#107 Pudpadnoi Worawut - The Basics from the Legend (72 min) (Patreon)

Pudpadnoi Worawut is a Legend among Legends. He's of an older generation than almost all the entries into the Muay Thai Library as he pre-dates the Golden Age, a true Silver Age Legend, so it is a great privilege and opportunity to document him. This is one of the great fighters of a largely disappearing era. He was Fighter of the Year in 1975, retired shortly after and moved to California for 2 years - before there were even any Muay Thai gyms to speak of - then France for 25 years (he, Arjan Net, and Krongsak, all in the Muay Thai Library, have really shaped France's Muay), then Sweden and the Philippines each for 3 years. Pudpadnoi has incredible experience of teaching outside of Thailand and more or less was abroad during the Golden Age of Thailand. But he's the rung pi  or senior to most of the remaining Golden Age Legends and they all look up to him; he is at the top of many "Top 5 All-Time Greatest Yodmuay" offered by the greatest Thai fighters. And he's a million out of 10 in the charming scale. I mention his "charm" several times in the commentary.  This, in Thai sanae, is an essential part of a Muay Thai fighters of bygone eras of the sport. You see it in Samart, Karuhat, Dieselnoi, Sagat, so many of the fighters of the past. Legends of the sport complain that it is missing from the fighters of today. It is a movie star quality, an aura, that expresses the hyper-masculinity of Thailand, that is a big part of what Muay Thai traditionally is. Pudpadnoi expresses this, which is one reason I like to do long form documentation of these men, to let their personalities come through. It's part of their styles.

This session is wonderful in that Pudpadnoi is on the edge of 70 (he will turn 70 at the end of the same month in which it was filmed) and still very sharp in his Muay. The elements he chose to emphasize were distance and balance. These are both absolutely paramount in Thailand's Muay Thai aesthetic and scoring. You can see in the way Pudpadnoi moves, as well, how much these elements played into his game as a Femeu fighter: close enough to strike, far enough to dodge, be a counter and a counter-counter striker.

What to Look Out For:

1) Symmetry and Balance: the first thing is just stepping forward, back and side to side. This seems overly elementary but when you watch Pudpadnoi's movements as a padholder you can see exactly why these basics are so important. Anywhere you step or land you need to be not only on balance, but light on your feet and familiar enough with your position to throw a strike or defend.

2) Distance: throughout this session Pudpadnoi stops to correct my distance on repeated strikes, or often coming off of something. I'm taking distance, thinking he'll move backwards, and it's snuffing my strikes. His emphasis on the distance is one that is often expressed by Krus in the Library who make a point about knowing which weapon to throw at any given time, which is actually based on distance. Pudpadnoi emphasizing the distance itself is really cool because it demonstrates how the response of your opponent to your advances or defenses is what dictates where YOU stand. If they go back, follow. If they don't, don't cram yourself.

3) Timing: this is the second half to what Pudpadnoi really emphasized in his teaching. He doesn't teach a single rule for strikes, like being faster; rather, everything has variation because timing is about the right time to throw it. He shows how to punch and follow with a kick with no gap. But also how to delay the kick, again depending on what your opponent's response is to the first strike.

4) Jangwa: this was probably my favorite lesson, as it feels very purely Pudpadnoi. It Thai, the word jangwa means timing, it also means rhythm. In the first Muay Thai Library session with Wangchannoi, he explains to me that being jangwa 2 is the better option and what that means is being a counter striker. Let your opponent go first, you block or let them land something in order to get them back with something better. Pudpadnoi is an iconic Femeu fighter and when I offered this "be second" lesson he one upped me with jangwa 3, which means not only do you make your opponent go first, you make them think they're the counter striker and then you get them on the end of that. It's thinking several moves in advance, all the time. And  you can totally see it in the way he moves and what he likes to do with his standing in to punish, dodging out to punish, slipping under to punish... he hurts a lot for an "old man," as he calls himself. He's hard as steel.

5) Variation: this lesson is more or less expressed by Tawatchai, who has owned a gym in Sweden for 40 years and where Pudpadnoi went to teach. He's explaining that there's not just 1 teep, 1 kick, 1 punch. You have different angles and executions for different contexts and circumstances. A teep when your opponent is going backwards is not the same as a teep when you're keeping them off of you, when they're coming forward. They're both called a teep, but they're very different. This is important, especially for the Library because the whole point is that there is so much variation in style, skill, technique in Muay Thai - it's all Muay, but people who don't know better teaching one thing as the thing risks losing entire volumes of knowledge. I love how this is taught in this session, both by Tawatchai's explanation on the teep, but then also Pudpadnoi breaking down elbows, kicks, knees, teeps and punches by name.

6) What Bagwork is For: this has been a recent theme in what Legends are teaching me, which is partially that I know how to ask for it now. Bagwork, in Thailand, is really about practicing timing, rhythm, and distance. All the things Pudpadnoi emphasized. The swing of the bag is perfect for this, how you move around it, wait for it, etc.

7) Relax and Tammachat: this is sprinkled all throughout the lesson, but the importance of your roop, composure, posture, tension.... there are so many ways to explain what this is because in English we have so many words to get to this idea, in Thai there are single words to express all of it. Ning is being unmoved, unaffected, relaxed and calm... Stoic. Tammachat means to do something naturally, unstrained, at ease. My clenched, tense body is so, so improved from years ago and yet that's still the first thing that these Yodmuay see and note: relax, ning, tammachat. Do not strain. Do not clench. Do not flinch or show affect. It's hard to look easy, but it's what makes Yodmuay.

Pudpadnoi's profile page in the 123 book (above)

Pudpadnoi Picks His Top 5 All Time Greatest Muay Thai Fighters:

watch him pick his Top 5 here 

Kevin's Stills from the Session - follow Kevin's photography journal on Instagram 

15 Fighters of the Year in the Library so far

Pudpadnoi makes the 15th Fighter of the Year we've been able to document so far in the Muay Thai Library, covering the span of nearly half a century of the sport of Muay Thai in Thailand. Check out others in the Library

Yodwicha  (2012): #10 The Clinch Techniques of Yodwicha - Session 2 (34 min) watch it here and #4 Yodwicha - Clinch and Muay Khao (Knee) Specialist (35 min) - watch it here and

Singdam  (2002):  #22 Singdam Kiatmoo9 - Making the Basics Beautiful (71 min) watch it here

Namsaknoi (1996):  #65 Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn - Sharking The Angles (67 min) watch it here  and  #73  Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn 2 - Overcoming Distance (61 min) watch it here

Wangchannoi (1993):  #93 Wangchannoi Palangchai - Deadly Step Counter Fighting (70 min) - watch it here  and #95 Wangchannoi Sor. Palangchai #2 - The Secret Powers of a Cool Heart (77 min) watch it here

Jaroensap (1992): #91 Jaroensap Kiatbanchong - Silky Power (63 min) watch it here

Samson (1991):  #41  Samson Isaan - The Art of Dern Fighting (64 min) watch it here  and   Samson Isaan 2 - Muay Khao & Western Boxing Excellence (59 min) watch it here

Kaensak (1989, 1990):  #24 Kaensak Sor. Ploenjit - Explosive Defense (55 min) watch it here

Samart (1981, 1983, 1988):  #34 Samart Payakaroon - Balance, Balance, Balance! (81 min) watch it here

Langsuan (1987):  #45 Langsuan Panyutapum - Monster Muay Khao Training (66 min) watch it here

Chamuakphet (1985):  #49 Chamuakpet Hapalang - Devastating Knee in Combination (66 min) watch it here  #81  Chamuakpet Hapalang 2 - Muay Khao Internal Attacks (65 min) watch it here

Kongtoranee (1978, 1984):  #37 Kongtoranee Payakaroon - Power In The Hands (89 min) watch it here

Dieselnoi (1982):  #48 Dieselnoi Chor. Thanasukarn - Jam Session (80 min) watch it here  AND  #30 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 2 - Muay Khao Craft  (42 min) watch it here  AND  #3 Dieselnoi  Chor Thanasukarn  - The King of Knees (54 min) - watch it here #76 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 4 - How to Fight Tall (69 min) watch it here

Padejseuk (1979): Padejseuk Pitsanurachan - Old School Greatness (67 min) watch it here

Pudpadnoi (1975) - Pudpadnoi Worawut - The Basics from the Legend (72 min) watch it here 

Sirimongkol (1972):  #54 The Late Sirimongkol and Lertrit Master General Tunwakom (81 min) watch it here

Other Sessions Mentioned in this Voiceover:

To take a deeper dive into the principles and references in this Pudpadnoi session, go to the table of contents of the Library here and watch the sessions of: 

Padejseuk

Dieselnoi

Wangchannoi

Charnchai

Samart

Kongtoranee

You can scroll through, or do a keyword search for their names.

The Basics - several sessions in the Muay Thai Library concentrate on the basics, check out all those sessions on The Basics tag at the bottom of this article