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January 29, 2018
Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
Muay Thai, Petchrungruang Gym

Building Tough – The Making of Men at Petchrungruang

Making Men at Petchrungruang

My bag swings away from me and in the pendulum peak away from me I glimpse inside the ring, where a 13-year-old boy is sparring with a man three or four times his size. The bag starts to swing back toward me and eclipses their figures, then there’s the thud of my kick and the process starts over again as I push the bag away from me once again. When the bell sounds I step in front of the bag and put two hands on the side of the ring, watching the work between the boy and man over the right angles of Pi Nu’s legs, as he sits on this plastic stool in the corner of the ring. The boy covers his face with bent arms, the 12 oz white gloves giving a Mickey Mouse hands effect to the stick figure length of his limbs, and the man hits at the guard, then down to some areas exposed around the boys ribs and belly. The man hits hard. Not as hard as he would a man his size, but hard enough that I know it can take the boy’s breath away. The boy weathers a few of these punches, then comes furiously after the man with these long, loping combinations. The man backs up into the ropes, his thin legs out of proportion with his barrel chest, which is emphasized by his choice to wear a boxer’s groin guard over his shorts. It kind of gives it the look of an action figure’s pelvis on kids’ toys. He’s also wearing a headguard, which sometimes the boy does as well but not today, and as he backs into the ropes and leans into them he’s shouting in French for – I assume – the boy to keep hitting. But his voice comes out muffled and booming at the same time. Like an old gramophone through hi-fi speakers. This man is farang, the boy is half-Thai.

The reedy boy slams his gloves over and over again into the face and body of the man, who is kind of halfway rope-a-doping against the ring, which is too slack for his size. Each of the punches has a kind of leap on it, a propulsion that must be borne of pure emotion but has the general aesthetic of how a chicken’s head pecks forward as it walks. There are sounds coming from the boy as well, which express his frustration and desire to cause actual damage to punish back the seeds of emotion sewn in him by the punches the man lands on his little body. I feel this; watching him is like looking at an emotional fingerprint of my own hand. The bell they’re working off of sounds and the boy walks with his arms slack at his sides over to the opposite corner, where his enormous, Algerian-French father unscrews the lid of a plastic water bottle, filled with the pale yellow of electrolyte powder and tips it into the boy’s mouth. He speaks calmly but assertively about – I assume – what he wants the boy to do. The boy is crying but both he and his father totally ignore that fact, like you ignore the fact that you’re sweating. It’s expected; it’s part of the exertion.

Pi Nu and I watch this in silence. Pi Nu has this uncanny ability to watch without looking, which he does at all times as he monitors all the young fighters under his care. It can be frustrating, like, “Dad, you’re not even looking!” when you do something spectacular that you want credit for, but it can also be wonderful in the non-response to when you fall on your face and are glad he’s not staring at you while you do it. But he sees everything. He knows everything. And most of the time he says nothing. Right now he’s looking into his phone, one long-fingered hand cradling the back of it and the other poised over the screen with the index finger slightly extended, ready to dip down and scroll at measured intervals. He has a slight frown on his face, which is more his struggle against deteriorating vision than it is concentration or an emotional expression. The way in which he’s not looking at this moment, while on its surface seeming to indicate his disinterest, is actually very telling of how closely he is paying attention. This boy is not “his fighter” in the sense of the other Thai boys at the gym. Pi Nu allows this, as long as the fathers are respectful of his position at the head of the gym. Fathers bring their sons long-term to train and fight. In my view this is pretty generous of Pi Nu, as he’s a traditional Thai, and Petchrungruang is a traditional gym – hierarchy matters, and westerners don’t always understand this. This boy is somewhat perpendicular to Petchrungruang – he doesn’t fight without the gym, the way I do, but his father keeps close control over his training and closely tends the matching to opponents. This training right here that I’m watching and Pi Nu is “not watching,” is exactly the kind of thing that keeps him somewhat separated from the gym. It’s not Pi Nu’s method, but in other ways it’s exactly his method.

Bank is Pi Nu’s older son. He’s 17 years old and fights fairly regularly at Lumpinee, but he started training and fighting when he was only 5 years old. That’s on the young side, even in Thailand. Sometimes Pi Nu tells me stories of how hard he was on Bank when he was little, toughening him up. At his first fight, Bank was crying in the ring because he was overwhelmed by having a kid coming at him with intention, but Pi Nu told him to get in there and fight. Bank did. When he was a little older, maybe 10 years old, he got emotional during sparring and tried in earnest to hurt his partner – something I see westerners do all the time in sparring – and Pi Nu points to the chicken farm in the back of the gym as he tells me this story, saying he took him back there and hit him with a switch on the back to punish him for letting his emotions override him. Masculinity in Thailand emphasizes this even-keel, jai yen or “cool heart,” so in many ways I’m sure Pi Nu sees what he was teaching Bank at those moments to be not only how to be a fighter, but how to be a man. One time, he was shaking his head about how another farang father (Italian) in the gym let his son get on the back of the motorcycle during runs all the time, any time he was tired. There’s always a motorbike riding alongside the runners, mostly to protect from dogs and as a chaperone, but sometimes if a Thai boy is sick or injured or just too young to be able to keep up with the group, they’ll jump on the back of the bike periodically. Pi Nu said he never let Bank get on the bike. He looked me in the eye at this point, holding both hands against his chest in a gesture of earnestness, “because I love my son,” he said, emphatically and in English. He was hard on him because he loves him. He made him tough so that he could stand on his own, because being soft produces soft.

And that’s what we’re watching in the ring right now. This boy’s father brings his enormous friend in to help toughen his son. They ignore the tears because he’s allowed to cry, he’s just not allowed to be controlled by the tears. And Pi Nu sits in the corner and watches, not saying anything, because he loves the boy, too. He’s a very good kid. And the boy, well I’ll be damned if he isn’t tough. He does this kind of training frequently and he cries almost every time, but he never complains and he never stops. When I see him between rounds or in metronome flashes as my bag swings away and back to me, I see myself as well. I’ve been there. I’ve cried and been hit harder than I think I should be; I’ve let the emotions be too much and been broken down by the process. But, like the bag, like the kid, I always come back and do it again. And maybe that’s how I know that I love myself, enough to be hard.

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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.

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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

Den and the Long Clinch-001

Clinch Hell – Breaking Points, Crying and Growing Stronger

When Taking Pity Takes Too Much We have a new woman at the gym. She’s only trained a handful of weeks, ever, and will have her first fight at the end of the month. So Pi Nu is really putting her through the trials to get her ready and I suspect that part of his Draconian directives that she clinch everyday comes from him watching me have success with clinch over the past 1.5 years that I’ve been under his instruction at the gym. He watched me go from unable to unstoppable, so I think he’s become a real believer

samart-vs-namphon-1-large

Bad Feminist | All the Fighters That Inspire Me Are Men

I don’t have female role models. I don’t look at other female fighters and think, “I want to fight like her.” But I have strong examples of both that are men, and intellectually that makes me feel a little guilty. As a Feminist through and through, as someone who believes that women cannot afford to not support one another, that’s a shitty thing to admit: that I don’t look up to women as idols, people I want to be like. And if I’m being completely honest, I never have. I admire individual women and I’ve written at length about the political or

Freedom and Personal Power - Muay Thai

Body Conscious – Finding Freedom and Personal Power

After struggling out of my wet sports bra, I stood in front of Kevin who was lying on the bed and waved my hands around animatedly while regaling him with the stories of evening training. I slipped off the rest of my clothes as I laughed about clinching, probably with a string of cuss words flowing out as I recounted the events. “Jesus,” Kevin said, looking at me, “I should take a picture.” I was feeling pretty good, do it, I said and kept talking. So Kevin snapped a few photos of my body before I disappeared into the shower, just

Soidao and Jaeda - Rangsit Stadium - May 2000

Women in Lumpinee, Thai Female Fighters in the 1990s, Rangsit History

One of the more limiting things as a female Muay Thai fighter is that we have no real history, no archived past to attach ourselves to, to anchor our passion and propel us to greater achievements. We have the names and photos of western women with lots of belts, in recent times, and very few videos, but reach beyond a decade or so and the record of female Muay Thai just falls off into mist. And in terms of Thai female fighters, anything prior to 1998 is extremely obscure and subject to the dubious or incomplete aspects of oral accounts.

Bloody Fight Image straight on - Fight 145-001

New Stage Feminism Through Muay Thai? Non-Comparative Struggle

Earlier in the day I had fought on the day reserved for honoring the 18th century Father of Muay Thai, Nai Khanomtom, amid the sacred ruins of the former halcyon capital of Siam, Ayutthaya. I was cut in the fight and bled profusely in late rounds, and the fight came very close to being called off by the ring doctor. As the doctor inspected me, during a timeout forced by the ref for my own good, the fight was held in the balance; with blood streaming down my face, I begged in Thai for the doctor to let me continue: “I

Thai Clinch - Lanna Muay Thai - black and white

The Male Nature of Thai Clich – Play, Dramatization, and Domination

The Inherent Nature of Thai Clinch This video was shot about 25-30 minutes into a clinching session at the tail end of afternoon training.  Initially, everyone jumped in to help Big with his clinch because he has some fights coming up, but by the time we get to this video everyone is working with “Godzilla,” who is significantly bigger than all the other boys and Den.  They’re doing a “round robin” type drill with “last man standing” rules, so that two men are clinching and whoever gets thrown is “out” and whoever is still standing is still in, so the

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

Kaitlin Young Interview - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu-001

Kaitlin Young Left MMA for Love of Muay Thai – Interview, Bangkok

We pulled the car around a corner in a maze of suburban small streets and panned the lane in an attempt to locate the Dejrat Gym – this is an out-of-the-way gym which we could only find with GPS and a map location (below). At the far end of the street there was a pile of colorful equipment laid out in the driveway in order to dry it in the sun – a sure sign of a gym if I’ve ever seen one. So we park the car and I get out to greet the three older men who are

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

Sarah Conner - Sacrifice - Body Muay Thai

Sarah Conner & My Egg Donation: The “Sacrifice” of Body For Muay Thai

In the world of athletics and motivational memes, the word “sacrifice” gets thrown around a lot.  All the things that one must sacrifice in the name of greatness, the hardships of waking up to train, missing out on nights of drinking with friends… whatever.  I know people use this word without truly dissecting the concept, it’s just part of sport-speak.  But I don’t use this word because it means a lot to me. When I think of the word “sacrifice” I think of giving up something of immense value – sacrifice is painful, not unfortunate or just hard.  Abraham willing

Feminism and Thai Traditional Culture

Navigating Western Feminism, Traditional Thailand and Muay Thai

There is a natural division in western feminist thinking, and in some way this post is about that divide. But much more it is about the situational ethics, the principles we may want to protect and forward, when visiting or even living in a traditional culture like Thailand; when coming to a different culture as a western privileged woman. This post is a single-person deliberation about how to best do so in the context of Muay Thai and its unique traditions in Thailand, how I am attempting to do so. Hopefully this resonates with others. Not all women from the

Hyper-Masculinity - Muay Thai

Do Women Have a Commitment Advantage in Muay Thai? – Hyper-Masculinity

The responses to my latest article The Fragility of Western Masculinity has been very interesting and somewhat unexpected. It has been, already, my most widely read article, and surprisingly has been embraced by a lot of men, a group that I’d anticipated would take offense. There have been the usual “shut up! you don’t know what your [sic] talking about!” comments with more or less expletives to add flavor, but they’ve been largely drowned out by sincere male fighters who recognize something in both kinds of masculinity examined in the post and who want to push themselves for more.  (I see

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

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