#46 Bluksek "Kru Noi" Sityodtong - Internal Knees & Elbows (59 min)

This is an interesting entry into the Muay Thai Library, because Kru Noi is one of the early fighters out of the legendary gym, Sityodtong – the oldest gym in Pattaya, and the home of Master Yodtong who produced the greatest number of champions in Thai history – but he has also been teaching in Singapore for the past 7 years, so his style as a teacher has been tailored and adapted to students quite different from who he might be training if he’d stayed in Thailand. He’d been a teacher at Sityodtong for years before going abroad, so he has layers of knowledge and skills that you can see him working through in the duration of this lesson. What I love so much about this entry to the Library, is that you can actually see him progressively peeling backwards into his earliest techniques, those taught to him as a young fighter. They’re from a school of thought about “painful defense” that isn’t as broadly taught anymore. It’s not rare, but it’s a minority now, for sure. 

The early part of this session is a little slow, might be a little boring for advanced students, but there are important basics as we get into the flow. The session gets better as it goes, so give it a little time. I’m very excited about the way it progresses; but it’s worth watching the whole thing through for the very reasons it’s an unusual session: it demonstrates layers of knowledge and experience. We start out with warm up and stretches, which are valuable to viewers who would like to have a regimen for warming up appropriately for Muay Thai training. And even though his padwork is quite simple at the start, the degree of his knowledge and experience is evident in how he constantly makes me pay attention to distance and his “combinations,” or perhaps a better way to say it is the way he coordinates what he’s asking for, are very fight-realistic. He stays in the hands for a bit to set up for more powerful shots or a finishing elbow or knee at close range. It flows together really nicely. If you’re a trainer, this segment is really worthwhile in informing good padholding.

The elements of this lesson I love the most are in the last 3rd. But they don’t suddenly appear at the end, they’ve been developed the whole time. Just as his padwork is “fight-real,” the way he works with distance all throughout is teaching his students how to stay in, never give ground, and come up through the middle with a solid defense. Watching from afar, you’d never think this is a “knee and elbow” lesson, but it is. He’s teaching me all the peripheral and super fundamental requirements for being able to stay close and land those close-range, inside knees and elbows. Additionally, the School of Thought that I mentioned about hurting your opponent with your defense is focused on in the last 30 minutes or so. I call his blocks the “Destroyers,” because this kind of blocking, where you’re not just nullifying a point but causing pain and damage to your opponent, effectively stops your opponent from using their favorite strikes. Got a kicker? Hurt them on their kicks and they’ll stop all by themselves. Kru Noi points out, if you hit knee to knee or shin to shin, you both hurt. If you jam your knee into someone’s thigh on a kick, they hurt alone.

What to look for:

1. Elbow counter on kicks: This is similar to what Chatchai teaches in one of his entries in the Library, which is stepping just inside someone’s kick and landing a hook to their open side. Kru Noi does the same thing, but favors the elbow. That’s awesome. It’s about timing – stepping forward takes the power out of the opponent’s kick by cutting off its trajectory, and you want to land close to their standing leg to get that elbow right on their jaw. Timing first, power by proximity.
2. Watching the legs: In the progression of learning how to counter with an elbow as an opponent is trying to throw a longer range kick or a knee, Kru Noi stopped telling me what he was doing and I had to see his weight shift and throw to the right side all on my own. I wasn’t looking in the right spot. He taught me how to watch his legs (Karuhat also teaches this) because they are a faster indication of where his strike will be than the strike is – if he’s stepping with his right foot, that’s carrying his left knee; follow the side of the step and meet it with your elbow. Super fast!
3. Low Kick Destroyer: Kru Noi points out that everyone goes after the front leg on low kicks, because it’s an easier target. They might kick to the outside or the inside, but they target the front leg. Instead of checking the kick, just tuck your heel up to your butt the way you would for a knee and jam it right into the opponent’s oncoming kick. It’s nasty, it’s fast, it hurts your opponent like hell. And if you land off of that block with a step, you can target the same leg with a cross knee right after. Oiiiiii!
4. Elbows on a punch: This is in the same school as the Low Kick Destroyer. You step toward the oncoming long punch and interrupt it with your elbows. This hurts, can do enough damage to the arm that later punches will be less effective, and you can land a wonderful back elbow off of it.
5. Catching Kicks with 2 Options: I like both these kick catches because they’re familiar, but with a twist. You can catch the kick and do that little side-step that takes the impact out, but Kru Noi emphasizes stepping at a 45 degree angle toward the standing leg of your opponent, which gets you really close. You end up snatching the leg kind of around the knee, but you’re so close to their standing leg that when you pivot (watch him, he pivots hard) they just spin and spin. Standard: step away from the kick to take out some impact as you catch it. Revision: keep stepping away from the kick and spin your opponent unto the moment you can crush them. And Option 2: don’t step away at all but stand your ground and check the kick. Standard: check the kick. But in this version you just pin the other side of the leg of your opponent, right there on your own shin, so you can throw their leg and spin them. Kru Noi’s face when he shows this technique expresses the whole point: “not hurt!” If you do the little step and catch the kick on your ribs, the step takes out some impact, but not ALL impact. Catching it on your shin doesn’t take your breath or hurt nearly as much as a “moderate impact” on the ribs does. And you’re still spinning your opponent for your counter strike, which is great.
6. Clinch Tips: Always swim inside, but if you can’t get in, push the face. That’s also pretty standard. But a lot of folks just push the face and think that’s a move. Nah, you push the face to create space, which allows you to swim into an inside position again. “In Thailand, have to inside,” Kru Noi says. He also gives great strategic advice about how clinching is pretty even between opponents, 50/50 - “you knee, I knee, you knee, I knee,” but the turns are what give bigger points and can win an otherwise even exchange. Turns aren’t “tricks,” they’re finishers.

The session ends with a short interview with Kru Noi, just telling a little about himself and his life. I want to start including these in the archive more, because the idea is to not just preserve the techniques, but also the men, because one's muay is always personal. 

If you are in Pattaya you can train with Kru Noi at his family's gym Winner Muay Thai Gym. His son-in-law Tum is already in the Muay Thai Library. It's worth watching his session too, because you can see and feel the differences between generations. 

If you enjoyed this session these are related others you might also like:

#25 Luktum Sityodtong - Positioning and Trips (62 min) watch it here 

Tum is an active international Thai fighter raised out of the famed Sityodtong gym. He shows the importance of positioning and timing in this session with a fantastic lower body system of tripping attacks towards the end. His muay is both physically close, but also evasive and tactical.

#39  Khorat Saknarin - Precise Tensions (97 min) watch it here 

The muay of Kru Khorat is kind of incredible. I've been in front of a lot of legends and krus but this hidden gem kru was just bristling with techniques and a dynamic, violent Muay Thai. And it felt like it could go on for hours. He's a kru who has thought a lot about his Muay Thai and probably sharpened it even after his retirement from fighting. This session is a treasure trove.

#22 Singdam Kiatmoo9 - Making the Basics Beautiful (71 min) watch it here 

Singdam provides perhaps the best progression through the basics I've yet filmed, the blueprint of his beautiful, effective style. This instruction is bottomless. Even after 5 years in Thailand there is a ton for me in this very close examination of powerful technique essentials. 

#13 Kem Sitsongpeenong - Building a System (52 min) watch it here 

Kem, one of the best fighters of his generation, shows me building blocks of his system. He teaching a firm, defensive frame, and especially likes an upward elbow that explodes out of blocks, checks and fake teeps.

Browse the full Library here