#127 Chaiyai Sit Karuat - Deep Pivots & Spacing (64 min) (Patreon)

Chaiyai is a Golden Age champion who at the time was also student of the legend Karuhat when Karuhat was fighting out of the Sor. Supawan. Chaiyai fought under Karuhat's name, "Sit Karuhat" (student of Karuhat). His training with Karuhat you can absolutely see in his femeu style. He has a twin brother named Chailek who also fought under Karuhat, but Chaiyai is the more famous and successful of the two, having held the 115 lb Lumpinee belt. We drove up into Surin to film with him and though he had not trained for some time once we got him moving he was absolutely beautiful to witness. His detailed corrections are really helpful, regardless of one's style. In this session you also get to see the comradery of men that make up a class of Old School Muay Thai, with Cherry and Karuhat and others watching from the rope, filming in a traditional kaimuay out in Surin Isaan. As the session slowly evolves, and Chaiyai's muay starts to come forward, we capture the legacy of otherwise what would be forgotten muay. 

What To Look Out For: 

1) Distance: Chaiyai makes a point about keeping this distance all the time that involves kind of wading backwards to draw the opponent in, but what I felt from it is that he's always keeping his opponent right on the end of his strikes. Basically, they're juggled on the end of his limbs unless they try to take a leap into your inner space and then he just pivots off and nails them with a strike anyway.

2) Pacing: Chaiyai's pace is beautiful. In his fights you'll see him kind of hanging at a distance - not out of range, but just floating - but in training he demonstrates how his jang wah works, which is a steady but not monotonous pace that keeps interrupting the opponent's rhythms.

3) The Pivot Out: this is amazing and just hear me out because I'm gonna geek out. Stepping off to the side off of strikes is a good idea and it's a beautiful way to defend as you're most vulnerable after a strike. But damnit... the way Chaiyai does it is an art to itself and I can't stop thinking about it. He fully just bamfs out of his opponent's forward step, all casual like, and reappears in their blind spot. It makes someone who isn't even charging forward look like a bull. It's in how he cuts his angle, where his foot lands and the way he misdirects with a slap of the guard or behind the neck. 

4) The Kick Out: This is very much something that Karuhat has taught me and Chaiyai does it more or less with the same timing that Karuhat does, but it feels different in how he actually organizes it with his other movements. Great for facing Muay Mat.

5) When to Throw Power: I liked this a lot. He never actually verbalized this, but it was very clearly exemplified in how he was moving around the ring and placing himself on the ropes or in the corners. Like Dieselnoi, you move your opponent out of the center of the ring, into the ropes and then that's when you slam a body shot or leg kick or whatever.  It's so different from the Western "ring control" that basically focuses on the center of the ring.

6) The Actual Setting: This isn't something Chaiyai was teaching, it's just being able to see, witness, and appreciate what these events and experiences are like when we go out to film with these Golden Age fighters. You get to really see a kaimuay here, you get to see social interaction and set ups, the way the ring becomes the stage upon which dynamics are playing out and are at once the most important thing and yet the least important thing at the same time. It's really a beautiful illustration of Muay Thai community and life.

Other Sessions Referenced for further study:

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

#125 Therdkiat Sittepitak - Aggressive Femeu (61 min) watch it here

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

#19 Attachai Fairtex - Timing and IQ (72 min) watch it here

#62 Rambaa Somdet 2 - His Stinging Attack (83 min) watch it here

Remember you can browse the entire Muay Thai Library here 

coming next in the Muay Thai Library - these three are absolutely unique legends of the sport

Champions Samingnoom, one of the the great early Golden Age femeu legends and Thai Olympic boxer; Cherry the Muay Khao locking legend of the Golden Age; and Fighter of the Year Panomtuanlek, completing our Hapalang Gym FOTY trinity of Muay Khao royalty. All 3 of these special men I've been waiting to film with for a very long time.

Some photographs from Chaiyai Sit Karuhat's career:

With his 115 lb Lumpinee Champion belt, and now.

Chaiyai, Karuhat, and Chailek Sit Karuhat

Chaiyai (top left), Karuhat, Chailek, Dtilek (front left) and Saen. Karuhat and his students.

Chaiyai (blue) vs Tongchai Tor. Silachai (red) at Lumpinee. (You can study Tongchai's Arjan Metprik in the MTL)

Another fight of Chaiyai (blue) vs FOTY Tongchai (red), this time Chaiyai was the victor.