Kru Mou Ban Muay Thai - The Art of Counters (73 min) (Patreon)

Kevin and I rolled slowly down ever-narrowing streets, looking for Kru Mou's house, where he teaches Muay Thai to his students. We got to a bend that we weren't entirely sure we could fit down in the rental car, so I got out and walked, following the little blue dot on my GPS as it crawled toward the destination we had pinned on the map. Sometimes you'll hear the whack whack of pads being kicked, letting you know where a gym is. But my best guess in this case was just a large, wide gate. Kru Mou emerged and smiled at me. He's tall and has a very sweet face, and I had no idea what he looked like so really it was just this kind of Jedi, "you shall know one another by the Force," energy that he emits. He invited me in and helped us park.

His gym is just a small area on the side of his home. He had some other students sitting together and half-watching me and half-watching their phones. Young men, off from school, sharing in the kind of sweet demeanor that Kru Mou emits. As I started warming up, his father made his way over slowly, relying heavily on his cane, to see what I was about. Kru Mou's father taught him everything and, while all Thais show great reverence for their fathers, Kru Mou idolizes his in a beautiful way.  After our session I asked for a photo together and he first took down this huge, framed photo of his father as a younger man from the wall and held it between us - totally like how you might see Thais do this with a portrait of the King, Rama IV.

Kru Mou is one of these fascinating teachers who have been teachers for a long time, because they couldn't fight. Kru San, also in the Library, is another like this although much younger and so still building his experience as a teacher. Kru Mou was a fighter but didn't have a great number of bouts before he was in a bad accident that broke his orbital bone (among other injuries) and he was not able to continue competition. And so he became a teacher; a very, very good teacher with vast stores of technique, skill, and ability to present and develop it in others. I really, really enjoyed this session. His style is infused with Boran elements, which makes them performative in some ways but absolutely employable in ring Muay Thai. The elements I recognized come from the school of thought that your defense should hurt your opponent's offense, and the counter should flow out of that. And while the structure of Kru Mou's session (with me, which might be unique in that he was not only teaching me in front of a camera and so therefore kind of presenting an index of technique, but also I learned the moves with some comfort fairly quickly and so he was willing to move on to another quite steadily) was introducing a series of possible blocks and counters, the important element in having a handful of options is that you choose them out of the rhythm, timing and flow of how you and your opponent match up. It's not an "if A, then B" kind of thing, but very much like a conversation.

Some things to look out for:

1) Upper Body Protection: the first few things Kru Mou runs me through are just punches. He's checking to make sure my balance is good, that I move in a way to deliver power from the body and not just the arms, but most importantly that I'm always protected while the weapons are coming out. Meaning, the jaw is tucked behind the shoulder as you punch - always.

2) Teep Slip: there's an old this-defeats-that rundown of Muay Thai Styles, which concludes that all styles are defeated by teeps. Kru Mou laughs when he says that's only true if you don't know how to avoid being teeped. He shows two options, the first of which is just twisting your torso to let the teep slip right past you. This is especially slick if you fight shirtless (or at least bare midriff) and have oil and Vaseline to help that slipping. It's a simple techniqe, but timing is the crux of it. The other option is to parry, or "bat" the teep as  you take a small step to the side and then counter immediately. Kill the teeper.

3) Caught Kick Counters: Kru Mou shows not only what to do if you catch a kick, but also what to do if your kick is caught. The fight is over who makes the first move; once the leg is captured, the counter has to be immediate or the opponent can pull you in and attack. Likewise, if you are caught, you'd better make the move or you've got waaay more options working against you than for you. My favorite is the knee (because of reasons), but the side elbow is also very, very cool.

4) Don't Tell Anyone Clinch Secret: Kru Mou tells me he's going to teach me something as a secret, which is hilarious because it's being recorded. But it's actually a wonderful little secret and I have not been taught this by anyone before. The neck can be very strong - my neck is very strong - but with enough pressure and pull, it's coming down. Especially as you start to get tired. Anyone who has had grueling clinch sessions knows that once it starts to get even a little sore, it doesn't matter how strong you are, your head is coming down. It's like if you burn out your arms; you just lose your strength. His secret is to slip the shoulder forward so that your head is a little bit sideways. Cannot be pulled down like that. It's a little cheat of angle, using anatomy to hack the strength problem. Very clever, very cool.

5) Switching Stance: Kru Mou explains that having "2 guards," makes you much harder to fight. If you are only Orthodox or only Southpaw (1 guard), you're more predictable. He greatly encourages ambidextrous fighting and demonstrates the flexibility of movement and total symmetry in his abilities. It's theoretical more than "taught," but this kind of thing is mostly theoretical anyway. Then you just train like hell.

6) Kick-to-Punch: I've been taught the kick-to-punch by a few others, namely Kaensak Sor Ploenjit (also in the Library). It's like a Superman, but you actually make contact with the kick instead of just faking it. The kick is at a lower power but the punch should be as hard as you can get it from your balance. So it's important to control your arms, in order to set the punch up from the torque of the kick. The reason this one is interesting to me, in how Kru Mou teaches it, is how he goes over and demonstrates it on the bag, basically beating the crap out of it while standing on one leg - but he can throw the kick from hanging the leg in the air, too. It's a balance technique, hidden within a "combination" technique.

7) Elbows in Clinch: Kru Mou teaches when you can slip an elbow in during a clinch scramble. In Thai you say lai kaen, which means shoulders and arms, but it is a command to control the arms of your opponent. Not just wrenching the neck all the time, but actually controlling, turning, frustrating and manipulating your opponent via the arms. If you don't know how to do this, you get elbowed. If you don't know how to do this, you can't elbow. Kru Mou shows this tiny window of opportunity (tiny because it's a brief and exact moment, but it's actually a frequent moment, so your opportunity is quite good) as an opponent is swimming to the inside that you can throw an elbow. He says the main thing is to practice it a lot to learn the timing. 

Session Stills

Stills from the session, you can follow Kevin's Muay Thai Photography on Instagram @kevinvonduuglasittu 

You can train with Kru Mou at his gym Kru Mou Ban Muay Thai, or you can often find him at Attachai's gym as well.

Give a Thank You

TIP BOX: if you are inspired by what you see and want to show added appreciation you can send gratuity directly to Kru Mou. Every time I send these extra donations and thank yous the Krus are really touched. Just message $5 or more via PayPal to the address sylvie@8limbs.us, please in the "add a note" section specify "for Kru Mou". I will transfer the funds, and cover any extra fees.

KRU FUND: additionally, now 10% of all net Patreon pledges go into my Kru Fund, and is directed back to the Krus and exfighters who have helped make this documentary Library possible: http://8limbs.us/muay-thai-thailand/starting-the-kru-fund

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