Tyler Byers

Hahaha what? My view is that this is stupid advice lol. That's just my opinion though. If you are drinking lots of water, moving constantly, and sweating a lot then all that stuff should get flushed right out of your system anyway. Not to mention if you are getting massage done regularly, you won't get a build up of toxins in the first place. I will say that I think more than once a week may provide marginal results for physical recovery, but if its relaxing and you can afford it then why not? My body is a complete trainwreck, regular massage is the only thing that keeps it all together. (Edit: After reading Sylvie's post, I thought I should mention that I usually get 1 hour of foot massage, and then I do an hour Thai massage after that if my body is really banged up. I never get oil massage for a few different reasons. Typically its just my legs that get tight from Muay Thai and running though, if I take care of my feet/legs then everything else stays more relaxed.) I have mixed feelings on sauna being beneficial (dry sauna/steam room anyway, pools of water are different), but personally I like it. For me that helps release a bit of stress, and a little extra sweat never hurt anybody. I try and stretch in the steam room and then rub ice all over my body afterwards. Virgin Active has a pretty sweet ice room that I like to jump into between sauna sessions (I do hot for 10 min, then ice room for 5-10 min).

Really looking forward to Kevin's answer on this as I know his will be much more thought out and accurate than mine. Imo though, the 10 point must system is just easier to score and gives fans a clear cut/easier way to look at things. Even guys/gals who have fought out here for long periods of time don't understand the scoring because narrative is subjective when one fighter doesn't completely dominate the other. I suspect this is why Thais bet in between rounds and sometimes change the fighter they bet on as they fight progresses.

^^^ Lol I'm not sure why, but this whole post cracked me up Oliver. Honestly I'm not entirely sure I even understood your point, but the whole thing was very entertaining to me. I think I understand what you were saying though and I like all the coffee references! This is such a massive difference that so many from the West can't seem to wrap their heads around. I actually wish more fights in all combat sports were judged using narrative or complete fight scoring. 10 point must totally changes how fighters approach things and it allows people to "steal" rounds.

Cool, thanks for all the info! I'll definitely try and make it out to the IFMA tournament and check things out if I have time. It looks like they have a live stream to so maybe I can watch online if I can't actually make it down there. I'm surprised that there seems to be quite a lot of fighters from Arizona. Its a bit of a chicken or the egg kind of question, but I wonder if it is more popular because of the USMTO tournament, or if the tournament is popular because they have a good amount of competitive fighters.

I just started watching him recently on the ONE shows. Seems to have some really good fight IQ. How about Damien Trainor? Is he fairly well known throughout the UK? I love his fight with Tawachai Budsadee.

Hahaha I may not know what I mean by "organizations" either I think I have seen random stuff/facebook posts by IFMA, USMTO, IKF, WMC, USMF, etc. So many acronyms, its hard to keep everything straight. Are these mostly regional or do they all have real representation across the US? Do they only work with specific promotions, or do they all just compete wherever they can? I'm really hoping they will include Muay Thai as an official Olympic sport, but I'm also terrified they are going to dumb it down and basically make it unrecognizable.

I really like the way Tim put this, it is absolutely perfect. Recoil is the right word in so many ways. Each strike is like the bolt of a rifle sliding back as gas (breath) is expelled and then slamming forward again as another round is chambered. In regards to comparisons between Kung Fu and Muay Lertrit, I'd be curious to know what @Tim Macias thinks about your comment regarding breathing in the Muay Lertrit and the style being more defensive at its core. For example, is Kung Fu more aggressive in its roots due to the opposite breathing pattern, or as you mentioned, did the traditional martial arts simply move away from that as they were removed from combat settings? I also have no experience with traditional martial arts so I would like to know what Tim thinks. I also wonder if the breathing is simply rooted in a response to a sudden attack, similar to how we inhale sharply when startled or are about to be in a car accident?

I don't know anything about IFMA or any of the other organizations actually. I'd be interested in learning more though. How many organizations are there in the US? Are some of them considered more "legitimate" than others? It just seems like there are a ton of small organizations these days and anyone can start one to try to prop up their gym or lend credibility to themselves as a coach. That might be a necessity though due to state laws/regulations making it difficult to have one governing body for the sport as a whole. I'm not sure about other states, but Washington state has some really weird regulations for both Muay Thai/Kickboxing and MMA. Is anyone going to IFMA Worlds? It would be cool to try and meet up if any of you are in BKK.

For me the difficult part of the straight punch is to not turning/corkscrewing my hand as I punch, not lifting my shoulders/chest, and also to not rotate my back foot when punching with the rear hand. Usually I would do about a 1/4 turn going from guard to full extension, but he wants us to have zero rotation on the hand/arm. None. And the fist needs to still end up in a traditional boxing position instead of what you would see in Karate or Taekwando with the thumb facing the ceiling. Everything comes from the hips so that there is literally a perfectly straight (and therefore efficient) movement. If done correctly the hips will move the fist into the correct position but also causes the elbow to flare a bit (remember it isn't stadium style so we aren't worried about losing on points due to being mid-kicked; he's also got some nasty counters for this that we just haven't got into yet). We're also stopping at the target (which from a scientific standpoint should cause a ripple effect as the energy disperses on the target and will cause a flash KO) and purposely not fully extending our arms to avoid potential arm locks. These small change ends up changing the angle of everything else and how weight transfers. On top of that, we've got to consider defensive positioning at the same time. It's MUCH harder than it sounds lol. I feel like I am reworking everything from day one like I've never thrown a punch before. And then also being asked to transition and do it from the opposite stance all in one streamlined movement. The amount of small details is seriously overwhelming but also really cool when you can see how effective it is. I spent a ton of time both in the gym and at home just looking at the movement of my fist while slowly trying to weight transfer and turn my waist. Overall I guess what I am trying to say is that what we are doing/showing in these videos isn't really "complete" yet as he doesn't really break things down into individual techniques as we would in Western boxing or Muay Thai (i.e. a jab, a hook, a teep, etc.) where you work off a specific technique or stance and then feel things out while trading attacks. It is more a complete system with a few fundamentals that flows one movement directly into another without a specific stance and must be perfected to maintain balance and power. With stadium Muay Thai you use strikes to pick apart your opponent, but typically you would throw at max 4-6 strikes in one combination. This style just keeps going. It is complete and utter domination of your opponent regardless of your current stance and situation. The first day he asked us "if you were fighting five opponents right now, who would you disable or kill first and who would you finish last?", and he was quite serious about that. He wanted us to walk him through the mental process of how that fight would play out and how we would survive that kind of encounter. The style is built around making sure you are never knocked to the ground and to injure your opponent with every movement whether defensive or offensive. 90% of it seems to be geared towards having a super strong defensive base to maintain balance as well as a clear sight picture of the fight, and then counterattacking whatever area is open (T-line of the face, sternum, groin, armpits, organs, joints, etc.). As a combat vet who has actually used hand to hand combat during hundreds of raids (I did over 600 raids my last deployment alone) I am actually really impressed with how well thought out the entire system is and how lethal its potential is. I'm really looking forward to perfecting the small stuff so it all feels smooth and can we worked into larger chains of attack. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast so much of this is reminiscent of learning to shoot from a supported base, then moving to individual 25m flat range, then to individual KD range, then to team movement drills, then to CQB/shoot houses, then to full scenarios with sim rounds, and eventually culminating in actual combat operations. Hahaha sorry that was a bit of a memory dump, I hope it makes sense. I did a bunch of mid-sentence editing so some of it may be incoherent. I enjoy this kind of discourse though, I wish we had time to do some commentary over the top of the video. It would be fun to explain what is going on mentally during some of this training so we can point out some of the small stuff we are working on or that he explains to us.

I forgot about Kru Dam, he's one of the best in the business. Hahaha I actually specifically avoided fighting Pond last year at Max because I didn't want to get leg kicked to death again (I got leg kicked to death about 4 months prior to that and still have scar tissue leftover in my leg from last February lol). That whole camp has nasty leg kicks thanks to Kru Dam!

After re-watching the videos a couple of times I cannot say enough how much of this we are doing and how much of it doesn't really shine through in the videos! There are so many tiny adjustments that we are both having to make that are completely contrary to things we have been training for years. Literally everything from balance points, wrist alignment, hand rotation, weight transfer/foot rotation, rhythm of breathing, stopping points of a strike, and more are completely reversed from everything I have been taught over the last few years. I spent nearly the entire first day just trying to walk in a straight line correctly while breathing lol. It is a lot to focus on at one time. I've been training out here for a few years and never had to focus on so many aspects at one time. On top of that there is a bit of the "trying to drink from a fire-hose" effect going on just from the amount of technique we have been shown (at least for me personally) since General Tunkawom is trying to show Tim as much as possible in three weeks. The General's aide has come in a few times to watch and has mentioned how quickly General Tunkawom is moving us through different techniques. It is insanely mentally exhausting even though it is a total blast! Kevin has talked a few times about "hacking" Muay Thai, and to be honest and completely shameless, I'm pretty good at that lol. This is totally different though. There is no way to hack this, it is SOOOO much more precise than any of the stadium fighting styles. Exact and measured repetition of the fundamentals is the only way to make progress. That is part of the mentality of the style though. If you overextend or get off balance in the ring, you risk losing by KO. If you do that in actual hand to hand combat which this style is designed for, you are going home in a bag. Everything must be perfect EVERY time. Also, just for future, I don't mind if anyone comments on my technique (maybe PM me so we'll keep things from getting clusterfucked on the main forum). I like to analyze that kind of stuff. Fifty percent chance that I will either listen objectively or I'll tell you to shut your face lol. Either way though, I'll definitely take a look oftentimes people catch stuff that I don't and maybe it will help nail down some of the finer points of this style through discussion.

I like to do this too. Really I think it is good advice for any sparring session, always go in with the intention to work on something specific. I like to talk with my partner during the break too and let them know what they are doing well or ask how they are doing something specific that will teach me a little bit more about their style. I think that communication builds us all to be better fighters and it creates a social aspect to the gym.

That's super cool! I've not seen that before.

^^^ This is actually very similar to how Dedduang throws his leg kick as well. He puts the rear shoulder over the front leg a little more I think (maybe it is this angle though) and it makes an excellent chopping motion that really sucks to get kicked by.

That's an interesting idea, I've not heard of that before. Similar to putting tape on a heavy bag I would imagine.

Shadow boxing for sure. Don't do it mindlessly though, look at and work on something specific. For example I have a bad habit of lifting a little bit when I throw my cross so I watch in the mirror to make sure my shoulders stay parallel to the floor. I look at my form and look where my weight is centered throughout different movements. Watch your legs/hips to make sure they are moving first and rotating properly to help generate power. The important thing to remember is that it is a tool and piece of training equipment not a regular mirror. Too many people just watch themselves instead of studying themselves. Ask your coaches or training partners to help you make corrections to your form and then practice the correct form in the mirror. You can also use it to practice maintaining eye contact while doing shadow close to the mirror, though I prefer to use a partner if someone is available.

This is so true. It's the little stuff that will chip away at your budget really quickly. 20 baht here and 20 baht there doesn't seem like much, but it adds up really quickly. Supplements are another hidden expense to consider. Protien powder, BCAAs, vitamins, etc. cost an arm and a leg in Thailand. I'm not big on supplements, but some folks take them religiously so it is something to factor in while making your budget. A 5lb tub of quality protien will cost around 2,900 baht. That's about a one month supply if you are drinking a shake a day.

I can check with Barry or Vicky Norman and see if they know him. Barry may have been there during that time.

Interested in this as well, that's a good observation. I'm really hoping that Dedduang Por Pongsawong will be able to do a session for the Muay Thai Library (keep an eye out), his low kicks are stupid hard. Lawrence Kenshin did a pretty cool video on Ernesto Hoost's low kick, you should be able to find it on YouTube. Middle kicks in my experience are typically emphasized because they score highly in Thailand, they also set up shots to the head (either punches or kicks usually) to get a KO. It's also the basis for pretty much every other kicking technique taught for stadium fighting so a middle kick is a core fundamental.

That's actually exactly how he described it to us lol. I've really been trying to pay attention to the direction and lines that his knees go in as he moves, the economy of movement as a whole is incredible.

This is great advice as well. I can and have taken care of all my injuries that are training related, but most people don't have the medical training to do that. That being said, I still ended up in the hospital after being bit by a mosquito and getting dengue fever twice lol. Luckily for me I was in Isaan and was able to keep costs on the lower end by staying in the local hospital, but that was a massive unexpected dent in my budget. Not to mention there aren't always doctors at fights, so if you get cut, guess who's paying for their own stitches (and probably didn't get paid enough from the fight to cover the hospital cost lol).

Cost of living and training are HIGHLY variable. Thailand is a big country and different camps have different priorities (some are purely commercial, others are a little more traditional). Just living in different cities is going to skew your budget in large directions. I tell people that if you can't afford $1,200-$1,400 USD a month without including your airfare then don't bother to come long term. You can absolutely get by on less money, but life happens so it is better to be prepared. Here's what I would suggest: Figure out your exact time available to be in Thailand (i.e. 3 months/6 months/etc.), then look at the visa information available for South Africa and figure out which visa will work for you or if you will need to modify your trip time to match up with your visa (you might be able to afford a year here but your visa may only allow 3 months). Once you know how long you can legally stay in Thailand, figure out which area you would like to be in or if you would like to hop around. If you are going to be in Chiang Mai, Phuket, or Isaan I would recommend living at the camp just to make things easy for yourself though this will likely be more expensive than finding housing yourself. If you are going to be in Bangkok then either stay at the camp or find housing nearby using renthub, facebook, craigslist, etc. Food costs are going to vary depending if you eat street food, cook at home, or go to restaurants. Restaurants are typically about 3-4 times the price of street food in Bangkok and will likely be higher if you are in a touristy area like Phuket. That may be fine for a short term stay but will add up over time. You may be able to cook at home if you have a kitchen but I wouldn't count on that. Here's my minimum cost guess if you are going to be in BKK (I do not recommend this, but will lay it out as a starting point just for reference): Rent - 5,500 baht per month (you will also need 2 months deposit, 11,000 baht which you will likely never see again) Electricity (no aircon) - 1,300 baht per month + 700 baht to buy a fan Water - 300 baht per month Food (eating only 40 baht noodles, assuming you find a noodle cart nearby) - 120 baht per day x 31 days = 3,720 baht per month Drinking water (from street dispensers which require your own bottles) - 14 baht x 4 bottles for initial cost, then 4 baht a day to refill = 180 baht Transportation - 80 baht roundtrip motorbike ride to top of the street for food x 31 days = 2,480 baht (this is a very low estimate, I would honestly account for 4,000 at a bare minimum) Phone service - 499 baht a month (10gb data) Training cost - 7,000 baht a month Visa extension - 1,900 baht + 600 baht round trip taxi to immigration (assuming you don't need to have passport photos taken) Total estimate - 23,479 baht per month or $765 not including initial "start up" costs for your deposit, buying a fan, etc. Again, this is MINIMUM cost, I cannot stress that enough. I would not consider this a safe budget because things out of your control WILL come up (your gear might break/go missing, you'll get ripped off by a taxi driver, you can't find food for 40 baht, immigration will want some additional paperwork which means an extra trip, etc.) not to mention you'll be bored out of your mind after a month. Keep in mind that training cost is going to be a big part of this as well since most gyms charge 15,000-25,000 for a month of training. I have lived off 28,000 baht a month for about a year and I was getting down to less than 600 baht by the end of the month almost every time. That was living at the gym and never really going out anywhere. I currently live off approximately 40,000 baht a month and its fairly tight though comfortable (costs have gone up in Bangkok and I live in a more affluent area now). I have some additional emergency reserve and budget 5k a month for unexpected costs which I always always run through in some way or another. I could bring that cost down with some better financial tracking or if I lived in a different area, but I would consider this to be near the minimum if you are going to be training daily, taking care of your body properly as an athlete, and don't want to survive off rice and water. I hope this helps