Ajarn Chai's Karate Training

[Brian Patrick]

According to Ajarn Chai's bio, he trained in Shorin Ryu Karate when he was a boy. Why did his parents make him train in karate when he was also training in Muay Thai? For more discipline maybe? Just curious.

[terry]

Yes, he was a hyperactive kid. His dad used to have him do 500 kicks on the heavy bag to get him worn out enough to get him to go down to sleep. His karate instructor, a Chinese-Thai named Master Chen, was a big influence on him. Some of his strict discipline comes from this influence.

Gotta run to a workout...Chalambook knows the details as well as anybody.

T

[chalambok]

Well, here we go...

When Master Chai was very young the family lived in a poor part of Bangkok between a muay Thai school and Kung Fu school. Every day Master Chai would watch through the fence the Kung Fu classes, then he would fight with the younger students when they would be leaving for home. So the Master Instructor had a talk with Master Chai's father, and young Chai was enrolled in Kung Fu to learn discipline and respect, which he hadn't seemed to receive by watching both schools through the fences. Always, because he was the smallest both physically and by age, he stood in the last row at the very end, practically invisible, or he thought. Every time there was a drill, he would footjab the student in front of him in the butt, then leg kick when he turned around. Well, after awhile the Instructor had enough, and ordered Chai to stay after class. "Uh-oh," he told me, "I am in for it now." The Master said "Chai, go get those concrete blocks over there, then that bundle of bamboo." When he had done so, the Master had him place the concrete blocks several feet apart and place a single piece of bamboo between them. "Stand on the bamboo," he was ordered. So young Chai did, but the bamboo broke. "Again," he was told. Again the bamboo broke. Once again he put the bamboo on the blocks, but this time the Master himself stood on the bamboo, and it did not break. "Now you," the Master said. Young Chai stood on the bamboo and it broke. They did this several more times, and every time the Master could stand on the bamboo but young Chai would break it. "Right then," he told me, "I decided there was something to this mental discipline." He was 4 at the time.