Above is my vlog update from the first day back at WKO. Those following me know about my leaving of the O. Meekhun Gym, I wrote about it here in The Toxicity of Talk. It was just too relentlessly negative an atmosphere, despite my love for Phetjee Jaa and Mawin – it was really getting me down and affecting my overall quality of, and love for, training and fighting. So I’ve rejoined WKO here in Pattaya, home of the incomparable Sakmongkol and the WKO leader, brilliant Sifu McInnes who Sakmongkok holds as if a second father.
I originally trained with O. Meekhun to be alongside Phetjee Jaa, and to make sure I was getting enough clinch work everyday. Now that this has changed, we’re working hard on finding new clinch partners – which is a must – but honestly I’m excited to be rejoining Sakmongkol’s unique training of striking and focus on fight energy. There’s just nobody who does this quite like he does. If I can add a few new clinch partners to this mix, things will be ideal. While Sakmongkol is traveling (he’s traveling in October for about a month) I have Kru Mutt training me too. Kru Mutt is a top padholder as well and he cornered all my original fights in Pattaya. He’s a good man and I like him a lot.
In addition to this I’ll be taking Shorin Kempo Karate with Sifu McInnes. WKO is first and foremost a Karate organization, the Muay Thai is secondary. I wrote a post about my first experiments with Karate a few months ago here: Why I’m Taking Karate in Thailand. Sifu has a long history of training big strikers like Yodsanan “Mini Tyson“ and Peter Aerts, and just has a special way about unlocking potential. His way of breaking down and explaining technique is brilliant and, while he’s in absolutely no way at all a “cheerleader,” Sifu can find a way to state the possibility of achievement as a simple fact, which is incredibly encouraging. I can’t promise this, but I hope to get some individual attention from Sifu, if I’m lucky! Time to start developing my striking again now that clinch is so strong and now that my broken hand is close to completely healed.
So I’m passing from a future all-time great in Phetjee Jaa to two all-time greats in Sifu and Sakmongkol. I’m sure to be growing quite a bit in the next few months, bringing my maturity in the sport to their advanced lessons, and my forward-moving style to the very firm “planted” and dynamic attacks that these men favor. As with all things that matter in this world, it will take time. Let the alchemy commence.
To learn a little bit more about what Sifu and the WKO is about, here he is talking about his philosophy on martial arts and the WKO in particular?
