narrowed, so where you go has a huge impact on your opportunities for fights right now. I'd recommend those 3 locations.

February 1st will present the first all-female card at Lumpinee Stadium, it's GoSport (the promotion that introduced women to the ring there) and doesn't indicate whether all these fights are 5 rounds or if some are 3 rounds. It appears to all be Thai women and the Main Event is Sanaejan (the first female fight for the Lumpinee banner was Sanaejan vs Buakaw, but wasn't IN the stadium due to Covid restrictions, so this will be her first time actually in the Lumpinee ring) vs Somrasmee, who was "Rising Star of the Year" in Thailand's Northern region last year or the year before.

Thakoon Pongsupha, the head of Sasiprapa Gym in Bangkok, is launching yet another TV channel for "Entertainment Muay Thai." In the announcement it reads that fighters who "entertain" in their fights, both foreign and Thai, will have continued working relationships with the promotion. The details have yet to be announced but Thakoon is partnering with his son, Arm (both pictured in the article). I don't know Arm's previous experience with anything to do with either Muay Thai or TV, but assume he grew up at the camp, which is outside Thakoon's home. And as for Thakoon, he has decades experience of running a successful fighter's gym and has worked with foreign fighters almost all that time. He has previously worked with promotions, notably other "entertainment" category promotions like MX Muay Thai, which has disappeared but was one of the earlier attempts at Muay Thai 3 rounds, wearing MMA gloves and focusing on "action."

I don't really think I'd want anything scented in my gloves to be honest. But the packaging looks nice. I wish you the best of luck with your launch.

A patron has asked me whether it's "better" to clench the fist at the end of strikes (like Sagat, Chatchai) or to keep the hands loose all the time (Napapol/"Neung", Yodkhunpon), with the caveat being in shadowboxing. There are different reasons to do each and "better" depends on a few factors as well. Staying loose in shadow is a huge part of that process, as a training tool. So relaxing the hands all the time is great. However, if you're on the beginner-to-intermediate emd of the experience scale, you likely want to do in shadow what you'll be doing on the bag, pads, sparring and fighting, which is tensing just before impact. Muscle memory, as well as protecting your hand is really important. The loose hand strike, hittong just with the knuckles and kind of scraoing down as Neung does is really advanced stuff. It's beautiful, it's relaxed, it f***ing hurts... but until you have the muscle memory and accuracy to make that method functional, you're likely to hurt yourself. And if you train total relaxation in shadow and then have to clemch to actually hit a target, you're training two tracks. So, I'd say start with the focus on relaxation but tense on the ends of strikes until you have the experience and accuracy to use the utterly relaxed method.

As of today, there has been an announcement that Channel 8 shows, Muay Hardcore (MMA gloves) and Superchamp (gloves) will introduce 2 5 round fights at the end of each show starting at their first shows next year. These shows have, until nowz only been 3 round offers with an aim for the Entertainment Muay Thai format, which has grown in popularity. The New Lumpinee GoSprot promotion which introduced women to the stadium also introduced "hybrid" cards with the first 3 fights being 3 rounds, followed by 5 round fights. Interesting development.

On Saturday there was a fight between American fighter Ongjen Topic, fighting out of P.K. Saenchaigym and Chalawan, who was formerly training with Attachai Muay Thai Gym but has been inactive (got married, moved down South) for the past 3 years since winning a Rajadamnern Stadium title. The very short version goes like this: Ongjen got counted in round 3 and, coincidentally the live TV broadcast cut off after that round (just a coincidence of time). The rest of the fight was only seen by those in the stadium or those who had some kind of online feed. In round 5, Chalawan was counted during a skirmish and then Ongjen was also knocked down but wasn't counted by the ref during a similar skirmish. Ongjen won on points and a very well-known gambler actually jumped into the ring to protest the decision. It was crazy and video/photos of it were everywhere. Here's the 5th round: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&v=1368466243610995 The gambler's complaint was that the referee had unfairly not counted Topic, basically handing the round to him. Had the referee counted Topic for what was pretty much the same kind of knock down/slip that he'd counted Chalawan for, the round would have been even. On the scorecards, the 3rd was 10-8 for Chalawan and the 5th, because Topic wasn't counted, was 10-8 for Topic. There have been countless updates, videos, explanations and comments on this issue over the past few days. Mainly, there are comments saying Topic won the fight anyway through his strategy and using "more weapons" than Chalawan, so the point about the count is moot. Others are saying the ref counting Chalawan and not Topic in round 5 is clearly cheating. And even more than either of those are people sighing and saying that the gambler jumping into the ring to protest, the argument over the count, the accusations of cheating are all together something we have come to expect from nearly every fight card and this will be the end of Muay Thai. What the people who actually have a say in this are saying is that the referee has taken responsibility and come out to say that he made a mistake in not counting Topic in round 5. There will be a meeting with Sia Moo, the head of Omnoi Stadium, where this fight took place, as well as the referees and judges, to discuss this mistake. They will not, however, be changing the result of the fight (which would cancel the bets, so the gambler who jumped in the ring is not getting what he wanted). There was also a stern warning from Sia Moo that if gamblers behave like this, storming the ring, he will simply no longer allow gamblers to enter the stadium at all, which is what Lumpinee has done in their most recent incarnation. Here's the fight in full so you can watch for yourselves. I was watching on TV and thought Chalawan's response to nearly knocking out Ongjen in round 3 was... bizarre. But, he hasn't fought in a long time and I do know that sometimes you don't know how close your opponent is to being done when everyone outside is screaming at you because they can see the affects that you can't... so, my view is just my view from watching TV. Ongjen was absolutely the more busy fighter, Chalawan is more accurate and more on balance; we're at a time in Muay Thai's scoring transformation that I don't know how judges favor those very different aesthetics, but the scorecards for this one are a pretty clear indication. Full fight, introduced by Mister Pong (a very famous sport reporter and announcer):

I just voiced my #fight269 from the other night and it's truly amazing how much of what I'm covering in this Technique Vlog from 3 years ago was present in this fight. I wasn't thinking any of these things, I was just doing them, which is how I know I've integrated these elements through YEARS of working on and then with them. If you're a patron, Chatchai, Karuhat, Sagat, and Samson are all influences on these thoughts. What's so amazing about this vlog though is how the point is finding flow, and my thoughts and associations in referencing them is exactly that flow. How do you block sp you're protected, but also able to steike out of it? Why do I use Chatchai's rhythm instead of the classic rocking? Because, to me, it feels good. High repetition is mentioned because I was doing thousands of elbows, which has its own Technique Vlog because letting go of "correct" to make space for feeling and sub-thoughtful adjustment is how you reach integration and not just discipline. There's a lot here. If you have thoughts or questions after watching, please post here and I'd love to talk about this stuff. My fight video will be up very soon, where a lot of this was displayed... 3 years on. Be patient with yourselves, I know I'm not, hahaha.

How are they now?

I did want to come back to you because it can be difficult to recognize our own thought processes, which result in our feelings, because many of them come from unconscious conditioning. One element I see repeated by men is this notion that "hitting women" is wrong. How could that be a bad thing? I think a good way to address this feeling in yourself is understanding the difference between trained skills and practice, versus violence. My mom struggled with my fighting for a long time because she views it as violence. I've experienced what I call violence, which involves a victim and is more or less one-sided. That's not what sports or artforms are. I wrote about it here if you want to read about the differences I see (https://8limbsus.com/blog/violence-fighting-silence-speaking-of-rape-muay-thai) but the short, short takeaway you can start straight away with is looking at how many women have expressed offense and disappointment by their male training partners refusing to hit them... that's obviously not the same thing as "hitting women," and obviously we're not experiencing sparring that way.

What you're describing is internalized sexism. So, you deal with that. It's not your "fault" and it doesn't make you bad, but you do have to acknowledge and recognize it first and foremost in order to go about addressing it. Women aren't children. Women aren't weak and unable to make decisions for ourselves. Women go to sparring for the same reasons men do, to be challenged, to improve, to experience pressure. By giving priority to your discomfort, you are robbing your teammates of all those benefits. Be generous, just as you would for a male teammate. Note size difference and skill disparity and make adjustments for those, just as you would for a male teammate. Also, thank you for asking this, as it demonstrates you do care and want to do better for your teammates.

I thought I recognized you off your style of tattoos, haha. Kru Thailand will be able to help. It's going to suck, but it will improve quickly after the mass is broken down. Leave the one that's a pocket alone, just use oil on that. Congratulations on your fight as well.

That knot needs more pressure during the draining with the hot water. The way you press it out can be tricky because doing it yourself might not be aggressive enough. Like trying to massage yourself or clean out a painful cut, we kind of pull back due to the pain, whereas having someone else help press it... well, someone else can be less "kind" haha. My trainer in Chiang Mai helped me sometimes, it was rough but it was necessary. Are you in Thailand?

Hi. The way that you deal with this at this point depends on whether it is a "knot" (hard bump) or a pocket or dent with fluid. Can you take a photo of it and attach it in the reply? Also, I assume you are not kicking on it yet, right?

I don't have a lot of experience training in western gyms, but when I have these experiences were my experience as well, and Thai gyms absolutely treat women differently from men but not necessarily in every aspect. I would offer that as a gym owner you will have to explicitly correct your trainers and even gym members on a fairly regular basis, as sexism is cultural and not specific to the context of the person or the gym. Normalizing communication between gymmates, as well as feedback between staff and members - across all genders - will make it easier and more reasonable for members to voice their needs. "This sparring is too hard for me," should be as valid as "this is too light for me." All genders. Maybe encourage training partners to communicate and check in with each other between each round. And an anonymous comments box to make complaints or suggestions about trainers.

Yes, it results in a "no contest" for both fighters.

Recently there have been talks about how to deal with fighters "dancing" too much and not engaging in fights, resulting in both fighters being dismissed from the ring after 2 warnings by the referee. Usually this is in the 5th round, although the announcements havw differed between promoters about how they will enforce the rule. Channel 7, for example (Giatpetch) has said this will only apply to rounds 1-4. On 2 promotions so far, including Petchyindee, fighters were dismissed by the referee (1 warning, 2nd warning is a deduction of a point from each fighter, after that they're dismissed) in round 5 of the Main Event. In both cases so far the public consensus is that it was warranted. I'm not certain how this affects the fighters' pay. I read on one post that their purse is cut in half, but have not seen that written anywhere officially. In this announcement Sia Moo, the head of Omnoi, says for his stadium fighters will be warned as in the previous suggestions, but after 2 warnings they will not be thrown out of the ring. He says this will only lead to new forms of cheating. (I totally see this. If you have no way to win, this cancels all bets.) Instead, fighters' purses will be docked as a result of too much non-engagement. He doesn't say by how much.

On December 6th there was a big fight card in Chonburi city, at a stadium that was a temporary host to the Omnoi fights when Bangkok was still closed. The whole card was full of young fighters, starting out with some of the biggest names with Yodpetek and Yodpettoh Boomdeksian (twins, 12 years old), as well as Jojo Dejrat (under the care of Arjan Surat and carrying the gym name, which is a huge deal because almost nobody who trains under him uses the gym name anymore) versus the very-much underdog fighter from Rambaa's gym in Pattaya, Naksu TopGuard. Jojo is well known in Thailand already as a young talant. At 13 years old he most recently fought with a huge side bet against Yodpetek, which ended in a draw. For this fight against Rambaa's young prospect, there was a 100,000 Baht side bet (a little under $3000 usd). Naksu worked with Yodkhunpon for about a week before this fight, sharpening up his elbows, and Rambaa trains his kids hard regardless. If you're fighting a Baan Rambaa fighter, you're getting a tough kid, hands down. The entire night of fights has been lauded as a success, news sources pointing out that the fights were all 5 rounds (in contrast to the increasingly common 3 round matches, partly popular at the moment due to Covid restrictions) and were all exciting from round 1-5 (a sly criticism of a new rule that has directed referees to stop a fight due to "non engagement" if the fighters dance around too much, which has been enforced twice now, in round 5 on the Main Event fights of two major promotions). Naksu won the decision and the 100,000 Baht side bet. Jojo's manager (not Arjan Surat) published a diplomatic but clear complaint with the outcome: "In sports there are wins and losses. If the judges of this promotion decide this way that's their prerogative, but they don't need to book my fighters anymore." To be fair, whenever there's a substantial side bet on a fight, the losing side is more or less obligated to argue against the decision. However, below you will see another announcement that "Soh Eh," the owner of Jitmuangnon Gym and the promoter of the Muay Dee Wittitai show on Sundays, has announced that she is interested in promoting a rematch between Naksu and Jojo on her show, although no date has yet been announced. This is exciting to see that the future of Muay Thai is, at least at this moment, doing well in the talent of young male fighters and promoters are interested in fostering that. Watch the full fight Jojo vs Naksu Naksu after the decision, above The head of Jitmuangnon announcing that she wants a rematch on her promotion in Nontaburi, above Rambaa celebrating at the victory, above You can watch the full fight card with lots of young talent here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=search&v=432460228448118