Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
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Posts posted by Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
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Anything you can hang from for pullups is awesome. Situps, planks, pushups, squats, burpees... all body weight exercises are awesome.
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Almost everything is shutting down in Thailand as well, depending on location as each province can make their own rules. But tomorrow the PM will be announcing the articles of a State of Emergency that will start on March 26 and extend at minimum to April 26th. I'm pretty anxious awaiting the details, honestly.
Gyms are closed, restaurants are take-out only, only groceries and "essential businesses" are open.
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I've filled this out, hope it's helpful.
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Thailand has varying responses. Some promotions are continuing and airing live on TV, but they don't allow spectators in to watch. There's a limit of 100 people (in some of these cases) including cameramen, cornermen, doctors, etc. Some places have stopped promoting completely and made big public displays of deep-cleaning and disinfecting the venues. Some places are carrying on as usual, no changes, other than seeing more people wearing masks. There are a few gyms that have stopped taking new clients (those who are already there and paid are continuing), some are closing entirely (this is highly unusual), and some that have international clients are requiring "health certificates" before accepting new students.
It's a huge problem in terms of affecting the livelihood of countless people in Thailand though. From fighters to promoters, gym owners, professional gamblers, etc. People have to eat. There's a lot of criticism of implementing these cancellations without also offering help to those who it affects the most.
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On 3/9/2020 at 4:44 PM, DrunkenMaster said:
Does anyone know a decent and cheap gym close to Patong area ? I don’t know if I can drive so I will look for a accommodation nearby.
PhuketKing Muay Thai Gym is good. Kru Pot is awesome.
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8 hours ago, Jackson said:
Hi, I'm 19 and I have recently moved to Thailand for 6 months to fight and train. I've had difficulty finding match ups in Australia and I thought this is the best way to do. I'm new to thsiland and currently training at T-Dedd99 gym but i have only trained with the the coach one on one with no sparring or clinching etc and i am worried i am being scammed since I have been told I can fight if I keep coming back but it doesn't seem right. Can you recommend any tips or other gyms if I want to fight often and train properly? My main goal is to have as many fights as I can to make future matchups back home more easy. Thankyou very much
It's pretty unusual to be only taking private sessions, unless that's what you signed up for. That's definitely not a normal gym program. But most importantly is that you FEEL this is a scam, which I'd advise you to check out other gyms because of that. Even if you don't end up changing, you'll have some other experience to compare.
It might be hard to get a fight right now, tons of shows are being cancelled or limited for health precautions. So even if you are in a legitimate training situation, getting a fight might prove difficult. Being happy with your training is important in either case though. Maybe try 1 or 2 sessions somehwere else.
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I wrote about my experience cutting water weight here. Every body is different, so I don't know how easily you'll hold or lose water weight using the water loading, and I only cut a couple kilos ever. Cutting out salt is one method, but you have to also balance with potassium. Speaking with a nutritionist about that, if you're able to do so, could be helpful. But the kind of cut you're talking about isn't out of reach and is something that your coach or fighter friends should be able to help you with. You want to diet down a little, not a huge amount, and then just use a water cut for the last few pounds. And don't stay dehydrated for very long at all, so you can rehydrate fully.
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I've been concussed once. If I could know then what I know now, I would have gone HARD keto to recover from that. Carbs and sugar aren't good for the brain, aren't good for inflammation, and fats and ketones are very good for the brain during that time of recovery. Once you're sensitive to concussions though, there's nothing you can really do. You just have to make the call for yourself. If you're worried about it, you'll keep being worried about it and should devise a plan for whatever degree you're comfortable engaging in that kind of activity. You can't really "Google" your way to a resolution, it's a very personal choice and experience of what affects you or doesn't.
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I only know of the Sitjemam Muay Thai gym in Chiang Rai, but it's run by and mostly occupied by westerners (Italians). So, nto sure how that feels to you.
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Howdy,
In the West folks tend to do some padwork, maybe a total of 3 explosive and then relaxed sets. Not too much. In Thailand we don't do that at all, we just get the oil massage (with the Thai linament, it warms you up) and some light shadowboxing and maybe some stretching. I've seen studies that say that a kind of explosive, out-of-breath for a minute warmup about 10 minutes before a race (running) shows improved times for runners. So I kind of go hard in my shadow the fight before mine, then relax.
I've never trained combos or anything before a fight. But I do visualize for myself, which is something you could maybe guide your fighters through or at least tell them to do for 5 minutes.
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Pacquiao has been hit in the face a million times. Conversely, he was KOd by a body punch ONCE and completely revamped his abdominal training in order to avoid that ever happening again. Body strikes suck.
I totally get the Thai focus on balance. Once I became aware of it, this awareness made it very hard for me to watch a lot of western fighting, across all disciplines. Fighters are terribly off-balance during, before and after strikes. Imagine a gymnast landing on her ass or a diver belly-flopping into the water. That's what it looks like. Our eyes aren't looking for it, so a lot of western fans don't see it. But once you see it, you can never "un-see" it. It's pretty bad.
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I get asked quite a lot about how I've gone about learning the Thai language. For me, it's not a direct answer to a more or less direct question, because how one learns a language when you actually live in the culture is entirely different than how I learned German, for example, which was sitting at a desk in school, in America, for 5 years. So, the short answer is: I moved to Thailand and it was important to me to learn the language, so I've been learning it all along. The long answer is: tutors, books, websites, magazines and newspapers, being forced to communicate with trainers, strangers, government officials, and promoters, and having friendships with Thai people. None of these things are singularly responsible for my ability to speak, read and write Thai; and none of them would have made it possible without all the others.
Thai is a tonal language. What that means is that the inflection of a word doesn't express your emotional connotation, instead it is required for the meaning of the word itself. For example, if we say "what?" with a clipped tone, we might be ready to fight. If we say, "whaaat?" with a rising tone we might sound like we're in disbelief. But the meaning of the actual word stays the same. In Thai, the change in tone would change the meaning of the word. So, for example "ma" with a flat tone means "come," whereas "ma" with a rising (like asking a question) tone means "dog," and "ma" with a high tone (like an incredulous "huh?") means "horse." How easy it is to mix those up in speech, and yet they're all spelled differently. For a long time, as folks coming from non-tonal languages, we can't even hear the difference between these words. All this is to say, I think it's important to have a teacher at some point in your process of learning Thai. Not only are tones important for people to understand you, but it teaches you how to hear as well, so that you can understand other people.
My first teacher was Kru May, who was a generous young teacher at a school that was on the same street as Lanna Gym in Chiang Mai. It was my first trip to Thailand and I wanted to learn some Thai, so I'd contacted a teacher via an advertisement on a light pole. That didn't work out so well and I was lost. I wandered into this school and the office-director, when she realized what I was looking for, was so kind that she just sat me down and had Kru May teach me Thai every few days... for free. It was an incredible sign of Thai generosity. She even invited me to her home to have dinner, this odd little farang who wandered in, but that never came about. I'm really grateful to Kru May and Khun Luang (the woman who took me in). When I got back to New York, I found an online tutor and continued learning that way. This was my teacher, Titcha Kedsri, who may or may not still be offering lessons. Once I moved to Thailand, I met in person with a tutor named Simon, maybe for 6 months or so.
For those who want to wade in with their own materials, there are a few sources that are really valuable and free: Women Learn Thai is an online source that really has a lot to go through. If you're a man, don't be confused by the name, it's in no way female specific and often still uses male pronouns and polite particles. Another great resource is video lessons by Mod and Pear, so you can really work on pronunciation and hearing those tones, "Learn Thai with Mod" is great for rudimentary and basic Thai phrases and vocabulary.
A book that I used in order to be able to start reading is this Thai: An Essential Grammar by Smyth. Learning a language with proper structure, grammar, spelling, rules, etc. is dizzying for me. It's a good reference and it's the reason I know that the class of a consonant, coupled with it being "live" or "dead," and the length of the vowel, plus or minus a tone mark, all changes how a word is pronounced. I know those things in my head, but over time I just read and now how to pronounce something because I'm learning the language via exposure and immersion all the time. That's really important. I don't know all the rules of English the way I know those rules in Thai, but you know what sounds correct or not. You need both.
Finally, and most importantly, I think: it was really important to me to learn Thai. As soon as I could sound out basic words, I was struggling to read through the Muay Siam magazine that gave short reports of female fight results. I tried to order my food in Thai, even when I was painfully shy about it. Moving from Chiang Mai to Pattaya significantly improved my Thai, because I was forced to speak Thai more in Pattaya (there's much less English here than in Chiang Mai). I started chatting with Kru Nu in the mornings. I had to start booking my own fights, so I was texting with promoters - man, I'm sure I made some serious errors along the way. My messages were super short and basic. Now they're long and conversational. And occasionally I still don't understand things, but I have lots of practice in how to figure them out. Because it's an ongoing process.
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On 1/8/2020 at 10:22 AM, fshalor said:
Thanks. Already watched and enjoyed them both. They were great to watch. (Drat. This means I've now gotta go back and rewatch a bunch of fights with the livestream commentary version now. Darn)
Do you guys have issues due to the music playing on the YouTube streams? I know most of it's blown out by the commentary feed. (Although I did almost expect Sylvie to start doing the YMCA dance in her corner to show she was un-phased in that fight.)
Off-topic, but my mom also says "drat." I am very, very happy to see you using it here.
Sometimes the audio will simply be cut due to the music, but I don't know as much about it as Kevin does.
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On 2/9/2020 at 10:54 AM, Muaythaioregon said:
Hello! Hopefully I’m in the right area. I need help on weather the gym I’m thinking of going to is legit. https://keizermartialarts.net/programs/
the link is above, thanks in advance :)
Legit in what way? It's a structured course, so it's not what you'd generally find in Thailand, but it's not a Thai gym so it's not uncommon to be this way. A lot of gyms in the west use ranking systems and have curriculum that you need to advance through with some kind of grading system. Traditional, authentic Muay Thai? No. A very typical training regime outside of Thailand that will teach you technique... probably. But I agree with Kevin, just go check out a class or two and see if you like it.
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I also recommend looking into North Jersey Muay Thai. They've been around for a long time now and have always carried a good reputation. I obviously don't have first-hand experience that's contemporary, but you should be able to know for yourself pretty quickly by just visiting a few classes and seeing how you like it.
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Thanks for your detailed reviews, these are so helpful to people who are trying to figure out where to go!
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I've updated the original post to include new photos and to replace any photos lost in the hack of the site, check it out:
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Both #6 (Wangchannoi) and #2 (Dieselnoi) defeated #1 (Samart). And Dieselnoi defeated Pudpadnoi as well, although both Pudpadnoi and Apidej are tricky because they're a generation (or 2) away from the bulk of the list, just a different era. I understand why Somrak is there, but he doesn't really belong on the list among those he shares the ranks with, just in terms of what his true accomplishments were as the first Gold Medalist in Boxing for Thailand. Says me, anyway.
Kevin loves these kinds of lists, I don't, so it's not something I can elaborately defend in terms of who I think should be on this list or why I think the order isn't right. I think the folly is in thinking that any of these lists are definitive, rather than that a person who chooses to make a "Top Ten" has their own reasons for that list and that order and, like Kevin said, open a discussion to how the pieces could have been laid out otherwise. I'd have put Wichannoi, Karuhat, and Burklerk on there.
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On 1/19/2020 at 8:24 PM, newbie_kyuubi said:
Hello all,
I did my second fight last night and now have soooo many questions. Would be grateful for any insight from you (and hopefully Sylvie will be able to respond too!)
The fight didn’t go quite well in that for whatever reasons I couldn’t translate what I’ve been working on into the fight. I know I’ve physically and mentally grown since my last fight, but that didn’t seem to be manifested in the ring. I think I was taken aback by how different her style was than my first opponent. In my first fight there were a lot of clinching and knees, but in the second one my opponent was very evasive and I was left puzzled the whole time on how to get into the pocket. I couldn’t adapt to my opponent’s style quickly. Does this something that just come with experience? Does this have something to do with fight IQ? If so, any advice on how to improve my fight IQ?
Another question: why is it when I’m in the ring I don’t hit as hard as when I train in the bag, pads, or sparring? I have strong crosses, hooks, and over hands, but these didn’t make any appearance during the fights!!! When this happened in the first fight I thought it was because the opponent was taller and I couldn’t reach her. But the opponent in the second fight was also tall but I realized even when I was in the pocket I didn’t hit hard. I didn’t feel like I gassed out in both fights. So what is it? Was I nervous? I don't think I was. Was it a mental block?
I’m still trying to understand myself when I’m in the ring and I would be grateful if anyone can share their thoughts!!! Thanks so much in advance!!I'm 261 fights in and still not seeing what I do in training manifest in the ring. It takes a long time, if it happens at all. Some things will come, some will come after a long time, and some never will (I suspect), but that's okay. The way to improve "Fight IQ" is to fight more, and really more even than that is to spar as much as possible. Kevin and I call it "growing eyes," it's learning to see and feel under the pressure. You do stuff on the pads that you can't do in the context of having an opponent because padwork and "going live" (as they call it in wrestling) are totally different feelings. You stop breathing under pressure. You get tense under pressure. You try to think in a fight and nobody tries to think too much in padwork. You have to learn to feel, and feeling comes from just spending more and more time in as close to that context as possible.
I have really good kicks against a bag or my trainer on pads when he's holding for them. But if I pivot off or try to kick him by surprise, my kicks go to hell. They're terribly light or weird angled. He yells at me, "just kick me hard! You won't hurt me!" So, I actually have to focus now on kicking him with the intention of hurting him, knowing that it's a problem for me. So take whatever you had in your fight, punches not being as hard, and try to bring pressure that you felt or being too far away and work on that with your trainer.
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On 1/19/2020 at 10:40 PM, LengLeng said:
Found this thread while I was searching for info on sparring without shin guards.
I'm currently sparring without shin guards (and mouth guard lost it cannot get hold of a new one for a while) and although I love it, the pain is getting to me. Obviously it's light sparring but we block shin on shin and my partner has the boniest hardest shinbones I've ever experienced and while my shins are full of dents, swollen, puddle of blood and stuff between skin and shin bone he doesn't feel it. My shins are burning most of the time.
I do the hot water towel massage thing. And put liniment on before training. And tiger balm before bed. Anything help to help speed up the hardening process? I've heard something about luke warm salt water should help?
I remember Natasha Sky, who was at Sinbi at the time, said her trainers did Apple Cider Vinegar, cinnamon or cayenne pepper, and salt, then wrapped it in plastic wrap with that concoction under it. Never done that myself, but there it is. The work you're doing should be all you need to condition them for more of what you're doing, but I don't know that there's any way to "hack" the process. Obviously not recovering between is just going to be sore shins all the time, but stopping and starting is the same. Maybe use the bottom of your feet to "kick" for a bit.
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This is a somewhat complicated question in that, especially in Thailand, there's a moral component to alcohol consumption that will be included in how it's viewed by your gym. Trainers who drink aren't viewed as super dependable by those who don't, students who drink are socially engaging with those trainers, but will also be dismissed in some ways by those in the gym who don't. If you're showing up and working hard, you'll be appreciated for that. If you're tired and drained - even if it's occasional - and it's known that the reason behind it is that you were out drinking, you'll be judged for that in addition to what you'd be chastised for if you were just having a "bad" day.
I'm in the same school as Madeline, where I just can't afford feeling shittier than I would if it were simply a rough night of sleep or being tired from the work I'm already doing. So, I abstain for the same reasons I don't eat sugar or stay up too late to watch Netflix or whatever else. If it's compromising my training, it goes. But people have different goals and different motivations. The 5AM runs make me a total asshole for the day and I still go do those, so we all make compromises, hahaha.
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On 1/5/2020 at 9:57 AM, MadelineGrace said:
These are questions I have when I watch the live streaming of Sylvie’s fights and listen to Kevin’s commentary
what is Derning? ( durning?)
if clinching is part of MT, what is the rationale for it to be broken up so quickly?
Also why would someone be a backwards fighter .... I feel like it makes the person look like the weaker fighter whose struggling and always running away from the forward walking fighter
I had a few other questions but I forget now. I’ll add to it as I remember.
( Started MT about 10 months ago. So I’m just curious about many things. Obviously there’s a lot to learn. More than I ever will be able to
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Hi,
"dern" is the Thai word for walking, so it means the fighter who is going forward. Sometimes the Thai commentator will be saying "Sylvie dern" and it means I'm the one coming forward, pressing the action.
Clinching is allowed to go for longer out in the provinces, medium in the stadia of Bangkok, and broken stupid quickly in new 3-round formats like Max, Thai Fight, Superchamp, Hardcore, MX, etc. They claim it's to make the fights more exciting, but it makes them more boring. It only gives people time to hold, rather than work. Golden Era fights like Samson Isaan vs. Pepsi (the third one especially) or Langsuan vs Lamnamoon, the clinch goes forever and the ref just kind of keeps them off the ropes. Breaking the clinch too fast would be like separating fighters after two strikes... totally interrupts the flow of the fight. But they claim it's to make it more exciting, but really it just makes it more like a Windmill show.
The way you see going forward as being positive, Thais see going backwards as being in control of the fight, rather than looking like you're scared. You can't ONLY go back. Dieselnoi often complains that all my opponents did was "nee" which is the Thai word for escaping. Going backwards for the sake of going backwards is as bad as going forward simply for the sake of going forward, it has to have meaning to how the fight is being directed by your movements. But a fighter who has the lead and then goes backwards to force the opponent to chase, or catch up, shows control of the fight. A fighter who is simply coming forward all the time looks desperate to a Thai eye, especially if they already have the lead, they look like they don't know that they're in the lead.
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A lot of wrestlers stand with their strong/dominant leg forward for this same reason. Balance, better strength against takedowns. If you don't want to switch your stance, you can always "calibrate" by switching to Southpaw for a moment to do a movement and see why it's different or how it's different from when you're standing Orthodox, then make those adjustments in Orthodox. For example, I stand way more squared up in Southpaw than I do in Orthodox, so I check it in Southpaw and then go back to Orthodox and adjust so it's the same. If my kick is stronger in Southpaw, it's because my dominant leg is the standing leg, so I see where it's landing in relation to the target and then recreate that in Orthodox. I'm just entirely too "bladed" in Orthodox, should be more squared up in general, for my style. I'm not a kicker.
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Thanks for this, I made a similar comment on Youtube to a comment remarking about how 3 round fight formats cannot allow longer clinch. Sure they can. It would be like separating fighters every second strike... how boring is that?
Thai concept of bodily self and its effect on scoring
in Thailand Culture Experiences & POVs
Posted
I don't think this is correct. The self isn't "located" in the body, but Thai language and concepts put a lot of emphasis on the heart for qualities of a person. If they're good qualities, they generally have the word for "heart" as the prefix. If they are current states of emotion they have "heart" as the suffix. Bad characteristics and emotions also use this, but additionally a poor quality or characteristic can put "shit" as the prefix, interestingly.
What you read before might be Kevin's comments on how Thais emphasize the center of the body as a higher point of focus for scoring in Muay Thai, whereas in the west we like to head-hunt. In English we use the head for language the same way Thai uses the heart, for example "hot headed" or "cool headed" in English is directly "hot heart" or "cool heart" in Thai, which is the locative difference you've picked up on in your question. But I think it's important to make clear that the "Self" in Thai concepts, since it largely is a Buddhistic culture, isn't located anywhere. And is ultimately an illusion that causes pain, suffering and should be escaped.