Can anyone share information regarding Krabi Krabong? Is it a forerunner to modern day Muay Thai? Has anyone trained in it?
From all the reading/research that I have done, Krabi-Krabong and Muay Thai have a very symbiotic relationship. Depending on how you look at it, some consider Muay Thai to be a subset of Krabi-Krabong. I don't think that is necessarily accurate. The way that I personally see it, Krabi Krabong is more accurately a subset of Muay Thai.
Now, the following is JUST an opinion of mine. Don't take it as gospel truth. Forum member "Pahuyuth" is much more knowledgeable on this subject and could answer questions more accurately than I. But, for what its worth....
Thailand has MULTIPLE styles of martial arts, which are loosely termed "Muay Thai", in a similar way to how most Chinese martial arts systems are covered by the blanket term "Kung Fu".
The unarmed fighting system which we all now recognize as "Muay Thai" developed as a kind of compromise for competition. They kind of found a "baseline" set of rules that most styles of Thai fighting could accept for competing against one another.
Modern RING Muay Thai did not develop from any ONE particular style of Thai fighting. It was a blend of varying fighting formats that are in many cases toned down for the safety of the competitors.
Some of the styles that influenced modern "ring" Muay Thai include Muay Boran, Krabi Krabong, and Lim Lum. I understand that styles such as Lerdrit and Mae Mai Muay Thai are not considered to be "true" styles of Muay Thai.
thanks for your response Khun Kao. I've also heard of Lerdrit. I think the creators of the streetfighter videogame gave that style to M.Bison...lol.
If you need any in depth historical info, you can email me at blackdiamondcobra@yahoo.com. I dont really agree at all with Khun Kao's reasoning or theories but I dont have the time to answer it all.
ttt
Aw dammit! Just when I think I'm starting to get an understanding of Muay Thai's history and development, Pahuyuth comes aboard and tells me that I still have it all wrong... :(
LOL
Oh well. I'll email myself to see if I can start to get this right.
signed~
a very confused Khun Kao
One of the insructors at my gym Vinny Deeson was recently appointed as the first official UK representitive of the International Muay Boran Academy. He now gives lessons. I am looking to check it out so will report back.
Krabi Krabong is a fighting style that was developed and practiced by the native people of Thailand to protect themselves from the invading Burmese. Krabi Krabong is and was "primarily" a weapons based system. Certainly as most of us know fights don't always go as we expect them to and the Thai people were faced with situations where thier weapons were lost or taken in battle and there we find the roots of the hand to hand combat system know to us today as Muay Boran. Muay Boran is a very effective striking system which is much slower and methodical than what we all know of as Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. The more effective and fast close, range movements of Muay Boran are used in the "sport" of Thai Boxing. These changes were in part due to the pure kill or be killed combat to a ring sport and as we all know with all modern day sporting events there is gambling involved. Muay Boran didn't provide the fast paced gambling atmosphere the Thai Boxing does.
Also I'd like to add that the literal translation of Muay Thai IS NOT Thai Boxing
to Muay is to bring together so ultimately Muay Thai means to bring together the Thai People.
so in summation Krabi Krabong is the Origin of the sport and if we use our imagination it is a bunch of farmers "coming together" protecting thier land and families from invaders with whatever they could get thier hands on, i.e. sickles, sticks and swords.
Kao Loy
very interesting