William

Greetings folks,

We made it across and in one piece. Getting unpacked and settled in. I already have a number of contacts who want to train so it's time to get things rolling.

Enjoy,
William

As promised, from Black Belt magazine - 1986 (part one):


Thai Boxing No Mercy, No Escape!
By James William Holzer

“I never, never wear short pants in public,” admits Surachai “Chai” Sirisute, a leading exponent of muay Thai (Thai boxing) in the United States. “Getting into short pants reminds me of putting on my boxing trunks just before a bout. It puts me in a fighting frame of mind.”

When renowned kali/jeet kune do instructor Dan Inosanto spotted Sirisute approaching recently in his red satin gangkeng muay (Thai boxing shorts), he warned a throng of seminar students, “Watch out! You’re going to work today – he means business!”

And it’s serious business for the former muay Thai champion, who is considered an ajarn (master teacher) by his Thai boxing peers. Muay Thai (pronounced moo-ee-tie) is Thailand’s national obsession, blood-and-guts combat that is raw in purpose yet beautiful to behold. It remains basically an enigma to Eastern and Western martial artists, whose primary exposure to the art has been to observe an occasional bout at Bangkok’s “Big Two” – Rajadamnern and Lumpini stadiums. Those among them who may have sought out kun kroo (trainers) to learn the staggering Thai round kick found a closed door, partly due to the opinion that it would be improper to force Buddhist traditions and rituals so critical to the study of the art upon outsiders. Attitudes softened in the mid-70’s, when Dale Kvalheim, an American serviceman, became the first Westerner accepted for training by the muay Thai establishment and allowed to compete at the “Big Two”.

In 1982, Sirisuite took a team of American Thai boxers to what is probably the meanest, no-holds-barred tournament in the Far East, the World Free-style Fighting Championships, held that year in Bangkok. The Americans took an unheard-of third place in the team championships that saw the Thais take first, the Japanese second, and the Koreans fourth. What’s more amazing is that each American fighter averaged less than two years of study in the art!

“The Thais saw us perform the ram muay (prefight ceremonial dance) and adhere to traditions they thought were of no interest to the West,” Sirisute says of the breakthrough. “In doing so well, they realized the Americans have the potential to become the best Thai boxers in the world.”

At present, Sirisute finds himself in a position dictated by the laws of supply and demand: increased interest in muay Thai and an acute shortage of qualified teachers. “The best Thai boxers in America are young, and are too busy training for ring careers. They don’t have the time to teach,” he explains.

Bouts held in the early days of Thai boxing had more in common with the kill-or-be-killed games of Roman gladiators. Skin-ripping horsehide thongs were wrapped around the fists and forearms, and a vee of tree bark held in place by a loincloth protected the groin. Fights went on for hours with no rest periods, the loser either dead or horribly maimed. This unrestrained mayhem went on until the late 1930s, when the government intervened and forced the adoption of international boxing rules, weight divisions, and the use of gloves.

An estimated 125,000 Thais train regularly in the art while 12,000 fight on the amateur and professional levels. Bouts run for five three-minute rounds, with two-minute rest periods in between. Professionals use six- or eight-ounce gloves, amateurs four. A steel cup provides groin protection, while aenken (elastic anklets) preserve the instep. Any part of the body can be attacked by the fist, foot, elbow, and knee. Head butts, leg sweeps, hip and shoulder throws, arm locks and hitting an opponent who is down are all forbidden. Corner coaching is also prohibited.

Before any muay Thai bout, Buddhist and Thai Animist rituals take precedence. At ringside, a cloth-covered, finger-diameter headpiece called a mongkon (crown) is placed on the fighter’s head before he goes to the center of the ring to perform the wai kruh (honor bow) and the ram muay, a series of shadowboxing moves, foot stomps and arm gyrations said to keep evil spirits at bay. The fighter will strive to fill the ring with his “aura” in order to spiritually dominate his foe. Fighters only wear the mongkon during the prefight rituals, the trainer removing it before the start of round one and blowing in the boxer’s hair for good luck.

Sirisute adheres to muay Thai traditions, but does not let them dictate his every action. His signature ram muay is one minute long and can be learned in a month, yet only a handful of his many students have been taught it. Always the pragmatic ring survivor, he remarks “If you give students tradition and you don’t give them stamina, power and ring savvy, what good is teaching a martial art?”

The Thai boxer will start the first round slowly, feeling his opponent out with low, rapid round kicks steadily quickening his pace and progressing up the body with strikes as the rounds advance. He will rain blows from every angle, never tensing his muscles until the moment of impact, focusing all of his might and intent into the area of his shin and instep and powering that point of concentrated energy through the target just as a woodsman’s axe embeds itself in a tree. The goal in muay Thai is to disrupt the opponent’s offense, and that means keeping him on the defensive by mounting a continuous offense.

A banana tree was once used by Thai boxers to condition and desensitize the striking surfaces of the shin, instep, knee and elbow. Today, the main pieces of training equipment are the Thai pads – foot-long leather bags that range in weight from seven-to-ten pounds. Strapped to the forearms of a partner, full-power strikes are driven into the pads to accomplish this conditioning. Kun kroo well into their 70s have been known to wear two, ten-pound pads for an hour and absorb hundreds of bone-jarring round kicks from young fighters without effect.

Muay Thai remains consistent in its techniques, the dominance of the legs over the arms varying from trainer to trainer. Sirisute concentrates on six kicks, five elbow strikes, four knee strikes and four hand maneuvers, preferring the use of the leg over the fist and elbow as the chief ring weapon

The idea of a “snap kick” is unknown in Thai boxing; legs either thrust or swing. In Sirisute’s view, “You’ll never develop the maximum power potential of your legs with snap kicks. Snap kicks have power only to stun, so the leg is easier to block or grab. In contrast, the heavy Thai round kick leaves your opponent with no choice but to keep his guard up close to the body to protect his midsection. He won’t risk extending his arms to block with them alone – that’s a good way to get them broken.”

The Thai boxer works to build equal hitting power on both sides of his body. Hard blocks are avoided; if you can’t slip, dodge or throw a strike of your own to stop the offense, you absorb the blows on the arms or upper body. The muay Thai credo is “Let it all hang out and let conditioning, skill and fighting spirit win the bout.”

END OF PART ONE