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Muay Chaiya: Concussion and Compassion
Imagining being faced with an opponent standing before you in a position you’ve never seen before in all your years of training. His hands turn slowly, rhythmically in a circle as his head sways back and forth. His body, propped up on one leg, seems to bob up and down in a controlled manner. Unconventional at best, he seems to almost be off balance, and for so long you’d been taught to attack when your opponent was off balance. Though you both have yet to engage one another, now seems like the opportune time to strike. That in mind, you ball your fist, take your stance, and commit your first…
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Bound : My Experience at Baan Kru Preang by Amonte Littlejohn
The moment I walked into Baan Kru Preang, I knew there was something there to be reckoned with. I’d seen clips of the students training and had an idea of what they were about, but all that was from afar. I’d had prior experience learning other martial arts, but now, I stood among them in total silence and waited to learn their art of Muay Chaiya. No amount of pre-training footage could have prepared me for what lay ahead. The focus of their training was not in learning something briefly and putting it into practice. Instead, their preparation was designed to burn their theories and techniques into the students’ muscles,…