Muay Boran, the ancient Thai boxing, is often seen as a mysterious art capable of facing any opponent Unfortunately, this conception is totally wrong the world of Muay Boran is full of preconceptions, false notions, and backwardness I will try to explain myself with a comparison; Muay Boran is like a sword forged with the best possible materials, but which has now lost its edge Instead of restoring it to make it deadly again for combat, it is simply decorated with gold and jewels to make it shiny and beautiful to hang on a wall This is a general speech, it does not necessarily happen everywhere, but in 6 years spent in the world of Muay Boran, and more than 20 master studied I have never found someone who perfectly respected my basic levels of standards, which are few masters really prepare their students to make them capable of fighting Many limit themselves to teach and are ready to churn out the classic Muay Boran practitioner with his beautiful certificate In all this training there is no sparring and pressure testing, maybe just some Muay Thai sparring.
There is no "understanding", only "learning". The masters who, on the other hand, are willing to truly prepare capable fighters, unfortunately, fail in their intent because they have remained static over time some of what they teach is now out of date and can no longer be applied successfully in the advanced combat of our times plus their training methods are ineffective and only waste time. These Masters are too attached to tradition and fail to improve their art to keep it as it has been taught to them hiding behind a wall of immeasurable ego by thinking that since their art is pure, it is superior to other mixed or refined styles.t Ironically Muay Boran styles have been mixed with Japanese martial arts for a century, just think about the military Muay Lertrit, Muay Chaisawat or the Chaiyut and Thaiyuth styles. Even the Chaiya line or Khet Sriyapai it's not pure since he had multiple masters which influenced his way of fighting and he was also a Silat masters There was a reason for this evolution because true Masters looked for effectiveness and knew that not changing what does not work is the true death of the art.
Muay Boran is not in the name, the stance, in the names of the techniques, it is in its principles. especially in a world where the effectiveness of martial arts came back as the number 1 priority and people are exposing arts that do not do what they preach. And before anyone says it, Muay Boran was not "Battle Tested" it was not used in warfare when soldiers lost their weapons Fighting with your bare hands against a simple knife is already madness that will probably cause you to die or get very hurt imagine against swords and spears, you don't have the slightest chance to survive Muay originally supported the armed fighting and only later it split off from it taking an identity of its own Soldiers were indeed trained to fight with their bare hands, but most of the training was based on weapons.
And even if it had been battle-tested, the combat of that time was primordial and cannot compare with the modern one, born from more than a century of continuous clashes between the best fighters from all over the world, with all sorts of backgrounds. Muay Boran is not perfect and needs to be refined, both now and in the future Some of its flaws are one of the most used drills consists of what I call "Theatrical Performance" Two practitioners perform a previously agreed technique supported by a Time-Freezing of the opponent in this way space-time relationships are altered a large amount of space is covered in a very short time without the opponent reacting and without any real threat to identify. This trains an altered timing and gives
a false sense of confidence they often end up training ineffective techniques
that seem functional thanks to this training system There is no Sparring, no cross sparring, no Feinting truly lethal techniques are only 20-30% of Muay Boran there are no excuses to avoid sparring which it's like "swimming on land" Muay Boran should be trained with open gloves and with the Muay Boran ruleset not with a Muay Thai ruleset and closed gloves Forms do not create fighting awareness of "what and when" The fighter Is not able to apply a technique at the right time, he's full of notions without the qualities needed to apply them No Set-Up
No finding range
No Fight I.Q.
No Timing
No Feints On some occasions, time is wasted in training techniques that the practitioners do not like or do not use only because they are part of the form There is no development of your personal style, merely rehearsing a routine.
In some cases, the technique is deemed to be so important that it is trained excessively so much that you have to be precise to the millimeter. Don't get me wrong technique is very very important but not so important to neglect qualities like timing and fighting awareness to reach an unnecessary technical level. If someone has good timing, he can win even with a "not perfect to the millimeter technique" Training becomes a mass production.
Everything is too much based on the textbook there is no exploring of a personal style and no changes. I saw tall people cutting off their range and using the stance and tactics of small people just because they had to look identical to everyone else. the masters should let professional strength and conditioning coaches do their work according to science There is an unwill to change, there is learning but not understanding or self-reflecting. This also comes from the false notion that "Muay Boran is battle-tested" and it is perfect.
So at the end of the day, Muay Boran becomes a product to sell that does not live up to what it promises I myself felt that in the first person, that's why I left my Muay Boran academy. You first think it's you, then you talk to your gym mates and they have the same problems So you think it's the master's fault, and then you discover that almost every master is like that. So it's not you, it's not the master it's almost the whole Muay Boran world. Does this mean that Muay Boran is useless? NO! It is one of the most complete martial arts that can be learned, with the use of the 9 natural weapons of the body, every type of throws and Wrestling from the feet to the head without limitations. If properly refined and trained it can make you a formidable fighter able to adapt and always find the right solution in combat able to surprise the opponent with unpredictable and lethal actions. One example is Samart Payakaroon, defined by many as the best Muay Thai fighter who happened to be trained by Master Yodtong, one of the last truly capable Muay Boran masters Have you ever wondered why in these times where MMA, Muay Thai and Lethwei matches are very popular there is not a way to have legal and recognized Muay Boran matches? Have you ever wondered why Muay Boran masters praise the effectiveness of it so much but currently there are no champions in any martial discipline with a Muay Boran background? Because nobody cares about changing the formula if you believe everything they tell you and give them money.
It's time to open your eyes, embrace the change and enter a new era a new era for Muay Boran and martial arts. And before closing, if someone feels personally attacked by this video, I just want to specify that it was not made to say that "I'm better than him" or "He's better than them" it was made to make everyone reflect and be honest with themselves and the others to realize that there is a lot of room for improvement if someone is honest with their limits for You and Me as well and that Martial Arts ultimately means "To be better than yesterday"
