Do you even know Muay Thai?
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
I find this thought running through my head quite frequently. I frequently deal with other people in the sports that leave me scratching my head. After a few minutes of conversation, I’m tempted to stop them and ask, “Who taught you Muay Thai?” I bite my tongue, though, and strive to lead people down the right path through example.
For instance, I was once had an opportunity to see demonstration of a Muay Boran (ancient bareknuckle Muay Thai) technique. The technique was an example of Muay Boran’s “Lion’s Walk” strategy, where you make two simultaneous movements from the same side of your body. In this instance, it was an uppercut and a straight knee strike. I can see that the demonstrator was met with incredulousness from a certain individual at what he was showing. The audience seemed to feel that he was making it up. Surprisingly, he was a Muay Thai championship title holder!
Fortunately, over the last few years this has occurred less and less frequently. Unfortunately, though, this kind of thing still crops up. I’ve found that the best way to deal with this is to use these instances as an opportunity to educate. Showing your frustration to these people often will only make them become defensive and unwilling to listen to you. However, if you take the time to calmly explain what MuayThai is really about, you often find yourself with an avid pupil, who is both willing and excited to learn! This is definitely benefit for others that you recommend but also for yourself to have a good opportunity to educate about Muay Thai to all people in the rest of the world. I can say that there still a lot of misunderstood about Muay Thai both in terms of knowledge and practice so please help to educate if you want to see Muay Thai become the most popular martial arts.
