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Well, they do host WAKO events so... this is probably the best you're gonna get LOL
Outstanding technique!
Well, they do host WAKO events so... this is probably the best you're gonna get LOL
Cool write-up.
I'm surprised the fight in the OP wasn't stopped sooner. The dude was getting brutalized.
Going through a lethwei fight looks like a shitty experience. I'm sure those dudes are tough as fuck. I think I'll just stick with the light- to medium-contact fighting of the arts that I tend to float around in, thanks.
They have this thing about the heart of the warrior and all that jazz, so you can get knocked out, your corner will call time out, and then once you've got your senses slightly back, send your ass back out there to get KO'd again.
From a sporting perspective, this isn't really the best - and the WLC - World Lethwei Championship is a new promotion with new rules that stray from traditional lethwei and add in judges scorecards and remove the time out rule - meaning that one KO is all there is. Dave Leduc has protested these rules and refuses to fight under them, but I think it's good that fighters can't hide behind a draw in a fight which they really should have lost.
A woman I train with fought Lethwei once to a draw, and said she preferred the old school rules too though, so I can get behind them, but I'm not married to them.
Going through a lethwei fight looks like a shitty experience. I'm sure those dudes are tough as fuck. I think I'll just stick with the light- to medium-contact fighting of the arts that I tend to float around in, thanks.
They have this thing about the heart of the warrior and all that jazz, so you can get knocked out, your corner will call time out, and then once you've got your senses slightly back, send your ass back out there to get KO'd again.
From a sporting perspective, this isn't really the best - and the WLC - World Lethwei Championship is a new promotion with new rules that stray from traditional lethwei and add in judges scorecards and remove the time out rule - meaning that one KO is all there is. Dave Leduc has protested these rules and refuses to fight under them, but I think it's good that fighters can't hide behind a draw in a fight which they really should have lost.
A woman I train with fought Lethwei once to a draw, and said she preferred the old school rules too though, so I can get behind them, but I'm not married to them.
Also, if you're only doing light to medium contact then any full contact art is going to be an eye opening experience and a new world a pain for you, whatever the art. Lethwei just happens to be one of the most hardcore of the full contact arts.
Yeah, I am disinterested.
I've been hit hard at various times, both intentionally and unintentionally, and that was enough for me to know that fighting full-contact was probably not for me. It's not even just the pain, but also the prospect of injury, that concerns me. Just as an MMA fan, seeing what some of those guys go through is pretty crazy.
I enjoy participating in martial arts but I like doing it at a specific level, and that's a level where there's only a very small likelihood that I'll have to go to the ER after a match.
It's a hobby for me and not one I'm interested in putting my health at risk for.
There's actually been a lot of fights which got reversed where the fighter got KO'd, "revived" by his corner and then went back in and finished the other fighter. I've seen quite a lot of that happening just from what's available on the web, and my friend told me it's really not uncommon.
I wish more people would take this attitude, rather than coming up with dumb excuses.
Full contact isn't for everyone and there's no shame in that.
Besides, it's not like you can't defend yourself with what you currently have.
Out of curiosity, what kind of excuses might one come up with?
It's certainly not. I think the people that it IS for are the minority.
I think I could perhaps handle the temporary pain but, as I alluded to in my last post, it's the prospect of serious injury that is really puts me off. This is especially true considering that I haven't had health insurance in a long time. Just hearing about stories like Josh Emmet's recent struggles after Jeremy Stephens destroyed his face are enough to make me go, okay, I'll leave it to the guys who really want to do that and I'll just be a fan and watch.
What's unfortunate is the way that the guys who DO like to do full-contact martial arts can get a bit smug about it and look down on those who don't. There has, I think, been a little less of this in recent years as more and more point karate and TKD guys have successfully transitioned to full-contact fighting and shown that point competitions can impart skills that are useful even in other forms of martial arts competition, but it's certainly been a problem in the past that MT and kickboxing guys have sometimes looked at karate guys as if they're practicing a useless martial art (unless it's Kyokushin).
To be fair, I do think a lot of TMA guys would be pretty useless in a self-defense situation. But that's because I feel like a lot of them just don't really understand their art or how to apply it.
What changed my mind personally though--beyond seeing the rise of Machida--was seeing some Shotokan guys who actually understood their style and were good at it and who could do some things that frankly were quite frightening. Just incredible displays of speed and power.
That being said though when my other half started training muay thai, she had no injuries, she went swimming once and injured her wrist haha.
That's the irony of it all.
My brother doesn't do any martial arts and he's had more serious sport injuries than me from swimming and playing volleyball including a serious groin strain injury, a broken hand, and a twisted knee.
And don't even get me started on my mates who play football (soccer) and get proper bad knee and ankle injuries.
Interesting
How come India, and China dont have anything. Mongolia/central asian nomads has its wrestling, Japan has Ninjastar throwing, and submissions. You think at least China smack in the middle will be a mixture of all that.
Good article. The part about those different martial arts from Thailand and its neighboring countries being very similar with also their own specificities is most likely due to the fact that they battled each other for centuries, and classifying them as the same group of martial arts definitely makes sense.
An interesting fact about Lethwei that wasn't mentioned in your article is that contrarily to Muay Thai which mostly attracts the poorer side of the population in quest for more earnings from a very young age, in Lethwei there are people from different social classes and backgrounds fighting each other usually on special occasions (even some who have more money). It's a lot more of a traditional celebration rather than a professional sport like Muay Thai. This is also why the technicality and skill level of Nak Muays in Thailand tends to be higher than Burmese Lethwei fighters.
As part of this traditional celebration usually happening during holidays and festivals like Thingyan (Burmese New Year), men who are not necessarily professional fighters go in the ring and fight each other without knowing in advance who they're going to fight.
Of course there are also some professional Lethwei fighters getting paid for fighting but nowhere near the same extent as in Muay Thai, hence why some of them then train and fight in Muay Thai in Thailand where there's more money for fighting. There are actually a few Burmese (and Cambodian) fighters in the Muay Thai stadiums of Bangkok.
where are you getting this information from? Im not saying your wrong, just wondering where you got the info from?
Myanmar is a very poor country. Many people are still living in villages in the hills etc. Their gyms and training methods are very primitive/rural or olschool if you will. I would think lethwei, as with just about every combat sport on earth, is done primarily by the poor.
Open weight Lethwei World Champion Dave Leduc himself came to our gym few months back. Picked up some good stuff from the seminar especially clinch work. The art of 9 limbs. It's the first time someone teaches me head butts as an actual technique. Great experience and good vibes all around.
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