Jump to content

The Future of Muay Thai


Recommended Posts

Hey I just want to thank you Sylvie for doing what you do regarding the Mauy Thai library and this website, plus your courage and bravery to go out and actually pursue the lifestyle your living.  I've learned so much and have actually gotten into watching the sport of Mauy Thai which I've grown to really enjoy.  I think it's important to go to the source to learn it, especially because it's actually the grappling or the Mauy Khao style that pumps me up as far as skill mastery is concerned.  The two things that impress me most in martial arts is skilled evasiveness when fighters slip impossibly fast strikes and high amplitude sweeps.  Basically at a point where I'm realizing that I'm never really going to get any good at clinch fighting unless I head over to Thailand and have the time to do it everyday.  I do kickboxing right now in the US but they do not know how to clinchfight.  I don't know I guess I felt like communicating all that with all of you but here are my questions on the matter.  

First of all where do you see Mauy Thai going in the US?  I feel like many MMA fans actually want to watch Mauy Thai and don't even realize it.  I'm talking about people who boo whenever there's an extended grappling exchange.  I think someday when I'm much more experienced and competent I'd like to open an actual Mauy Thai gym in the US (and not kickboxing like 99% of them truly are) and maybe grow awareness of the sport over here.

Second of all how are things looking in Thailand?  How do you see things playing out in the next couple years?  Has covid changed the landscape is it now much less kind to foreigners? I know Thai's are smaller people in general I'm assuming I'll have no trouble getting fights being around 150lbs?  

Also income wise, any tips trying to stay afloat financially while training in Thailand?  I've got some decent savings but I'd want to at least try to generate income out there.  Is fighting a legitimate way for a guy with 0 fights?  

And last if you could recommend a resource for someone looking to get that Mauy Khao experience?  It's just so cool lol

I'm really kind of looking to change up my lifestyle.  I've always used martial arts to blow off steam and keep me grounded plus I loved and love the sense of camaraderie that comes with doing something as difficult as training.  I'm very happy that I found this website and the Patreon so I could see someone making it happen.  At some point I know I've got to just make the call and do it but I'm just trying to gather as much information as I can so I can start to mentally picture how it's going to go.

Anyways thank you very much for all your hard work and dedication as well as taking the time to read this!  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Most Recent Topics

  • Latest Comments

    • He told me he was teaching at a gym in Chong Chom, Surin - which is right next to the Cambodian border.  Or has he decided to make use of the border crossing?  🤔
    • Here is a 6 minute audio wherein a I phrase the argument speaking in terms of Thailand's Muay Femeu and Spinoza's Ethics.    
    • Leaving aside the literary for a moment, the relationship between "techniques" and style (& signature) is a meaningful one to explore, especially for the non-Thai who admires the sport and wishes to achieve proficiency, or even mastery. Mostly for pedagogic reasons (that is, acute differences in training methods, along with a culture & subjectivity of training, a sociological thread), the West and parts of Asia tend to focus on "technical" knowledge, often with a biomechanical emphasis. A great deal of emphasis is put on learning to some precision the shape of the Thai kick or its elbow, it's various executions, in part because visually so much of Thailand's Muay Thai has appeared so visually clean (see: Precision – A Basic Motivation Mistake in Some Western Training). Because much of the visual inspiration for foreign learned techniques often come from quite elevated examples of style and signature, the biomechanical emphasis enters just on the wrong level. The techniques displayed are already matured and expressed in stylistics. (It would be like trying to learn Latin or French word influences as found in Nabakov's English texts.) In the real of stylistics, timing & tempo, indeed musicality are the main drivers of efficacy. Instead, Thais learn much more foundational techniques - with far greater variance, and much less "correction" - principally organized around being at ease, tamachat, natural. The techne (τέχνη), the mechanics, that ground stylistics, are quite basic, and are only developmentally deployed in the service of style (& signature), as it serves to perform dominance in fights. The advanced, expressive nature of Thai technique is already woven into the time and tempo of stylistics. This is one reason why the Muay Thai Library project involves hour long, unedited training documentation, so that the style itself is made evident - something that can even have roots in a fighter's personality and disposition. These techne are already within a poiesis (ποίησις), a making, a becoming. Key to unlocking these basic forms is the priority of balance and ease (not biomechanical imitations of the delivery of forces), because balance and ease allow their creative use in stylistics.
  • The Latest From Open Topics Forum

    • Hi, this might be out of the normal topic, but I thought you all might be interested in a book-- Children of the Neon Bamboo-- that has a really cool Martial Arts instructor character who set up an early Muy Thai gym south of Miami in the 1980s. He's a really cool character who drives the plot, and there historically accurate allusions to 1980s martial arts culture. However, the main thrust is more about nostalgia and friendships.    Can we do links? Childrenoftheneonbamboo.com Children of the Neon Bamboo: B. Glynn Kimmey: 9798988054115: Amazon.com: Movies & TV      
    • Davince Resolve is a great place to start. 
    • I see that this thread is from three years ago, and I hope your journey with Muay Thai and mental health has evolved positively during this time. It's fascinating to revisit these discussions and reflect on how our understanding of such topics can grow. The connection between training and mental health is intricate, as you've pointed out. Finding the right balance between pushing yourself and self-care is a continuous learning process. If you've been exploring various avenues for managing mood-related issues over these years, you might want to revisit the topic of mental health resources. One such resource is The UK Medical Cannabis Card, which can provide insights into alternative treatments.
    • Phetjeeja fought Anissa Meksen for a ONE FC interim atomweight kickboxing title 12/22/2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu92S6-V5y0&ab_channel=ONEChampionship Fight starts at 45:08 Phetjeeja won on points. Not being able to clinch really handicapped her. I was afraid the ref was going to start deducting points for clinch fouls.   
    • Earlier this year I wrote a couple of sociology essays that dealt directly with Muay Thai, drawing on Sylvie's journalism and discussions on the podcast to do so. I thought I'd put them up here in case they were of any interest, rather than locking them away with the intention to perfectly rewrite them 'some day'. There's not really many novel insights of my own, rather it's more just pulling together existing literature with some of the von Duuglus-Ittu's work, which I think is criminally underutilised in academic discussions of MT. The first, 'Some meanings of muay' was written for an ideology/sosciology of knowledge paper, and is an overly long, somewhat grindy attempt to give a combined historical, institutional, and situated study of major cultural meanings of Muay Thai as a form of strength. The second paper, 'the fighter's heart' was written for a qualitative analysis course, and makes extensive use of interviews and podcast discussions to talk about some ways in which the gendered/sexed body is described/deployed within Muay Thai. There's plenty of issues with both, and they're not what I'd write today, and I'm learning to realise that's fine! some meanings of muay.docx The fighter's heart.docx
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      1.3k
    • Total Posts
      11k
×
×
  • Create New...