Training Muay Thai in Thailand

So forgive me for being a little slow but I have returned from my vacation in Asia and - well what a trip! I'm starting to get over my jetlag and am finally feeling normal so I thought it be appropriate to post to my blog.

Of course I was in Tokyo to watch the IKO1 WT. I'll save that for a different posting. For now I want to tell you about my experience training Muay Thai (MT) in Thailand.

This has been a little bit of a dream for me for the past year. For one, I love Thailand - beautiful country. People are nice, food is good, beaches are beautiful, and my US$ goes a long way over there. Now it's not a perfect country by a long shot... it's dirty, blasting hot, tons of money scams, and well... it's still a developing country. If you've been to Brazil, Russia, China, or India you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, you really need to leave the confines of 1st world suburbia.

OK. So seeing that I love Kyokushin and kickboxing, I thought what a great way to justify another trip to the Kingdom of Thailand then to go and seek out a MT training camp and hone my skills. So that's what I did, and it was an amazing experience.

I thought Kyokushin and MT were so similar that the rules were the only thing that split them apart. WRONG! Their kicks are totally different. For one the chudan mawashi is a straight leg kick like our mae-kiage. Second, the don't follow the same plane when they return their foot after the kick, they bring it straight down to cut down on time. Third, their gedan mawashi geri is not performed with a straight line through your body, they lean away to avoid a facepunch and kick the opposite leg. It is also extremely technical (which I love) and they spent tons of time with me correcting my every move.

They were very respectable of my karate and said, I understand why you kick the way you kick, but try it this way because this is MT and you are in Thailand. If you like it you can use it at home, if not then whatever. Cool! So I kept an open mind.

I also have huge respect for the Thai clinch now. So much goes on. It is basically wrestling with the intent to throw your opponent off balance or open him up for a knee. It's awesome to learn some of what is going on.

I'm also a big fan of the elbows. I learned an elbow "kata," if you will where you basically throw 4 different kind of elbow attacks one after another. Too hard to describe here, but it's cool. Maybe I'll make a video of it one day.

Obviously not me, but here is a video of some Muay Thai I recorded while at Bangala Stadium supporting my fellow Tiger fighters.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=552752687055#

My camp was beautiful. It was in the middle of a rubber tree forest near Chalong Temple on the island of Puket. Me and two of my friends stayed in a family bungalow on the premises. It had one bathroom, a fridge, small kitchen, and a spacious living room with leather sofa. Here is a tour I uploaded that all should be able to see:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=552744343775#

Now outside of just MT, you have the beauty that is Thailand to indulge in. Here is just one of the magical sunsets I recorded while on a boat ride coming back to Phuket after a day of snorkeling. It was like something out of a dream...
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=552744578305#

So will I be returning to Thailand? Definitely. Will I train some more Muay Thai? Most definitely. This karate boy has a very open mind.