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Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images
Muay Thai boxers fight in the Buriram province of Isan, Thailand on June 28, 2012. Muay Thai is deeply entwined with the history of Thailand itself, developed from the need for hand-to-hand combat centuries ago as a form of defense from perpetual invasions from neighboring countries.
Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images
Students from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, rest during their daily training session in Bangkok on June 26, 2012. The gym, located under an expressway overpass in a run-down slum area, has a fine reputation for developing and preparing fighters. Most of the students are sent by parents from Isan, a rural region in northeastern Thailand, in the hopes their sons will become good fighters and can help the family financially as many come from poor backgrounds.
Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images
A student from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, prepares for a daily training session in Bangkok on June 26, 2012.
Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images
Students from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, grapple during a daily training session in Bangkok on June 26, 2012.
Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images
Students from 96 Penang, a Muay Thai boxing camp, rest after a daily training session in Bangkok on June 27, 2012.
Nicolas Asfouri / AFP - Getty Images
A young Muay Thai boxer celebrates a win in the ring on June 28, 2012. Boxers range between eight to 25-years-old and compete in different categories.
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The only place to fight ....
In a ring ....
Good job kids ....
At least they are channeling aggression in a culturally-appropriate manner as well as learning skills of self-defense and restraint (which is a major component of martial arts).
I would bet that these kids grow up to be mature ahead of their years...partially, because they accurately and humbly know their limitations.
These guys end up as bouncers and beat up western tourists who don't pay up.
Well, pay your bills then.. :-)
Martial arts teaches self control, discipline, and respect. The idea that these kids participating in Muay Thai training is going to turn them into thugs is absurd, if anything it will do the exact opposite. Most of those with martial arts training will do anything possible to avoid a fight and certainly would not provoke one. Part of the discipline that martial arts teaches is that given the option it is always best to just walk away and not fight. Martial arts is not just about physical fighting skills, it is also about mental control. I would bet that these kids are extremely well behaved and respectful and on average do better in school than their peers who are not in the martial arts.
JS in SD,
In general, yes that is true. But it all depends on the Ajarn (Thai for Sensei)... Think back to Karate Kid and the bad guys.
This is great. Teach them early that hurting other people is a good job, and get their brains rattled so they end up brain damaged by the time they are in their 20's. Let's make sure they're treated as well as racehorses, greyhounds, show ponies, and circus animals. Violence is good, especially in children.
Well the martial art form growing in the USA is Wing Chung, it is the most aggressive form there is and is not about defending yourself, it's about kicking your ass.
99% of Peace marchers are non violent too, but some of you think they are all terrorists - stereo type much? Most gun owners are peaceful normal people, but some like to think they all want to use their guns on other people - stereo type much? The only reason those teaching martial arts preach that they are non violent is so your wife doesn't freak out and pull Joey out of class - follow the money.
This is Great! These kids will learn how to fight, be strong inside and out, be taught respect, learn how to win and how to most importantly learn how to lose. Which in this country is a long lost art - kids in this country are all winners right - Majority parents/liberals?
No wonder the USA has declined in every aspect of learning, toughness, grit and the will to get kicked in the teeth, get back up and kick some but. Our children are soft, mush in the belly's and the brains. The majority are overweight, spoiled, and have the feeling of entitlement - thanks family beds - wacked out mothers who breast feed kids till there 6 - and a special thank you to the liberal educators for all the damage you have done to our children.
To late to turn back - we are in decline - especially our children. The good day are far behind us - unless we change Now!
96 Penang is supported solely by gambling revenues and fight night admissions which are several days a week. The kids who can't cut it and end up brain damaged or maimed end up out on the street because to return home is too shameful.
This isn't a Shaolin temple folks. It's definitely a for profit operation.
JS - sorry, but that restraint-due-to-training is just a Hollywood invention. If your parents haven't already taught you that you're not supposed to bully people and beat them up left and right, a sensei muttering Eastern pearls of wisdom isn't going to instill that in you (except maybe in the extremely rare case of total martial arts immersion schools like this one - which, incidentally, doesn't as that stuff is more a Chinese and Japanese cultural ideal, not necessarily Thai).
I've been doing it for years and must've come across hundreds of martial artists over that time. Biggest restraint is the common sense most people have: might feel good to use your skills send everybody who ticks you off to the ER, but you don't wanna go to jail or get sued and/or get shunned by folk as "that crazy violent guy". Not to mention the possibility of a victim come looking for you with a firearm - ducking and twisting away from bullets works only in The Matrix :D
Those that don't make it in Muay Thai will find a successful career as a katoey.
katoey are degenerates I am sure you know that. maybe you would like to be a katoey for awhile
Yeah, because everybody knows there are only two possibilities in life.
I think it's a positive for these kids and their culture alike. Artful discipline is always a good attribute.
Hey william, I'd love to hear you say that to Nong Thooom and then watch what happens to your ignorant a&& when you do.
Thai's love this sport. Often, becoming a boxer is the only way out of poverty in Thailand. The comment that said it teaches them to steal and beat people up is absurd. Boxers are revered in Thailand and almost any Thai man can 'clean your clock' if necessary, so the remark shows how little some people understand about that culture. After spending some years in Thailand, I have found those people to be friendly, honest, hard working and passionate about their country and their freedom.
My son has done this for almost six years. In school he's respectful of everyone but he will absolutely not tolerate a bully putting, or should I say, attempting to put their hands on him. He's only had to defend himself once in school and it ended as quickly as it started. My son is seventeen and his grades are good. No, he's no angel, and has his bad points, but, aggression and being a bully isn't his way at all. I enrolled him in martial arts because I read one too many articles about kids bullying other kids in school and decided that my son was never going to become a victim of that. Kids that are enrolled in martial arts are more respectful than most kids that aren't. It teaches you self respect and discipline, not just how to defend yourself. I've yet to know any of these kids in his class that has ever picked a fight with anyone and will simply walk away from a bully, just don't put your hands on them.
Bob-796276.........Thanks for the ONLY intelligent comment.....You have restored my faith in mankind!!!!!!!!!
Right on Bob. Having raised two kids, I know that most of the times kids get into fights in schools and outside because of the fear factor. They immediately want to defend themselves. Once they learn an art, such as this sport, their confidence grows and they get into less fights.
Bob....agree 100%. I've been doing Muay Thai for several years now (brown belt) and I love it. The kids that participate are just great.
The Thais love each other as a people very deeply. It's a tough place that requires tough folks and teaching the kids the time honored tradition of kickboxing and in addition they also learn how to garden and grow their own food and raise their own animals. I lived there for a while, I wish our kids were more like theirs instead of eating cheesy poofs and gaming.
(Hey Snotty that is spot on)
Just knew some bleeding heart liberals would find something to complain about.
@Kerry. Agree 100%. Our family also lived in Thailand and the people esp the children are taught to respect elders and they care about their fellow Thai's deeply. It's a great culture. Kickboxing is an extenstion of that culture and as BOB mentions teaches respect. I have attended a few matches in Thialand and the fighters go through a beautiful ritual before the fight, one that honors their ancestors and nature around them. After the fight they honor the other fighter and his trainers.
Most of you people are totally wrong!!! I lived in North Eastern Thailand for the last 20 years, it is mostly a crime less country. Kids here are VERY VERY respectful especially of older people. They train in kick boxing as a sport like kids in US play football and baseball. This non sense of them growing to be bar bouncers and stuff like that is just BS from people that have never been to Thailand and cannot appreciate the lifestyle here. So people, before you guys pass judgement, please visit Thailand and see for yourself
Regards, Bill vance
Hey William and Kerry.... I live in Thailand now, have been for over 5 years and I've been visiting here numerous times for many years prior... I am married to a Thai, I have many Thai friends and let me first say, I agree with some of what you say and then there are points I do not agree with. Thailand is like many other countries, there are good people and there are bad people. I'm sorry to say the Internet cafes and the video games are here in Thailand full scale and just like in the USA it's eating the youth up where they don't do much else.
Disgraceful. Where is the protective headgear and mouthgear? Before we exult in how we turned aimless boys into lean,mean killing machines, let's protect their brains. Their brains may come in handy someday.
@dummick - you're looking at this through an American lens. For the record, I do agree with you...but in this country (I'm an American currently living in Thailand) a family of four will all ride down the highway on one motorbike - and not one wearing a helmet. Standards of safety just aren't the same here.
I distinctly recall a photograph I once saw of a young Thai male face down on the street after a motorbike accident. His brains were strewn about a foot or two away from him.
The liberals on here will get around to "saving" these young boys, by preaching to adopt them...to.save them. Progressives, being so much more intelligent than the rest of us, can't stand it when the real world differs from their ideas. Respect what their culture has evolved into and stay the hell out of it. Save the world on some other planet.
these young boys are good in sexual... they can be transformed into ladies too... thai young boys are the best of all...
wtf?
reported for the great possibility that this is a child molester
Thai boxing employs fists, feet, knees, and elbows. Forget all this. Give me Thai standard yellow currie
I like their food but not this.
Everybody was Kungfu fighting............
BEfore you comment, you should research the country fo China and kungfu ( which isnt an art, but means "mastery" originally...as in having kungfu in cooking, etc.) otherwise you look like an uneducated fool...
First rule of fight-club: Nobody talks about fight-club...
Rick Roufus is the best. Nine-time world champion kick boxer. His legs and his spinning back-fist are supreme.
True, but I watched Sugar foot Willson kick him upside the head for 5 of 11 rounds, and he wasn't the same after that. But ya, his high round kick is murder too. Great fighter.
Like a number of other posts, I've trained in Muay Thai; I've trained for a little over four years. My original training background is wrestling followed by karate, and I still actively train in all three. For me, Muay Thai was natural the first time I put on the gloves, clinched my training partner then drilled the pad with a knee, and heard the smack of my shin hitting the pads. For someone who is a stock and trade wrestler who went into karate, who considers arm triangles, guillotines, and D'arce chokes just as natural, this is saying something.
I am a firm believer that Muay Thai and wrestling should be mandatory in our schools, for males and females, starting at age 7, and they should be taught along side karate. Israeli combatives should be taught starting in the 9th grade as an expansion of such curriculum. And a karate black belt should be a mandatory graduation requirement to go into the 9th grade; you don't get into the 9th grade without it.
There are numerous benefits: a foundation of practical self-defense, true physical fitness, and mental discipline. Muay thai is quite easy to learn. There are only a handful of punches, knees, elbows, and kicks to learn, but the key is repetition; repetition builds physical conditioning. Muay Thai also gives you multiple options to finish an attacker/bully quickly. Muay Thai kick puts your shin through the side of his knee, his head drops one level, and you clinch him behind the head to drive a knee or knees into his face. You drop the attacker/bully like Bill Clinton's pants and get out of there ASAP. Wrestling is very important because it teaches you how to survive on the ground when the objective is to get back to your feet. There are only a handful of MMA/grappling techniques which are actually going to help you if you need to defend yourself, and they are the chokes I mentioned early. The exception is armbars, which females need to know how to apply quickly should they ever face a rape situation (the only, and I mean only, situation where an armbar is useful); it's not just technique, it's the mental discipline and situational awareness to defend yourself from your back. Armbars are worthless is a school fight or bar/street fight because your head is exposed to a curb-stomping by whoever the attacker/bully brought with him. Wrestling, just like Muay Thai, is going to build conditioning through fundamentals and repetition. Karate teaches you how to attack vital areas and how to defend against multiple attackers (situational awareness).
I've thrown the Israeli stuff in there because it is an easy to learn, repetition-based program which can get someone trained quickly. I also happen to train in this and can say, once again, it felt natural from the first set of drills. The reason why I say the Israeli stuff should be taught starting at 9th grade level is very simple: you will be learning things that will teach you how to kill a person quickly and explosively should a situation ever reach that level. While it is true that anyone can be trained quickly in the Israeli stuff, without high-level or moderate level conditioning, a solid level of physical conditioning is a must should you find yourself in a self-defense situation against someone who has had prior training of some kind.
If there's a catchword in this post, it's conditioning. These martial arts will put real physical conditioning into physical education programs which crank out worthless Presidential Physical Fitness awards.
In dealing with attackers who intend to inflict serious, possibly fatal bodily harm on you, it's much easier to put some lead in their head. And you don't even have to get dirty or bloody or break a sweat.
Excellent! Healthy, disciplined, active youth.
Football & baseball, lack the respectful qualities that muay thai teaches oneself.
Martial arts is stupid. If you have an UZI you don't need anything else.
While some martial arts may not really be useful in a real-life situation, they do teach discipline, and at least keep these kids doing something active.
Why does everyone posting about this subject try to make themselves sound like the Karate kid?
You just can't escape biological reality - increasing evidence shows repeated blows to the head (even "light" ones) can add up over time to cause degenerative brain disease. Children especially have fragile, developing brains. I'm not convinced the disciplinary benefits of such training are worth the risks. It's a person's choice to make, but all people (especially parents) deserve the information necessary to make a better-informed choice. A mind is a terrible thing to waste (away).
I think the discipline aspect is great.But full contact at that age,
To finish my comment.I meant full contact at that age is not good.
Thailand used to be and may still be the world's brothel. Other than currie, I actually prefer Indian, it has little to say for itself culturally, unless you count Summer in Siam by The Pogues
Splendid photo essay
Bangkok is to brothels what Milano is to opera
Once again, for those who haven't visited the place Bangkok is an upholstered sewer
Yeah Bill and so is Detroit and Chicago with all other the gangbanger punks killing innocent people. Maybe you should have spent some time away from the bars!