#111 The Karuhat Rosetta Stone 7 - The Secrets of the Matador (83 min) (Patreon)

a few technical viewing issues on the app caused us to republish the Karuhat post here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/57888361

I've known Karuhat for a number of years now and worked with him throughout, filming for the Library along the way. But it's actually been a few years since his last Muay Thai Library entry and I've come to understand and digest what he's taught me a great deal in that intervening time. So this entry acts as something of  a "key" to understanding the previous sessions. We really get down into some of the most indefinable aspects of Karuhat's legendary style.  If you don't know him, there is nobody who fought like him. Karuhat is not a set of techniques that can be collected and assembled like an Ikea bookcase. Demos do not do him justice. He's the language in which the instructions are written. In truth, he's absolutely unique, even though the stikes he's actually using are not particular to him, the movement and execution absolutely are. He's a conspiracy of movement, masquerading as a man. The secrets of his style are his ability to read and anticipate weight shift, to isolate holes and openings natural to any position he reads, and his Matrix-like ability to delay and warp the timing of his attacks. It is a blessing that we've been able to film and document so much of his style, because it is that subtle, that brilliant. You don't have to be a femeu fighter either to benefit from how he sees Muay Thai. I'm not a femeu fighter and I've loved his Muay forever, and the things he teachings are beyond style. They are about learning to SEE, and learning how you are seen. 

If you don't know Karuhat watch this Muay Thai Scholar highlight edit and you'll immediate understand how special he was as a fighter (above).

In the Session

In this session a lot of what he was teaching me in the Karuhat Intensive is more clear to me; how to read, how to change your intention mid-movement. How to force your opponent into a familiar position and then take advantage of it.

What to Look Out For:

1) Balance of Weight, Even When Shifting: Karuhat sways forward and back, but his weight is never over extended in any direction. He floats forward or back, but he's always able to reverse direction because he's flexible like a reed. A lot of this has to do with his head never going to far over his center line and great flex in his knees, but he leads every movement with his chest.

2) No Time to Think: one thing that Chatchai emphasizes any time he's talking about how great Karuhat is, is that Karuhat sparred endlessly. He learned to read and see and respond faster than most have time to even realize what they themselves are doing. You practice starting a movement, reading the response and switching up so thoroughly that you never even think about what the redirect is.

3) Dangers of a Checked Kick: having one knee in the air is a favorite position for many fighters and has great effectiveness. Dieselnoi bounces his front leg. Yodwicha covers distance with a bouncing front leg.  Hippy and Samart could snuff practically anyone with just their front knee. Karuhat loves exploiting this position because, at the end of the day, the opponent is on one leg. Nearly everything covered in this session is how to take advantage of the opponent being defensive.

4) Dangers of Tension: the turning of the guard, the trip to the side of the knee, the checked kick, the parry to the parry... everything that puts you in danger is tension, everything Karuhat uses to evade it is relaxed and "ning."

5) Ning: this is the Thai word for unaffected, unmoved, unreactive, unbothered, quiet, calm, etc. It's what we might call Stoic. Karuhat is so f***ing hard to read because all his movements are ning. He doesn't tense before a strike, he doesn't flinch. His fluidity of movement makes it very difficult to discern what is a dangerous movement and what isn't. What's offensive and what isn't. 

6) Greatest Hits:  I ask Karuhat about 3 of his most signature moves, one from a fight against Kaensak (a step to hook), one against Lamnammon (the tatmala upward elbow), and his floating kick. 

A Companion Piece

Read Kevin's photo essay on this session, and on Karuhat himself here. This is a companion piece to this Library session.

read his analysis here 

Karuhat's entry in the 123 Book:

look at the 123 Book here 

All the Karuhat Muay Thai Library Sessions are here:

Bonus Session 1:  Karuhat Sor. Supawan | Advanced Switching Footwork | 60 min  - watch it here 

This is a beautiful session in which Karuhat expands on his switching  style, having moved me from standard to southpaw in a previous session.

#7 Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Be Like Sand (62 min) watch it here

2x Golden Age Lumpinee Champion (112 lb and 122 lbs), Karuhat is  considered elite among the elites. Mixing an explosive style with  constant off-balances, angling, and melting aways, he was nicknamed the  Ultimate Wizard. I can only describe the things he's teaching here as:  Be like sand. This is very subtle, advanced stuff, far above combo  techniques or specific defenses. It may take a few viewings to absorb  what he is teaching. Everytime I watch this I learn something new.

#11 Karuhat Sor. Supawan Session 2 - Float and Shock (82 min) watch it here

In this session one of the greatest fighters who ever lived really digs  into what must lie beneath techniques, a general state of relaxation  and rhythm, the thing that made him one of the most dynamic fighters  Lumpinee has ever seen.

#20 Karuhat Sor Supawan - Switching To Southpaw (144 min) watch it here

2x Lumpinee Champion Karuhat Sor. Supawan in this epic video posts  installs a limited Southpaw core which leads to developing high level  ideas found in his switching style: tracking and attacking the open  side, watching for and dictating weight transfer. This is the blueprint  of a legend's acclaimed fighting style.

#27 Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Tension & Kicking Dynamics (104 min) watch it here

Karuhat, a fighter with perhaps the slickest style of any Golden Age  great, shows the importance of tension, and patiently goes through  correcting the kick, making it quicker and much harder to read.

#50 Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Serpentine Knees & Flow  (62 min) watch it here

The legendary Karuhat teaches his winding, advancing style, a  culmination of many, many hours of our training together. You get a  glimpse into his advanced movements, and his philosophy on reading  opponents.

Bonus Session 7: Karuhat Sor. Supawan - Forward Check | 39 min - watch it here 

In this session Karuhat teaches his beautiful and unique Forward Check,  and the system of attacks that flow out of it in his fighting style.   You can read my detailed post in the Forward Check here.  This check, aggressively from Southpaw, versus Orthodox fighters eats  up space closes distance, effectively deal with one of the primary  weaknesses of Southpaw attack.

That makes 40 hours of Karuhat instruction available between both the  Muay Thai Library and the Sylvie Study project. Insane. You can find the  promocodes for the Karuhat Intensive down below:

The Karuhat Intensive

The Karuhat Intensive was it's own project. It was made possible by  Patreon support, but it is not part of the Muay Thai Library. Instead,  because we wanted to find a way to raise money in direct support of  legends themselves we created the Sylvie Study On Demand Page on Vimeo.  100% of the earned profits go to the legends in the project. The 30+ hours  of commentary work with Karuhat is all there, it's the most extensive documentation of a Golden Age legend ever. You can purchase or rent  access to individual videos, or you can subscribe to the entire series  by the month, and have access to all of them. It's kind of incredible.  Karuhat had one of the most subtle and almost undefineable styles as a  fighter, and the entire style philosophy and its techniques are laid out  in these videos. Not only that, there are 7 hours of Yodkhunpon The Elbow Hunter  also included in the same series.  As a patron you get a discount on  these series videos (see at bottom here). We also put up an entire  website as home to more intensive projects and Muay Thai study, you can  see that here: Sylvie Study.

Patreon Promocodes:

As a patron, depending on your tier you can be eligible for discounts on these purchases. $5 patrons get 15% (link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17837199 ) of these purchases, and $15 patrons get 50% (link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17837342 ) of of these purchases. The intensive series is supported by patrons.