Thanks for your insights, William.
Understand KK fell in the America because of political agenda in my view having tracked it since the early days. Its unfortunate and all in the past so its water under the bridge. But what can we learn from that so its not repeated? I myself extracted myself from it and simply devoted myself to training and researching year after year so I am literally speaking as a person on the inside though watching very clearly on the outside.
My own teaching and training is modern but I felt late in the my martial arts career that a careful step back in time to clearly explore the se asian arts was in order and I devoted myself to that as my own personal project and continue to do so. It was startling to say the least what I uncovered and the labyrinth is still spiralling in front of me.
If people want in depth information then opening the well so to speak and accepting others will provide that not only a reservoir of information but an amount that will exceed any expectation. There will be more instructors, more schools and with that of course, I am this or I am better, but it goes with the terrain and any expansion.
Most importantly like kali, arnis and escrima, there are many different ways, regional styles, formats kk falls into. Just because someone writes on the internet or youtube that they took twenty trips to thailand or whatever and didnt find anything doesnt mean it doesnt exist. It means their skills of investigation are sorely lacking.
KK fell into the grip of the ministry of education, and the physical education department which was a way of domination and control in thailand as well as frankly financial exploitation. If you want a clear example of this, look at what they are doing with "muay boran", its simply a grade school adapted program for cultural preservation for school children, a safe format for purposes of history and physical education preservation--not a method of fighting or an active method of learning fighting or competing--thus the system minus teeth and soul. It is not the authentic systems such as muay chaiya, muay korat, muay lanna, etc so in time the ministry of education wants to dominate and control and spread their doctrine at the expense of the actual systems, lineage, removing fighting and actual battle techniques, thus rewriting it to the point that all else might vanish as their work overwrites everything and becomes truth. What is more popular at this stage a few years into this charade: muay boran or any authentic system? If you look at the numbers of practitioners, instructors and schools--its muay boran right now. So in the future who will be imprinting this as the final truth--authentic knowledge or a fabrication and reinvention of the past? This process has already taken hold with kk. And there is not one american or foreigner or anyone who understands this or accepts this or at least no one i ever read or spoke to but its what has happened and what is happening. I know my views have never been accepted by anyone in america or europe for that matter based on the daily negative nonsense I get but let one of them take even a second to do some scholarly research, put their own body in the line of fire, translate hundreds of pages of ancient texts, walk every inch north, east, south and west, train with the last survivors of these systems and they would change their views in a second and go screaming the other way like they "discovered" something.
By example, you look at kk, which has undergone that transformation already and you can only imagine what is lost and misinterpreted. Physical education kk for grade school and college is not the same as combative kk. So if people want the fighting: live sharpened steel work, footwork patterns, mental preparation, fighting on different terrain, multiple opponents-- for that then they need the schools or teachers who propagate that and those schools and teachers are slowly vanishing because either neglect or a run to create systems that the ministry of education/physical education will accept and help them financially survive. If they want a cross section or a phys ed format which has dominated the teaching then they can learn that easily. The needs and systems are there for those who want them. Physical education at the college level, had contact kk fights throughout the early period in college then they went to padding, but they complained people were getting hurt and they took it out, so even then at the phys ed level it was rough. So then it was cut down another level again, taking away the heart and teeth or what was left of it which wasnt much to begin with. I personally dont want to be a phys ed teacher, i want the actual ancient combative system of knowledge known as krabi krabong, that is the thrust of my training and knowledge. Others might pursue the kk phys ed modality and the thing is its there for those who want it and fits their particular needs. But understand both exist and live and are defined by different doctrine and training and end purpose.
So first we need to accept that, put that into perspective and allow that to sink in, understand the truth here has no agenda, it simply is what has happened to martial arts in thailand and how do we navigate those waters successfully and gain a full understanding against cultural bridges. We need to understand culturally why this happened so we just dont explode and burn it down since it is now an integral and effective way for them to teach it and they feel a great way to teach the youth about the thai past while using a popular thai martial art as a base for its physical root. But also how do we survive and extend that the way the phillipine martial arts survived and extended themselves for example? There is still growth to be had.
My own research and training is always combative and functional. Also because it would be considered the old way vs the new way(phys ed, new systems of kk). In combat,we deal with death, blood, multiple opponents and a variety of weapons. Also it means sharp steel and how to train to use it realistically or for the battlefield in this case. It is also hardwoven into a buddhist methodology often dispensed by monks and top fighters and generals of the period. So it is an interesting matrix highly woven over time. It survives only in pockets. In burma, it is slowly being lost as the burmese government uses the methodology of the chinese in control and domination by overwriting a generic wu shu type of methodolgy to it--they dont want you training with old masters or the useless past as one general put it to me bluntly. Cambodia survives the best for the time being but the current bokator phenomena(read muay boran from thailand to understand this) starts to send people away from actual masters living in the countryside some in their eighties who dont have tv or radio or much contact surviving very ancient systems intact and as the sands of the hourglass push through we see it being lost because people are led astray to something they believe is true.
People might say this really has nothing to do with creating a simple list of instructors but it does. It is the vital history and an indepth look at what I see as an inherent problem that has been overlooked for some time. But it in the end it affects and bleeds heavily into ranking structure and instructor understanding of what is taught and how. How does that ranking work and why and where does it come from.
I am sure others can add to this. But this is the very beginning hopefully of a base understanding if these concepts cant be accepted then forward movement will always jerk back to the beginning, just like someone without good basics will always falter back to the beginning and redo things that should have be solid in the first place.
Vincent
