Reading through Kick boxing: Muay-Thai the Art of Siamese Un-armed Combat by Handy Steadmann - 1976 (full PDF)

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

The full pdf of this book on Muay Thai written by an American serviceman is found here (pdf attached linked after this paragraph.). Looking forward to reading through this as its probably one of the first at-length English language accounts of the sport and art, and it perhaps sheds light on the era before the Golden Age of Muay Thai, The Silver Age, and perhaps even gives insight into the history of Muay Thai in Chiangmai (as he is writing it from there), provincial fighting always something that falls through the cracks of history. The author claims in 1975 to having seen thousands of fights. You can follow this thread by email as a forum member.

Kick boxing Muay-Thai the Art of Siamese Un-armed Combat by Handy Steadmann - 1976.pdf

click on the link above, wait for a minute for it to download.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

The preface paints the historical picture of ethnic Muay Thai, told from the picture of a Thai scholar of the sport. These sorts of stories are probably best seen as an amalgam of historical fact, ideological myth-building and value-setting. They help us see how scholars such as this one pictured the development of the sport, and how that picture also helped them form judgements about its current state...in this case in the 1970s.

 

noting, the notion that wrestling (bplum) is seen as deep to the origins of the art (it may have come during the Indianization of Southeast Asia) is significant in this telling, and the report that the Ram Muay of teachers and camps were once quite distant and coded (perhaps the author is in including this because by 1975 he is already seeing these barriers being broken down by commerce).

Also significant is that it seems like this is probably the origin of the widespread belief that the limbs of the body in Muay Thai originally mimic'd the various weapons that would be used, such that if a weapon is lost you could still replace it, the teep the spear, the wide punch the sword. Notice though that there is no mention of the loss of a weapon. By my intuition it makes much more sense to imagine how strikes with limbs would contain the same movements of that of weapons (Boran circle punches do seem to reflect sword movements) not so much for weapon replacement , but rather that in ring fighting in Siam you could practice those applicable movements safely, and develop an art of them. (There is a story told that Siamese fighting didn't really have "straight" punches until the influence of Western Boxing in the early 20th century, due to the way that punches originally reflected swinging sword.)

Importantly, the "damage dimension" of fighting is still classically understood as under a form of restraint in 1975, and even within a picture of lesson-giving, or teaching (Dieselnoi call the great Wichannoi his "kru" for the two losses he suffered from him in the late 70's).

The commercialization of the sport is decried, even before Muay Thai will enter into its most commercial era in the Golden Age, riding the economic boom in Bangkok in the 1980-90s.

 

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

The story of the decline of Muay Thai probably goes back at least a century, if not more, but there are interesting elements to these complaints given in the 1970s by ex-fighters or krus in their 70 and 80s. This would put their memory all the way back to the modernization of Muay Thai in the 1920s, as King Vajiravudh reformed the sport modeling at least the Bangkok version on British Boxing (as he was educated in England for much of his young adult life). Timed rounds made fighters less endurance fighters, and weight classes narrowed the skill sets of fighters. Once, it is told, small fighters had to know how to beat much larger opponents (untimed fights would help in this). This is an interesting criticism as in the 1970s lower weight fighters had begun to under the Bangkok stadia scene for the first time, as can be seen in this 1991 complaint about Muay Thai and the influence of the very big promoter Kru Tao (see below).

In 1991, looking back on the 1970s and 1980s, the inclusion of smaller fighters was seen as the loss of Muay Thai at it acme. In the 1970s though old school fans were saying that small fighters used to face big fighters all the time...probably also looking at the Muay of the 105-112 lbers who had come upon the stadium scene at the time.

 

Old timers, reaching back into the 1920s, saw the sport as rightfully a sport more of conditioning and endurance, and one in which smaller bodied fighters possessed skills which allowed them to defeat much bigger opponents. By the time of the Golden Age (1980-90s), this turn would increasingly come to some of the rarer small-bodied fighters like Karuhat, who would end up fighting up beyond his proper weight class (perhaps 115 lbs), facing elite fighters at 122 and even much larger...but not Middleweights. In the Golden Age elite small fighters had to fight up because gambling would force them to greater challenges, and the reputation and pay at the higher weights was a lure. This still did not equal the picture of early Muay Thai when weight classes did not exist, at least as far as 70 year old felt in the 1970s.

Also worth tracking is that even by the 1970s putting on Entertainment fights for foreigners was already seen as eroding or weakening the sport and art. What would they think of a Lumpinee Stadium today which is almost entirely devoted to Entertainment Muay Thai for (and by) foreigners...one could only guess. The Entertainment version of the sport must have been somewhat prominent for the complaint to be so forward. Who were they fighting for? US military men (the era of Vietnam)? Tourists? Foreigners also part of the fighting? 50 years ago, a half a century, this was already on the radar of Old School complaints about the loss of the art of the sport.

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

The accuracy of the death numbers are hard to gauge. The author would like to present Muay Thai as exotic and dangerous, but there seems to be no likely falsification with 6 ring deaths in Bangkok in 1966. Perhaps rumor (10 years back). 

The doctor's numbers seem exaggerated, perhaps the first of upper class objection to low class barbarism...something that today shows itself in CTE concerns. But, perhaps Muay Thai in the late 60s was more deadly. It could be that the very small gloves (in photos they can look like oven mitts) contributed to this.

In anecdotal support of possible deadliness the late Sirimongkol told us the story of how he accidentally killed a man when fighting as a teen in the provinces in the late 1960s, before he got to Bangkok, in this interview:

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

The First Japanese Kickboxing Invasion: Noguchi Gym 1972

This is just one of the most fascinating events in the history of the sport, the father of Japanese Kickboxing driven out of the country, and forced to close his very posh Bangkok Kickboxing/Muay Thai gym in 1972, under threats of violence. It seems that at least some Thais felt like he, or the Japanese were trying to steal Muay Thai from Thailand. At this point, I believe, Japanese Kickboxing already had imitated Muay Thai in Japan and even became a regularly televised show of great popularity. Anti-Japanese sentiments seems to be running high.

 

What is so extraordinary about it all of course is that Lumpinee (and even Rajadamnern) stadia, the National Stadia, 50 years later have radically altered the rules of Muay Thai to more approximate Kickboxing, and steered promotional Muay Thai to the foreign fighter. Just a month or two ago a Japanese Kickboxer was defending the Rajadamnern title, in Rajadamnern, having never fought in Thailand itself.

Noguchi was very far ahead of his time.

 

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

Already with internationalization efforts underway, the line drawn in the sand then was the name itself. As ONE proved, this is no longer a barrier, the name Muay Thai name liberally applied to very Kickboxing-esque versions and rulechanges for foreigners. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

Interesting numbers, though not sure of their accuracy. 500 Bangkok gyms, 10,000 regular fighters in the mid 1970s. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Women in Muay Thai

I've read a lot of the history of women fighting in Thailand (there isn't a lot of it on record, but I've probably read everything in English) and this is one of the most substantive reports pre-2000s. There was rumor (reported in a documentary) that women actually briefly fought in a secondary ring in the 80s-1990s (?) at Lumpinee, but I've found no collaboration.

This report below seems to be quite from afar (little in person awareness) and combined with varying degrees of sexism you might expect from an American serviceman in Thailand in the 70s. The story of the Ali vs Norton fight is interesting! (1973), but seems also dubious, or only partial in detail. There were, as far as I know, no National televised broadcasts until 1988, so I'm not sure where this was televised...or if it was on tape. And it seems pretty unlikely that someone would follow up the Ali v Norton fight with 5 female bouts (???). But, maybe there is some truth to it, maybe a taped broadcast on a local channel, someone trying to promote female fighting?

Also, finally I have the source for the very sexist/racist comment I heard from a well known American Muay Thai coach whose female fighter beat a Thai female fighter, somewhat outrageously claiming that female Thai fighters were just in the ring to avoid prostitution. Well, I guess they read this book. Here though, it comes from a paternalistic Thai who is saying that fighting gives women an alternative to prostitution, trying to make an argument for the moral improvement of Muay Thai, an argument that is made for young male fighters as well (keeping them off drugs, or out of gangs).

Who knows about the relevance of this polemical claim, but that fact that it traveled 30 years at least to the mouth of an American Muay Thai coach is disheartening, and just shows how exoticizing and demeaning the picture some Westerners keep of Thailand.

Most interesting, perhaps in the broad brush, is the idea that female Muay Thai fighting was popular in local scenes, and that its National interest may have been something that came and went, possibly for decades and decades.

 

 

 

But women have been fighting in Thailand, in rings, for over 200 years. It's a shame that so many do not credit them with their own National art and excellence.

First recorded female fight 1809

 

First Photographed Female Muay Thai fight 1929

 

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

I missed this little bit, higher up. Already the traditional kaimuay as a place that houses its own fighters is seen as disappearing. Who knows what the author is basing this on, in their in person experience (Chiang Mai?), or a complaint of older fighters/krus?

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

This is hard to guess at. He wants to really push the hyper violence for his readers, and claims to have watched thousands of fights...often both covered in blood, and no progressive nature seems quite fantastic.

A short while later he emphasizes knockouts, but not sure what the grammar is here? 8, 9, 10 knockouts per card? Or is he imitating a 10 count?

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

This is inaccurate, as we have video evidence and first hand report that rope grabbing was permitted in the major Bangkok stadia, perhaps until the early 80's. It casts a bit of doubt perhaps on the author's other detailed descriptions? 

Edit in: here we go a little later. I don't know, it seemed common enough to be deployed as an actual tactic. Not sure where he source on official rules is. Even by 1990 all fighters didn't know rope grabbing was illegal.

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

No training on the weekends in the 1970s? Hmmm. Maybe in his Chiang Mai gym? This seems dubious. Pudpadnoi described his camp life in the 1970s as "worse than the army".

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Hmmm. Interesting stuff...or lore. But we have film of Thai heavy bag traing since the 1930s. Hitting bags of rice has been told as common if heavy bags couldn't be afforded.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Camp with 50 fighters in Chiang Mai. Looks like it's in a (school?) gymnasium with a basketball court. Seems the author reports mostly? from Chiang Mai experiences?

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Perfectly legal kick to the groin. Interesting to see it displayed as its own technique. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 

Here is a throat choke Dieselnoi said he used on Sagat, which you could do in smaller gloves.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Accounts of Thais vs foreigners in the 70s