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Published: September 15th 2007
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O Practicing
O practicing Thai weapons art, Krabi Krabong. Today was a relatively cool day. Most of the Thais were wearing jackets. It was 27 degrees. Not much new has happened in the last couple days. Heavy training, lots of it. I've learned an awful lot. I've met some interesting people from all over the world, quite a few from England, a few Aussies.
I've gotten to know the Thai trainers a little better, and have caught on to their sense of humor. One thing that they find pretending to be scared hilarious. Ngoo, who weighs 125 lbs if he's lucky, was demonstrating a clinch throwing technique on a British guy who is 6'4 and 250lbs. When the Brit did it back to him, he stood up, looked terrified and ran out of the ring at which point all of the Thais broke into hysterics. This is especially funny to me because I've seen how impressive Ngoo is to watch in the ring. So I find I can get a laugh if one of them pretty easily if I act afraid of them.
It's truly interesting to note that in some ways the training here is brilliant, and in other ways it's stuck in the dark ages. Every
O Practicing
O Practicing Krabi Krabong. O went to University for English, has done several Muay Chadeuk fights (with ropes around your fists instead of gloves), and he's an incredible tattoo artist. In order to be a tattoo artist in Thailand you have to be taught by a master, so it's not just out of the back of your truck. trainer to the last man is technically exceptional and can teach it to a certain degree. The way the lessons are laid out for teaching technique is very good, with each lesson logically building on the last. But sport science hasn't exactly made its way to Thailand yet. They have no concept of separating cardio from strength from technique, working different body parts on different days, that sort of thing. If 1 hour of weights is good, then 2 hours must be twice as good. Rather than working something different every day (eg. Abs and back one day, shoulders the next, legs the next, take some time off to recover, etc)
they simply train everything every day. Apparently when one of the American owners introduced weight training to the gym, it was completely foreign to them. You show them a new exercise and they just add it to the end of their regular workout. So after a week of heavy weight training at the end of their usual killer workout, they were all really sore and as such decided that weight training is useless. So now it's mostly the guests that use the weights.
I got the chance to
My Bungalow
My Bungalow train with a stern looking older man named Ajarn Mac. The word Kru is a title that means
teacher. Ajarn means master. Ajarn Mac, although not actually in charge of the camp in the business sense, (That's a man named Phet, pronounced "Pet") he is the socially highest and most respected trainer here. He's a very stern looking 57 years old man, but could still destroy me if he was so inclined. In his career, he had 257 fights. He fought all over the country, in Bangkok, and was the champion of three different stadiums at one time. He fought in Lumpinee, the biggest and most prestigious stadium in Thailand, several times. His english isn't great, but he showed me some really interesting tricks that had never occurred to me. And, like seemingly everybody else here, he can act really silly and joke around. A very good natured coach. Sometimes if you kick him in the belly pad, he'll fall over and pretend that it really hurt. Other times he takes off his hand pads after you punch them and shakes his hands like you've hurt his hands. To begin with I wasn't sure if he was making fun of
Juice Bar
Where I eat and hang out when not training me or encouraging me, so I asked somebody who's been here for a while, and apparently it's encouraging.
There have been several humourous incidents that have happened in the last couple of days:
- One of the guests was working the heavy bag, and slipped when he tried to throw a kick at head level. One of the trainers laughed, and imitated him. But when he fell, he hit his head on a fan. Then all the other trainers made fun of him. It was really funny.
- During one session, Phet was helping me get more power behind my roundhouse kicks, and he was demonstrating how he does it. He was absolutely drilling the bag. The amount of power he can generate or his size is unbelievable. O walked up next to me and whispers to me "He kicks with this much power because his wife is pregnant, you see?"
- The smallest trainer here, Kru Em, always shows up with something different on his head. I don't exactly know how he found it, but the other day he showed up with a World War 1 German soldier helmet. Another time he had a ring
Me and Ajarn Mac
Me and Ajarn Mac bell on his head. Another time he had a motorcycle helment and giant sunglasses on. And, for those of you who know who this is, Em is a dead ringer for Devin Bialo. He looks, is the same size as, and acts the same as Devin.
- Yesterday for dinner, I ordered a hot dog and they brought me 3 hotdogs without buns. Which is better than the guy who ordered a cheese burger and received a hamburger bun with cheese. Then he tried to explain to the woman who works at the juice bar what was wrong for about 20 minutes. They thought that the bun was the hamburger. But they made a killer breakfast.
- I was talking with a guest who has been here for several months, and he was explaining an amusing paradox to me regarding medicine in Thailand vs The West. In The West, it's common to hear doctors talking about the wonders eastern medicine, recommending people go to acupuncturists, wholistic medicine, etc. Well, as he describes it, acupuncturists in Thailand send sick people to the hospital, and the doctors talk about the wonders of Western medicine. In Thailand they have massages and
Me, Dang and Em
Me, Dang (90 fights) and Em (120 fights) acupuncture, but no real concept of physiotherapy. So if your body and muscles are perfectly balanced and put together, you can train this intensely and fight well into your 30s. For example, one trainer Saohin is well into his 30s
and still an active fighter, both pro boxing and Muay Thai. However if your body has any natural weaknesses (such as weak hip flexors, or back problems), or you get injured, you'll have a very short
career. The solution to injuries, which is in keeping with Thai logic, is to overtrain the area that is injured or weak. For example, another one of the trainers here, Gae, put his shoulder out a couple years ago. And that was it for his career. Now he can hit the bag for two rounds before he has no feeling in his fingers.
- I wanted to get my picture with Saohin. He wanted one where we were facing each other with our hands up like we were staring each other down at a weigh in. But everytime he looked serious I laughed and everytime I looked serious he laughed. So the pictures came out looking like both of us were trying not
Ajarn Mac training a kid
Mac training a kid. They start them young here. to laugh.
I'm going to take some more pictures of Chalong when I get the chance. It's a really neat little city. Nice beaches. Lot so of shops, stores, restaurants. Not much in the way of bars, and as such there's not much of a nightlife. But it has a really neat look to it and is very friendly. Plus there's a couple of really nice beaches, and a place called "James Bond Island". Patong, on the other hand, is more like an amusment park for degenerate western tourists.
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dyami
non-member comment
PATRICK YOUR A GIAANT!. When you walk through the streets.... does your head stick out a foot above everyone elses?!