Gulapkao Nor. Nonthachai - Old School Forms & Rhythms (53 min) (Patreon)

Gulapkao (The White Rose) was 135 lb Rajadamnern Stadium Champion in the early Golden Age. He showed me a photo on his phone standing in the ring after winning (or defending) the belt, Wichannoi Pontawee standing next to him in the ring. "I was more nervous about my hero standing there with me than I was to have the belt," he said, laughing. Gulapkao, whose name means "White Rose," is the manager of the Jitmuangnon Gym in Nonthaburi, just outside of Bangkok. The gym is very well known, has some incredibly recognizable talent, is huge in terms of the number of active fighters it has in its stable, and also is a powerful promoter. Managing this gym is a big deal, it's a high position. For me though, my purposes, I wanted to archive Gulapkaw's Muay, something outside of his normal routine now-days, as he's not a Kru at the gym, even if he does advice and order training for their fighters. It turns out, he is an awesome teacher and his Muay Thai is crisp, powerful, and truly beautiful (check out the slow motion in the end of the session to really appreciate it).

He showed me so much of his muay, and it was rewarding to have documented it for everyone, how beautiful it was. This is what the Muay Thai Library is about, capturing the fighting styles of these fighters before it becomes lost to Time. He also pulled in Kru Din as an assistant, to hold pads for me adn do a bit of playful sparring as a stand-in while Gulapkaw instructed and corrected. So you get a bit of Kru Din's style as well.

What To Look Out For:

1) Back Foot Balance: Gulapkaw isn't a back-footed fighter, so to speak, but he stands his ground by keeping his weight on the back foot maybe 60% of the time, bouncing his front foot to eat space, fake, counter, block, etc. It's quite a bit like Dieselnoi, actually. But it's not so much that he's "back footed" but that he plants that standing foot in such a way that he can eat the space and defend the space in front of him.

2) Sapok!: this is the Thai word for hips, so Gulapkaw will say this a lot throughout. Power comes from the hips, control comes from the hips, balance comes from the hips. It's not the "turn over the hip" command you hear repeated in the West all the time (which isn't "wrong" but it's not complete), but rather the flexibility and thrusting, rotation, and movement of the hips is what allows for speed and power.

3) Visualization: there's an emphasis on really seeing an opponent in your mind while you shadowbox, so you use rhythm and timing (jang wa) to find the right opening for a punch, to block and counter. It can't be meaningless or you're just wasting your time.

4) That Knee: both Karuhat and I were completely blown away by Gulapkaw's knees. I was just shocked at how scary and powerful it was against Kru Din, who is shorter than I am, (Gulapkaw said, "don't worry, I'm not using any power." Holy sh**), but Karuhat actually knows Gulapkaw personally and as a fighter, and even he had a "what the f***?!" response to seeing it in full swing. We work on this on the bag a bit, so you can see the difference in how he does it. It's a bit like Dieselnoi's knees in that he actually rotates the standing foot, but his focus is on his hips. It's all in the hips.

5) Juggling with Teeps: Gulapkaw says he has his fighters teep the bag with 50 teeps, balancing and not really bringing the teeping leg down unless absolutely necessary. It builds strength, accuracy, but mainly it's about balance and flexibility of that standing leg.

see who he picked as his Top 5 all time greatest fighters 

Gulapkao with his 135 lb Rajadamnern belt, here posing with the legend Wichannoi. He said he was shaking in this photo because he was so nervous, as Wichannoi was his idol.

Kevin's Edited Stills and Photographs from the day:

for my photographs from the session see Kevin's Training with The White Rose album 

If you enjoyed this session, these other Library sessions on similar themes may also be great for you!

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