#114 Kru Diesel 2 - The Beauty of Building a Muay Khao Fighter (1 hr, 16 min)

Welcome to the second Kru Diesel session in the Muay Thai Library documentation project! So good.

Kru Diesel is the builder of Muay Khao fighters in contemporary Muay Thai. He is already in the Muay Thai Library when he was the head trainer at F.A. Group (watch that amazing first session here), which under his guidance produced many strong fighters in this style and two big stars: Petchboonchu and Yothin F.A. Group. Petchboonchu is one of the most decorated fighters in Thailand's history, a success that Kru Diesel measures by the escalation of fight purse money that Petchboonchu was able to command as he rose to the top; that's how it's quantified in the minds of trainers, fighters, and news media. 

In the past year Kru Diesel left F.A. Group and moved up to Singburi, near to his parents who were ailing. He lost his father, unfortunately, but he was able to be with him in his last days and has elected to stay in Singburi as the head trainer of the Or. Khamin / Fight House Singburi gym. His currently stable of fighters is pretty impressive, pulling the Muay Khao specialist Sirichai Klongsuanpluresort out of retirement (formerly Tanadet Tor. Pran49, in the Muay Thai Library watch it here), and two other established but recently inactive male fighters. And, by luck of proximity Sawsing Sor Sopit whose gym is quite near, almost down the street, has been training with Kru Diesel in preparation for her fights on Channel 8. She brings her posse with her, including her husband Yodsaenchai, and top-name Thai female fighters who also fight on those promotions: Fahseetong, Petchsaifaa, Dangkongfah (recent WBC World Champion at 115 lb). It's an exciting time because Kru Diesel's magic is building Muay Khao stars and he's got a whole gym of them at the moment. Not all those names are Muay Khao fighters, but you can see how his training has influenced their successful fights lately; and having strong fighters working together in a gym always just makes those fighters stronger as a whole. It feels like this gym is on the rise with Kru Diesel at the center of it.

In this session I got to work with Kru Diesel and Sirichai (Tanadet), which is just an extra piece of wonderful. In our first session together Kru Diesel had started me out clinching with one of his fighters at FA Group. He just lets it go freestyle, sees what I can do, sees where I can do better or if am unable to solve something, then jumps in to lend a technique or correction. This is how clinching should be taught, when it is taught; not piece by piece, not in drills, not in a step-by-step guide, but through playing and finding and losing dominance without stopping. That's what you see at the beginning of this session. I just happen to be doing it with one of the best clinch and knee fighters in Thailand at the moment. Kru Diesel's padwork is similar in that you just do the work. Holding like this takes a very experience hand and its a treat to train under. He stands at a distance that's good for Muay Khao and then just drifts slightly out of it to make you extend your weapons or come forward, or he stands his guard and shows your body how to stay in that distance without snuffing yourself or jumping out of range yourself. The best padmen shape you, non-verbally, by how they interact with you day in and day out on the pads. (Bad padmen do, too, unfortunately; so if possible work with the good ones!)

In that vein, one of the incredible things about this session is that it's one of the special ones that show just how good top Thai padmen can be when they've been actively been building young top fighters for years. Some of what the Muay Thai Library does is document these great trainers. It isn't just about techniques you can grab for yourself, bettering you as a fighter, but it's also about the art of pad holding. Coaches and trainers around the world can benefit from this long form documentation. Recently we were able to capture the pad holding of Chatchainoi who I count as maybe the best padman in Thailand (watch it here: #112 Chatchainoi Chaoraioi - The Best Padman in Thailand (64 min) watch it here) The Kru Diesel sessions, and a few others in the Library are right up there with that one, showing how Thai trainers shape fighters over time, developing rhythm and a sense of distance...and techniques. In them are some of the deeper principles of Thailand's Muay Thai.

What to Look Out For:

1) Turns in the Clinch: Sirichai is a locking clincher, I'm a locking clincher. When we get in a position that's either kind of even in terms of who has an advantage or where it's difficult to score from, you take the lead by turning your opponent. Kru Diesel's turn is consistant, pretty fail-safe, and fast. He does this from a disadvantageous position of having outside grip and he pushes rather than pulls (Karuhat teaches this in the Muay Thai Library). Important is how he flexes his gripping hand/wrist/forearm toward himself and pushes that shame side shoulder toward his hand while starting the turn. So he kind of crushes his opponent into his shoulder/chest and they roll inward. He ends up a bit in their blind spot and landing a knee or elbow from there is pretty much unprotected on the part of the opponent. You can do this from both sides and you can do this often. Don't spin yourself out too far, flexing that bicep as you turn with the shoulder up with keep you close.

2) Hands on the Shoulders, not the Biceps: I have this problem, even though I correct other people away from it all the time. Don't grip or rest your gloves on someone's biceps. Keep them pressed down into the crooks of the opponent's arms, or go all the way up to the shoulders. An inside position is best to protect against elbows, have greater ability to move your opponent, and you can slip up to grab the neck more easily. However, Diesel shows what to do when you have outside position as well, angles  to break your opponent's ruup or land an elbow.

3) The Order of Things: this isn't expressed verbally, really, but Kru Diesel points to Sirichai and says that once he gets his lock in, it's just too hard to solve. So the better idea is to not let him lock in the first place. This is the a) b) c) ranking of importance for almost any fight style, but absolutely in the clinch, and these rankings are emphasized by Kru Diesel, Kaensak, and Dieselnoi: a) defend; defend against the point, the lock, the grab, whatever your opponent is trying to do, stop them from doing it first; b) technique; if the opponent gets the lock, lands the kick, gets away from you, locks you out of a position, use a technique to solve their position; c) power; if you didn't defend fast enough, they got it and your technique is leaving you either still in an inferior position, power your way out of it. That's the last resort, but many folks with moderate to high experience in clinch actually put that one first.

4) Padwork: watch his amazing distance control in padwork. He keeps everything at the range a forward fighter is trying to get to, which allows you to access all vocabulary of weapons from that range, but you have to make adjustments with balance in order to be continuous. Then he'll move back or forward, forcing you to access different weapons to keep the opponent in that spot, rather than chasing forward or backing out to recreate the range. It's a philosophy of you move, not me.

5) The Leg Tap Trip: I love this trip and I have a hard time getting it, but when I do get it I love it even more. It works best when you're at a neutral position with your opponent, neither of you pushing forward too much. It relies mostly on timing, so drilling it is fine to get the feeling, but actually executing it requires timing more than anything. When your opponent is kneeing, you rip their upperbody toward their standing foot and they twist out. It's excactly that, but if the opponent is on 2 legs, you force them on to one by just tapping your knee into their thigh and pulling them in the opposite direction.

6) The Adjusted Wall of China: we call it this and probably some other people do, but it's a position where someone who doesn't want to be kneed lays their shin across the font of both thighs or the hips of their oncoming opponent. It stops knees and can make the opponent look desperate or inept if they keep driving forward and can't get untangled. The downside is there are a few solutions to it that are quite easy: step back; scissor your arms pushing the knee of the leg that's up and the shoulder, flipping the person; or just grab the heel, back up to stretch the person out and land a very visible point. That's the solve for the person being barred. For the person wanting to use the bar, Kru Diesel adjust so that you don't cross both thighs, but rather put your shin on the inside of the front leg thigh only. Very effective, can't be knocked over from it.

7) Clinch Rip from a Lock: this is a really important weapon to have in your arsenal as a locking fighter. When you lock, you can score and hurt and immobilize your opponent, but you are always susceptible to solves. Everything has a solve. It's very, very hard to get out of Sirichai's lock, but if the opponent stops fighting it the ref might come save him. One really good solution is this rip from within the lock. You can do it before the opponent tries to throw you off from the shoulders, so you beat them to the dynamic disengagement; you can do it when they try to score with a knee; or you can do it when you're done sucking their life force out of them and want to make a big dramatic movement that will launch you way into a lead. It's a tight twist from the lock, pull away from whichever side your head is on.

8) Escaping Tall Fighter's "Smoosh Face": taller fighters have a great option in the clinch which is to extend their arm and cross your face with their palm. It puts you in a terrible position, aesthetically, but it also leaves you wide open for some damaging knees. Kru Diesel shows how us shorties can move out of that position pretty easily/quickly by looping the extended arm we have around the extended arm that's pushing our face and turn it into an arm lock. Sangtiennoi teaches the tall person advantage of the face smoosh, Namsaknoi teaches a similar arm lock escape.

Kevin's Fine Art Photographs from this session

these are just a few of the photos. See the rest of them and read his written & photo essay on training in Muay Khao with Kru Diesel here, thinking about the art of the clinch: 

The Art of the Clinch 

Sessions I referenced, or on related themes you might want to study:

#77  Kru Diesel F.A. Group #1 - The Art of Knees (84 min) watch it here

Perhaps no single kru has had more success teaching the Muay Khao style than Kru Diesel. From Fighter of the Year Yodwicha, to the most decorated fighter Petchboonchu, his students disabled the elite Muay Femeu tacticians with ease. In this special session you learn the secrets of his knees and clinch, in real time breakdowns and elucidation.

#56 Tanadet Tor. Pran49 (Sirichai) - Mastering Long Clinch (63 min) watch it here

This is one of the most interesting and, if mastered, dominant clinch positions one can use, and the entire session is devoted to it. I filmed with young Long Clinch master Tanadet, and discover all the small refinements he created that turned what for many fighters is just a transitional position, into an entire system of attack. This is a rare session, capturing a little known and used clinch system.

#112 Chatchainoi Chaoraioi - The Best Padman in Thailand (64 min) watch it here

Called The Man of Stone when he was a Golden Age fighter at the Derjat Gym, today he is the best padman in Thailand, as far as we have experienced. Learn what makes his padwork so effective, and the forward, hardnosed Muay Thai style that he teaches.

#8 Sangtiennoi Sor Rungroj - Advanced Clinch (52 min) watch it here Sangtiennoi sadly has passed, RIP

The Golden Age Lumpinee and Rajadamnern Champion, a legendary Muay Khao fighter who fought all the greats instructs on the finer points of clinch technique. Small differences that make big differences. Advanced tips on the swim-in and turn, and the importance of going from long distance techniques to short distance grab and lock.

#65 Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn - Sharking The Angles (67 min) watch it here

The Emperor. Fighter of the Year in 1996 and 6 years undefeated as Lumpinee Champion, one of the greatest fighters ever teaches his incredible edge-attacking style. He shows how he is always one step ahead of his opponent, setting them up in a constantly evolving attack.

#20 Karuhat Sor Supawan - Switching To Southpaw (144 min) watch it here

2x Lumpinee Champion Karuhat Sor. Supawan in this epic video posts installs a limited Southpaw core which leads to developing high level ideas found in his switching style: tracking and attacking the open side, watching for and dictating weight transfer. This is the blueprint of a legend's acclaimed fighting style.

#15 Yodkhunpon "The Elbow Hunter" part 2 - Escapes  (48 min) watch it here

Part 2 of my session with one of the most feared elbow fighters of the Golden Age, Yodkhunpon Sitraipom, The Elbow Hunter of 100 Stitches. Lots of fine details in this one, escapes from clinch locks, turns and catches. Best is his floating, gentle style that also holds such violence.

#76 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 4 - How to Fight Tall (69 min) watch it here

There several sessions with the King of Knees in the Muay Thai Library, this is the fourth, but this is the first one where he gets the chance to teach a tall, long fighter like he was. If you are a tall fighter this is the session you don't want to miss. He is arguably the GOAT, an in this session he unfolds his entire fighting system of knee fighting pressure and distance control.

#99 Yodwicha Por Boonsit 3 - Spearing the Middle, Fighting With Rhythm (66 min) watch it here

Yodwicha won (co) Fighter of the year in 2012 as one of the most dominant Muay Khao fighters Thailand has seen, and then made the transition to K1 style kickboxing oriented promotions and became a powerful Muay Maat puncher. In fact he has all the tools, all the distances, and is currently the WBC World Champion at 154 lbs. He teaches how to put knees and hands together was well as some very important bagwork insights.

#42  Boraphet Pinsinchai - Muay Khao Fighting Techniques (50 min) watch it here

Kru Ten is probably the best Muay Khao (knee fighting) private in Thailand, and one of the best in the Muay Thai Library. He not only is expert at clearly illustrating techniques, he has a perfect energy pace in his instruction.