This is the only video I’ve been able to find of my trainer/kru. He comes in at 1.46 and at 1.54 gets KO’d.
When I saw this, it wasn’t the KO that I took great note of, it was how hard he tried to get up.
His fight name is Sataban Tor Ratonakiet, nickname Gai and he never won a belt. Belts are cool, but not having one doesn’t define you as a less than great fighter in my opinion. Neither does getting knocked out on YouTube. I equate it to assuming all the smartest kids got the best grades in school. Granted, some of them did, but not all of them. And realistically, fighting is like anything else, we all get knocked out eventually. But do we all stand up?
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Read the previous entry, The City – Buriram, Isaan, here.
Read the next entry, Beginnings – The Kru II, here.
I like this post.
“fighting is like anything else, we all get knocked out eventually. But do we all stand up?”
I love the way you write. What makes your writing extraordinary is your consideration and understanding of what is at work in fighting, training, learning, seeing, etc.
I’ve found it hard to express to westerners (I’m in the USA) what it is to fight because you love it, regardless of one’s record or objective accomplishments in the context of wins, titles, belts, or “level” – as if there are colored belts in Muay Thai, as there are in Karate or Jiujitsu. Your expression of belts being akin to grades in school as representation of one’s intelligence or capacity is beautiful and profoundly accurate from a fighter perspective (at the very least an “undecorated” fighter perspective) and I suspect is easier to understand for non-figther folks who have no concept of fighting or training without objective affirmations.
it’s funny, this morning i trained with a new kru. first time. later we were talking about certain thai fighters and he said to me, i’m not a champion, but i know how to teach. he is 100 percent dead on. he picked out tiny nuances and repeatedly corrected the small. i truly gained training with him today. it’s unfortunate so many people only value titles, etc. not all people have the same opportunites – whether that means promotional power or even just being set up in consistent fair fights (weight and skill level for those non nak muays reading this). on either end of the game – ie. set up to lose or in my opinion, worse, set up to win (what are you going to learn from that?). in addition, because someone doesn’t have the same skill set as someone else, it doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them. sometimes, it’s just one, small thing that truly impacts your expression in the ring. i’m all about gaining knowledge and integrating what i learn into my approach to muay thai.
i really appreciate your imput sylvie. thank you.