ESB ATGs Muay Thai / KickBoxing fighters Thread

Yeah, Nong Thoom.

Worth a mention on the ATG thread not so much cos of his/her fighting ability but she is up there with Khaosai, Somluck and Samart interms of she is one of the few boxers with a successful cross over to the media and well known by almost everyone in Thailand. A post boxing success story.

 

:good

Second Muay Thai class today. It does focus on technique and pad holding, but still reeks of a Tae Bo class. Still, I can step it up if I enjoy it, just doing an introductory thing, once a week at the mo'. Throwing the left low kick from a southpaw stance is tremendously hard for a natural righty who has always 'boxed' orthodox :-(

It's fun though. That's the main thing I guess.

 

No thanks...you look bigger than me :tong

 

Samkor Kiatmontep

record 120/27/3


Former Lumpini Champion Jr Featherweight 115 lbs.
Former Lumpini Champion Jr Lightweight 122 lbs.
Former Lumpini Champion Lightweight 130 lbs.
Former Thailand Champion 135lbs
2005 Muay Thai Marathon 154 lbs Champion

http://www.mymuaythai.com/samkor-keatmonthep/
http://muaythaiallstars.tripod.com/id1.html

wins over Saenchai, namsaknoi, Sangtiennoi, attachai. Southpaw with a devastating left kick, smash your body or your arms didnt really matter (read its referred to as "cracking the shell")

song is almost as bad-ass as Samkor himself!
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM4P4VC1Y4w[/ame]


another one:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lGHSVy6cw8[/ame]

Not the best of all time, but one of the all time greats for sure. That left kick to the liver has got to be demoralizing.

 

Hey Flea forgot you’d started training, glad to hear you’re enjoying it. As long as you feel the technique is authentic and there is some reasonable sparring don’t worry about the gym, as you said just enjoy it.

Learning to kick with your left is tough, very tough to start with but you’ll get there, here’s a few tips that may help.

This goes without saying, but don’t underestimate how crucial flexibility is to the basic function of performing simple Muay Thai techniques. You need to really work on flexibility in the hip area, just to pull off basic knee and kicking techniques with any sense of good form. A lot of dynamic stretches with a little static mixed in. Good hip flexibility is crucial to the power, strength and speed of your knees and kicks. Hip flexibility combined with the over rotation of the hip to strike are what make Muay Thai kicks so devastating.:yep

In your early days when kicking the pads the temptation to really give them a whack and get that satisfying sound is massive, but don’t try too hard as you’ll tense up and never really unleash your full power. You really you need to relax into you kicks, the real power is in natural rotation and full commitment to possible over swing. I imagine you are focusing on making contact with the pads via the foot and the bottom part of the shin, this is a mistake initially. To develop good pure form you need to focus on throwing only the hip with relaxed speed, if you do this the shin and foot automatically follow the hip round, this is good Muay Thai technique. You are a boxer, you know to always hit through the target, the same applies in Muay Thai. Commit those hips, swing them hard and fast past the pad and your shin becomes a baseball bat, a one limb wrecking machine. This is the difference between all the other kicking Martial arts and Muay Thai, the over rotation of the hip, commit, commit, commit. It’s the same for all your kicks including straight kicks and straight knees, push the hip forward, that’s where the power and speed is.

It sounds like your gym is teaching you a terrible habit form the outset that you’ll spend years trying to shed. You fight in an orthodox stance right? So why are they telling you to pull your lead leg back into the southpaw stance to throw a power kick!!! When you start normal boxing do they train you both as a southpaw and an orthodox fighter……. no of course they don’t, so why in Muay Thai!? This is the start of an all too common bad habit western Muay Thai fighters have and it causes them to shuffle between alternating right kicks and left kicks. This is a no no.:nono

Don’t shuffle before you kick, it tells your opposition everything. Western Muay Thai fighters like this dual training technique cos it feels cool and looks cool in the gym it allows them to always pull a leg back to create a power kick; it’s been regular practice across the west for years and years and years, they don’t realise the damage they are doing to their fighting style. It’s a terrible habit that took me a year to drop in Thailand. They need to be drilling lead kicks from the front leg without pulling the leg back, and drilling the power kick through their back leg. And even though this is really hard for a beginner it is absolutely what you should be drilling, don’t pull it back. It’s hard to develop a fast powerful lead round house but it’s essential you do, it’s an absolute basic in Thailand for counters, leads, so many things but many westerners can’t do it. It’s like the jab to an international boxer, boxing 101. Get in the habit of kicking out of your stance without pulling your left foot back, again it’s all about hip rotation, concentrate on throwing or turning a relaxed fast hip and the rest follows. Your lead leg should be fast, very fast and your back leg a nuke.

A bit rambling towards the end, but I think it’s still fairly clear what I mean. (It’s late waiting for the Rios fight). Hope it helps Flea, not trying to pontificate just trying to help. A good luck with it all.:good

 

Samkor Batman, LAAMMM!!!! ( Lam, nickname for someone with a really strong left kick). Being a southpaw we can definetly call him an ATG!

Yaca you really do find the gems, that first clip I think is one of my most favourite clips, the editing the music, the subject. Bloody beautiful, the raw power of Muay Thai. :happy (Flea classic example of hip throwing over rotation that I was on about).

I don’t think all those Korean, Chinese, Japs, Dutch boys knew what hit them, a Thai baseball bat!

One observation non Thais really struggle how to block or avoid the kick of a Thai, I hope things have improved for their sake.

Thanks Yaca, really enjoyed that.:thumbsup

 

Rusty Nails just posted that John Wayne Parr the aussie MT Legend has just announced his retirement. :-((

Thought we should aknowledge him as a great farang ATG with a tribute. Great fighter who really really understood Muay Thai and fought the Thai way. Always exciting and always fought with bags of guts and heart! :deal

I've never really followed too many farang MT fighters but JWP has always been on my radar, he came to prominence just as I was winding up and out of the new wave of farang fighters he seemed a bit different to most cos of his strong Thai links and his very Thai style, utterly suberb! :bowdown

He'll be missed.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD4I0Snj5U0[/ame]

 

Didn't see none of this :-(

Boran, thanks for the tips. I don't like kicking southpaw at all, so once I'm my own man I'll stop doing it ;-) My trainer passed Muay Thai 1.01 test: told me correct position for hands for plum :deal if he'd said back of the neck I'd have walked out

Seems a legit' camp to me, as far as Western stuff goes. They participate in full MT rules pro' bouts, so it's not a 'kickboxing' camp. Don't like giving a White guy a 'wai' at the beginning of the class though, there's nothing Authentic Thai about the gym so that pisses me off, being a purist.

Thanks for the advice again, still finding me feet.

Vic, I have one message left: go ahead my man :good Or was it about Shozo Saijo? :huh

This thread has still got legs, come on lads let's get back to work :thumbsup

 

JWP :bowdown

 

:good

Watched any of 'em yet?