governing bodies

[thaiboxer67]

what gov. bodies are there for mt, and which ones carry the most weight of authority? i am interested in sanctioning titles of instructor, fighter ranking and curriculum.

[fire cobra]

what gov. bodies are there for mt, and which ones carry the most weight of authority? i am interested in sanctioning titles of instructor, fighter ranking and curriculum.

The only thing I take any notice of is the ranking systems for Lumpinee and Rajadamnern stadiums.

[thaiboxer67]

lol, that is so true...sorry i keep forgetting that performance is the key in mt. i remember sparring these advanced jkd guys and just tearing up the place with them because they collected certs. and seminars but never really fought. thanx for answering the question , but what about all the khrus running around? i know chai's people go thru hell when they test, and Toddy seems to have a structured curriculum..was just wondering what other people's thoughts are concerning teaching as that is a long term goal of mine

[Guest]

i remember sparring these advanced jkd guys and just tearing up the place with them because they collected certs. and seminars but never really fought

I have to say that is a fair observation. There are lots of people in the JKD family who are, in one way or another, certified in Thai Boxing (sometimes a bit vaguely). I am one of them, two of my certifications include permission to teach Thai Boxing (Chai and Toddy lineage).

However I realised some time ago that I am, at best, a very average beginner in Muay Thai - and for me to claim to teach the art is laughable. This came very sharply into focus some time ago when I trained for a K1 fight at a very good club, where guys I was sparring had trained and fought in Thailand. When I went up against them it was a joke. I had the form, and I looked sound enough on the pads, but as you rightly say Muay Thai is all about performance - and they murdered me in sparring. That was a very tough lesson, but a worthwhile one. I have since made it my ambition to, hopefully next year, get out there and learn the art from the source, from scratch.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very good Muay Thai people in JKD, I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush. There are people I know personally who are very good teachers of the art (Terry Barnett for one) and also others who have fought in the art with success. However, certainly in my generation, there are lots of people whose experience stems to nothing more than a few seminars and a test on the pads. Having experienced the pain and discomfort of facing the real thing, I'm not sure its healthy for the reputation of Muay Thai or JKD for these people to overtly market themselves as Instructors in Thai Boxing. I certainly don't anymore.

[Tant01]

Good on you...

I have to say that is a fair observation. There are lots of people in the JKD family who are, in one way or another, certified in Thai Boxing (sometimes a bit vaguely). I am one of them, two of my certifications include permission to teach Thai Boxing (Chai and Toddy lineage).

However I realised some time ago that I am, at best, a very average beginner in Muay Thai - and for me to claim to teach the art is laughable. This came very sharply into focus some time ago when I trained for a K1 fight at a very good club, where guys I was sparring had trained and fought in Thailand. When I went up against them it was a joke. I had the form, and I looked sound enough on the pads, but as you rightly say Muay Thai is all about performance - and they murdered me in sparring. That was a very tough lesson, but a worthwhile one. I have since made it my ambition to, hopefully next year, get out there and learn the art from the source, from scratch.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very good Muay Thai people in JKD, I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush. There are people I know personally who are very good teachers of the art (Terry Barnett for one) and also others who have fought in the art with success. However, certainly in my generation, there are lots of people whose experience stems to nothing more than a few seminars and a test on the pads. Having experienced the pain and discomfort of facing the real thing, I'm not sure its healthy for the reputation of Muay Thai or JKD for these people to overtly market themselves as Instructors in Thai Boxing. I certainly don't anymore.

Humility is a sign of maturity... Nice to see you GROWING Mr. W.

[thaiboxer67]

i guess thats a pit fall i hope to avoid as i progress along my path towards (hopefully) teaching.i thought Chai at one time required you to have several pro fights, course this may have been back in the day...Master Toddy seems willing to give his blessing to teach and an instructor i talked to under Chai said just do it, go out, learn ,spar. fight and when you start to notice that you are making progress as a fighter then look into teaching.

[Guest]

Humility is a sign of maturity... Nice to see you GROWING Mr. W.

I do appreciate the kind sentiment behind your words Tant. However I’m not humble, I’m just honest, and in martial arts there is a big difference.

“Humility” has become a real marketing buzz word in martial arts, and I’ve come across a lot of martial artists over the years who always want to bang on at me about how humble they are. Surely that’s a contradiction, if you are humble then why do you need to ram it down people’s throats? I’ve found on the whole that its all very false.

A lot of guys have said to me “Oh I’m really not very good” and you can smell a mile away that they don’t mean it (even though its true for quite a few of them). They want me to jump to their defence and say “no you are, you’re awesome, you’re the man – you’re just SO humble”. What I actually say is “if you’re really not very good then why are you taking money from people for lessons? You should be in the lesson, then you might get good”. Ten times out of ten they take offence, which just goes to show they never meant it in the first place.

There are several areas of my game that I am very strong in, and I’ll tell people that, I don’t see anything wrong with some self-belief. But there are other areas where hard experience has shown me that I really need to go back to basics, and that’s what I intend to do. First stop Thailand. Next, I really need to work my BJJ. After that……oh it’s a long list.

(sorry to the OP for going off topic)

[thaiboxer67]

actually seeing the personal side of someone online is kinda cool....i certainly don't mind