#118 Phettho Sitjaopho - Muay Femeu Excellence (70 min) (Patreon)

Alright y'all. Many of you have asked for either of the Sitjaopho twins to be added to the Muay Thai Library and here we have Kru F, Phettho.

He has to be one of the most-loved Krus in all of Thailand, by the English-speaking students who pass through and often return to the Sitjaopho gym in Hua Hin. Meeting him and training with him for this session, I totally get it. He's very chill, charismatic, and his technique is very legible and clean. What I like, personally, about his style and his teaching style to match, is that he's not overly conceptual about technique. Rather, anything he does or makes a correction towards, he has a very clear explanation for why he prefers it that way but also has an open mind to the fact that Muay Thai is all about feeling, so what feels good to him just flows and he's aware that a different approach might be more smooth and beautiful for someone else. He emphasizes defense, which is a mark of a very effective fighter, but he keeps it simple so that you're able to employ what he's showing you straight away. The hard work is in repeating it until it's thammachat or "natural."

What to Look Out For:

1) Shadowboxing: it's clear that Kru F used shadowboxing in his own development, and it's clear he has an articulate method for using it in shaping his students. Changing speed and power, range, defense and feeling your way through everything is his emphasis here. He says shadowboxing is the place to work on "repeating" a technique, which I took to mean kind of shaving off excess movement, getting better control of speed and power, and all together calibrating the consistency of that strike. It's important not to forget to shadow blocks and defense as well.

2) Bagwork: much like Wangchannoi, Kru F uses the bag to practice timing and patience/ruup in between strikes. "Every strike should be power and speed," he says, which means you're floating, watching, feeling your weight and body to find the right moment to throw the strike and then return to the floating, balanced grace of a fighting fish. He says that if your strikes are already powerful but slow, repetition is the way to build speed and for that a padman is better than the bag because the pads move more naturally.

3) No Glove Sparring: we didn't do this in the session but I think it's an interesting approach so I'm going to mention it here. Kru F said that in his experience training westerners, we rely a great deal on our punching and don't ever really feel comfortable with closing distance with kicks first or landing higher scoring strikes (punches don't score very well in Thailand). So he has his student spar without any gloves on, more or less creating a situation where kicks have to be emphasized.

4) Skip Back on Lead Leg: for a lead leg kick or knee, Kru F uses a skip step. You don't switch perfectly in place so that you aren't gaining any ground, but you have control over how deep the step is with this approach. I could feel when I was trying to implement it for the knee that it worked great when I was already at kneeing distance, but if I tried to throw the knee from farther away I just intuitively went for a step knee. He says the step for a knee or kick is too slow and the opponent will see it (those who prefer the step knee say the exact same for why they prefer the step over the skip, so do with that what you will). Both Kru F and Karuhat rely very heavily on a lead-leg kick, which against a fellow Orthodox fighter is the highest scoring point in Muay Thai. So it makes sense to have a skip step so there's power in it, and use a jab or other distraction to cover for the skip and hide your weight transfer.

5) In our sparring you'll see how a counter fighter waits, spoils, blocks or frustrates and then scores. He's very efficient at it and  just does it on feeling, so sometimes when I ask him how to do what he just did, I have to tell him what he just did because he's not aware or it. That's beautiful. He turns a kick into a block, a block into a trip, a melt away into a turn. Just watch his feet and his overall ruup, it's so instructive.

6) Clinch: Femeu fighters tend to be "anti-clinchers" and Kru F is no different. He is very disciplined in grabbing for inside position immediately, so he doesn't have to work hard to get a dominant position. But what really struck me about his anti-clinching is how still he gets. His posture stays more or less the same, really upright and controlled, so that any strike he throws is the biggest movement he makes and it's really emphasized and visual, legible. The way he postures (and being bigger than me) it makes all my squirming and twisting for better position look very busy and desperate and that swallows my strikes rather than letting them stand out the way his do. He also teaches a great turn that you use as someone is charging you, like a true Matador.

Some of Kevin's photographic stills from the session:

Sessions Referenced in my commentary, worth digging into

#93 Wangchannoi Palangchai - Deadly Step Counter Fighting (70 min) 

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

#27 Karuhat Sor. Supawan 4 - Tension & Kicking Dynamics (104 min) 

If you enjoyed this session, these Muay Femeu sessions also might interest you:

#40 Gen Hongthonglek - Muay Femeu Tactics & Mindset (70 min) watch it here

The Muay Femeu (artful fighting) style is more than just a set of techniques, it's also a mindset and strategy of how to score, and how to score big. The warfare is not just in terms of damage, but of psychology, displaying dominance through skill and timing. Gen in this hour outlines how he likes to fight, and how he pulls off the biggest scores at the right time.

#101 Yodpitak Chor Nateetong 2 - Femeu Knees & the Art of Spacing (80 min) watch it here

Kru Tak is one of the most femeu instructors in the Muay Thai Library. He teaches spacing and the use of knees in a more technical way. He has a wicked, slick style and shows how one can fight up at close range in a technical, clever way, negating power in the opponent.

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

The 1992 Fighter of the Year Jaroensap had an elegant Muay Thai that was full of hidden power. He shares his unique teeping style, how he employed parries and switches and elbows to control the space in an elite Muay Femeu fighter. see a clip on our Instagram

#87  Luktum Sityodtong 2 - Stepouts, Fakes & Teeps (74 min) watch it here

The Femeu fighting style is one of the most difficult to learn because it requires so much intuition and control over space. Sometimes it feels like it works by magic. But it doesn't. It's full of techniques and footwork, many of which Luktum teaches in this session. Learn how he artfully manages his opponent through an assortment of fakes, stepouts and teeps.

#47 Silapathai Jockygym - Master of Teep Distance (64 min) watch it here

One of the great femeu fighters of the Golden Age unlocks the secret of his teep oriented dominance which made him one of the most difficult fighters to face in his day. The lessons here are precious as he unfolds the details of how to use the teep and tempo to always put the fight where you want it.