#34 Samart Payakaroon - Balance, Balance, Balance! (81 min) (Patreon)

4x Lumpinee Champion, 3x Fighter of the Year, WBC jr. featherweight World Boxing Champion

You can also listen to this session as a podcast on iTunes

Samart is one of the biggest superstars of Thailand. Not only in the Muay Thai world, but because he was a Muay Thai champion, a western boxing champion (WBC), and a movie star and singer (check out his music videos, they are amazing), he’s like a quadruple threat. My own trainer, Kru Nu, grew up in Pattaya and would go to the same club - the “Disco Duck” - and watch Samart, Somrak and Wanchannoi singing on the stage. Pretty incredible, honestly. But Samart is an idol, a heart-throb, pride of Thailand for having succeeded in western boxing (which is an “international stage” more than Muay Thai was back in the 90s), and is seen as one of the greatest technical fighters of all time. When you actually see Samart in person, he seems kind of tired of being Samart. But when he starts to move, to show you his Muay - not showing off, not performing, but just demonstrating the “do this” element of what he’s trying to get out of you… Jesus, it’s incredible. I don’t think he’s sick of that part at all. His love for
Muay shines through. What struck me about watching him move, seeing his Muay outside of the ring and outside of the context of “performing” in a fight, is that it’s all through him. He is his Muay and it is him. He teeps and kicks and punches the way he walks down the street. I became an instant fan upon standing in front of him and actually feeling his Muay in real space, after not really feeling it in otherwise admirable fight videos. Despite his fame, he just wasn't my style of fighter. Hopefully you can feel something of what I felt when I was in front of him through this video. He is incredible to stand in front of.

It makes sense that Samart starts me out with punching, since he was such a successful and skilled western boxer, but it’s not really because of that. I suspect that Samart actually uses boxing to establish balance and footwork, first and foremost. An imprecise observer might experience this as being about punching, but it’s not about the punching. In the same way that Chatchai Sasakul, another WBC champion (who is in the Library), is all about footwork, weight transfer and balance, and the punching just comes out of that. You punched because that’s the sport, but all the power comes from balance. Samart, above all things, is incredibly balanced. Insanely balanced. And what makes me grab my head and yell “how?!” when watching him is that his stance is so narrow. He seriously looks like he’s standing on the street at a bus stop, just hanging out waiting for the bus. But all his strikes come out of that. He lances forward and back in these wide steps to cover distance with his jab, and contracts his feet back together on the cross and for the teep and kicks (he generates a lot of power by having his feet close together), but he is never off-balance. Not even a little bit. As much as Samart is loved as one of the greatest fighters of all time, he’s also just as brilliant as a teacher. Without any context, this session might actually come off as boring. It’s super repetitive and drill-like, slow and steady, and very basic. So what you have to look at to really appreciate what a great session this is, and its real value, is watching how Samart is teaching me. If there is any session that is a diamond for trainers of Muay Thai, this is it. Look at where he is looking when he watches me - he watches my feet (they betray any imbalances you have), my shoulders and then occasionally my face to see how quickly I’m registering and reacting. When you’re watching him teach me, watch him. Watch his feet, the alignment of his foot-knee-hip-and-shoulder as he kicks or pivots or punches, the bend in his knees, the broadening and narrowing of his stance, the rotation of his shoulders. Gah! So much. But one of my favorite things about how he teaches is his progression. Some of the best teachers I’ve had just watch, see what you’ve picked up and then elaborate on that. Samart does this very clever thing where he watches, sees what you’re not good at and then uses the next drill to address your weakness, without even mentioning it to you. So, for example, when I was taking too much distance all the time, instead of telling me to stay closer, he just made the next drill one where I had to stay close to execute the combination. He makes you feel everything; you never get to think about it.

What to look out for:

1. On the first drill, just walking, pay attention to the symmetry. When he’s walking with me he’s always shifting into a ¾ angle with his body, which you have to achieve by stepping just so as you switch stance. Forward and back. Make sure your guard changes with you up top. Be smooth. Be relaxed. Wait for the bus. Samart trains symmetry in a brilliant and consistent manner.
2. When punching, your opposite shoulder should be pulled back in an exaggerated way to bring power to the punch.
3. On the mid-kick, Samart straightens the leg hard upon impact. It’s like how an arrow’s tail quivers when it has stuck into its target, with a Bugs Bunny boi-yoi-yoing kind of sound effect. It’s not easy to do this, really watch his demonstrations. And keep the arm that you throw (same side as the kick) really relaxed, like throw it down behind your leg as you kick.
4. He likes the floating block, which is bringing the kick back into a block without touching down first, then tapping the floor and immediately kicking with that same leg. The floating block is great for training balance, but it also gets you thinking about defense and offense as completely fluid. Get away from the “tyranny of either/or,” and make your offense and defense flow together. When he’s laughing at my complete inability to block, he keeps reiterating how you have to think about what your opponent can do, all the time, and be ready to block. But you don’t block and pat yourself on the back for it, or stay inert, waiting for your opponent to attack so you can block it - you have to attack, defend, and immediately attack.
5. Samart’s teep is legendary and, while his execution of it in fights has his foot turned sideways, what he works with me on in this session focuses on the protraction and contraction of the feet. He has me do a jab-to-teep, which should be teaching distance. I kind of squash myself, so I’ve kept working on it and that’s when I realized it’s all about the feet. Step together, then the power comes for the teep. Don’t lean back, that takes your power away, but if you don’t use your hip you’ll send yourself flying backwards instead of your opponent.
6. Strategically, Samart says that when you bring out all your weapons but remain relaxed, you put pressure on your opponent and constantly having to deal with your weapons makes him tired; but you stay relaxed, so you don’t get tired. A Muay Femeu’s biggest fear is fatigue, so relaxation is a big deal.

If Samart had a quote, like a motto, for his style it would be this thing he says to me a bunch of times in the last quarter of the video: yeun dee dee, which means “stand well.” He means balance. It’s why he stands like he’s at a bus stop, because the thing that Thai trainers love to say even more than sabai sabai, is thamachat, which means “nature.” They mean your nature, what is natural to you. So Samart is saying, “don’t bring affect to your Muay,” just be natural. Stand how you stand and everything will flow out of it. When he says “stand well,” he means if you’re on balance and relaxed, you can throw anything. Power, speed, timing - all of those things come from balance. So balance is king. Stand well. 

You can train with him at his gym in Bangkok (though I don't believe he will do private sessions often or at all, as he told me this was his first private in 2 years), he does hold once in a while: Samart Payakaroon Gym