Boraphet Pinsinchai - Muay Khao Techniques (64 min) (Patreon)

This session with Kru Ten is one of my favorite training sessions ever. I was told he’s a Muay Khao instructor, but I had no idea how prolific his technique was going to be. But it wasn’t just that he focused on clinch and knees, it’s the way he focused on them and his general disposition. He’s gruff, favors a conservative economy of words and tends to grunt as his main form of communication, feels out your understanding as you go and makes adjustments for when to move on, and only two or three times cracked a smile when he was genuinely amused by my delight in a particular technique. Imagine being sent to some old cowboy to learn how to deal with horses and he kind of agrees to show you some stuff, then shows you all the coolest stuff with the kind of systematized progression and depth of understanding that only a man who has spent his life in this craft can offer. Just awesome. And I’ve said this of other trainers, but it’s no less incredible every time I encounter it: being able to physically engage in instruction when the size disparity is as broad as it is between him and me is a huge mark in the column of mastery. Me being able to throw a 30 lbs kid a foot shorter than I am isn’t impressive, but being able to be thrown by her in a way that is actually conducive with her using the technique I’m showing, accurately… that’s mastery.

Kru Ten seems on a spectrum of older Thai trainers, and he’s kind of in the middle of some extremes of super-traditional old fellows (very serious) and super fuck-it-I’m-old fellows who laugh at the whole situation of training the young’ns. The way he progressed from one set of skills to another, seamlessly and how he was constructing something that you could then take with you and keep studying, was truly amazing to me. And he was fun to work with, encouraging but not complimentary, experimental rather than playful. He’s a really brilliant example of how Muay Khao is a complete fighting style, not just an emphasis on clinch and knees. We were 45 minutes into the session before I even threw a systematic kick or punch but we’d already covered so much technique in knees, elbows, locks and throws. And I’m certain we only scratched the surface.

My absolute favorite moves and some things to watch out for in this session:

1. The Rhinoceros Elbow: this is used like the front, upward elbow but you don’t come “up” with it. Instead you bend the elbow 90 degrees and step forward with it like a battering ram, hitting the chest with your elbow and the face with your forearm. I kept messing it up by pivoting on my front foot and twisting my hip in, which is how the upward elbow is done, but the straight-forward step is the secret to the Rhinoceros Elbow because you’re just going straight in. It’s death. It’s awesome.
2. Elbow Parries: patting the gloves down to elbow over but in combination with front and back elbows; it just feels good and with the whole system that Kru Ten employs, this proximity and patterning just all links together beautifully.
3. Knee Block to Step Knee: at close distance, blocking an opponent’s incoming knee with your knee is a solid move and it hurts your opponent, as you land the bone of your knee into their inner thigh. You can deaden a leg with a few of those. Kru Ten links it with a step and followup knee, just like checking a kick and stepping in for a knee, but much closer the whole time. His whole system is really close.
4. Pushing and then Pulling for a Turn: this was fun. Basically you march your opponent backwards by pushing on them in an arm-lock clinch and then suddenly reverse to pull them over your foot in a trip. Sprinkle in some knees for good measure.
5. The Underarm Throw: when your opponent has the inside grip on your neck and you’re stuck outside, you put your arm under their armpit/shoulder (on the side that’s got your neck) and wait for a knee; when they’re on one foot you just step hard and throw that arm up from under their shoulder, flipping them onto the floor. Pi Nu did this to me yesterday, there’s no way to catch yourself.
6. The Scissor Trip: there are a few of these that utilize the same “scissor” motion with your arms and a bit of a tap with your foot on the standing leg to send your opponent spinning. It’s all about timing the knees as they’re coming at you, then you push the neck with one arm and push the knee with the other in the opposite direction (hence “scissor”), take a pivot and sweep/trip the opponent. You’ll see a few examples of this, with close knees, long knees, and even a “wall of china” knee against your thighs when your opponent is on the ropes.
7. Teep Catch, Offense and Defense: Kru Ten shows how to hop and re-teep when your teep is caught by an opponent. He demos this on me and I was pretty sure my innards were stabbed through even by his gentle version. Would not attempt to catch him again if that happened in a fight. He also shows a way to catch the teep and pull your opponent into you for a strike, which he likes to use a spinning back elbow for. It’s nasty and very cool.
8. How to dern: in Thai dern means to walk, but in fighting it means to press after your opponent in a relentless, T-1000 Terminator kind of way. Not “Robocop,” which trainers will chide you for, but just unstoppable. When Kru Ten puts me on the pads near the end of our session, he’s instructing me, non-verbally, on how to dern properly as a knee fighter. The pace and distancing is measured and endless. Watching it back for the voiceover really opened my eyes to the pace I should try to fight at, rather than rushing, which I often find myself doing and getting frustrated. 
9. Clinch Knees on the Bag: the last thing Kru Ten runs me through is these step-step-knee patterns on the bag. The points to focus on are standing up straight, keeping your hips in but not so that you have any sway in your back (just upright and very close), stepping to the side of your opponent’s stance and creating a bit of distance when you bring your leg out wide and then crash that knee into their ribcage; reclose that distance, do your double step over to the other side and take out the other lung. It’s much slower than the kind of “chicken wing” skip knees you’ll see fighters pounding out on a bag every session, but goddamn… they are also exhausting, powerful, and really effective for clinching.

Importantly:  

TIP BOX: if you are inspired by what you see and want to show added appreciation you can send gratuity directly to Kru Ten. Just message $5 or more via PayPal to the address sylvie@8limbs.us, please in the "add a note" section specify "for Kru Ten". I will transfer the funds.

KRU FUND: additionally, 5% of all Patreon pledges go into my Kru Fund, and is directed back to the Krus and ex-fighters who have helped make this documentary Library possible: http://8limbs.us/muay-thai-thailand/starting-the-kru-fund