Thailand Pinsinchai - Attacking Shell (62 min)

Thailand Pinsinchai is a trainer at Santai Muay Thai in San Khampaeng, just outside of Chiang Mai.

Kru Thailand is one of these men who has refined his style over the years of his retirement from fighting but active time as a trainer. It’s like stock left on the stove at a low simmer - it just gets more potent and rich as it goes.  I in shorthand call it an "attacking shell" because of the beautiful, closed, aggressive, balanced Muay he teaches, but of course it is much more than that.

 TIP BOX if you want to show your appreciation you can send gratuity directly to Kru Thailand, $5 or more via PayPal to the address sylvie@8limbs.us, please in the "add a note" section specify "for Kru Thailand".  I will transfer the funds.  Go to PayPal now.  

When I arrived at the gym Thailand had no real idea of my level of experience, so it’s kind of amazing that the very first thing he did - after walking me through how to move forward and backward - was work on elbows. Elbows are often treated as an additional weapon by instructors, but for Kru Thailand they seemed immediate and central to his frame, the posture and guard base of what he teaches. A lot of what I’ve learned from these masters of Muay Thai in my years here has been to utilize longer weapons first, then work your way in for the clinch. That’s brilliant and makes sense, and that’s also what Thailand was after. But his method of teaching is from the inside out - you start close range with elbows, move to teeps and knees and kind of “zoom out” as you go. For me, this method means that’s how Thailand thinks. He wants to be inside and forward. He has this incredible lean into his elbows and kicks, plus he told me more than once that you have to step on every strike, so this proximity is the good stuff. By starting with elbows and working your way out, Thailand is essentially saying, “this is where you want to be - feel that - then we’ll work on how to get here.”

In an interview with Siam Fightmag, Thailand identifies his style as being Muay Buek, which is a forward style with lots of strikes (generally speaking). You can see that in his teaching style now, in his disposition in general. He doesn’t give space at all, including to the bag, and his compact and tight forms are just completely void of excess movement. His style is sculpted, having carved away any unneeded movement or energy. At one point in the video he shadows blocks and then elbows as he moves toward the camera a little bit. It’s so beautiful and smooth, his knees and shoulders working together like he’s floating. He’s not “explosive” so much as that he just walks through his opponent, like punching through a door in order to get through it. But he’s not a brawler or blind to the fact that you can’t always move forward; every time he had me move backward he would emphasize timing, so you go back and back and then choose your moment to plunge forward and hit your opponent with a double-impact strike as they keep following you. This is classic femeu sling-shot, or ocean-wave rhythm. He even did this exact thing on the bag as it swung back toward him at the end. The last 5 minutes on the bag is some of my favorite stuff, because it demonstrates his style and movements in such a pure way.

Some of the things to watch for in this video:

1. Keeping the guard at eyebrow level (to protect from elbows) and slightly away from the face and body, but relaxed enough to move into a solid block at any moment.
2. The lean forward to drop into the strong-side elbow, while keeping the front hand in a tight guard for balance and protection.
3. Reaching across to your opponent’s opposite shoulder on knees, both as a block and to pull them into the knee.
4. Pivoting on turns and then driving in the knee - keeping the gripping arm bent for better control.
5. Turning the hip in a bit on a front teep, staying square on a back side teep.
6. Using your own body weight to control a double-inside arm control in the clinch; how to do a trip off of that position.
7. Bringing your head off-line on a kick. This is very “Pinsinchai” style in form, but Thailand has me throw my arm down for torque, whereas some other Pinsinchai fighters prefer to put the arm straight out with the hand in the face of your opponent. Either way is pretty similar when the head comes off-line the way Thailand teaches me here.
8. Shadowing blocks and elbows - watch this part on repeat as much as you can. It’s so good.
9. How to use the bag to work on spacing and timing.

Thailand Pinsinchai is a trainer at Santai Muay Thai  in San Khampaeng, just outside of Chiang Mai.  He is a former Lumpinee and Rajadamnern champion.