Cambodian Martial Art, Khmer Bokator on Web TV

[Brooklynmonk]

By Dante Scott

Before there was Muay Thai, there was Bokator. Now, you can see Bokator
On the web for free. http://youtube.com/watch?v=617qPJPBSPM


Bokator, the complete fighting art, developed by the Khmers during the Angkorian Empire. Bokator is the predecessor of modern Bradal Serey, Khmer kickboxing, also called Pradal Serey. Where kickboxing is limited to kicking, punching, elbows, knees, and head grapples, Bokator includes ground fighting, joint locks, manipulations, throws, weapons, and animal styles.

“Bokator, the Great Angkorian Martial Art” A new film, starring Grand Master San Kim Saen and Antonio Graceffo, will be debuting later this year, to show Bokator to the world. The film was directed by Tim Pek, an Australian Khmer film maker, most famous for his film of Khmer Rouge retribution and forgiveness, “The Red Sense.” Tim, a Khmer Rouge genocide survivor met Antonio while working on the film “Krabei Liak Goan,” (Buffalo Protecting Child). This Khmer Kung Fu movie pitted the hero, national Bradal Serey champion, Eh Phou thoung against Antonio Graceffo, who played the bodyguard of the villain.

“In addition to helping to make Bokator accessible to people all over the world, I enjoyed making this film because I didn’t have to die.” Said Graceffo, who originally came to Cambodia to find and write about Khmer martial arts.

A lifelong martial arts practitioner, Graceffo recently became the first foreigner to earn the Black Krama (black belt) in Khmer Bokator fighting. (Another American, Derek Morris, was the first foreigner to earn a Black Krama be certified as an instructor of Bokator.)

In addition to the independent film, San Kim Saen and his two American students have worked together on two shows for the History Channel, “Human Weapon,” and “Digging for the Truth.” Bokator will also be featured on the brand new web TV show, Martial Arts Odyssey, hosted by Antonio Graceffo. The show follows Graceffo around the world, as he explores new and often obscure martial arts. The pilot is currently running on yuotube.com

Click here to see the trailer for the movie, about Bokator Khmer martial art: http://youtube.com/watch?v=617qPJPBSPM

To see the pilot episode of “Martial Arts Odyssey,” click here. http://youtube.com/watch?v=3haZwrsY_oM


Photo http://photo.ringo.com/214/214271902RL708321407.jpg
Bokator
Before there was Muay Thai, there was Bokator. See Antonio Graceffo and Grand master San kim Saen in Cambodian martial art, Bokator Khmer. http://youtube.com/watch?v=617qPJPBSPM

[Brooklynmonk]

Khmer Kickboxing, Bradal Serey (Pradal Serey)

Bradal Serey, Putting a Modern Spin on an Ancient Art
Learning Khmer Kick Boxing with Paddy Carson
By Antonio Graceffo

(also called Pradal Serey)

“We have to remember why we are in that ring we are there to hurt the other guy we aren’t in there to make love to him. So, the quicker we can hurt him, the better. You want him to think I don’t want to get hit like that again.” Paddy Carson.

The pads POP! As a Khmer fighter nails them with a series of perfect round house kicks. When the Khmers kick, the leg comes around like a baseball bat, and the shin smashes into the target, decimating it. This is not Ta kwan Do or Karate, this is Bradal Serey, Khmer kickboxing.

“It’s all technique. You have to get the technique right first, then you will get the explosion on your punches and kicks in the fight.” Says Paddy Carson, the owner and principal trainer of Paddy’s Gym, in Phnom Penh.

Khmer pop music blares as Paddy’s stable of about twenty Khmer boxers go through their paces. The assistant coach Socheat blows the whistle signaling the beginning of the round. The fighters always train three minutes on, one minute off, just as in a real boxing fight (in western boxing). Many trainers live by the adage “you will fight the way you practice.” Timing your workouts will prepare your body a professional fight.

Sports research has proved that western boxers have the most powerful punches of any combat sport athletes. Paddy’s fighters use western boxing as a base for their Khmer boxing.

“You should learn to punch like a boxier but kick and elbow like a Khmer boxer. Then you will have the whole package.” Says Paddy, who has trained over 14 world title holders.

Before coming to Cambodia, Paddy worked as a trainer in Thailand for 13 years. The first foreigner who was ever granted a professional boxing license, he came to Cambodia to help support Khmer boxing and has a dream of building a Khmer fighter into a world title holder.

“I think elbows are better in Khmer boxing than in Muay Thai. Unfortunately, Cambodia has had all civil wars, and the Bradal Serey instructors were killed by Pol Pot. So, throughout the Twentieth Century, Cambodian boxing went up, and then down, and then up and down. Thailand has gone continually up and up. Thailand have marketed the sport all over the world. Thailand has joined the international bodies and have produced world title holders. If Thailand and the Philippines can produce world title holders, I believe that Cambodia can too. The Khmers are tough boys. They come from the provinces with nothing. Some of them don’t even have money for food, but they train hard. They are respectful to me and the assistant coach. They always bow when they see us. And now they know that if they listen to what I teach them, they can win.”

In addition to his professional Khmer boxers, Paddy has a number of westerners training with him. It has almost become a cliché for westerners to go live in a camp in Thailand and study Muay Thai. But in Cambodia, there aren’t a lot of gyms which are really equipped for westerners. The average westerner who is starting to learn Khmer boxing is already past the age that Khmers will retire from the ring. Plus, the training and fighting style need to be modified to match our larger bodies and lesser flexibility.

Some coaches stress high kicks and head kicks. They make you stand at a bang and smash it as high as you can with your shins. Paddy disagrees with this type of training.

“We are all built differently in this world. Some people can do double flying spin kicks or whatever, but some people can’t. If you aren’t a high kicker then what do you want to do high kicks for? You do what you were built to do. If you can’t do high kicks, then do low kicks. In Thailand, I told my foreign fighters, don’t train and fight like the Thais.”


“It is stupid to try and kick your opponent in the head in the early rounds when you are fresh and he is fresh. You are never going to get it. How often in fights do you see the guy get knocked out with a high kick? Almost never. Wait till he is tired. Wear him down. Work the body. Work the legs. In the later rounds, when he gets tired, and you are still fresh, then you go for the head kick.”

Working the legs means repeatedly kicking your opponent’s thigh with your shin. A normal man can only withstand two or three kicks to the thighs, before his leg will buckle and he will go down, involuntarily. Even a seasoned fighter can be chopped down, like a tree, if you repeatedly land the same kick on the same portion of his leg, again and again.

“My fighter, my world champion, was very short and he used to fight people who were a foot taller than him. He wasn’t a high kicker, so I told him go in there, work the legs, work the legs, and throw combinations. He knocked his opponent out.”

Paddy wasn’t suggesting that high kicking is a bad thing, only that it must be appropriate for your ability.

“If you were a high kicker then I would train you that way. Not that I couldn’t teach you that, but why do that all the time. Go for the body, go fro the arms.”

Very few fighters go for the arms. This means kicking your opponent in the biceps with your shins. Very few people can stand up this type of punishment. The arms will quickly become useless. Eh Phou Thoung, Cambodia’s greatest kick boxing champion, is known for kicking his opponent’s in the biceps. In his career, he has broken the arms of several of them.

“Ninety percent of head kicks don’t reach their target. The opponent sees it coming and he blocks with his leg or his shin, and possibly, you hurt your leg. Don’t do that! Wait till he throws a high kick, then attack.”

“I like a high kicker, the higher the better. During a high kick, he is wide open and it takes longer for the leg to come down. He is defenseless and off balance the whole time. When the opponent does the high kick, kick his base leg.”

Another opportunity that many fighters miss is kicking the inside of the leg or kicking the base leg. When an opponent throws the high right kick, his left leg, the base leg is a wide open, inviting target. You can lea your head or duck your head slightly, to avoid the high kick. At the same time, shoot a kick in and hit the inside of his left thigh or calf muscle. With all the weight on that one leg, there is a good chance the man will go down. At the very least, he will be in a lot of pain.

“When I was fighting I was a take down artist. I would catch the kick, trap the leg, and kick the base leg out from under him. This is something we don’t see enough of here. You also don’t see a lot of inside low kicks. I tell my guys smash the inside kick just above the inside of the knee.”

Brining modern innovations to a centuries old sport, which is so steeped in tradition and national pride can be difficult. Reasonably, the Khmer fighters are resistant to adopt new techniques, brought to them by a westerner.

“I teach Richard, my foreign fighter, all the new techniques first. Then, the Khmers see him improve, and they pick it up and improve too.”

Having an extensive background in both western boxing and professional kick boxing in the west, Paddy stresses movement and position.

“When you kick, the foot has to come back to perfect position again so you can throw another technique. Some of the Thais and Khmers throw a kick and it is thirty seconds till they do something else. You need to be moving and doing something all the time. If you watch the big kick boxing matches on cable, and listen to the foreign commentators from Australia they are saying if the Thais don’t start doing combinations they will not be able to keep up with the western fighters. I have been doing that for twenty years, teaching my guys combinations.”

Kicking is almost the only thing that many coaches teach. Once a guy has a decent kick, they put him in the ring and expect him to win.

“Richard is still a novice, but he is kicking like a guy who has had thirty fights. But now he needs to get the ring craft. When you get in the ring on fight night, with all the lights and TV cameras, you get nervous and lose thirty percent of your energy from nervousness. It is only when you have been in the ring a lot getting in the ring again and again that you will calm down. And you will fight in the ring the same way you practice.”

“This is an advantage of Khmers and Thais. Many of them have had seventy five fights, and they don’t get nervous at all. But they have other problems. Now, we have Thais going to England with 70 fights and losing to a guy with thirty fights.”

“The Thais and Khmers are quite static when they fight. They get knocked out sometimes by punches that wouldn’t knock out another fighter. In the west, the sport is being dominated by people with boxing and kicking background. But here, they aren’t learning the boxing. I have seen fighters here knocked out with a jab.”

Having trained and fought on both sides of the border and both sides of the globe, Paddy sees the strengths and weaknesses of the Thai fighters and believes that with his help, the Khmers can exploit those weaknesses and become world champions.

“If a western boxer can learn Muay Thai and go to Thailand and win a title, then I believe that Khmer boxers could do it.”

Once the Khmers start winning international competitions, then they will be able to reclaim the name, Bradal Serey, and tell the world the true origin of kick boxing.


If you are going to Phnom Penh and you want to train with Paddy, contact him: paddycarson1@hotmail.com

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is a professional fighter and the author of four books available on amazon.com Antonio was the first foreign student of Bokator, in Cambodia. Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

[Tee Sok]

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Hopefully the Cambodian teachers and fighters will benefit from your work
and will live in better conditions in the future.

[fire cobra]

Anybody know at what camp or camps in Thailand Paddy Carson worked out of for 13years?.

Bokator seems like a good martial art,and the Cambodian boxers are hungry and tough.

[george stando]

Cambodians are indeed tough and hungry. I wholehardely agree.

Good to see the survival of the ancient systems thriving in the US it has been spearheaded by Vincent Giordano who also trained in them since his teens with the older cambodian masters. His writing on the subject is excellent.

I think the cambodians will increase in force over the next few years especially if they can start making some money and getting the nutrition and solid training at the camps.

[the tick]

Where kickboxing is limited to kicking, punching, elbows, knees, and head grapples

And so will Bokator if you want to make it marketable. Unless you expect people to fight to the death.

[Brooklynmonk]

Training for Bradal Serey


By Antonio Graceffo


“If you want to train for fighting number one, you must be fit.” Says Paddy Carson, a professional trainer for Bradal Serey, Khmer Kickboxing, in Phnom Penh. For the last four years I have been living in Phnom Penh, off and on, and Paddy has been my teacher, pushing me beyond the limits time and time again. He drills into all of his students that fitness is the key to winning fights.

“Take Mike Tyson, was one of the best in the world. He hasn’t trained in a year. We put him in the ring right now with number twelve in the world and he will get knocked out because he is not fit. You need to be fit because you want to throw the same techniques, the hard bombs, from round three to round five.”

One of the biggest conditioning drills that we do at Paddy’s Gym is working the coaches pads. Paddy calls out the combinations and we have to respond with the right techniques. Four years ago he was only training me in boxing, so the commands were simple. One, was a straight right. Two was left right combo. Four was two left right combos. Three was an upper cut and five was a hook. But now that I am changing to Bradal (Pradal) Serey, the combinations become more complicated as he is now calling for kicks, knees, elbows, and grapples.

When I was just boxing, during the first round, my punches were solid, powerful. When Paddy shouted, “Give me eight,” I ripped into the pads with four left right combos. But, if my cardiop was bad, by the second round, I felt myself weakening. By the fourth round, you could be hitting in slow motion. By the fifth round, I wasn’t even hitting anymore. My hand stayed more or less stationary and Paddy swatted it with the pads.

“If this was a fight, you’d be defenseless.” Paddy would tell me.

It was true. I have had fights where, in the later rounds, I got so tired, I saw the punch coming but just couldn’t be bothered to move out of the way. Getting hit seemed like it would hurt less than trying to move.

Kickboxing takes about five times as much energy as regular boxing. Each time you kick, you are lifting your entire, massive leg in the air, and of course your base leg has to take all your weight. Your muscles begin to burn, and you can look really stupid throwing a slow pathetic kick. Somehow, it is more humiliating than throwing a slow pathetic punch.

“You don’t want your techniques steadily getting weaker during the fight.” Paddy tells us. “Your first round must be hard, your fifth round must be harder.”

Bradal Serey fights are always five rounds.

“We always train three minutes, with one minute rest. In a Khmer boxing fight they even get one and a half minutes rest, but we train three and one to get my boys in shape. I train them two and half minutes then the last thirty seconds we pump it out.”

Where Paddy stresses conditioning, fighters and trainers at other gyms have other opinions on what is important.

“A lot of fighters in this part of the world think that they need to make their shins hard.”

This is so true. The rumours and legends people have heard in the west about kickboxers training on trees and bamboo posts, or sitting up at night banging their shins with bottles are true. This always perplexed me, because as a boxer, I know that I need my hands to make a living, so I take good care of them. If you have ever seen a real boxer’s hands, they are not hard and covered with scars and knobs, like a kung fu master. They are soft, pampered, protected by hand-wraps and gloves. Why would kickboxers want to smash their best money-making asset against a tree?

“Your shins get developed not by kicking tress and a poles.” Says Paddy. “You aren’t going to make your shins any harder. All that will do is bruise a bone. To get harder, to condition your bones, you kick the bag. You do three minutes on each leg. And the conditioning will come naturally, with time. You can start with a bag stuffed with cloth remnants. Eventually, you can move up to a harder bag, filled with sand. You shouldn’t smash a tree hard with your shins.”

Toughness is an important part of being a fighter. But toughness, just like conditioning, has to built up gradually. You lose it when you lay of training, and you have to earn it back.

“Take a boxer who has been out of training for a while. His face gets soft. After he is training again his skin gets harder. It gets immune to the shots. It’s the same with the shins. People say I kick the trees. If you want to kick trees, go kick the bag instead, or train by fighting. First fight with shin pads, then wean yourself off the shin pads.”

Another mistake that a lot of people make in their training is sparring too hard.

“In training, I believe you should never go full out. Guys get in the ring and they smash each other. When one of my fighters is approaching a fight, I start to condition him mentally. I get him to believe in himself. You have to believe in yourself. If I put my fighters in the ring a month before the fight and they are bleeding and smashing noses and that, then by the time they get into the tournament everything is out already.”

Paddy tells a story about how a horse race trainer never lets the horse run full out in training. Then, on race day, he pulls away, and wins.

“You want to build them up when they are sparing so that when it comes to the fight they want to let it out. You make them hold it back, hold it back. Then when they get in the fight the mind and body say, I want to see what I can do.”

“That is what a lot of people don’t understand. That’s how it should be, hold back and on fight day, explode and everything jells.”

“Back in South Africa, we have an ultra marathon of close to 100 km. The guys who win it, never run a full 100 km in training. They run very long distances, but hold them selves back till race day. Fight training is not just getting in there and smashing a bag. I have had five world champions and the most regional champions in South Africa.”

“That is the difference between a good trainer and not a good trainer. There are trainers like Angelo Dundee in their eighties and still producing world champions. That comes from experience.”

“You can’t juts let your guys kick the bag and then put him in a championship. It can work like that at the beginning. But like that, you will never make it to the world championship level. Not just anyone can train you to that level. A lot of these guys think training means kicking the bag really, really hard again and again. But it is so much more than that.”

What is power worth?

“Look, power is a lot. We all want power. I want my fighter to be able to knock the guy down with one punch. Some people just don’t have that kind of power. Some guys can train ten years and won’t get there. Others will do it in one year. But they could all be good and they have to fight in their ability. Anyone could be a fighter, but not everyone could be a champion.”

“To a good fighter, power is important, but it isn’t everything. A good fighter is a thinker. He knows strategy. I have seen guys strong as an ox they get in their and win on strength. And they go and they go, moving up the ranks, but when it comes to their twelfth fight or fifteenth fight then they are fighting a guy who is strong and good. The better fighter has strategy and he is a thinker, and the big brawler gets knocked out.”

“Did you ever see a brawler become the world champion in boxing? It never happened. Tyson was not a brawler. He fought smart.”

After our training sessions, Paddy and I often discussed Butterbean, the 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) 398 Lbs. (180 KG) wrecking machine who was called “The King of the Four Rounders.” Butterbean hit so hard, he could demolish almost any opponent he faced and wracked up a winning record not only in boxing, but also in K-1 and MMA. According to Wikipedia, “His combined professional fight record currently stands at 89 wins with 63 knockouts, 13 losses and 5 draws.”

The important lesson Paddy always wanted me to learn from butterbean was that for all of his power, he was not a brawler, he was a thinker. He was smart enough to see exactly what his talent was, and to exploit it to make money. His special, God-given ability, was to pound a man into unconsciousness during a four round bout. If Butterbean had tried to go for the title he would have had to fight ten and eventually twelve rounds. He may have done Ok or may have completely run out of gas and gotten hurt. Instead, he capitalized on his strength, stayed at four rounds, and won almost all of his fights. What is more, because he stuck to his guns and only fought within his comfort zone, he made more money doing four-rounders than any challenger almost-was who tried for the heavyweight belt.

The lessons I learned from Paddy this week were:

1. Conditioning is key: If you are out of gas, you can’t fight.
2. Condition your shins naturally. Don’t kick posts or bamboo. Work the bag and let toughness come.
3. Sparring is training, not fighting: Never go all out in sparring. Hold something back for fight day.
4. Fight smart: fight your fight. Fight the fight that matches your abilities. Stay in your game and you have the best chance of winning.

If you are going to Phnom Penh and you want to train with Paddy, contact him: paddycarson1@hotmail.com

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is a professional fighter and the author of four books available on amazon.com Antonio was the first foreign student of Bokator, in Cambodia. Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

[fire cobra]

Sensible advice from Paddy.

Brooklynmonk do you know what camps in Thailand Paddy worked out of for 13 years?.

[sportmuaythai]

I was in Cambodia three years ago, and was fortunate to watch muay khmer on Cambodian TV. I'm getting satelite dish wich can receive Cambodian channels. Bm could you or anyone else tell me what channel is the fight on, and the day and time schedule?

[Brooklynmonk]

Paddy carson and cambodian martial art

I know paddy wa a trainer in pattaya but not sure teh name of the gym. i will ask him when i go back to cmabodia next month. this month i am training in bangkok.


as for cambodian martial arst on TV they are on the local stations CTN and TV 5 in cambodia, thursday through sunday. but i have no idea how to see it in another country.

[sportmuaythai]

As for cambodian martial arst on TV they are on the local stations CTN and TV 5 in cambodia, thursday through sunday. but i have no idea how to see it in another country.

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. There is hope for me since I can receive broadcast from TV 5. Pls let me know the day and time of the week to watch for the Cambodian muay khmer. I can also receive channel Apsara. Does this channel have muay khmer?

[fire cobra]

I know paddy wa a trainer in pattaya but not sure teh name of the gym. i will ask him when i go back to cmabodia next month. this month i am training in bangkok.


as for cambodian martial arst on TV they are on the local stations CTN and TV 5 in cambodia, thursday through sunday. but i have no idea how to see it in another country.

Thanks Brooklynmonk.

[fire cobra]

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. There is hope for me since I can receive broadcast from TV 5. Pls let me know the day and time of the week to watch for the Cambodian muay khmer. I can also receive channel Apsara. Does this channel have muay khmer?

Hi SportMuay

[Brooklynmonk]

Vietnamese Martial Art

Boxing the Vietnamese
A Brooklyn Monk trains in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
By Antonio Graceffo

An old man slapped me under the chin with the palm of his hand. My head whipped back, and I saw stars.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Asked my Vietnamese friend and guide in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I guess I did, but I hadn’t counted on it hurting so bad.” I answered.

To understand why I was in Vietnam, we have to go back to why I was in Cambodia. And that adventure started in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I had been studying Muay Thai Boran in a forest monastery on the Burmese border for three months. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I emerged from the jungle to take a shower, sleep in a bed, and eat at McDonalds. A few days of rest, and I got restless. What was next? What would be the next obscure martial art in a remote location?

Burmese boxing looked really interesting. It is, to my knowledge, the only place in the world where people are still fighting with absolutely no rules and no gloves. They are even allowed to head-butt.

Burma, now called Myanmar, lay just over the border. I could see it from John’s Café in Mae Sai, where I where I would pick up stories from the road during my monthly visa runs. But Myanmar was fraught with political issues. A civil war had been burning there for about fifty years. Most of the boxers I had trained with in Thailand were actually Burmese refugees. Burma didn’t look like a viable option. I am a fighter, not a soldier.

“Every Asian country must have martial arts.” I surmised. So, I went on line looking for arts I had never heard of in the surrounding countries. I did Google searches for martial arts in Lao and Cambodia. Eventually I found a name, Bokator, a nearly extinct martial art in Cambodia, believed to be the origin of all Southeast Asian martial arts. And so I hoped on a bus and I went. Three days later, I was in Phnom Penh, looking for Bokator. It took me eighteen months to find the master. That began a three-year-long odyssey of trips in and out of Cambodia to train with Master San Kim Saen and to document the art so that it would not be lost from the Earth.

After I earned my black belt in Bokator, I began looking for the new, new thing. Back to the Google search, I found a slue of martial arts in Vietnam. When I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (by plane this time, now I was a famous martial arts write), I began looking for the arts. What I found in Vietnam was similar to Taiwan and other developed countries I had trained in. The main focus in the society was economic development and advancement. Parents pushed their kids to excel in school, study English, and make money. Martial art was low on the priority scale.

Most Vietnamese said to me, “But why do you want to waste time on martial arts? You could teach English and make a lot of money.”

Research told me that the Vietnamese had a traditional wrestling form which seemed to have disappeared or may still exist in remote provinces, so it may take me month or even years to find it. Historically, there was also a Vietnamese kickboxing art, similar to Muay Thai or Khmer Boxing, Bradal Serey (Pradal Serey). But, as far as I was able to find out, this art has died out.

The two main arts I was able to find were Thieu Lam, Vietnamese Kung Fu, and Vovinam, a hybrid martial art, invented in Vietnam in the 1920s. The art is also referred to as Viet Vo Dao, or the way of Vietnamese fighting.

The Thieu Lam master is the one who slapped me under the jaw, so I focused most of my energy on Vovinam.

Vovinam is taught everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The practitioners see it as a matter of national pride, similar to the way Koreans view Tae Kwan Do. Vovinam is a very complete martial art with elements taken from many styles. There are kicks from Tae Kwan Do, but also a limited number of shin kicks and knee kicks. There are grapples from Hop Kido and throws from Judo. There are also a limited number of elbow strikes. They train with an array of weapons, taken from China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

Because Vietnam is still a communist country, there is no professional fighting at all. So, the Vovinam guys weren’t ready to go fight in the UFC. But, with a bit of tweaking, the style looks like it could be modified to use in MMA competitions. As far as traditional martial art (TMA) goes, Vovinam was a lot more interesting and complete than Tae Kwan Do. Anything that includes a grappling component is more multi-dimensional than a stand up kicking art. Unfortunately, because Tae Kwan Do is now part of the Olympics and the SEA Games, there is a huge push, particularly in Communist countries, to build world class teams. The cost is that the local martial arts are dying out.

In Cholon, Saigon’s China Town, I found a massive sports center. In the basement there was a full weight lifting gym. Gyms in Vietnam were quite complete and training was cheap. Membership in a gym costs les than $10 per month. The other five floors of the building were dedicated to martial arts. Walking up the stairs, I felt like Bruce Lee, climbing the tower in “Game of Death.” On the first floor there were about a hundred people doing karate. On the next floor, Kung Fu. Up a level, Kendo and Aikido. On the next floor, Karate and Tae Kwand Do again.

The price of martial arts training was $6 per month.

On the top floor, I found my home, boxing.

I was in Vietnam to learn something new, so I concentrated on Vovinam. The problem with most TMA is that there isn’t enough of a cardio component, nearly no strength component, and no toughening or fighting training. So, I set up a training schedule of weights in the morning, followed by Vovinam in the evening and boxing at night. The boxing was the perfect addition to make my training day complete.

In Ho Chi Minh City people, go out late, study late, and train late. The streets are full of cars and motorcycles, at all hours. Boxing started at 7:30 PM, which is amazing, because in Cambodia, no one would ever consider going out that late. Even more amazing, as I was leaving the two hour workout, people were coming in for their martial arts lessons.

When you walk into a new martial arts school in Asia, there is always the thing about showing respect. They are sizing you up, so you don’t want to look weak. But you don’t want to look challenging either. If they think you have only come to fight, they may not train you, or they may hurt you. Or if they think you are showing disrespect, they won’t deal with you at all.

In boxing, there is none of this. The minute I walked into the boxing gym, the coach, Mr. Ahn, welcomed me with open arms. He was all smiles, asking me a million questions about my training and experiences in other countries. He called the boxers around to listen to the stories and ask me questions. With the martial arts guys, I have to build rapport before I can take out my camera. Mr. Ahn, on the other hand, immediately asked if the boys could take some photos with their new American friend.

As there is no professional boxing in Vietnam, all the boys were amateurs. Most were around 22 years old. They attended university fulltime and boxed part time.

I asked if I could fight in Vietnam, Mr. Ahn laughed and told me that in the whole country there were only four boxers registered at 81 Kgs, the highest weight division. “At national championships they give one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. So, everyone wins.”

In Thailand I am always amazed at the steps they are taking to improve their training, such as brining in foreign coaches or sending coaches to other countries. Vietnam was the same. One of the team’s coaches had trained in Thailand with the Vietnam national boxing team.

“We can learn from them.” Said Mr. Ahn. “In the lower weight divisions, the Philippines and Thailand are the best in Southeast Asia.”

Philippine champion, Mani Paquoia (Pac Man) was almost as much of a hero to the Vietnamese boxers as he was to the Filipinos.

Talking about my Muay Thai experience, Mr Ahn told me, “We had kickboxing prior to 1979. But then it was banned. Now they would like to bring it back, but there isn’t even an association or a team yet.”

“Traditional wrestling is also dying out. Maybe it exists in the provinces, and probably not every day, just at festivals.”

The good thing about training in a socialist country is that the government supports sports and education programs. Sports are made available to nearly everyone, regardless of how poor they are. The downside, of course, is that while top athletes will have state of the art training and equipment, the average gym is not as good as one we would pay for in a rich country. Boxing training at the sports complex was free, but the boxing team had absolutely nothing. They had half a heavy bag and some rotting, smelly glove.

The bag was hung too high and not heavy enough for me to do body punches or low kicks. There were no coache’s mitts for pad-work. Mr. Ahn showed me where there had been a floor to ceiling bag, but it was broken. One very cool piece of equipment they did have was a makiwara board hanging on the wall. This padded boarded is normally used in karate and other martial arts to practice focus punching. The boxers used it for speed and power drills. One guy would stand at board, throwing one-two, one-two as fast and hard as he could for thirty seconds, while his partner shadow boxed. Then they would switch off. Thirty second board, thirty seconds shadow, alternating for three minutes. It was brutal! By my third rotation on the board I was completely beat. My arms would barely stay up.

During the drill, Mr. Ahn stood by, and made sure my hands were coming back to a proper guard position between punches, so I was punching off my face, straight through.

Usually when I train with amateurs the coaches leave me alone and let me train what I want, which is nice, if I am there for a short time. I like them to leave me alone because amateur boxing is so different from professional boxing. Fr example, they turn their hands over when they hook, which pros don’t do. I don’t want them to undue my skills.
But if I am going to be there for a year it is a problem because then I am not learning anything new.

Watching one of the best guys train, he was very fast and had good form and tremendous power or his size, but his hands were down at his sides, like Muhammad Ali, and he was wide open. Maybe he was fast enough that it didn’t matter, but I was shocked at how open many of them were.

The gym didn’t have a heavy bag, which would be the bulk of my training as a heavyweight pro. I got the impression that amateurs didn’t work the heavy bag the way pros do. Most of their work was shadow boxing and mock sparing. Amateurs I have trained with in Philippines, Vietnam and other countries did a lot of things we don’t do, such as sliding drills, punching drills, and blocking drills. Maybe we could benefit from these training techniques too.

After the board work, Mr. Ahn had me spar with two of his guys, one round each. We didn’t hit each other hard, just worked.

The second boy I sparred with had one hand on his waste, and punched off his hip. He did all right with it, but it still looked dangerous. The cool thing he kept doing was switching off, left and right hand lead. He didn’t actually change his lead leg, but would twist his body about 50% and lead with a right hand jab. It was tricky and kept giving me a new picture to look at.

They didn’t have a ring, so we were sparring on the floor. Normally I shepherd my opponent onto the ropes or into the corner and pound them. This is much harder to do in an open fighting situation. The speed and stamina of the smaller amateur is a bigger advantage in an open situation.

In pro boxing you are always looking for that knock out or a win by attrition. You lead with the left, but you are constantly trying to set the man up for the big right hand. In amateur boxing, you are trying to win by points. Throwing a flurry of punches, whether they are hard or not, will win you points.

Training with the Vietnamese was great fun, and I look forward to continuing my study of Vovinam, supplemented with boxing and weight lifting. Maybe I will find out who is trying to start the professional kickboxing league and I can help out. Maybe we can build a Vietnamese MMA team and take the Southeast Asian title.

If you are in the USA and interested in training in Vietnamese martial arts, contact vietdefense@yahoo.com see their website at: www.vovinamusa.org


Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The Pilot episode, shot in the Philippines, is running on youtube, click here. The Monk From Brooklyn - Kuntaw in the Phillipines Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

[sportmuaythai]

as for cambodian martial arst on TV they are on the local stations CTN and TV 5 in cambodia, thursday through sunday. but i have no idea how to see it in another country.

OK I've tracked down the satellite broadcast of Cambodia TV channel5. The muay fights are on Friday from 5pm (I think) till 7pm. If you're in S E Asia, and have access to satellite dish, you now know where you can see Cambodian muay.