Being Thai! (Part1/2)
For me, I personally believe that no matter which type of martial art we are learning, what will be automatically learnt together with the martial art is the culture and norms of the country or people that the martial arts belongs to; you should know Koreans tradition that involve to Tekwando, you should know what Japanese norms related to Judo or Jujitsu etc, and Muay Thai is not an exception! This is because there are a lot of thai norms and tradition including terminology for fighters and they have to learn, at least realise about the meaning of them. No! I am not talking about asking you to learn everything about Thai people and Thailand to be good fighters. This believe existed few hundred year ago and I don’t want to take you back to the ancient time of Muay Thai where student have to be really respect to the teacher and do some kind of religious activities in order to gain effective lesson.
It does not work that way for Muay Thai in modern era as it’s all about business!. However, the believe of respect and sonority in order to get familiar with Muay Thai lessons. This may not a compulsory for every Muay Thai learners but only people who trained in Thailand or in foreign countries by Thai “Kru” will absolutely realise the meaning of statement above. I believe that all of Thai “Kru” will have some kind of advise for student to appreciate Thai norms and tradition as well as teach students that belongs to them, no matter in which country these Krus are living in. Also, there are a lot of trainers who are not Thai but really appreciate of norms and culture and try to teach students in that way too!
February 20th, 2008 at 12:32 am
I totally agree with you. When I see Farang fighters performing Wai-Kru, greeting with Sawasdee and respects each other (in traditional Thai ways), I was very impressed. I respect all Muay thai fighters that takecare this sport very well.