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June 28, 2014
Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
Camp Experience, Muay Thai, O. Meekhun, Petchrungruang Gym

Adopting Jai the Jungle Dog – Love and Complications of Having a Dog in Thailand

Love at First Bite - Jai and Sylvie Thailand


a video introduction to Jai

Bamroong, the Patriarch of Petchrungruang Gym, is looking at me through his thick, Coke bottle glasses and his eyes are glimmering under his slicked back hair. His question is in Thai and I don’t understand it. I tell him so and he repeats it verbatim, then tries again by asking the question to 12-year-old Alex, who is standing with his oversized gloves dangling at his reed-thin thighs. Alex is Italian and speaks better Thai than English; he shakes his head and says, mai roo pasa angrit, (I don’t know how to say that in English) and the question gets volleyed over to Kru Nu, who is behind both of them in the ring. Kru Nu steps over to the ropes and points at the puppy that’s sprawled in Kevin’s lap, “what kind of dog – what species?” he translates. I suddenly remember being asked this once before, regarding a photograph of my dog back at home in the US, now living with my parents.  They want to know the breed of the dog.  I smile and shake my head and tell the row of eyes looking at me that I don’t know what kind of dog he is. We found him living in the jungle, he’s a “soi dog,” – literally a “street dog,” meaning a stray.  We’ve named him Jai, which is kind of the word for “heart” in Thai.  Thais don’t get this name by itself, because it’s not properly how you’d use it to mean what we mean, so I tell them his name is jai dee, which means to have a “good heart.”  Every Thai understands this – it’s the compliment I got as a fighter when I first started out.  The kids call him by this name when he comes in the gym, Jai Dee!  Jai Dee!

About a week prior to Jai sitting with us at the gym, almost two weeks after moving to Pattaya, Kevin decided he wanted to walk down the street to get a coffee between training sessions. It’s an unusual request and seemed reasonable enough an activity to see the area where we’re living and actually engage with it with our feet on the ground rather than zipping through it on the motorbike going from gym to gym. So we headed out and rounded a few bends before reaching a stretch that is a big concrete wall on one side – behind which sit some nice houses – and a stretch of undeveloped jungle on the other. There are lots of little lots like this in urban Thailand. You’ll find lush, thick jungle between houses and often it’s got a barbed-wire fence in front of it with a sign that claims it’s for sale. This one doesn’t have a sign, but it’s a big piece of undeveloped land that, like most other lots like this, acts as a garbage dump for the local community.  Old or broken spirit houses, broken furniture, bags of trash and the like are piled along the edge of the land. You’ll also see little piles of rice, usually soggy and wet from a recent rain, dotting the edge along the fence as well from where good Samaritans have left food for “soi dogs” in the area.

Feeding street dogs in Thailand is a form of making merit, so most of the stray dogs, while mangy and unkempt, are relatively well fed and they’ll stick together in packs on corners, bits of empty land, parking lots, anywhere where a street food stall will park at any point during the day, near restaurants and, of course, at temples. There are so many stray dogs in Thailand it’s hard to handle when you first come over from the west. It’s sad to see them but the way in which they become quasi-mascots for locations, shops and corners becomes part of your everyday experience and it’s kind of sweet. They’re generally very calm and I’ve only experienced a bit of fear around them when on a run  – sometimes you’ll get chased by a few dogs at a time that don’t dig you running through their stomping grounds. But I’ve never been bitten. Given their prevalence as street animals, it’s not too surprising that dogs are generally regarded as dirty animals here in Thailand. Unless it’s an expensive breed that is a lap-dog, like a Pekingese or something, dogs generally live outside the house even when they are “domestic” animals.

I should add in a sidenote, as Thailand is often filled with contradictions. While everyday people can look down upon the dog, in a certain social sense, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej who is the most revered person in the Kingdom, has made it a point of public of importance to adopt stray dogs out of compassion, and is often photographed with his dogs:

King of Thailand - Stray Dogs - Doi Dogs

The King of Thailand and his Dogs

So we’re on our way to the coffee shop that Kevin wants to visit and we’re in between this cement wall and the jungle and when I look over to the jungle area I see this little black and white puppy digging in the trash. I make kissy sounds at him and his head pops up to look at me. That’s a good sign; even puppies can be very timid and sometimes they’ll run away at that sound. But this little guy came out of the trash pile and sat down in front of me, allowing me to reach down and pet his head a little bit, right between his giant, satellite ears. I was very pleased to pet him. I am absolutely what we in America call a “dog person” and it’s reasonably hard for me to be around so many dogs with my own natural inclination to pet all the dogs I ever see and have most of them be either afraid of me or indifferent to me, with the rare option of being possibly dangerous thrown in as well. So when I see a dog that seems willing to let me pet it, I pet that dog with absolute joy.

When we kept walking the little puppy started following us. I’ve pet puppies before that then try to follow me, usually while I’m running, but in those cases there’s always more than one and I’ve developed a fail-proof trick of manipulating a tackle by tossing one dog over the other, starting a wrestle between them and making my escape while they go at it. But this is just one little guy, no other dogs around. So I couldn’t really make him stop following us and he kept up pretty well. He walked a good few blocks with us and even followed us into the coffee shop area, where he started adventuring around while we sat and ordered drinks. A big, older dog up the way let the puppy know that he was not welcome in the area by barking at him and charging. The puppy ran away from that dog but kept trying to explore the area, wandering far from us at times. When we were headed back to the apartment I told the puppy to come with us back to where we’d found him and sure enough he came back with us. I’m sure he would have followed us all the way home but just past his garbage area is a house with a mama dog and four puppies that work as a guard to that area of the street and little jungle puppy was not allowed to pass.  A dog’s life is very political.

Not Having a Dog – And Getting One

It’s difficult for me to not have a dog in my life. My own dog, Zoa, is turning five this August. She’s being loved and cared for at my parents’ house in Colorado while we’re in Thailand and I haven’t seen her in over two years, other than on computer video calls where my dad tips the computer down to show her sleeping under the table. There’s something about the companionship of an animal, a dog in particular, that kind of settles everything down. No matter what other chaos is going on, the dual responsibility toward and unconditional love for and from a dog just cuts through it all and makes it all more manageable. We’d hoped, actually, to fly Zoa out to Thailand to live with us after the first six months. There are a number of reasons that hasn’t happened, the biggest of which are that it’s too expensive, I freak out at the idea of her being in a cargo area for a 24 hour flight, and there aren’t many apartments in Thailand that allow pets. Our apartment building in Chiang Mai didn’t allow for them and we’d actually looked into renting a house to solve the problem, but it was too expensive and too far from the gym. That said, I occasionally saw Thai university-age kids with cats or small dogs living in our building. I guess if you keep it undercover the non-confrontational aspect of the culture kind of helps a lot in bending that rule.

Here’s a pic on the 2nd day of feeding him

A day after the jungle dog followed us I bought some dinner down the road and got an extra piece of chicken to hopefully feed to him, if I could find him again in that jungle. I pulled up to where I’d first seen him and yelled “puppy, puppy, puppy!” and within a few seconds he appeared, trotting out very sweetly. I turned off the engine and got off the bike to give him the chicken. It was a drumstick and when I tried to give it to him all as one piece he didn’t know what to do with it. He’d never eaten such a thing. So I pulled it apart with my fingers a little bit and fed him the pieces and he gobbled them up quite happily. Then I gave him the bone (this isn’t the American “never feed dogs chicken bones” world. Dogs here eat everything and don’t choke) and he laid down and chewed it. When I went back to feed him again the next day he made this insane little Mogwai sound in anticipation of the food, a kind of half-cat/half-dog purring/yipping sound. It was the cutest thing I’d ever heard from a dog. Kevin and I started talking about whether it was reasonable and responsible to take him home. We weren’t sure of the stance our apartment building had on pets (it’s not written anywhere and the first time we came here to look at a room there was a western dude holding a puppy who seemed to live here, so we’d assumed they were allowed at that point) and if we couldn’t keep the dog it made no sense to take him in and then have to put him back out. We also don’t know how long we can afford to live in Pattaya and leaving, either moving to another area of Thailand or moving out of the country, with a dog is significantly more complicated than without one. And then there’s my training schedule. I’m pretty much always at the gym or sleeping, so the responsibility toward an animal has to fit within that schedule. It was a lot to consider.

Then it rained. It rained harder than any rain I’d ever seen and it rained all night. Rainy season is coming up, lasting from July until about September or October. I thought about that poor puppy huddled under some discarded cabinet door trying to wait out this storm and I thought about how he would have months of that ahead. He’s not old enough to have dealt with much rain before and the thought of it was heartbreaking. Late at night, when I couldn’t stop thinking about the puppy, Kevin told me, “just go get him then.” It was a moment of division: if I went and got the dog, that was it. We had a dog. If I put it off and gave it a few more days to think about it, the dog had a few more days of my rumination while he lived in a garbage pile.   I couldn’t take it; I got dressed, hopped on my bike and zipped over the 400 meters or so to where the puppy lived. I put my kickstand down and before I could even call him he was prancing out from the jungle to greet me. I pet him and scooped him up into my arms. He seemed to really like that, but wasn’t so sure when I put him on the bike. I wasn’t sure either. Dogs ride on motorbikes in Thailand in absolutely amazing ways – balanced on the back all by themselves or even sitting with their butts on the seat and their front paws on the handlebars like a person if it’s a larger breed. They obviously have to learn how to do this; this puppy had never done any of it. So I had to kind of hold him like a baguette under my left arm and pull the accelerator and steer with my right hand, going very slowly back up the road to our apartment. Jai was not thrilled to be on the bike and he got nervous when we passed by the area where mama dog and the gang of puppies usually stop his passage. I wrapped him in my jacket to get him past the front office – we still weren’t sure about the pet issue – and brought him up the four flights of stairs to our apartment.

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu - Jai - Dog - Thailand

here he is very soon after we took him in, after we bought him a rawhide bone to chew, which he loves.

That’s how we got Jai.  I’ve been cooking food for him, mainly because it’s so much cheaper than buying commercial dog food.  I purchase cheap organ meats and cook them up with a few vegetables (the scrap ends from what we eat or just carrots) and precooked white rice bought from street vendors, throwing in a hardboiled egg or leftover bits of whatever I’m eating for dinner that’s dog-friendly. I just let it stew a little.  He’s a champ and sleeps a lot, which is great for me because now I have a napping buddy.  Getting him housebroken has been interesting, since we live four flights up, but he’s very smart and it’s been less difficult to train him than it was to train Zoa.  He doesn’t like being left alone in the apartment but he’s just a baby and we’re afraid he’ll chew up our computer cords, so we try to lock him in the bathroom but he’s already had a jailbreak from there.  Genius dog is too genius.  And to make everything worse, we found out that the apartment does not allow pets. In fact Bamroong told me that it is extremely rare that an apartment in Pattaya would allow pets, he was shocked that I found one.  For us the way it went was that front desk tolerated our going in and out with him in our arms to bring him to use the field across the street as his toilet but finally, after nearly a week, the head mistress stopped Kevin and said, “no dogs.”  She explained that they’re dirty and make the furniture smell, and have “small animals” (meaning fleas, ticks, and parasites).  Kevin explained that we wash him regularly and have covered the furniture – he even gave Jai a big sniff as he held him in his arms to show how fresh he is. He kept repeating that we will stay one year, giving some financial incentive to the situation as well.  The lady hesitantly said, “alright,” as long as she could check the apartment for cleanliness once in a while, and that’s how Jai got his pass to the apartment.  They’re not happy about it, but he’s quiet and we really do keep him very clean.  When we took him to a vet to get him de-wormed, said he was generally quite healthy, with a great disposition.  So far, so good. We still have to get him his vaccinations, we heard from Tawan, PhetJee Jaa’s mother that there is a free clinic where we can get this done, so in a few days that will be handled.

Cooking Food for Jai - Thailand - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

taking care of a dog in Thailand - Sylvie - Jai - Pattaya

I really love having a dog around.  Dragging my ass out of bed in the morning for my run isn’t the most fun, even though I love what I do.  It’s just always hard to get up.  But waking up with a quick cuddle and then having to drag him out of bed to go out for his morning pee is definitely a more delightful morning routine.  I’m hoping that when he gets a bit older he can run with me.  He’s sweet and doesn’t bark at all yet.  We suspect he’s about 4-5 months old, so the barking could develop later, but he was living alone in that jungle and didn’t have any allies, so calling attention to himself is not really his favorite thing.  Hopefully he’ll remain the quiet type.  Every afternoon we take him with us to Petchrungruang – they have been kind enough to let us sit with him in a corner, they are I believe “cat” people. He actually really enjoys sitting between us on the motorbike. And in the gym he just lays there bored, already well adjusted to the thudding sound on the bags. I want him to become accustomed to Muay Thai, to be a Muay Thai dog. When we first got Zoa, we actually brought her as a pup all the way down to Virgina to the WKA Nationals, for my first fight ever, and even snuck her into the auditorium to watch the final day. People were pretty shocked to see a puppy as we exited the event.

 

Sylvie and Jai - Petchrungruang

The experience of dogs and the beach in general is an interesting one, and worth relating because it probably led to our decision to just take Jai in. The way the beach set up in Pattaya, is that there are local venders that put out chairs and umbrellas, and can offer cold drinks or even a menu of food (teaming up with local restaurants). They charge you for your stay (30 baht, $1). We drive to a beach just outside of Pattaya called Jomtien because it is a little more homey and quiet. You’ll see “beach dogs” on the beach, a kind of version of a the soi dog, cared for by these vendors. I don’t know how prevalent this is, because we only know our experience, but back in February during our first visit to Pattaya we found the one umbrella location person we liked a lot, and kept coming back. We now go to the beach on Sunday, my rest day. One of the nicest things about this umbrella location in particular is that it has about 4 dogs that hang out there, gentle as can be. They are always (secretly) hoping for some food, but aren’t beggarly. Instead they just seem to like your company, often laying down next to you in the shade. If you’re a dog person this is heaven. For us this experience probably opened up the possibility of having a dog in our minds. It was just so nice to go and sit there with “your” dogs (more or less). You can see two sweet ones in the instagram below, taken maybe a week before we found Jai.

So we took Jai to our little beach area on Sunday for his first experience of big water, and more importantly sand. He just loved the cool, diggable sand. He’s a puppy, and fairly submissive (at times) so he got along with these gentle beach dogs really nicely, even begging on of them to play. A grumpy older male dog gave him a snap or two, but no biggy. Everyone got little snacks from the skewers I brought, and it was a nice little pack. He got to walk a little on the leash, down the beach (first steps to maybe being able to run), and even got a swim that was a little stressful, but necessary too. All in all it was great to treat him to a big experience, and see him with other dogs.

Jai at the Beach - Pattaya Thailand Dogs

Jai looking out at the water soon after we arrived at the beach.

Then yesterday we took him to Phetjee Jaa’s O. Meekhun gym, which is a wide open space with a big field and blowing wind, and he played with their puppies (video below).  Her dad was very funny when he met Jai calling Jai’s style of play fee-mer, which means technical and clever, very skilled, because he tends to leap about.  I sometimes go to O. Meekhun after my Petchrungruang training because clinch practice is incredibly valuable for me. I’m really expanding as a clinch fighter now that I am getting it regularly, and Phet and her brother Mawin are great partners of high skill.  It’s pretty amazing to get to play in the ring with Phetjee Jaa, learning clinch with the best female fighter in the world while my puppy gets to socialize with the little pack of puppies that live at her gym.  Everyone comes home tired and happy.

 

 

 

Care for Dogs Foundation - Chiang Mai

if in Chiang Mai and would like to help soi dogs, check out the Care for Dogs Foundation (click) recommended by Sean Fagan who volunteered there

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.

2 Comments

  • mini
    June 28, 2014 3:34 pm

    So cute, what a lovely story.

  • Jiu Jiu
    February 24, 2017 5:03 am

    That’s very sweet! I lived in Ukraine with Peace Corps, and often the volunteers would adopt strays, or there would be a sort of communal pet that got passed from one volunteer to the next. I wasn’t a fan of that practice – I am a firm believer in the forever homes (this is not to pass judgment on your decision to leave your dog with family). They would adopt with no plans except the immediate future. One friend, adopted a “garbage” cat that she rescued out of a dumpster. It still lives with her in Colorado! My own cat was from a random Ukrainian – no clue what her story is, but she is a used cat and she was given to me in a shopping bag. She is still with me and has lived in 3 countries now!

    Thank you for sharing!

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After 45 minutes or so of sparring with Den yesterday he finally broke down for me what I was doing wrong with my attempts to land kicks on him.  (I landed maybe 5 in that time, although I was able to affect him with my punches when I charged in with flurries; I’m much more comfortable with punches because of my balance, I think.) Den has told me before to shorten my kick because the loping round kick is too slow and easy to see coming, so he just moves out of the way of the kick and then counters

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

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!

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

How to Crush the Head in the Thai Clinch - Crush the Head

Video Tip: The Hand Position in the Muay Thai Clinch Lock – Bank Petchrungruang

How to Crush the Head and Neck Kru Nu’s son Bank has a terribly strong squeeze in the clinch, and ends up just crushing me most of the time when we practice. He just turned 14 and earlier this year began his Lumpinee career. So today I asked him to show me the hand position he uses, and learned that all this time I’ve been doing it backwards, leveraging with the wrong arm, and wrongly using the face of my wrist instead of the blade of my forearm. You are basically crushing the opponent’s forehead into your own shoulder, with

Sylvie's Tips - Training the Long Guard on the Bag

Sylvie’s Tips: Training Long Guard on the Bag | Firming Up

above, my short Sylvie’s Tips on how I’m practicing Long Guard on the bag lately Everything little thing we do on the bag is repetition, even unconscious things can be “trained” into you. Simply taking a time out and walking back from the bag to reset during your rounds is that kind of small element. The further I get in my Muay Thai journey, the more I’m examining my bagwork (and shadow) for unconscious elements that I’m accidentally, or even non-efficiently training. It’s about awareness, so that I can figure out how to get my training into the ring with me

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Sylvie’s Tips – Working On Your Teep

We got a question on the Muay Thai Roundtable forum the other day that I reckon is a pretty common issue. When I first started taking Muay Thai from Master K, he described the teep as the “electric fence” around every other technique. Teep comes first, basically – the first line of defense and keeping your opponent out of your space until you want them there. And I sucked at teeping for a really long time. It’s only fairly recently, in the last 1.5 years maybe, that my teep has become a favorite technique, and it didn’t become that way because

Muay Thai Kicking Form - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu - Kaensak

Sylvie’s Tips – Using the Wall to Correct Kicking Form

This is a quick Sylvie’s Tips on something I’ve rediscovered for my training. The main tip actually comes from when I trained with the great Kaensak Sor. Ploenjit at AMA in New Jersey several years ago. He would have me get close to and kick the wall, instead of a bag or a pad, in order to force my whole shin to line up in a parallel fashion (perpendicular to the extended kick angle some use striking the side of a target, and not the 45 degree landing angle that is common, instead flat against the target, knee bent). It

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

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

the-secret-to-padwork-in-thailand

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

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

20-minutes-of-clinch-with-pettonpung-gym-mae-rim

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

Gender and Underwear in Thailand-w1400

The Panty Incident – Gender, Undergarments and Cooties in Thailand

I wrote this post a few years ago, probably in the first year that I was training and fighting out of Lanna Muay Thai in Chiang Mai.  At the time there were a lot of cultural differences from the west, that are perhaps more emphasized in the conservative North, that were eye-opening to me. The superstition and downright fear of women’s undergarments was a big one, which is illustrated by this story I’ve called “the panty incident.” Enjoy. A few days ago I noticed a rogue sport-top bra (style, not really supportive) hanging on a drying rack at the gym. 

Female Muay Thai - Correspondence

A Letter of Correspondence – How Muay Thai Helps Us Through Struggles

I received this communication some time ago and I was moved by the excitement and passion this woman gets from and puts into her Muay Thai.  I asked her to write a bit more about how Muay Thai has affected her life and this is her beautiful response.  (This writer has asked to remain anonymous and I think she speaks from a place a lot of us can appreciate): Dear Sylvie, I just wanted to mention I went to the TBA Nationals last year and took second in my division. I came down from 211 lbs to fight at 165

Muay Thai Luck in Thailand - Talking with Angie

Muay Thai Luck in Thailand | Talking With Angie

Angie’s beverage shop is on the side of a road that cuts between the very busy Thepprasit and equally busy Pattaya Tai roads. There are constantly motorbikes and cars wizzing past, occasionally pulling to the side to shout a drink order to Angie and then jet off somewhere for a minute before returning to pick up. Today it’s oddly quiet and tons of shops around Pattaya are closed, so the traffic is minimal and Angie is sitting with her back to the street. I’m facing her, seeing the slowness of the traffic and giving her a nod every now and

angie fight 8-w1400

Muay Kathoey (transgender) – Angie’s Second Muay Thai Fight Here in Pattaya

Some people have shown interest in following the story of Angie, the kathoey fighter at my gym Petchrungruang in Pattaya. I interviewed her just before her first ever fight and last night was her second time in the ring. Her first fight ended very quickly in a TKO, when her opponent fell at an awkward angle on her own elbow and was unable to continue. So, a bit of a disappointment in not being able to have a full fight, but for her second fight Angie would be facing a very experienced Thai woman. (Her first fight was against another beginner, who

record book

Training At O. Meekhun Muay Thai Gym with Phetjee Jaa – Pattaya

I was very excited and shocked to learn that my Muay Thai hero, the 12-year-old phenomenon Phetjeejaa O. Meekhun, trains at her family gym just a 30 second walk through a chicken farm from where I’ve been training every day for the last month here in Pattaya.  I got to visit their gym and meet PJJ and her family a few days ago and got to actually go and train with the kids this past Monday. While en route on the big highway that runs through Pattaya and connects my two gyms, I was weaving between cars to sneak up

Lobloo Female Protection Groin Guard Review - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu 8 limbs-w1400

The Lobloo Aeroslim Female Groin Guard – A Review | My Amazon Strap

The Lobloo Aero Slim Female Groin Guard inexpensive very well designed – light weight, simple, effective, comfortable could improve technique – groin confidence in clinch, kicks, knees free shipping, arrives fast I love the Lobloo female groin guard. For the most part, I think women don’t even wear groin protection because there are so few options for us – my friend Emma Thomas wrote about these nightmares here – btw, she’s getting one now too – and of those available very few are functional and/or comfortable…but the Lobloo is both. While I obviously like that this groin guard protects me

JR at the gym

Revealing: I’m a Muay Thai Fighter

  There’s a street vendor cart right below my balcony (well, many floors below my balcony, but a direct fall/jump) that sells the most delicious fried chicken.  Sometimes I step out and look over the railing to see if they have a good selection and then go pick the pieces I spied, because I love food and the deliciousness of this chicken is just beyond mortal resistance. It used to be a lady and her husband with their chubby daughter running around everywhere, but then the daughter had to go to school and now they seem to have brought in

The Fight Board - Muay Thai, Gender and Thailand

The Fight Board – Belonging and Meaning in Acceptance

Mornings at Petchrungruang are usually just me and Pi Nu. The gym is off the back of his house and when he was a kid it was a farm, then it became a gym when he was 10 years old but he still had to do all his farm chores in addition to training and school. When I arrive there are roosters crowing, kittens scampering around the staircase to a room above the ring that houses Chicken Man and his family – Chicken Man owns the chicken farm out back – and the whole gym is empty. Pi Nu will

Tom and Dee Confrontation - Thailand - BTS 2

A Tom and Dee Scolded on the BTS – A Breaking Point of Thai Norms

The Coconuts Bangkok translation and paraphrase: Woman: Oh, I’m sorry. This is a public venue. Aren’t you shameless, snuggling up to each other like that? Tom: So if you see farangs doing that, do you yell at them too? Woman: Then it’s the farangs’ business. Tom: So why do you discriminate? Woman: Well, they don’t do it on the BTS. I don’t discriminate. Thai tradition, you know. I warned you because I want the best for you. Rejecting the logic that only foreigners are off the hook and can do whatevs, the tom tells the woman to keep her lecturing

no-shoes

Of Modesty and Men – Thai Manners In and Out of Camp

  Power in Modesty? I just read an online article on the topic of Evangelical clothing stores popping up “all over” Brazil. The author is quick to note that Brazil is “known for it’s tiny bikinis,” so there’s some kind of shock expected from the popularity (in number as there is no note on the sales) of these modest clothing stores. The author raises the question, mostly in the title of the article, of whether there is power in modesty. If focus is taken away from the body and how “hot” it looks, can women accomplish more, go farther in

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

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