A part of Ajarn Chai's story (founder of TBA) sounds really fishy

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A part of his story seems like a myth out of kung fu movie or McDojo's sensei tale

At the age of six he had also acqui...he floor with his 8 and 10 year old students.

What I found really strange about this story is that he started doing karate
at 6 years old in 1952??? And there was karate's gym around his neighborhood.
(Karate gym near his house? Did he live near Japan's department store?
Because that was the only place karate's gym would be during that time...
Oh wait! Japan was still being rebuilt! They couldn't set up a mall)
Also, you guys realize how nationalistic Thai people were back 7 years just after
Japan invaded Thailand? Only super rich parents who think
Moreover, a Chinese teaching "Karate" in "Thailand" Oh dear...
But wait, karate was still not properly introduced in Thailand in 1952!
It would be after the success of Thai Judo team in 1965 in the first ASEAN game,
that leads to the demonstration of karate in front of the Thai prince and the beginning of the popularity of Japanese drama.

Sirisute's Muay Thai teacher, Ajarn Suwong, made a lasting impression on him. Ajarn Suwong had had a prophetic dream, and stated flatly when he met the six year old Sirisute, "This is the champion that will spread Muay Thai to the falang
Click to expand...
...

As a boy Sirisute studied both Muay Thai as well as Karate and earned his black belt in Shorin at the unprecedented age of 12, an age at which he also started to fight in the ring in Muay Thai
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So what's the purpose of this whole karate thing? I guess it is about making
himself sound much more legitimate in front of all Murican McDojo fanatics.
In the era that was dominated by McDojo this is probably the best way
to legitimize yourself.
 
Arjan Chai is cool. Dan Inosanto buys into his stuff hard core.

Every single time I meet someone who was told I do martial arts, I have to nod and listen to stories of their greatness, how they catch and kill chickens with their bare hands, how they fought off a dude with a knife or won a 1v3 at the pub over a girl they didn't know, or how wrestling is better than karate and they are a wrestler, or how they are a shooter and own 7 guns and how no one better ever fuck with them.

What dude have you ever met that didn't ham up the story of his greatness?

There are lies, and then there are lies by omission. Maybe by karate he means empty hand fighting, by which he means Muay Boran, which no one has ever heard of.

It hardly matters. His seminars are a blast.

As far as a prophetic dream, I'm willing to bet that there are more 'Mericans, let alone people in the rest of the world, that believe dreams tell the future. He's not an atheist and they don't have any need or desire to white wash their belief in mysticism from their story.
 
Was never a big fan of Chai. I lump him in with Woody and Sken in the Great Pantheon of Fake Muay Thai Charlatans.
 
Harukaze said:
Was never a big fan of Chai. I lump him in with Woody and Sken in the Great Pantheon of Fake Muay Thai Charlatans.
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I only ever went to one of his events and I couldn't tell the difference back then. All I know about him is that a lot of the Dan Inosanto crowd believes he is what he says he is.

Why do you think he's fake? Is him Muay Thai wrong, or is it right and he just has a fake back story to sell it?

I head that about him a lot but virtually no one does anything much different. I've even been to a couple big name MMA gyms recently and I didn't see anything in their Muay Thai I thought was special, or really any different than anywhere else.
 
SummerStriker said:
I only ever went to one of his events and I couldn't tell the difference back then. All I know about him is that a lot of the Dan Inosanto crowd believes he is what he says he is.

Why do you think he's fake? Is him Muay Thai wrong, or is it right and he just has a fake back story to sell it?

I head that about him a lot but virtually no one does anything much different. I've even been to a couple big name MMA gyms recently and I didn't see anything in their Muay Thai I thought was special, or really any different than anywhere else.
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If those were American "Muay Thai" places, then that's not a good sign. Compare Coban's to an Ajarn Chai place and you'll have a better measure of his authenticity.
 
I've watched half a dozen Coban videos, and I admit the round kick is different, but I don't buy that as proof. I've heard many times on here that snap and spinning kicks are a part of Muay Thai.

I'm not a scholar on the subject but I can't just accept that there is one correct way of doing it. I bet that there are many round kicks in Thailand.

Otherwise, the punching, knees, elbows and long combos are pretty similar.

Edit: nevermind, I just watched a bunch of Chai videos and it seems a little off to me. It does have an odd look to it.
 
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Chai learned Muay Thai for sure. I don't believe he was a champion or even a high level fighter. He was middle class in Thailand.

What Chai teaches looks nothing like what I see in the camps in Thailand. Different teaching and training methods. Different pad work philosophy.

At first I thought it was because he came over to the US a long time ago and the Muay Thai was taught differently back then. But then I was able to train with Thai trainers in Thailand that are similar age, and it still didn't look like what Chai is teaching.

So I guess he modified the limited amount of Muay Thai he learned and adapted it to teach to the JKD crowd.
 
I believe that chai and toddy didn't learn muay thai first. but maybe he learned it later.
because the social value of middle class family of thai wouldn't favor any of thai as sports,music. They prefer ballet ,piano to ranad,takraw.

These thai people started being interested muay thai after they realized that taekwondo didn't make them elegant in the eyes of the white man as they've ever expected and dreamed. it made them look banal. because there were taekwondo fighters more skilled than them everywhere.

and when they stayed in foreign country. they might be importuned to teach muay thai since were assumed they were thai so they had to know muay thai.

They decided to teach (fake) muay thai and needed to lie background they learned muay thai since they were kid. but I believed they just learned muay thai after they opened course and taught muay thai.
 
I don't think Toddy learned MT at all, he had other people do the work.
 
Ryukyu Damashi said:
Chai learned Muay Thai for sure. I don't believe he was a champion or even a high level fighter. He was middle class in Thailand.

What Chai teaches looks nothing like what I see in the camps in Thailand. Different teaching and training methods. Different pad work philosophy.

At first I thought it was because he came over to the US a long time ago and the Muay Thai was taught differently back then. But then I was able to train with Thai trainers in Thailand that are similar age, and it still didn't look like what Chai is teaching.

So I guess he modified the limited amount of Muay Thai he learned and adapted it to teach to the JKD crowd.
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Could you elaborate on this a bit? I've trained in the past at a school under the TBA/Chai heading, so I'm very interested in the technical differences you noted.

Much thanks.
 
Harukaze said:
Was never a big fan of Chai. I lump him in with Woody and Sken in the Great Pantheon of Fake Muay Thai Charlatans.
Click to expand...

Why are Woody and sken charlatans? I've trained with Woody years ago and he was full of knowledge that had served me well to this day.
 
lightning_88 said:
Why are Woody and sken charlatans? I've trained with Woody years ago and he was full of knowledge that had served me well to this day.
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He never had any professional experience in Muay Thai despite his claims. He grew up comfortably rich and learned TKD as opposed to his hogwash that he grew up "on the streets of Bangkok" and had to make a living fighting in Muay Thai (it's an insult to the real Isaan country boys that grew up impoverished and made it off the farms by fighting). He's never set foot as a fighter in Lumpinee or Rajadamnern, and all his techniques are modified TKD with a fake Thai flavor (think peanut butter in your pad Thai -- lots of people think it's delicious but it's hardly authentic). He's never produced a single stadium champion, his businesses are built on lies and fraud (he was busted for tax evasion first in England then in the US), his Ultra brand equipment is overpriced and gimmicky (not to mention shoddy and poorly made), and overall he's just a super smarmy guy in my opinion.
 
The celestial kid dislikes fake people. M toddy, woody, chai, sken, etc. deserve to get beaten up for teaching fake techniques that give fighters false confidence. Their fighters could get hurt very badly.
 
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