Bonus Session 3: Joe Hongthong - Muay Khao and Mid-Clinch Throws (44 min) (Patreon)

Bonus sessions are often kind of like extended out-takes, work done with trainers that might not have complete coherence by itself, but there is still a lot of good stuff in them. And this session with Joe “Hongthongnoi” of the Hongthong Gym in Chiang Mai is an example of that. It was marred a bit by the fact that I had fought the two previous nights and my legs were incredibly tender from being bashed. I just could not take any contact on them and it affected my entire energy, making me kind of timid, which doesn’t work against Joe’s energy. Joe wanted to loosely spar and improvise, and he teaches some very good, subtle Muay Khao fight philosophy in this, but he is relentless against my legs. This is the interesting thing in Thailand: because so many of these fighters came up in pretty harsh training circumstances, they just don't give quarter to weakness. They go after it. But that’s how you learn, it builds callouses and the weakness recedes. I’ve been in contact with this kind of training for 5 years now and I’m pretty tough, but it still put me in a state of mind that was a real challenge, and at times, unfortunately, it shows and I robbed myself of some of the opportunity I had here with Joe.

If you'd like to see more of his style there is a full Joe Hongthong entry in the library, where he really shows of some of the best Muay Khao-specific instruction I've had. In this session there are some really great body throw techniques, and if you don't have time for the entire session the last 11 minutes, when his student Maggie comes into the ring, are the most directly instructive of specific technique. He teaches two different throws from the exact same position, one for each person in the lock that is common enough you definitely will find yourself in it. Because each person has a throw available, whoever throws first, wins. Joe is full of fantastic one-liners in his frenetic-energy style of speaking in English, but one of my favorites could be the tagline for this entire lesson: “Who gonna be first?”