Old Muay Thai

[meth18au]

I've been doing a bit of reading lately- particularly trying to find out as much information as possible on the 'old' styles of Muay Thai. I find it so hard to get quality information in regards to Muay Thai, in books and on the internet. Maybe I just don't know how to search properly!!! He he...

Does anybody around here have any experience (first hand or even from a reliable source) with the old styles of Muay Thai? If so which styles, and how would they compare to modern 'ring' Muay Thai. Some people seem to be of the opinion that modern Muay Thai is an adaptation of the techniques which work, to make an ultimate style. Or is it a watered down version of these old styles? And are these styles being lost? I'm particularly interested in anybody who has trained in any of these styles, and what sort of training they undergo? Do Westerners have chance of finding quality instruction in the old styles, or is it largely kept under a closed lid?

Cheers

 

[Kieran]

The only stuff I know about older styles of Muay Thai is what's in my Panya Kraitus book.

Found this site as well which might give you some style names to look out for:

http://www.ancientmuaythai.com/styles/muay_thai.htm

The styles on that page can also be found on the muay boran wiki page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muay_Boran

 

[meth18au]

Cheers for that buddy- I'll have a read now!


Any other takers?

 

[thaistyle]

Ring sport muay thai developed from the older muay boran styles, such as muay korat, muay chaiya, muay lopburi and muay ta sao. Yes the ring version of muay thai is a little watered down when compared to the older styles of fighting. There are some techniques and strikes in muay thai that you just don't see in the ring, mainly due to the adoption of gloves and western boxing rules.

 

[Mysterious]

As thaistyle said, many muay thai techniques were not allowed in modern

style...because of traditional techniques were too dangerous to use for

sport. Muay Thai was originally created for using in the battle. Most

techniues commonly use to heavily harm opponents or even kill

 

[meth18au]

Has anybody had any first hand experience with these styles? Do they still exist, or are they dying arts? Curious to see if anybody has actually trained, or have some sort of first hand exposure to these arts in Thailand!!! It would be sad to see such history slowly get lost from generation to generation.

 

[thaistyle]

A few still exist. The Thai Royal Army stills trains in Lerdrit (military muay thai) which in reality is off limits to foreigners. By the way, that wasn't real Lerdrit on the muay thai episode of Human Weapon. Kru Preang still teaches traditional muay Chaiya. My head instructor has trained under him at the Muay Chaiya Foundation. Muay Lopburi is still taught in northern Thailand as well. I don't know if muay Korat or muay Ta Sao are still being taught anywhere in Thailand. Most of the masters of these old muay boran styles are gone. If you look through some older posts in this forum, you will find many posts on this topic.

 

[meth18au]

Seems such a shame to lose all that history that dies with the old masters.

I might just have a look through them. Thanks for the information.

 

[blackdiamondcobra]

The history and the old masters have been preserved both on tape and in written form. I have a book coming out on the actual written texts, photos of all the old systems. Muay Korat is still very much practiced and can be learned, its a compact system that is very useful. You can join our email newsletter by emailing in at [email protected] and ask to be addded. We discuss the history and evolution of the SE asian and systems from india as well.

 

[meth18au]

I may have to sign onto that. Thanks for the reply.