YongChun
12-13-2004, 12:54 PM
We had another Thai boxing seminar for those Wing Chun people who were interested. Not all of our members like that stuff. The cost was only $10. The teacher drilled us on the four basic strikes which include the punch, the elbow, the knee and the shin. The whole body is behind each of the four strikes. Those people holding the heavy-duty leather pads could feel the intense shock delivered from each and every kind of strike. Thai footwork was very agile, quick and mobile. Weighting is on the front balls of the feet. After every strike, the defensive posture is quickly recovered to for maximum protection and so that a barrage of other strikes can follow up immediately. All action is very close.
The teacher said that Thai boxing has constantly evolved according to results from actual ring combat. Techniques are adjusted, footwork and angles are changed etc. He said traditional martial arts like to preserve the past and not change but Thai boxing doesn’t agree with this philosophy where results in the ring are what count most.
The punch was likened to a hammer. The mechanics is quite different from the Wing Chun punch. The punch twists even more than the Karate punch. At the same time the face is protected much more by the other hand and the chin is hidden away to prevent a serious counterstrike.
The elbow was likened to a knife slash because often the resulting injury is similar. In action the elbow is similar to some WC people’s usage in the Bil Jee form however the whole body is behind it and the face is protected from a counter strike. There are also a variety of other elbows used and they have various interesting elbow attack and elbow counter drills with a nice flow to them but the teacher didn’t elaborate on those. The teacher sometimes used kind of an outside Pak sau, which immediately flowed into an elbow or multiple elbow strikes.
The knee was likened to a spear in that the knee thrusts into the person and not upward where it would miss. Sometimes it is combined with the neck pull or to pull down on the defending hands. You could hear the power of all strikes from the sound the strikes made on the pads.
The shin was likened to a steel pipe which smashes right through you like a baseball bat as opposed to the muscle delivered snap kicks used in Taekwondo or Hapkido (his previous arts). These kicks provided the most powerful forces however the elbow resulted in the most serious injuries and deaths.
Then there were various attack and counter attack drills to put the tools into a preparation for sparring action. The teacher used some Escrima sticks to teach students to block the roundhouse kicks with the shins directly facing into the force. At a minimum black belt equivalent level the student must break two baseball bats with the roundhouse kick. The recovery after this kick was quite fast. All recoveries to protected position were fast. Strikes come repetitively very fast. I training on the back maybe you will throw a hundred knee strikes in rapid succession. The same goes for the other strikes. A lot of training is on the abdominal muscles. The abdomen and hip power all the movements.
The teacher then holds the pads at various angles to indicate to the student to either punch or elbow, or throw a knee strike or a roundhouse kick. Each student does this intensively for 2 to 3 minutes. For those who haven’t done it before, even two minutes feels like you have just run a hundred yard dash. From the outside it doesn’t look that bad but once you try it it’s a whole different thing to throw out a combination of power strikes solid for 3 minutes. For a start two minutes is good. In training they will go several three-minute rounds like that. The teacher may hold up one pad to hit while attacking you with the other or while throwing a round kick in etc. to teach people to keep covered up. Students tend to drop their hands which could result in an immediate knockout in the real event.
Even though protection is used in some matches in Korea some serious injuries can result. The teacher broke various bones here and there because of the extreme power delivery. One of his students received a pinpoint accurate kick to the solar plexus and died as a result. After that the law clamped down on some of these Thai matches in Korea.
The teacher said there were two streams in Thai boxing in Korea, one was for the professional fighter and the other was for the hobbyists or teachers. The training was the same in both but one group fights regularly and the other doesn’t. Those people who have a career and education don’t take the fighter stream because there is little money in it but a lot of risk. High school students with no jobs tended to chose the professional route.
Good fighting skill was generally developed within six months of hard training. In Korea people who want to fight learn Thai boxing. Even with a 4th degree blackbelt in Hapkido and many years of Taekwondo this teacher didn’t trust those arts totally in the real fights he had in Korea. However elite fighters in the army did use a combination of Hapkido and Thai boxing these days. After he learned Thai boxing he became very confident in his fighting skills.
The teacher did say there was a place for traditional martial arts. He felt Thai boxing was excellent for fighting but was missing some of the values and other aspects that traditional arts develop. He said just fighting for fighting’s sake is empty. In the future he said he still valued to train in some kind of traditional art for the other benefits these arts provide.
Ray
The teacher said that Thai boxing has constantly evolved according to results from actual ring combat. Techniques are adjusted, footwork and angles are changed etc. He said traditional martial arts like to preserve the past and not change but Thai boxing doesn’t agree with this philosophy where results in the ring are what count most.
The punch was likened to a hammer. The mechanics is quite different from the Wing Chun punch. The punch twists even more than the Karate punch. At the same time the face is protected much more by the other hand and the chin is hidden away to prevent a serious counterstrike.
The elbow was likened to a knife slash because often the resulting injury is similar. In action the elbow is similar to some WC people’s usage in the Bil Jee form however the whole body is behind it and the face is protected from a counter strike. There are also a variety of other elbows used and they have various interesting elbow attack and elbow counter drills with a nice flow to them but the teacher didn’t elaborate on those. The teacher sometimes used kind of an outside Pak sau, which immediately flowed into an elbow or multiple elbow strikes.
The knee was likened to a spear in that the knee thrusts into the person and not upward where it would miss. Sometimes it is combined with the neck pull or to pull down on the defending hands. You could hear the power of all strikes from the sound the strikes made on the pads.
The shin was likened to a steel pipe which smashes right through you like a baseball bat as opposed to the muscle delivered snap kicks used in Taekwondo or Hapkido (his previous arts). These kicks provided the most powerful forces however the elbow resulted in the most serious injuries and deaths.
Then there were various attack and counter attack drills to put the tools into a preparation for sparring action. The teacher used some Escrima sticks to teach students to block the roundhouse kicks with the shins directly facing into the force. At a minimum black belt equivalent level the student must break two baseball bats with the roundhouse kick. The recovery after this kick was quite fast. All recoveries to protected position were fast. Strikes come repetitively very fast. I training on the back maybe you will throw a hundred knee strikes in rapid succession. The same goes for the other strikes. A lot of training is on the abdominal muscles. The abdomen and hip power all the movements.
The teacher then holds the pads at various angles to indicate to the student to either punch or elbow, or throw a knee strike or a roundhouse kick. Each student does this intensively for 2 to 3 minutes. For those who haven’t done it before, even two minutes feels like you have just run a hundred yard dash. From the outside it doesn’t look that bad but once you try it it’s a whole different thing to throw out a combination of power strikes solid for 3 minutes. For a start two minutes is good. In training they will go several three-minute rounds like that. The teacher may hold up one pad to hit while attacking you with the other or while throwing a round kick in etc. to teach people to keep covered up. Students tend to drop their hands which could result in an immediate knockout in the real event.
Even though protection is used in some matches in Korea some serious injuries can result. The teacher broke various bones here and there because of the extreme power delivery. One of his students received a pinpoint accurate kick to the solar plexus and died as a result. After that the law clamped down on some of these Thai matches in Korea.
The teacher said there were two streams in Thai boxing in Korea, one was for the professional fighter and the other was for the hobbyists or teachers. The training was the same in both but one group fights regularly and the other doesn’t. Those people who have a career and education don’t take the fighter stream because there is little money in it but a lot of risk. High school students with no jobs tended to chose the professional route.
Good fighting skill was generally developed within six months of hard training. In Korea people who want to fight learn Thai boxing. Even with a 4th degree blackbelt in Hapkido and many years of Taekwondo this teacher didn’t trust those arts totally in the real fights he had in Korea. However elite fighters in the army did use a combination of Hapkido and Thai boxing these days. After he learned Thai boxing he became very confident in his fighting skills.
The teacher did say there was a place for traditional martial arts. He felt Thai boxing was excellent for fighting but was missing some of the values and other aspects that traditional arts develop. He said just fighting for fighting’s sake is empty. In the future he said he still valued to train in some kind of traditional art for the other benefits these arts provide.
Ray