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November 5, 2013
Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
Blog-muay-thai, Featured, Fight Family, Fighting, Lanna Muay Thai, Master K, Mental Training for Muay Thai, Muay Thai, My Best Posts, Technique, What I'm Working On

The Art of Choosing Your Muay Thai Fighting Style – Some Jongsanan

Saenchai vs Jongsana - Choosing a Muay Thai Style

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The Post

Facebook Post - Sylvie

Last week I put up a Jongsanan Fairtex fight on Facebook I had found on YouTube that really seemed to demonstrate where I have been going in the evolution of my fighting style lately, counter to much of the direction many of my loved and respected teachers had been trying to get me to go in since the beginning, basically.  I have been blessed with great instruction by very special people, but throughout most of my advancement through Muay Thai has felt like I was letting them down because I continually don’t do the things that they were asking of me.  I believe that part of this, although not all,  has been due to the style of Thai fighting I was attempting to emulate.

I was asked about posting the video above on my Facebook by Joe Miller in a recent podcast interview, and about what tactics I’m taking to change my style. The question lead to some post-podcast reflection, since the discovery of the Jongsanan model was actually quite recent without having had much time to bring much of my realizations into training yet – though slowly here in Thailand we have been feeling our way towards becoming a close-quarters fighter.  I brought the Jongsanan fight to the gym for Den – my main trainer – and Daeng my 2nd main trainer to see on a tablet, so they could grasp the difference between what we have come to call a “Saenchai style” of fighting in contrast to a “Jongsanan style” of fighting. I realize that this struggle may be something that a lot of people face, so I wanted to write a post in detail describing how fighting style has been taught to me, and how I’ve come to start changing it.

One of the advantages of fighting so frequently in Thailand is that the quick turnaround and feedback on what you’re training is nearly constant, so there are realizations and consecutive adjustments pretty much every 10 days or so.  As such, the frustration of training any given technique or style and then testing it in the ring to failure – by not bringing it to the ring, not by it failing in practice – has gradually lead me to question whether the deeper struggle is in fact trying to accommodate a “style” that simply isn’t mine.

Can One “Choose” a Muay Thai Fighting Style?

Following your Teachers, Finding Yourself – an evolution of style instructions

a timeline of my main style influences

Evolution of my Muay Thai Style - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

Master K – fast, evasive, explosive fighting

For those who haven’t been following me closely, my Muay Thai training in earnest began around February 2009, when I first started taking one-on-one lessons from Master K in his New Jersey basement.  I have put close to 100 hours of these private lessons on my YouTube channel, and some people have been following me since the early days.

Master K’s Muay Thai is incredible. There may be no other Muay Thai like it on the planet and it is uniquely and strongly his. He is now 75 years old and has been practicing, inventing, drilling it into the wee hours of the night for maybe 50 years. It isn’t just the Muay Thai of his 70+ fights of his youth. It is a Muay Thai of a passionate artist, a teacher of half a century, involving older forms of attack and defense that have been largely lost from modern ring Muay Thai, and he’s adopted new influences from western boxing. Nothing has inspired me more than Master K’s particular Muay Thai and trying to achieve it. I have often talked of it as Ph.D-level Muay Thai, and a big reason why we wanted to come to Thailand is so I could get all the elementary and base-level repetition practice into my muscles so that I could make the most use of very powerful and beautiful “internal” truths he teaches. But because I came to Master K as a novice, and did not learn with other fellow students, it also was frustrating for me to try so hard to emulate his fast, explosive, weightless style – but it always eluded me when I got into the ring.  Part of this is the way I practiced, without heavy repetition to get the movements into my muscles but probably more so it was lack of sparring and actual contact which allows you to perform these movements under pressure, so in a fight there was just no chance.  But part of it still, perhaps a bigger part than what I could acknowledge or even know at the time, was that this style does not express me, no matter how beautifully it expresses what I love.

Below you can see examples though the years of how Master K tried to instruct me in how to effectively use the dodge and evasion to set up a dynamic and punishing counter attack. All this training has been quite useful, but I am discovering that evasion may be much less in my natural repertoire of movements in fighting.

dodge and fast counter attacking – August, 2009

jump back when attacked, then explode – September, 2011

elementary dodge kick counter kick March, 2012

Kaensak – a mix of evasion and firm attack, learning to play

Kaensak Sor. Ploenjit is also an incredible man.  Not only is he a renowned champion whose name still excites Thais who can read his name in English lettering on my shirt here in Thailand, but when you watch him move you can see the years of Muay Thai in his body.  You watch his old fights on YouTube and see him in person and it’s carbon-copy; he couldn’t not glide if he tried.  His style employs a relentlessness that falls short of pure evasiveness by its forward pressure.  He has firm attacks and a kind of cockiness about blocking and charging that is aggressive and really enjoyable to watch.  On a scale of Saenchai to Jongsanon, Kaensak is pretty near the middle but leans toward Saenchai.

In training 1-on-1 with Kaensak I learned many things and I just loved being around him, but probably the greatest lesson he has given me is the importance of playing.  When you’re in a Thai camp and there are young boys around, you see how important the act of playing is in their lives, in building masculinity as much as building technique, relaxation, aggressiveness and technique.  It’s all of it – it’s identical in the puppies that cannot stop biting each other unless food is being served and  you see it in the six-year-olds at the gym just as strongly as you see it in the retired-fighter trainers in their 50s.  There is joy in the movements and a lightness that carries the powerful strikes through the air like you’re seeing shark in water.  It comes from playing and it never goes out.  Keansak would make me spar with him, generously allowing me windows and challenging me with counter-strikes at low volume, for nearly an hour straight (there is a 15 minute clip of this below).  Exhaustion would creep in and I would keep going without the mental blockade of doing “right” moves, but just moving.  He’d encourage me and let me practice jumping knees at him into the fence, a favorite finishing move of Thais everywhere.  It was fun.  It was play.  Through the lesson of playing I inched toward the Saenchai aesthetic of just trying things and using technique to expose the weaknesses or embarrass an opponent, rather than simply making them look ineffective by standing in and not reacting to a strike.  (The difference being a strike literally not making contact and a strike seeming to miss simply by there being no effect from it.)

dodge kick, block strong with noodles – May 2011

15-30 minute rounds of sparring, learning to relax – September 2011

 

Sakmongkol – First time I encountered “never back…forward”

Sakmongkol Shoulder torque in clinch longer

Sakmongkol shows the power of the forward, outside step, hip and shoulder coordination in breaking the inside hold
Sakmongkol twisting forward

(above) the strong, rolling coordination of shoulder and hip, on firm base

Sakmongkol boran

Sakmongkol (above) shows the whole body movement associated with clinch, stepping strong, holding position.

The clinch instruction blog post itself with full video.

While the instruction of Sakmongkol only lasted a few days, it had a big impact on me as I left the United States for Thailand. His Muay Thai expressed forward strength, strong steps made in almost a Boran movement, not only in clinch but in all of his style. It was mesmerizing and beautiful, somewhat in the way Tony Jaa’s movments in Ong Bak appeared to me  originally, when I first discovered Muay Thai. It cued in me that there was another way.  On the scale of Saenchai to Jongsanon, Sakmongkol is nowhere near the middle – he’s near to Jongsanon and you can watch their old fights together with a seemingly unending stream of “ohhhhh!” vocalization at the exchange – and taking – of strikes.  “The Elbow Fight” is just amazing:

Sakmongkol gave me the first taste of unshakeable Muay Thai, the balanced, stable and plodding movements forever going forward do not instruct with evasiveness nearly at all.  If you’re going to avoid a strike it’s through blocking and parrying, not dodging and slipping.  This is what I see as Boran about his style – in Boran, at least in Muay Chaiya as I’ve seen it practiced, you use the hardest parts of your own body to block and deflect attacks, causing damage to the striker – the offensive defense, so to speak.  It’s like sword-fighting, the blades clashing together replaced by hard-boned limbs.  I love it.  There is something indescribably beautiful to me about not moving, about standing in and refusing to give quarter or ground.  It’s very masculine to me in a core, beautiful and aesthetically dominant way.  In my brief training with Sakmongkol I didn’t have to be nimble; instead, I had to be brave and perhaps a little bit wicked, not giving the satisfaction to your opponent that they might have hurt you but making damn sure you have something better coming back at them.

Andy Thomson – a head trainer and founder of Lanna Muay Thai. He was the first person who said to me that there is not one Muay Thai, there are thousands. Each and every person has their own Muay Thai because it is an expression that grows from an individual. Den, my main trainer now says it in a different way. “We all learn the same Muay Thai, like how in school we are taught the same [facts and figures], but how quickly we learn it and how we ultimately use it is up to each of us.”  Both Andy and Den are treating Muay Thai as an expression of self – we’re all speaking English but the words we choose and our particular sentence structures are individual – the ideas we choose to express are through the tool of language but are not the language itself.  Muay Thai is the language, how it looks or what kind of Muay Thai, what style, is an individual expression within that language.

Den – He’s a very evasive fighter, in and out, like Master K.

Den Matrix

Den (in blue) employing crazy Matrix-style evasion of kicks in 2000

While Den has trained me in largely evasive fighting, he also has given me the building blocks for a more forward, closer fighting style as well.  Den’s favorite thing is to make you miss and then charge in and punish you for it, kicking out your legs when you attempt to kick him, throwing you in spectacular arcs in clinching, pinning you to the ropes with punches and then at the moment you expect reprieve he headkicks you.  He likes the look of disappointment at a missed shot – he’s a very psychologically aggressive fighter.  He’ll accept my blocking of kicks, so long as I step in after the block and land my own attack.  He refers to blocking a kick in a way that implies damage, he says “don’t take too much,” meaning block sometimes but avoiding is better.  Evasion causes no damage at all and you get to defeat your opponent’s confidence to boot!  He doesn’t appreciate the damage you cause to your opponent with blocks, but he does acknowledge the damage to an opponent’s confidence when his best shot didn’t affect you.  On the Saenchai to Jongsanon scale, Den is sitting pretty close to Saenchai.  He seems to see the “forward only” style as brutish, not clever.  But as much as Den wants me to be a better outside fighter because that’s what he enjoys watching, what he holds higher esteem for and what he ultimately feels in his own person as being “good” Muay Thai, he does advise me toward my own abilities in fights.  Between rounds he wants me to just go in, use elbows and knees and just drag my opponent into the depths of exhaustion – because that’s what works for me.

Den showing the 4 block

The Full Demo:

Den showed me the “4” block, variations of which (long block, X block, etc) Jongsanan uses in his strong block and clinch game.

Daeng – strong, solid blocks and forward movement with some back-bend kick evasion

I adore Daeng’s training and he is the most fight-oriented teacher I’ve ever had.  Everything he’s ever shown me has been the result of him watching my fights, diagnosing what he sees to be a problem and then finding a solution.  He sees that I’m strong, that I don’t easily get hurt and if I do get hurt I don’t stop and so he works to make that stronger.  He falls much closer to Jongsanon than Saenchai on my imaginary scale, but he’s not terribly close.  Daeng shows me the same elements of “incidental defense” that Master K teaches, such as pinching your shoulders up to your chin to make grabbing the neck in clinch very difficult and hitting the chin impossible.  Daeng’s main doctrine in teaching me has been to never give up any ground.  He wants me to step forward after a block or dodge and to press forward in general, but more important than any of that is his insistence that I never give up ground by going backwards.  That’s Sakmongkol’s way as well.  No matter what happens, for Daeng you block or dodge or catch the kick – it doesn’t matter so long as you swallow up space as a result and starve out your opponent by never giving them any ground.  Because Daeng looks for my strengths and works to heighten them, I feel good training toward the style he’s teaching me because it’s not the negative, “you aren’t good at this,” or “you aren’t doing this,” but rather, “you’re good at this, so get better at it.”  Sometimes Daeng disparages himself by saying, “I’m not a champion,” as a way to kind of humbly clarify that this is just what he thinks, how he sees it, his opinion. It is a fighter’s style, a practical, effective style. He says he has many scars on the top of his head from elbows when he just tucked his chin and came in – like it’s somehow unrefined.  I don’t see it that way and I certainly don’t see him that way.  Sometimes champions aren’t the best teachers because their prodigy kept them from having to solve things, fix themselves, struggle against disadvantage; talent makes for terrible teachers, I say.

Finding a Model – A Group of Techniques

In the history of my instruction it would be a simplification to say that there are two kinds of Muay Thai – there are not. But it is perhaps a helpful simplification. There are fighters that fight near the periphery of striking range, who deploy a variety of striking attacks, and defend themselves through a combination of evasions, blocks and preemptive attacks. Loosely this is what we are calling a “Saenchai style” of fighting, and it is much esteemed. It can be beautiful and jaw-dropping. Both my founding teacher Master K and my current head trainer fought and now train for this kind of style. Then there is another style which does not permit backward steps, works through blocks and guards to eat up the space between themselves and the opponent, and this is the style of fighting we’ve contrastingly called “Jongsanan style.”

One of the important things in trying to bring out your style, aside from finding trainers who are willing to train you in elements of it, is finding models for it. There is a basic grammar of techniques that work together to make both attack and defense possible, you cannot simply make up a successful style without a long and hard tutelage in techniques that work together. For me the Jongsanan fight below demonstrates some techniques that fit together, and part of the reason I recognize them and am now working with more focus towards them, is that in bits and pieces both Den and Daeng have been giving me these elements over the last year or so. The “figure 4” block, the very quick shin block and advance, the low-kick that JR originally taught me… when I see them in Jongsanan I see an example of how they can work together, and they remind me that there is more than one Muay Thai.  And perhaps the most liberating or assuring aspect of that realization is that I can work toward forms, but that also and perhaps more importantly, there are forms within me that need to be worked to the point of confidence and intention, where they will become expressions of my Muay Thai.

Round 1

rd 1 Jongsanan Muay Thai - cross block and shin

the “4” block, or long block, defending the middle distance, complimented by high shin blocks.

rd 1 Jongsanan Muay Thai - holding position long arm block

the extended “4” block feeling out range while in retreat.

 Round 2

rd 2 Jongsanan staying in block lowkick

the lowkick used in combination with the high guard, chopping the middle space.

rd 2 Jongsanan Muay Thai - Smothering with X block

high shin blocks coupled with an advancing extended “4” block, X-block in high guard, smothering the space.

rd 2 Jongsanan Muay Thai - forward drive, 3 out of the ring

hip-arched wrenching on the caught kick, explosive forward drive.

Round 3

rd 3 Jongsanan Muay Thai - block knees coming forward

high shin blocks with bowed advancing knees, eating the space.

rd 3 caught kick knees fighting close

advancing still, here a knee off of the caught kick, driving forward.

Round 4

rd 4 - Jongsanan Muay Thai - high driving left right knees

alternating, nearly marching knees, scoring repeatedly, with outside arm control.

rd 4 - Jongsanan Muay Thai - high X block forward drive

loose “4” block, caught kick, hip-arch and attacking forward drive.

rd 4 - Jongsanan Muay Thai - high forward knees 2

stabbing attacking knees, smothering extended high guard.

Round 5

rd 5 Jongsanan Muay Thai - more frustrating high guard knees 2

smothering with high, forward guard, scoring with straight knees

rd 5 Jongsanan Muay Thai -cross block lowkick 2

frustrating with high, long guard, executing the inside kick to defeat opponent lean

The Whole Fight

 Training Your Triggers

Something my husband and I have been working on is what we call “training your triggers.” You can practice all sorts of positions, strikes, combinations on the bag, in shadow, in padwork and sparring, but if you don’t find yourself in  those positions in fights then you can’t readily pull the trigger on a lot of that muscle memory. It can result in feeling that you didn’t do what you wanted to do in a fight, even though in the fight you are telling yourself to do it. Your body in fights needs to approximate the triggers you train, but more importantly you need to train your triggers to be close to body and emotional states you find yourself in when fighting.  Everyone has weaknesses in their game and it’s up to the trainers and the fighter to figure out how to turn those into strengths or how to work around them.  I don’t know that I’ll ultimately end up with the fighting style I’m growing into now – I think like all growth processes fighters go through stages.  Maybe I’ll be able to pull in some of the “Saenchai style” that Master K and Den love so much, but ultimately feeling good about where I am now and appreciating the full spectrum of that scale is my best bet.

As the saying goes, “A confident fighter is a dangerous fighter.”  Comparing yourself to what you are but in a higher form does wonderful things for confidence and comparing yourself to something you are not at a very high level is terribly disparaging.  I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”.  I love Gladwell’s writing and generally find a great deal of worth in it, but this subject in particular is hitting home with me at every turn.  Basically it’s an exploration of how advantages can be disadvantages and what seem to be disadvantages can actually be greatly beneficial, due to the profit that comes from struggle.  By comparing myself to paragons that don’t look like me at all I end up feeling failure at high frequency.  But by appreciating alternate styles at the acme of Muay Thai that resemble the style that I feel more naturally and have experienced success with makes me feel like I can both dig deeper and reach higher.  Even if that means finding a medium between those two extremes.

These are some of the things I’ve been doing lately to train my triggers, ways of getting my body much more ready to pull the trigger on muscle memory when in fights and embracing my current abilities in order to strengthen them into a style:

HIIT style blocking drills

Daeng came up with this drill because my blocks were pretty slow and inconsistent in fights. Previously I had tried to improve my blocks by mixing them into my bag work. If I was working on my kick, for instance, I would regularly also pop my shin block up before and/or after the kick to smooth out the transitions from the block to strikes. One of the mental hurdles is to get the body to move from a defensive disposition, to an offensive one, quickly and smoothly, to not get stuck in one or the other. This bag work helped a lot. But Daeng wanted my block to come higher, stronger, out of pure reflex. The video below is I think from the first day we tried the drill, and I’ve gotten a lot better at it, doing it every day for two months. Because this fast, high block is essential for defense while closing distance it is important to have the reflex and flexibility to just pop it up without thinking about it. It is already helping me, especially against Thai kickers.

45 second bursts of continuous and varied striking

This drill is something that my husband Kevin came up with, inspired by a variety of sources. Perhaps initially it was from the Lucia Rijker documentary where Freddie Roach tells her during the fight to think “in 3’s”. Three strikes, not two, every time. Then, more recently, watching Iman Barlow’s fight, a fighter who not only trains strong cardio, but also who uses it to overwhelm her opponents with seemingly endless combinations as she does in that fight. The two thoughts are “add a strike”, and “don’t get stuck in your rhythm”. So most days, after regular training  we set the timer for 45 second rounds, 20 second breaks and Kevin has me throw endless strikes for all of those 45 seconds, and to throw them with variety. Everything. Elbows, all knees, every punch type, teeps, high and low kicks, never pausing to reset and never simply gesturing toward the move.  (I don’t “pull” punches or kicks – he’s twice my size – and even if I miss it should be a strong miss.)  The purpose of it is to drill flow, and to drill it through fatigue. It forces you to throw even when off balance, not just when things are set. It forces you to “find the next rhyme” — as if you are freestyling. You are triggering and triggering again, and feeling how some particular strikes lead to others. Sometimes it is high to low, sometimes left side to right, elbows to knees and back. We’ve been doing this to help break out of any 2 or 3 punch combination habits I might be locked into, and to know that when it comes time to push in a round I can go get it. Sometimes we then shorten the round to 20 seconds, with 7 second rest (defense) to train the flows from offense to defense. (With only 7 seconds rest it remains active, my guard stays up and I remain in stance, just not striking or closing distance.) We’ve been doing this for about the last month and  it seems to have really helped in the ring, if not yet in endless strings of combined strikes it is already present in spirit of relentlessness.

striking out of my most defensive posture

This is a big one I’ve been working on as well. I can get stuck in a defensive disposition in fights. A few attacks early on and my hands shoot up to protect myself, they can remain pinned there for much of the fight. Kevin noticed that this is a position I never strike out of in shadow, bag work or on pads. Thais can hold their hands very low, especially on bags, striking at shoulder or even chest level, and for much of the first year I imitated the best of the Thai fighters around me. Because of this we found that I had two hand positions: defensive with hands up, and offensive with hands low. In fights in striking range I seldom had my hands low, so my offensive triggers were not ready to go. To counter this I’ve been re-drilling everything with hands up. Hands in high guard can trigger strikes. This is something, as I mentioned above in the Sakmongkol section, that I absolutely love about Muay Boran – not only its cinematic Tony Jaa version, but also that of Kru Lek who teaches Muay Chaiya in Bangkok, who I visited on my first visit to Thailand in 2009. In Boran forms the defensive position is an attacking position. You attack and defend simultaneously with the advantage of the elbows and knees. So I’ve been getting my front hand high on the brow, and triggering my jab – with some falling-step Jack Dempsey influence – and hook out of this, as well as most of my other attacks, bringing my offensive and defensive triggers closer together. Not only does this hide attacks better, it also allows the body to respond flexibly. A nice thing about this is that it works very closely with the “figure 4” block shown above, and variations of which can be seen in the Jongsanan fight. This is an aggressive guard that very quickly transitions into slicing elbows or knees. The high lead hand can trigger with the glove in tight, or extended.

The Jongsanan Style Isn’t Master K’s Favorite

As I wrote before, Master K favors a very quick, evasive and explosive aesthetic in Muay Thai.  It’s hard to believe that I can’t do it when he’s dashing about all over the place at 75 years old.  But it’s not a cardio issue – I drag opponents into the deep all the time and outwork my own trainers in sparring and padwork sometimes.  Rather, it’s an issue of feeling.  When I try to move around like this, darting this way and that or attempting fancy footwork and head movement when boxing with Neung, I actually just get confused.  I’m not stupid, it’s that the movements have no meaning for me.  I’m just moving because I should but I have not yet done it enough to be accustomed to it, to anticipate what my movements will do to trigger my opponent and then countering that but faster.

Master K hates when I don’t move quickly.  “Don’t stand there and sing a song!” he says.  I want to honor his aesthetic because I love it, because I love him, because I can see and appreciate the finesse and fluidity of his style.  But I’m not a “tricky” person – and this is not to say that how you fight is essentially who you are, but I am saying that a little bit.  Den and Master K are quick witted, cocky, and high energy with great joy in harmless deception.  Kaensak is a fun-loving spirit who will destroy you if you give him reason and then he’ll buy you a drink after.  Pretty close to his fighting style.  I and my experience of Sakmongkol are more of the hard-working, honest and straight-forward type.  I’ve got a razor tongue and I enjoy a good verbal joust, but I’m even plodding in that game – I like a little back and forth, trading blow for blow so long as I get the last and usually better word.  So these styles represent the persons using them – they express something fundamental about us, even if it’s not essential or exclusive.  I saw an interview somewhere that Jongsanon didn’t want to be the Woodenman.  He wanted to be a clever fighter and resented that his camp-mates teased him by calling him a buffalo and “block head.”  But he was just too good at this other style.  It worked.  Not because he’s stupid, but maybe because of a honest, hard-working disposition (my thought, I have not met him yet) which often includes the ability to take a lot of impact without backing down – yeah, kinda like a beast of burden, I guess, as I can see honor in that for myself anyway – was something in his person that was expressed through this kind of Muay Thai.  And I’ll take it.  I think it’s beautiful.

The reason my husband and I first came to Thailand for training was to get a more basic foundation through repetition and rudimentary grounding upon which Master K’s Ph.D-level techniques could be grafted.  And coming back to Thailand two years later, with the goal of staying as long as possible and accomplishing 100 fights in the pursuit of proficiency through the prolific, I’m still doing so with the ultimate hope that I can pull all that beautiful Master K technique into the ring with me.  But Master K has also always told me to learn from many people, to take what I can from different sources, teachers and styles.  More than anything, Master K appreciates good Muay Thai and that can mean different aesthetic and tactical styles – what he wants, I imagine, is for whatever style I settle into to be an expression of love for Muay Thai.  So what I owe him, really, is the effort toward turning whatever style I have into dance.  Kaensak’s movements express his endless hours of practice, the way Sakmongkol’s movements betray an incredible strength and brutality that contrast brilliantly with his gentle, almost shy disposition.  What’s so beautiful about Master K’s technique is not necessarily the specific arc of a kick or devastating power of an elbow – those things are incredible; what’s so beautiful, what steals my breath away and makes me want to learn Muay Thai forever is rather the way these movements express Master K.

[Update 3/2014: Some of the thinking in this post inspired me to go ahead and train with Sakmongkol in Pattaya for 2 months. You can see my very detailed daily blog posts and video of that experience here.]

[Update 12/2014: In June 2014 I moved to Pattaya to further train in this style, joining both Petchrungruang gym and O. Meekhun gym which afford me regular practice in clinch and entry.]

*******

I’ve also had many other trainers that have influenced me and I do not mean to leave them out. I streamlined the narrative for simplicity. I’ve had Ray Valez informatively teach me boxing and attitude out of TSMMA, Ray Cruz from North Jersey Muay Thai help with bag work philosophy and balance, Natalie Fuz of Chok Sabai Gym who coached me through my NY fights, Augie MK Muay Thai who worked though practical sparring applications, Robyn Klenk who taught me to train aggression, Andy Thomson who taught me how to train (a big deal), Neung at Lanna working this last year in boxing and Nook who has given me his Muay Thai wisdom, Big, Little Neung and JR who’ve helped me with techniques…. A fighter is a composite of everyone who has helped them.

If you enjoyed this post you may like this one:

15 New Techniques That Will Improve Your Muay Thai – From My Training in Pattaya

You can support this content: Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu on Patreon

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Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

The Author Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

A 103 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100 fights in 3 years here, my new goal is to fight an impossible 200 times in Thailand, as much as I possibly can, and to continue to write my experience.

6 Comments

  • L
    November 10, 2013 9:09 am

    I wrote a post about my first time sparring after I read your post, http://minimartialarts.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/my-first-time-muay-thai-sparring/

  • Justin
    November 14, 2013 7:56 am

    Hi, wanted to let you know I shared your article on Kyokushin4life, the online knockdown karate community. Excellent write up!

  • Sylvie
    Sylvie
    November 14, 2013 12:52 pm

    Thank you Justin, glad it could help others in thinking about fight styles!

  • Jose'
    November 15, 2013 11:21 pm

    Great post Sylvie. Keep up the hard training and you are bound to find your way. Reading your post reminds me of when I first starting training in Muay Thai (under the Master K style) 15 years ago.

  • mark
    October 8, 2016 8:16 pm

    that was so nice to me i want to be a muay thai master the three types of muay thai fighting style

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The 80 Percent Fight – A Hidden Story Behind Western and Thai Match Ups

Any westerner fighting in Thailand has an interest in portraying their Thai opponents as being the best and fighting at the top of their capabilities.  And, to be fair, we assume and hope that this is true in our own minds.  We come here to train hard and fight hard, and from our understanding of fighting in the west we assume quite fairly that our opponents are doing the same.  But in Thailand, things are very often not what they seem; perhaps especially when gazing with western expectations. My experience of fighting in Thailand started over 5 years ago now

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu - Waiting Before the Fight - Muay Thai

What the First Year of Fighting Means – a Husband’s Point of View

this space is Sylvie’s space, where she writes her record. But with the first year of fighting completed I felt I wanted to add my thoughts, as a husband. In part because Sylvie is fighting for all of us, a family.    guest post, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu I’m a pretty quiet guy around the gym and at fights, so much so people tend to not get past the exterior. But when they do one of the things they ask me is “Do you ever get worried when Sylvie goes in there?” This is such a natural thing to ask a

calling time

15 New Techniques That Will Improve Your Muay Thai – From My Training in Pattaya

I learned a ton training with Sakmongkol in Pattaya for 7 weeks, as well in my time at Petchrungruang Gym. You can see my daily blog posts of my time with Sakmongkol here if you want to dig into the evolution of my lessons, the posts are pretty detailed with lots of video. Below are the lessons I learned, in particular the lessons or techniques I’m going to consciously work into my training at Lanna, now that I’m back in Chiang Mai. I’ll try to tell you why they were important for me and maybe they could help you, too.

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu - training Muay Thai

Why Your Muay Thai Dreams Might Not Come True in Thailand – The Two Great Fears for Fighting

(above) my video introduction the common fight fears of gassing out and shin pain, the video below shows Den talking about what to do for fight conditioning Some Tough Talk One of the advantages of training non-stop in Thailand for so long is a sense of perspective I’ve gained on people who come with Muay Thai dreams. I’ve met maybe 100 people over the past year and a half who have come through the gym with serious aspirations to fight. They arrive very enthused, but less than a quarter of them actually do fight and none of them – not

Lewish Pugh by Terje Eggum

The Myth of Overtraining – Endurance, Physical and Mental for Muay Thai

This piece flowed out of my experiences that led to writing The Fragility of Western Masculinity, and responses to this post lead to me writing Endurance is a Skill. Read All My Articles on Overtraining Preface – I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long while and two things happened recently that have allowed me to finally pull it together. The first thing was writing to Lewis Pugh, who is an incredible athlete and ocean advocate who swims in extreme conditions in order to draw attention to the effects of climate change on the earth’s oceans.  (Picture swimming

Sataanmuanglek - high level Muay Thai clinch technique-w1400

Breaking Down Some Elements of Awesome Muay Thai Clinch Technique

Sataanmuanglek Numponthep – Magician A few days a go a clinch video swept across Facebook, featuring the young fighter Sataanmuanglek Numponthep just looking incredible in “man in the middle” training. This kind of training is very common in Thailand, and often can go for 40 minutes or more (rotating out the man who is in the middle) – it’s one of the reasons I moved to Pattaya to train at Petchrungruang, this kind of work. But Sataanmuanglek just looks spectacular in this clip. The very best clinch throw techniques are those where you almost can’t see where the trip came

Boxing in a Mirror - Sparring Out of Control

Brain Science: Why Sparring Gets Out of Control – Neurology and Muay Thai

We all know the bro (or the female version) who says “Let’s go light” in sparring, and then whacks you. Or, when you get a hit in they suddenly step it up two notches in a way that seems inordinately ego-driven, like they’re trying to “win” at sparring. What’s up with these people? Don’t they know how to spar? It turns out that although there indeed may be all kinds of psychological reasons why people just hit back harder than they are hit – not understanding their own size, or just being a jerk – there also may be a

Treating shins for injury, bumps and bruises, swelling - Muay Thai Sylvie-w1200

Treating Shins For Recovery: Knots, Bruises, Bumps – and Training Injured – Muay Thai

above, my how to video for warm water massage for shins [update: for longer lasting shin swells you can try this] Subscribe to 8limb.us articles for free here Anyone who has kicked anything knows that the occasional bump, knot or “mouse” on the shin or foot is inevitable.  You can get them on your forehead or face from an elbow or punch and on your shins or feet from kicking knees, elbows, heads, etc.  They kind of feel like badges of awesomeness, but they can also keep you from training and that feels lame. I always have something that hurts,

Arjan Surat - Dejrat Gym in Bangkok - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

Arjan Surat of Dejrat Gym – 1 Hour Private | Coach of the Thai National Team

Join and Study my Muay Thai Library of Legends This is a full video of a private I took with Arjan Surat, Head Coach of the Thai National Team, and owner of the esteemed (but lesser known to the west) Dejrat Gym in Bangkok. I did a short review of the gym when I interviewed female fighter Kaitlin Young, and it was then that I met Arjan Surat for the first time: an absolutely extraordinary teacher and life-force of Muay Thai. The man is Old School-Old School, telling me that he’s been holding pads longer than I’ve been alive (he’s

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Underground Gambling, Beetle Fights, Heart and the Clinch of Muay Thai

File this under The Culture of Muay. If you are to understand Muay Thai, I mean really understand it and see how it grew out of Thai society, and the forces that sustain and feed it today, you have to appreciate Fight Culture. It is not just the techniques and gyms that make up Muay Thai in Thailand, but rather a whole system of beliefs and experiences the pull together the karma and excitements of gambling – gambling on contests of body and soul. Part 1 on the Battle Beetles of the North is here: Muay Thai Clinch is Not

When are you ready to fight Muay Thai - sylvie

How Do You Know When You’re Ready to Fight Muay Thai?

A few months ago I wrote post titled Game Day: Why You Should Fight Muay Thai in Thailand.  This is a follow up or “part two” to that post on the subject of how you know when you’re ready to fight, in Thailand or otherwise. When Are You Ready? Not long ago a fellow who I met through my Facebook page and who made it out to Thailand to train at a gym that is also in Chiang Mai came by Lanna to train with us.  After a full session including sparring he started talking about how he expected to

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Sylvie’s Tips – Muay Thai Techniques

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For Clinch Purists – The Technique of Tanadet’s Long Clinch and the 9th Limb

This post is in the spirit of this site, showing things in progress, as if passing reading notes so others can think along (and even train along) with me. I’ve thought a lot about this clinch since first witnessing it about 3 years ago. I’ve finally gotten myself to the position where I can teach it to myself. I first wrote about Tanadet (Poda) 2 years ago.  The extended film clip below Kevin made as a study film for me, so I could figure out just what it is that Tanadet was doing. If you want a very good sense

SCATHE Acronym - Muay Thai Techniques Vlog

Technique Vlog: Meta Techniques – My S.C.A.T.H.E. Acronym

Below is a long technique vlog, basically explaining an adjustment I’ve made to my training in the last couple of weeks. Usually my training consists of things that promote my conditioning and lots of work focused on specific techniques that I want to develop. These can be techniques or tactics I’ve picked up from legends while filming my Muay Thai Library project, or things I already do that I think I should sharpen up for my particular fighting style. I’m always working on something and it’s always hard, always with the aim of development. As with all training regimes, repetition is

Jatukam showing the Matrix style Muay Thai

Sylvie’s Tips – Train the Matrix on the Bag – Jatukam Petchrungruang

  Just a little bagwork drill/game that I ran into in the gym by one of my favorite young fighters, Jatukam. Jatukam is 14 or 15 years old and just crushes his competition at Lumpinee and Rajadamnern.  He’s one of the best fighters at 40 kg (88 lbs) and has a really clever, muay femur style, which is the tricky and evasive style mostly associated in the west with Saenchai.  He’s Southpaw and has a nasty teep, but that doesn’t stop him from getting in close and smashing my face with solid left crosses when we spar.  He’ll smile the

Sylvie's Tips - Control your Muay Thai Kick - Floating Block - Sakmongkol

Sylvie’s Tips: Gaining Control of Your Muay Thai Kick – Floating Block

Sylvie’s Tips: The Floating Block Sakmongkol was the first person to tell me not to turn around on kicks.  He was adamant about it.  It’s very awkward when you first try and your kick can be really flicky and horrible, but the more you get it under control the more you realize how much this increases power.  Basically you want to have confidence that you can control your kick at any time, so if you miss your target you’re not going to spin all the way around.  Honestly, you’ll seldom if ever see this in a Thai fight and when

Sylvie's Tips - How to Drill Caught Kick Response-001

Sylvie’s Tips – How to Drill Caught Kick Response Without a Partner

I’ve never really had opponents catching my kicks in fights, but that’s partially because I don’t really mid-kick.  So, the reason I know that I suck at responding when my kick is caught is almost entirely through padwork, where I topple over like a kicked-over bicycle. Which is to say that I don’t really practice against this and only get reminded of how unpracticed I am when my trainer occasionally wants to mess with me. I do know how to handle the caught kick – I’ve been shown techniques from various sources – but I never drill them. When I visited

Sylvie's Tips - Improving Your Muay Thai Elbows Using a Wall

Sylvie’s Tips – Improve Your Muay Thai Elbows Using a Wall

Making Your Elbows (Hooks & Crosses) Fast, Direct and Accurate This is a pretty simple technique and you can find a wall anywhere, so we can mark this down as one of the most accessible tools there is. Basically, I have been alerted to the folly of how my arms launch away from my body when I throw strikes, which is detrimental to both power and control. Sagat is the one who really explained trajectory to me [<<watch that session to see what this philosophy of strking is about], showing how a wind-up is just wasted space, energy and time,

Different Kinds of Muay Thai Knee Techniques - Sylvie's Tips

Sylvie’s Tips: Different Kinds of Muay Thai Knees

In my Dieselnoi Instruction post I made a video demonstrating some of the different sorts of knees used in Muay Thai. I’m not an expert in any of these, but I felt it might be good to just present an overview as a single, “proper” knee does not so much exist in Muay Thai, and there are many different techniques used for different purposes. Sometimes the focus is damage done, or accumulating points, or even just making sure the knee is clearly visible to the judges. As I say in the introduction to the video, these are all variations on knees and,

Muay Thai Wrap with Padding - How to Wrap Hands

Sylvie’s Tips – How I Wrap My Hands – A Muay Thai Wrap With Padding

Above is a little video of how I wrap my hands. I think it’s good to experiment with different kinds of wrap techniques as they have different strengths. It took me a while to settle on this one. Hand size, punching style, the wrap material itself can make a difference – I’ve been liking the longer, softer wraps of Top King and Punish (an Australian company). This wrap technique incorporates an extra padded layer made of a fold of the wrap placed on the knuckles first (for torn up skin, I’ve actually added a cut kitchen sponge for a few

How I Wrap My Hands for Muay Thai - Fight Wrap

Sylvie’s Tips: How I Wrap My Hands with Muay Thai Fight Wraps – Gauze Linen

The cloth training wraps that are so common in the West aren’t necessarily all over the place in Thailand. You can buy them at virtually any shop that sells equipment, sure, but they’re not used by all the Thais training at the camps. A lot of Thai boys don’t wrap their hands at all. Those who do, in my experience, often favor these cloth “fight” wraps that are more like gauze-linen and don’t have a thumb loop or Velcro. The western boxing style training cloth wraps we’re used to are expensive and, the more I’ve trained, the more they seem

Four Block

Sylvie’s Tips: Den Demonstrates the “4” Block for Muay Thai and Boxing

Den Shows the “4” Block  A Little Break Down of the “4” Block Den taught me this block a short while ago and it’s also very well utilized by Neung, who is a WBC boxing champion.  Basically you use your back arm and fold it across your chin, so your elbow is right at the center to protect your nose and chin and your glove is at the opposite side of your head, protecting your ear and jaw.  Then your front arm is the leg of the “4”, shooting straight out to jab or push on your opponent. Den isn’t

Sylvies Tips - Clashing of Knees

How to Avoid Kicking Knees or Elbows in the Basic Muay Thai Kick

This above is a little video help to Benjamin who wrote me about a basic problem he was having in sparring. It seemed like the best way to answer him was in a quick video. I try to help people who write in to me as best I can. Once I filmed it I realized that this is something a lot of others are probably having issues with. I know I still run into it after 3 years here, so I thought to turn it into a “Sylvie’s Tips” video. Hopefully it helps others. Benjamin asked about how his knee

Muay Thai Low Kick - Where to Kick the Thigh - Sylvie's Tips

Sylvie’s Tips – Low Kick: Where to Kick the Leg – the Sensitive IT Band

Kick Where it Hurts This is another installment of Sylvie’s Tips where I seek to share some of the things my Thai trainers are teaching. The other day Kru Nu landed a couple leg kicks on my right (back) leg during padwork.  He’s got a good low kick and his Thai students have really whippy, nasty low kicks as well.  The first one hurt and all, but the second one – which was a good 10 minutes after the first – landed on just such the perfect spot, with just enough force, and while my weight was on it that

Low Kick Counter - Round Kick Counter - Dieselnoi

Sylvie’s Tips: 2 Wicked Dieselnoi Knee Counters to Muay Thai Kicks [GIFs]

The Sylvie’s Tips feature is a collection of techniques and tips I’ve picked up in my time in Thailand, from some of the best trainers in the world. I’ve never seen these exact counters before, and they come from the greatest knee fighter in history, Dieselnoi, during my filming of a nakmuaynation.com private. You can read about that private here. Unique Knee Counter to Round Kick I’ve actually been on the receiving end of this knee to the hamstring a number of times, but only from my trainer, Pi Nu, during padwork. He thinks it’s hilarious and usually calls out boran!

Some of My Best Posts

Violence in Muay Thai

The Importance of Violence in Muay Thai

I’ve written before about how Muay Thai and fighting, to me, isn’t “violence.” My argument was that I have experienced real violence, the above is the story of my rape as a child, and that the consent and preparation involved in fighting isn’t the same. There is, however, a flavor of violence in Muay Thai – it is, as my old boxing coach Ray Valez would say, “the hurt business” and ultimately any fighter pushing for the highest form of the art of Muay Thai has to embrace this. Yesterday there was a young woman at my gym, Petchrungruang, who

Capture2

The Fighter and Unconscious Tension – Recognize and Release

I just had to do my annual visa run, which requires sitting in a van full of total strangers for the 11 hour drive up to the border with Laos, an overnight stay, then the 11 hour drive back down to Pattaya. It’s grueling. Sitting in a car or a plane for this number of hours takes a toll on anyone. It’s astonishing how tired sitting on your ass makes you. I’m not very social, so I always put as many hours of podcasts and audio books as possible on my player so I can leave my headphones in the

Mental Training - People Pleasing and the Fighter

How Many Fucks? Zero. The People Pleaser and the Fighter

Apologies to my younger readers, this post is laced with profanity. Sometimes profanity has a special power to describe things in ways other words can’t. The plastic stool underneath me is too far out from the actual corner and my body kind of tips backwards as my cornermen lift my legs into their hands and rub icy cold water on my thighs and shins. I try to balance myself on the ropes but it’s more awkward and I reposition my forearms to the tops of my thighs; the cold water is going over my head now, which feels nice because

Chiang Mai Best Female Fighting in the World

Why Chiang Mai Has the Best Female Muay Thai Fighting in the World

This article is about the flourishing Muay Thai of Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, becoming the best female fight city in the country and very possibly in the entire world. No other city boasts such a complete native female Thai fight scene: it’s fed by side-bet (gambling) fights in the outlying provinces, stabilized by Sports Schools, hosted at a large number of local stadia (all of which allow women to fight in them) which hold fights every night of the week, and supported by the Thai Muay Siam media coverage. If you are a female Muay Thai fighter, this

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Interview with IFMA’s Stephan Fox | Muaythai in the Olympics and More

Stephan Fox is the General Secretary of the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur (IFMA) and the Vice-President of the World Muaythai Council (WMC).  He is a huge figure in the recognition and development of amateur Muaythai in Thailand, as well as international competition with both the IFMA and WMC. After 20 years of work, the International Olympic Committee has just given provisional recognition for possible inclusion in the Olympics – let me repeat that: 20 years of work for that, and Mr. Fox’s response is, “right on schedule.” above, the full 30 minute interview with Stephan Fox We cover a range of

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The Secret to Great Muay Thai Padwork in Thailand – Get the Most Out of It

What follows is not authoritative, it is just the things I’ve gleaned in my nearly 5 years of full time training at my various gyms, and in traveling around and taking privates from some of the best in Thailand. You can get access to my growing Muay Thai library with legends for a suggested pledge of $5. I read a rant on Reddit that, despite its intense language, does open up that some people do get frustrated training in Thailand, finding a lack of instruction and padwork that be repetitive. I do believe there is no better place in the

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“This Is Business” | The Imitation Game, Playing to the Gamblers

Alex and Note are standing on opposite corners of the ring, wearing shinguards and gloves, hanging out like they’re about to do anything other than sparring. They’re totally relaxed, laughing, joking. Kru Nu is pacing around and there’s a buzz around the circumference of the ring while the remainder of the boys all takes their positions along the ropes as spectators and Goh – one of the padmen for the kids – is hollering for Chicken Man. Kru Nu squats down with his hands on the top rope, peering under the staircase and out into the chicken farm, the most likely

fighting-above-weight-in-thailand

Female Fighters | Fighting Above Weight in Thailand & How to Win

First off, let me say it: weight, its not that big of a deal. There is a strong caveat to this, which is that it is a definite advantage, but so is height, or knowing the scoring system, or fighting since you were 10, or having a fight on your  home turf, and so many other things. So while weight is always a potential advantage, it is just one among many possible advantages. You can beat people who have the weight advantage over you, just like you can with any of those other advantages. I know that in the West

perfect-muay-thai-technique

Precision – A Basic Motivation Mistake in Some Western Training

read my guest post articles a Husband’s Point of View A Husband’s Point of View – Consider this a working theory. I’ve written about the uniqueness of Thai style training before, in The Slow Cook vs the Hack, and this article can be seen as something of an extension of that. But as Sylvie’s husband watching her progress through very earnest training and a hell of a lot of fighting, and seeing numerous westerners come through her Thai gyms, I’ve come upon something I think is pretty important. What led me to this is a very particular quality many serious

Guide to Muay Thai Gym Etiquette - Not Offend

Guide to Thailand Muay Thai Gym Etiquette – How to Be Polite

Below is meant to be a helpful guide, something that I wish I had when I first came to training Thailand. These are just things I’ve noticed in my 4 years of training and fighting here and are not hard and fast rules to follow. If you want to be polite in Thailand gyms, in a culture that is different than your own, these are just a few things to look for. There are of course a wide variety of gym experiences in Thailand, and things that are impolite in a small, family Thai-style gym might very well be common

Pitbull - Fear and Agression in Muay Thai

Fear of Escalation in Sparring and Training Aggression as a Skill

A lot of us feel that aggression comes with an “on/off” switch, and that we should be able to flick it back and forth based on context. Many of us who are learning Muay Thai struggle with aggression, perhaps because we don’t feel that we are “naturally aggressive,” and it’s frustrating to watch those who are seemingly naturally gifted with aggression succeed in ways that we don’t see in ourselves. But aggression isn’t natural, even if it does seem innate in some more than others. I contend that aggression feels natural to some due to having spent years cultivating it before they

Dracula Guard position - Muay Thai

Padwork with Daeng at Lanna – Dracula Guard (Long Guard Variation)

First a Little Bit About Daeng Daeng is one of the most fight-focused trainers I’ve trained with. When I was training at Lanna Muay Thai in Chiang Mai, it was Daeng who invested the most in diagnosing and fixing weaknesses in my fighting. He wasn’t my main trainer, but he’s a very good teacher and has a keen eye for finding how to improve on existing strengths and correct errors. I’d initially gotten a bit stuck with a technically brilliant but lazy and unmotivated trainer – that guy was a great trainer for some, just not for me – and Daeng

Arjan Surat - Dejrat Gym in Bangkok - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

Arjan Surat of Dejrat Gym – 1 Hour Private | Coach of the Thai National Team

Join and Study my Muay Thai Library of Legends This is a full video of a private I took with Arjan Surat, Head Coach of the Thai National Team, and owner of the esteemed (but lesser known to the west) Dejrat Gym in Bangkok. I did a short review of the gym when I interviewed female fighter Kaitlin Young, and it was then that I met Arjan Surat for the first time: an absolutely extraordinary teacher and life-force of Muay Thai. The man is Old School-Old School, telling me that he’s been holding pads longer than I’ve been alive (he’s

The Gendered Experience

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Keep Your Shirt On – Another Read on Thai Modesty

A few weeks ago I posted an entry on Thai modesty and the issue of bare chests (on men) within and outside of the camp, titled “Of Modesty and Men -Thai Manners In and Out of Camp”.  In short, it is considered impolite for men to go bare-chested in public but it is completely acceptable (and encouraged) to be shirtless in the gym.  Some men at the camp bend the limits and go shirtless into a convenience store that shares a driveway with the gym, but this is considered (by my eye-witness and personal understanding of Thai manners) out of

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My Interview with Loma and Chommanee at Lookboonmee Gym

above, video interview with Loma and Chommanee One of the things that is surprising every single time I witness it is how humble, kind, and open fighters are outside of the ring. Even the superstars. I remember early in my career being thrown off by how nice my opponents seemed to be before a fight, I thought maybe they were tricking me by smiling and being sweet but then kicking my ass in the ring… but it’s not a front. That’s just actually how people are. The 16 Female Muay Thai Fighters I’ve Interviewed Loma Lookboonmee and Chommanee Taehiran are

Treated Like a Lady - Self-Defense Class - Female Only-w1400

Treated Like a “Lady” | The Benefits/Complications of Female Only Classes

This post is taken from a response I posted on the Women Only section of the Roundtable Forum – where confirmed female members discuss all things Muay Thai. If you are a female who trains in Muay Thai do join our group. The question was raised there by one of our members about the benefits and/or complications of female only classes. Her question specifically referenced “self defense” classes and women wanting to be prepared physically and mentally for an assault, and being disappointed that they were treated “ladylike” in those courses; but there are gyms that offer “women’s classes” that

Paula Bronstein - Women of Thailand and the Bottom Rope-001

So What’s the Big Deal About Women and the Bottom Rope In Thailand?

photo credit above: Paula Bronstein at Getty Images Guest Post – A Husband’s Point of View There’s been some of recent conversation about the bottom rope, and the Thai custom that women not only pass under the rope when entering the fight ring, but also less well-known, that in some more conservative camps, that they enter training rings this way as well, so as to not disturb the protective powers of magic that consecrate the ring and everything that happens within it. One western coach took to Facebook to present a defiant rant that his female fighters would never go

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Motivation is 80% Expectation – Lessons in Attitude in Muay Thai

Afternoon training at Petchrungruang yesterday was a pendulum swinging between, “hey, that’s not so bad,” to “holy hell, I’m never going to make it through this.”  I didn’t feel well, mostly fatigued and feeling a little bit flu-ish in the sore muscle and fever department.  So of course, of course, as I’m pushing my way through bagwork I get called in to the ring to do sparring with this kid who has been kicking my ass in clinch the last couple days. So I sucked it up and got in the ring, focusing on just having the right kind of

Sylvie and Mai - Female Clinch

Female Fighter Alliance – a Young Girl New to Clinch

There’s a new little girl at the Petchrungruang Gym.  She’s been there for maybe 2 months now, only in the afternoons, but she’s serious.  For a long time I didn’t know her name – I found out it is Mai – but she’s 11 years old and Kru Nu informed me that she already wants to fight.  She’s probably 40 kg.  I always smile at her when I see her, mostly because I’m legitimately excited to have another female in the gym at all (who is training), but also because I want to make sure she feels a connection.  It

First Female Boston Marathon Runner 1966

Women Making History and the Selfish Endeavor – 1966

There’s a wonderful quote by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “Well behaved women rarely make history.” While this conjures, for me, an image of brazen women steeling themselves against injustices to act out in defiance, this also includes any women who pushes against limitations. Even quietly. Even in secret. To behave means to do what is expected, to obey the rules and color inside the lines. Some women make history not by trying to make history, but simply by trying to take part in what makes them happy, before history has decided that was the right thing. That’s what Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb did when

Masculine Physique - Female Muay Thai - Sylvie

ฺBody as Evidence – Masculine Frame and Status in Muay Thai in Thailand

I write a lot about how having a female body and female identity in a male-dominated sport and alien culture places limits on my possibilities as a fighter.  There are also ways in which my anatomical build and a general physiognomy work to my advantage, (I use the word “physiognomy” throughout because none fit better, despite it not being exact):  Namely, the ways in which my body isn’t stereotypically feminine create some new possibilities of perception and opportunity, not just drawbacks. I have just written about status and how near invisible behaviors, can affect it: The Mitt And the Joke. This

Nong Toom - the name nong

Ruminations on Gender, the Name “Nong” and Diminution in Muay Thai

Below are some ruminations on things I’ve picked up on in Thai culture These are suspicions I’ve arrived at through my various experiences and observations of Thai culture and should be taken as that, rather than claims of unarguable fact. I’m not fluent in Thai, neither the language nor the culture, but these are opinions I’ve formed through my experiences, observations and some academic research thus far. If anyone has further insight into or perspective on the language, gender and subculture I’d be glad to hear it. Thai Fighter Names and Gender Bias You can almost immediately spot female fighters

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu - Muay Thai

1 Year Completed in Thailand – 28 Fights, Just Starting

Anniversary – 1 Year April 6th was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Thailand.  It feels quite monumental, which is perhaps both strange and ordinary since I don’t really pay a great deal of attention to anniversaries (ordinary) but this one feels like it marks the accomplishment of both goals and dreams that seemed at a time unattainable (strange).  What is most peculiar about the feelings I have surrounding this anniversary is how fast it seemed – it’s like the calendar is lying to me that it’s been a whole year and yet when I look at how

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Sharing Clinch Techniques | 20 Minutes Clinching with All-Female Gym [video]

In the video below some of the techniques being worked on: blade of the forearm lock to create leverage turns on the knee, waiting until on one foot small jerks to off balance, instead of continuous pressure moving forward and back to off balance inside thigh trip to turn and trip steering by the inside of the elbows the bounce to hide moves Spreading the Technique of Clinch This is a follow up post on my Passing Some Clinch Knowledge post on my visit to the Pettonpung gym about a month before this, where I showed my lock and a

colorado field

Leaving Trails – Leadership and Following in Muay Thai

Growing up in Colorado had innumerate perks that I only came to appreciate long after I took them for granted.  City kids in New York and Philadelphia learn how to handle themselves on public transportation from an early age and kids like me in the wilds of mountains and deserts learned how to “pack out what you pack in” with equal diligence.  The first rule of backpacking in the mountains of Colorado and deserts of Utah is to leave no trace of yourself, the foremost lesson being to preserve the world you’re exploring. When I was maybe 12 years old

My Muay Thai Scars - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

Losing Face – Beauty and Changing How My Stitches and Cuts Are Read

y stitch count stands at 51 stitches, most of which are in my face.  When looking in a mirror, I can see about five vertical lines along my hairline and forehead. I love them. I haven’t always, but I do now – they’re part of my story and in the context of what I love, where my heart has taken me, they’re something I have pride in. The other day I imagined what it would be like to go back to the US and work the job I had before, which was bartending. It’s a very image-conscious occupation and it

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