How old were you ?

[EmptyneSs]

TKD goes for speed, while Muay Thai goes for power. But there's a cost for going for power: I noticed the recovery time for a missed Muay Thai roundhouse is much slower. Because you put all of your weight into the kick, you've committed to that kick almost 100%.

yeah, dont worry you will learn to combine your tkd with your muay thai in time.

muay thai can also be extremely fast. good mt kickboxers are very fast and still very powerful.

the roundhouse may be slower, but trust me you need the power if you want to stop your attacker. tapping them with your feet multiple times isnt going to effectively stop an attacker. trying to slam your hardened and conditioned shin bone through them like a bat or club with the full power and weight of your body behind it is going to hurt much more than lightly tapping them with your feet fast.

you can commit 100% percent with the thai kick, and if you miss just spin through and fallow it up with a back kick/side kick which is what i do alot and it can catch people out of nowere because they expect you to be in a bad position because you have just missed. this shouldnt be hard if you know tkd.

[Garland]

My parent's own a thai restaurant (we're looking currently for a new location) and when I was about 14 I started showing interest in the martial arts...I'd always liked physical sports, and had played alot of football and lacrosse growing up...although during this stage, I was kinda chubby, and I was never a very good athlete.

After pleading and begging, and dropping hints to my parents that I wanted to take a martial art, I got hooked up with one of our chefs at the time, a guy named Muhammed "Dee" Topidea (this might not be his actual name, as I will relate further along in the story).

We would train in my backyard for about 2 hours every monday and wendsday...mostly practicing boxing punches, diagnal elbows, and thowing kicks...although we would also box at this peroid of time.

My freshman year rolled around, and with football and lacrosse practice, my training time went out the window, but my interest in the martial arts stayed, and I studied every book and article I could find. Upon reading everything I could, I saw a few arts I wanted to be involved with (as well, of course, muay thai, my primary art and the one that I truly fell in love with as a kid)...

after reading Yang Jwing-Ming's book on chin na, I wanted to try it...
I wanted to do JKD after reading Bruce Lee's fighting Method...and reading articles on Guro Dan...
and I wanted to try Kali after reading...(yeah I know) Jeff Imada's balisong manual.

Sophmore year, I kept pestering my parents...apparently a martial arts instructor came into the restaraunt and asked to put up a flier for Muay Thai and "some other arts".
The instructor was Khuen Khru Will Bernales, and I started training at the age of 15 under him in JKD, FMA, and Muay Thai. It was through him that I got to meet and train with Adjarn Chai and Guro Dan...and it was Khru Bernales who showed me the technique...whereas Dee had shown me the fight.

Shortly after hearing I was training with Will, Dee invited me over to the Muay Thai Institute (now MTIK, this was pre-Sakasem). He worked with me a little bit, and then asked me to get into the ring...he made me spar an adult tongan guy named "O", who, to my suprise, I held my own, but barely by outlasting him, and hurting his ribs and elbow with my right kicks. (in the process I managed to scar my shin to this day.)

I began training with Will, and occassionally (every two weeks or so) I would stop by for the Saturday morning fighters class at MTI. One day, a guest trainer came in, and I met him, and he began to show me different ways to cover and different footwork...this man was Sakasem "the Punisher" Kwathawong. He would later come to the gym and become it's head instructor.

I would go to fights out of state (drive) with Dee and his girlfriend (I also knew his wife and kids at the time), many times with my father helping to pick up the tab. I remember one time Will accompanied us on short notice, I was awestruck to have both of these men I'd looked up to so much together going out to see a fight with me out of state, and would be given this golden opportunity to punp them both for info about the martial arts...as always Will was cool and would relate to me stories about how he got involved with the martial arts...and Dee would boast and brag, and do his hard-ass act when asked the same questions, which was pretty much his routine. (I later remember Dee bragging about ties to Osama and how he had a bannana plantation in Malaysia with one of his 4 wives...he did have 4 wives and twice as many mistresses, including a hostess at the restaraunt, and killing (shooting) people* in his younger years...he didn't boast about the killing it was rueful and stern, he said it straight up without blinking, making me believe to this day that he was probably telling the truth about that.)
{*he wasn't the only one, two of our other chefs were murderers...Goo had been a bagman for some Asian drug dealers in Californa...he got caught after quitting our place when we opened another restaraunt in Park City (another tragic story for another time)...and Ong, who had also done similar things as a drug dealer...and who left our place on the note of holding a chef's knife to another cook's throat (a theiving whore by the name of Onsa) Creating a mini-hostage situation for a number of hours in the kitchen.}

Dee had become fairly close to the family, living at my grandparent's house while they were away in Arizona. During the next two years I would get to train with Adjarn Chai twice and Guro Inosanto once through Khru Bernales, and had Sakasem as a trainer along with Dee over at MTIK, and stablemates that were rapidly climbing the regional ranks, including a girl who I'd been training with who was about to have her first boxing match (Alisanne "Hollowpoint" Casey, now a lightweight world champ), PRIDE fighter Alex Steibling, Kwame "Mr. Wicked" Stephens, Frank Mir (I think) came up for awhile and I think held the pads for our fighters one Saturday morning...the local amatuers were also doing well, Eusebio Sams, Chris Smith, and a few others, including the guy who would beat my ass everytime I sparred with him worse than any of the others, a kid three years older than me named Ryan Richards who later went on to become the only instructor under Sakasem.

On Will's side, I met and trained with Brian Yamasaki and Brandon Kiser (a CSW coach under Erik Paulson) and a guy named Steve Crandell that was a local fire chief and swat team member...all of which trained intensely, but with more emphasis on doing things properly than just being brutish like the MTIK guys.

When I was at the beginning of junior year I dropped off training a bit due to an injury I sustained in an arguement with my younger brother (a facial laceration from a cooking thermometer right above my right eye) which put an end to me fighting that year on a card against a vegas fighter.
I fell in with a seedy group of people, and my close friends started getting into heavy drugs, namely cocaine and ecstacy at this time...and I started smoking cigarettes.
I kept in shape due to weight training and dance classes at my highschool, and shortly after new years, I started training again, and was asked by Sakasem and Kwame if I still wanted to fight...

Stopped smoking.
Stopped drinking.
Trained everyday but Sunday, often twice a day, even on school days, I'd go to the back to back night classes.
Unfortunately, I also stopped training at Will's gym.
Everyday Dee would come pick me up and I'd train, then I'd run home, and then I'd get a ride back down, and train again, sparring twice a week.
I got to know many of the fighters fairly well, and Sakasem's wife (Daeng) and daughter (Tongjit/Deer){this time also Alex Steibling's girlfriend} started working at my parent's restaraunt.
In April 2003, I had my first fight. I didn't know who my opponent was until I saw him in the ring across from me...and without my glasses, and in the heat of the moment...barely got a good look at his face, but remember the tattoo on his back and his size compared to mine, a lurpy 6'1'' to my 5'7''. I won by doctor's stoppage in the first 15 seconds of the second round (which lasted a bit longer due to a knee to the underside of the thigh being misread as a knee to the nuts...sorry Judd. , I didn't feel a cup, and I've reviewed the tape...you crybaby.)

After my fight...I stopped training for a bit, and do remember an odd instance of my parent's helping Sakasem's daughter enter and compete in a beauty pageant. She didn't make it to the finals, but I got a chance to chill with Sakasem for awhile before, watching boxing on the Spanish channel...really a bizarre experience...very awkward.

shortly after (2004)...Bad news...crushing news...
the owner of a local Asian market whom we purchased food from came to us and snitched out Dee...Dee had made a mistake this time, threatening to kill the shop owner and his family if he came forward about what must have been a series of embezzlement's and thefts going on for years and totalling above 100,000 dollars...

he had done this through a variety of things, buying goods with restaraunt money and selling the goods to competitors and pocketing the cash, and banging the front end of the restaurant with a server named Mikey and his girlfriend, Heather, the hostess.

He would take me to the Asian market after workouts and then he would drop the stuff off at the restaraunt with me...in front of me, rather, before taking me home.
He had been using our training as a means to cover up his theft from my family, putting us down and out until recently...

and now, as we were starting to barely climb back to normal, the neighboring buisness snaked out lease out before it was due...so, whilst looking for a new location, my family and myself are out of jobs.

If it wasn't for my student loans, grants, and scholarships, I'd have to quit school, and start working...knowing that would cut me away from the future college would help me reach.

Needless to say...my plans to return to training are pretty much out.

On the flip side, despite all of the betrayal and deciet by a role model with Dee, Will and Brian and Brandon have all remained as role models in my eyes, and I'm sure that without the support and the guidance, discipline and passion for the martial arts that they instilled in me...I might not be around. I WOULD have succumed to the heroin use among my friends and lovers that followed their cocaine use ...or I would have become a hooligan and a theif...maybe even a murderer like Dee.

My love for the arts and the respect I have for these guys kept me away from that shit long enough to let me see it for what it is...and I honestly have them to thank for keeping me around this long.

I will get my shit together in terms of money, and because of all the drama that went on with Dee, and with my friends, I'm just barely getting a driver's license at 20. I will train again, and I will fight again.

well...that's the short version.

[Garland]

The guy on the left (the ref) is Dee...if you come across him, let me know.


This is Will Bernales...awesome instructor and a truly great guy.


Sakasem far left, the guy in the middle I don't know, Ryan Richards far right.

[Garland]

Brian and Brandon


Ali Casey


Kwame on the left

[Garland]

and Alex working out with Bas Rutten at a seminar. (I think I didn't attend because I was busy training for a fight.)

[Garland]

Khuen Khru Will's BJJ instructor, whom he got his black belt from...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_RnvaBMlNpI

this on top of his (Will's) Lynx, TBA, and Inosanto certifications make him one of the most well rounded trainers I've ever heard of.

[sportmuaythai]

I remember Terry Tippie telling me that story years ago. Back then it was really hard to find any muay Thai in the US, let alone meeting Master Chai. My story is similar, but different, the common thread being Ajarn Dan Inosanto. Here goes, my apologies to those who have heared it before.

In March of 1972 I was offered a week of Rest & Recreation from the jungles of Vietnam, where I had been since August of 1971. My platoon leader had two slots open, 1 for me and 1 for him. Choices were Taipei or Bangkok. I chose Bangkok, for no other reason than I had seen the movie The King and I with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr when I was a child. When I got a room at the Thai International Hotel in downtown Bangkok I met a girl named Bat Shum Paan (phonetically spelled, I lost her card somewhere a few years back), nickname Dang (which means Red, so called because she was very red when she was born) who hired a full-time driver for me, Pat. We hit all the tourist spots, from the Wats to the Palace. At that time there were still canals everywhere, and travel was not as hectic as now. For instance, the airport was about 20 minutes from any kind of urban area. We even went to the zoo, where I got to pet a Bengal tiger, whose purr was like the idling of a V8. Most times there were not even any other tourists. And, of course, dancing all night at the nightclubs on Petchburi, the Patpong of the early 70s. One afternoon I was watching television when the fights came on. I had seen boxing, of course, but this was totally amazing. Dang asked me if I wanted to see a fight that afternoon, she had a doctor's appointment anyway. So, Pat arranged front-row seats at Rajdamnern for us. It was really different, to say the least. The fights were fast and furious, and the music was incredible. Every time the fighters appeared to fatigue and slow, the conductor would jump up and increase the tempo, and they would start in on each other harder and faster. Finally, about the 6th or 7th fight, I could see enough to appreciate their skill level, although I still had no idea who was winning. Pat tried to explain the betting, how the odds were set and how the fingers of the hand were used by the touts, bent fingers signalling 1/2. After each bout the fighters would run through the crowd and people would put paper money into their mouth, sometimes the loser making more than the winner because he fought past where the odds put him. But during this fight there was a cut from a left elbow, and the doctor was called to look at it. The fighter was bleeding severely enough that it couldn't be stopped, so the doctor was forced to call the fight over. The crowd went berserk. People jumped into the ring, and fights broke out all over the place. The ref got into it, the doctor got into it, both fighters were having to fight their way out of the ring. It was totally manic. Suddenly, large doors at the side of the stadium opened and there was a deuce-and-a-half Army truck backed in. Soldiers got out with bayonets already attached to their rifles, herded everyone into the truck, shut the back, and drove off...WOW I was hooked. But after I returned to the states, where was I to find a Thai boxing teacher in a very small town in Washington? It is to laugh. So, in 1976 started attending jutsu class. Luckily enough my teacher was pretty open-minded, and when Dan Inosanto started coming to the Seattle area I was 'allowed' to attend his seminars. One seminar in October of 1982 he was talking about a friend of his who kind of stood straight and held his hands with the palms facing forward. It was Thai boxing he was talking about. As luck would have it, at dinner that night I was seated across the table from Ajarn Dan. So, I mentioned that I appreciated him talking about muay Thai that day, and related the story I wrote above. He just sat quietly, seemingly not really paying attention. Then, saying "Excuse me, I have to make a phone call," he got up and walked out. I could see him in the entranceway of the restaurant, talking on the pay phone. Oh well, I thought, he must have friends here. He talked for a few minutes, then came back to the table and sat. He looked across to me and said, "I just called my friend Chai, and he is coming here to do a seminar in March." Oh yes, I started training with Ajarn Chai when I was 32.

Dear Chalambok, sorry to bring this up, but I've just got thru reading your post. You and I must be of similar vintage. I graduated in March,1969 and returned home. One evening in 1970, my room mate called me up and said that he was in Bangkok for R&R. We went clubbing etc, but unfortunately, he didn't want to go to see muaythai fights. I myself was going to Lumpinee all the time. Abhidej Sithirun was at the top, but on the wane, I did see him fight quite a few times but never thought that he would become my first MT teacher. When I was in secondary school, he was on the rise and dethroned my idol . At that time, I just thought that he used his youth to beat my idol (Adul Srisothorn), and didn't like him much. Later on I came to accept that this is the nature of things, and olds are replaced by the youngs. Abhidej is training my niece now, and she just loves his style.

[chalambok]

Oblidi-oblida, life goes on...ha! Very cool, Sportmuaythai. I, too, get all my nieces, nephews, and now their kids into muay Thai. Some like it, some don't, but all get an earful of me...lol

[the tick]

I was about 17 or something. Never fought though. Bad eyesight. Blind as a bat without my contacts. And well, I don't know if any of you ever tried sparring with contacts. It realy sucks. Now I'm 29 and finally had laser surgery. Now all thats left is to get my weight down by 10-12 kilo's. Oi.

[Russer]

I started at 18 a late start but i trained 5 times a week for a year to catch up.

[the tick]

How come this thread is always at the top although there aren't any new posts?

[Tom Yum]

I trained in several traditional martial art styles in my teens, competing in open-style full contact tournaments and muaythai was a real eye opener.

I started training in muaythai when I turned 24 - loved it. Had trouble walking after the first week of training, but once I got past that - I was able to slam those kicks into the pads and eventually spar without the shin guards.

I haven't been training in it recently, but I'll train every now and then to brush up, work drills and spar. Same with boxing.

[DocFairtex]

Putao Kang Rang- Oldman Power!!

I start full contact at 11 yrs old, started America boxing at 13, did full contact boxing- Bok-Fu at 16, Studied Kung Fu- Karate- Tae Kwon over 10 years, 1993 Nor-Ca Kickboxing Champ at 30, 1998 Senior Muay Thai Instructor with Kru Vut Kamnark, at 44 yrs old did my first Muay Thai fight in Pattaya Thailand May 2007 and now I getting ready to fight again God willing - amen.

I actually want to do Muay Thai fights through my 50's - yea.

[fire cobra]

I started Muay Thai in 1983(after a few years kick-boxing pka style),with a thai instructor named Chinawut Sirosompan aka Master Woody,
got my trainers licence in 1985,in 1988 i met my 2nd thai teacher Narong Sudsavart and he taught me a completly different method of Muay than i was used to.
I had my 1st kickboxing fight around 1981 (i think) and my first Muay Thai bout in 1984,i became british champion somewhere around 1994 (briefly!),
from that time till now ive been to Thailand 20 times and trained with some very good coaches(15 camps) and some famous fighters such as Hippy Sigmani,Sagart Porntawee,Samsen Issarn,Chop Rawee,who all have helped me a great deal.

Also Ajarn Yodtong bought me a orange juice in Lumpinee 1995.(a lovely man)

The sport of Muay Thai has helped me so much in my life and has taken me all over the world(just come back from IKF amateur championships in Florida).its a brilliant sport with a awesome culture behind it,and i for one am so gratefull i found Muay Thai and would like to say Thank you to my teachers past and present who all have helped me in my quest to learn the real Muay Thai.

[the tick]

I actually want to do Muay Thai fights through my 50's - yea.

Well, if even Rob Kaman managed to be an active fighter until he was 39.....medicines beeing what they are these days.