Chamuakpet Hapalang 2 - Muay Khao Internal Attacks (65 min) (Patreon)

This is the 2nd Library session with Chamuakpet, watch the first session here. 

Chamuakpet Hapalang is a recurring name on the "Top 5" All-Time Best Yodmuay, according to the great fighters of Thailand. He is as good a fighter as there ever was. He's complimented for being well-rounded, using all weapons and distances, but as well as being an incredible Muay Khao fighter. Legends praise his ability to fight and defeat bigger opponents, and then also younger opponents when he was already at an age when most top fighters retire, and for fighting for so long. He won his first Lumpinee title against none other than Samart Payakaroon, when the two were just over 100 lbs, in fact he took Lumpinee belts against BOTH Payakaroon brothers, beating 2x time Fighter of the Year Kongtoranne. All told Chamuakpet is one of the most decorated fighters of all time, with 9 (nine!) titles between both Lumpinee and Rajadamnern, and the 1985 Fighter of the Year. It's incredible.

1980 - Lumpinee 102 lbs vs Samart Payakaroon

1980 - Rajadamnern 104 lbs vs Khopit Chuwattana

1981 - Lumpinee 108 lbs vs Narak Sipkraysi

1982 - Lumpinee 112 lbs vs Kongtoranee Payakaroon

1983 - Lumpinee 118 lbs vs Sonsean Sitnoenpayoon

1985 - Fighter of the Year

1989 - Rajadamnern 122 lbs vs Wanpichit Kaennorasaen

1990 - Rajadamnern 126 lbs vs Kiatniwat Jack

1994 - Rajadamnern 122 lbs vs Paydaeng Leusakyim

1994 - Rajadamnern 126 lbs vs Chaydet Kietkangsing

He's a Southpaw with incredible relentlessness, but very high ring IQ as well. You can see him making adjustments in his own style against the strengths of whatever top fighter he was facing, adapting himself all the time. This is, according to many of the Legends I've talked to, the mark of a true and great fighter. This ability to "solve" your opponent in the ring. What I noticed about him, in standing in front of him and learning technique from him, is that his balance is unbelievable and he keeps his center line so perfectly aligned that he seems almost invisible. He doesn't telegraph anything. And even as a shorter fighter (I'm 5'1" and he isn't much taller than I am, but faced bigger and taller opponents all the time) the height he gets on his strikes is just magical. His nickname was "Mr. Computer Knee," and the clean, deliberate, and seemingly endless array of strikes he employs make that nickname very clear. Consider this as well, Dieselnoi was one of his trainers while Dieselnoi could find nobody to fighter. Dieselnoi told me that Chamuakpet used to toss him around in the clinch, despite being smaller.

What to Look Out For:

1) Insisting on Your Distance: a few of the things that Chamuakpet emphasizes in this session boil down to insisting on your own distance. As a knee fighter, he wants his opponent no farther than his jab, and if they're close enough for punches he's got elbows for that. But he uses a teep or a long guard to gauge and then reinforce that distance all the time.

2) Inside Beats Outside: back in the Golden Age, punchers vs knee fighters was the hot ticket. It made for very exciting, close range and clashing engagements. So Chamuakpet shows how to use elbows against punchers, as well as his signature knees to the Solar Plexus. But the elbows are a thing of beauty because he makes this point about how, at close range, a puncher will get wide. So you get narrow. Inside beats outside. Guard on one side and elbow the open side, in combination as well. Tight, close, but loose shoulders.

3) Knees to the Solar Plexus: Chamuakpet's knees are amazing. He throws them at very close distance, basically clinch range, but right up the center. It's an uppercut, but with his knee. They come up out of nowhere, he doesn't have to make space for them. and they hit the chin or the Solar Plexus and there's just f*ck all you can do about it.

4) Raising Up on the Standing Foot: you'll see this with Karuhat's floating kick as well, but there's this beautiful thing from the Golden Age where the most devastating techniques are balanced on a pointed foot. You don't rotate the standing foot, you just float up on it. Really watch the segments where he's showing this. It's subtle between totally right and not quite right, but when you get it right it makes a huge difference in balance and this "invisibility" quality I keep talking about.

5) Invisibility: the way that Chamuakpet keeps his center line so still, so unbending, never going outside his lines, he truly feels invisible in front of you. You can't even see when his weight is coming forward (something Karuhat looks for in order to time his strikes, and he too uses this float on the ball of the foot, so maybe it's a shared secret). A lot of Chamuakpet's strikes come right up the center and are so hard to see and even harder to block, but because he stays so still in the center and just rotates around that center line, when he strikes from around or at an angle, you never see any wind up.

6) Every Sport Comes From the Hips: there's a flick and rotation in Chamuakpet's hips on all his strikes that he reiterates a few times. Watch those parts closely. It's the same in Golf, Baseball, Muay Thai.

7) Grips, Twists, Pulls, Pushes and Balance for Clinch: keeping your opponent off-balance means they can't land their strikes, can't throw their strikes, or can't defend your strikes.

8) Short, Stabbing Teeps: Chamuakpet likes to teep while coming forward (me too!) and prefers a very short, stabbing teep, rather than a longer one that can be parried. Same as Dieselnoi, same as Yodkhunpon.

9) Eye Contact: this one is a bit of a bonus, because it's something I didn't expect from Chamuakpet and I actually only got out of him because he spent 3 days at my gym and warmed up to me a bit. He's a very sweet man, but very shy. You can actually see in this session how he starts to enjoy himself more and more, smiling and talking more. Near the end, he tells me that eye contact is important because eyes don't lie. An opponent can "look" unmoved by your strike, but their eyes will tell you. You'll know they're hurt. You'll know if they're scared or tired. 

If you enjoyed this session you may like these Muay Khao Library sessions as well:

#77  Kru Diesel F.A. Group - The Art of Knees (84 min) watch it here 

Perhaps no single kru has had more success teaching the Muay Khao style than Kru Diesel. From Fighter of the Year Yodwicha, to the most decorated fighter Petchboonchu, his students disabled the elite Muay Femeu tacticians with ease. In this special session you learn the secrets of his knees and clinch, in real time breakdowns and elucidation.

#76 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 4 - How to Fight Tall (69 min) watch it here 

There several sessions with the King of Knees in the Muay Thai Library, this is the fourth, but this is the first one where he gets the chance to teach a tall, long fighter like he was. If you are a tall fighter this is the session you don't want to miss. He is arguably the GOAT, an in this session he unfolds his entire fighting system of knee fighting pressure and distance control.

#74 Samson Isaan 2 - Muay Khao & Western Boxing Excellence (59 min) watch it here 

In 1991 there was no fighter more of a force than Samson Isaan, who took Fighter of the Year then. His relentless style combining Muay Maat punching aggression with Knee Fighting pressure and clinch made him a wrecking ball. In this session discover what made this little fighter so impossible to handle.

#66 Kru Gai Petchrungruang - Proper Dern and the Impossible Trip (63 min) watch it here 

One of the great Muay Khao padmen of Thailand, Kru Gai teaches the proper, unabated but unhurried Dern (walking) attack of Muay Khao, and don't miss his incredible trip that feels almost impossible to defend. Not easy to master, but if you do it could make you unstoppable.

#56 Tanadet Tor. Pran49 - Mastering Long Clinch (63 min) watch it here 

This is one of the most interesting and, if mastered, dominant clinch positions one can use, and the entire session is devoted to it. I filmed with young Long Clinch master Tanadet, and discover all the small refinements he created that turned what for many fighters is just a transitional position, into an entire system of attack. This is a rare session, capturing a little known and used clinch system.

#49 Chamuakpet Hapalang - Devastating Knee in Combination  (66 min) watch it here 

The most decorated fighter of the Golden Age with 4 Lumpinee Belts and 5 Rajadamnern Belts, and the Fighter of the Year award (1985), Chamuakpet, a gym-mate of Dieselnoi, teaches his beautiful and devastating Southpaw knee to the open side, in combination. His fast, powerful knee was practically unstoppable and in this session you can see why. 

NOTE: If you got a lot out of this session and would like to send extra appreciation to Chamuakpet you can send $5 or more to my PayPal and I'll send it over to him, covering all fees myself. In fact I'll double any donation of this kind up to 3,000 baht a month. When receiving these gestures of appreciation krus and legends are always thankful. 

Just send your donation to the PayPal address "sylvie@8limbs.us" with a note saying who it is for. 

In addition to this 10% net of all pledges are distributed among the krus and legends in the Library, each year. 

Stills from the Session, edited by Kevin

for an aesthetic look at the session, and isolating important moments. You can purchase prints of Kevin's photography on muaynoir.com (50% of the profits go to the subjects photographed, 50% for producing free prints for ex-fighters), or follow him on Instagram.