Muay Boran is generally accepted as a generic term for the ancient styles of Thai boxing, a bit like the word Kung Fu. Just stumbled upon a website that breaks a fair few styles down describing basic stances and a slight history of them. Ive looked at it before but there is a lot more information now, seems pretty good. Good for reference for anyone looking into the older forms of Muay Thai http://www.ancientmuaythai.com/styles/muay_thai.htm
The Ajarn whos site that is is called Ajarn Villalobos,he is a very good teacher and nice guy(I have trained at his gym) he has a lot of knowlege on the older styles of Muay Thai and Krabee Krabong,anyone visiting Thailand for a decent period of time should go and see him.
There's an excellent documentary called Ong Bak that's a good resource on performing and applying Muay Boran techniques.
Jar Panom or Tony Jarr performs the genuine Mae and Luk mai in the movie Ong Bak(and he names them as he does them in one scene),he also performs his own stunts,do a search on you tube for demonstrations in Korea by him,very impressive.
The scene the night club were is were he names them I knew he had studied older styles (and his stunts speak for themselves! ) but i was always under the impression he added a lot of his own 'spice' to his moves in the film :heart: Ong Bak though
Here are a few pics of Tony Jaa training on the set of "Ong Bak 2" with his Muay Boran coach, Colonel Amnat Pooksrisuk
Actually if you pay real close attention to that scene the person who names the technique is actually Grand Master Yodtong himself in a little cameo role. Hanuman Kham Lonka (monkey king visits Lonka)
I'm a Muay Boran practicioner. I also visited that site before and I learned a lot. There is also a video of Tony Jaa while training for the movie Ong Bak. I love this Isaan mate.
Ong Bak 2 is awesome. Esp as I am a weapons specialist it was a technically awesome display. Ong Bak 1 on the other hand, was an awesome display of empty hand skills. I have studied MT for some time but it is mainly taught as a sport. Muay Boran seems to be more street orintated (in my humble opinion, and feel free to correct me if I am wrong guys). What I would like to know, having practised MT for some time, where in the Midlands UK would be a good place to seek out a good Muay Boran instructor? As I think Muay Boran would suppliment my FMA extremely well. I hope you are all well...
There are probably a lot of instructors who can teach parts of the older systems as part of a self defence program to suppliment their standard Thai skills but i know of none that teach only Muay Boran or any of the actual styles themselves. I wouldve thought Thailand would be your best bet to learn the traditional skillset although i would like to be proved wrong on this
Muay Boran does translate very well to self-defense. I also teach Muay Boran tricks to my MMA guys. Our UFC lad even went up to the octagon wearing a traditional mongkon for his first fight. As far as in or around the Midlands I am not so sure, you can try to see how close Kevin Lloyd and or Tony Moore are to your location.
You need to look for someone that teaches one of the older styles such as Muay Chaiya,It will probably mean several trips to Thailand. Most people in the UK teach Muay Thai Mae Mai and Luk Mai which are "tricks" so to speak,but they are only parts of the ancient methods,what you need are the connecting exercises/movements etc to make the training of the tricks/techniques worthwile. Google Eddie Quinn in Birmingham bro.
Cant promise Eddie can help you brother,but he is into the Thai Arts and he and I have had several conversations by e mail on Muay Boran so theres a chance.
If you need detailed help on the different systems and help on that in detail, try to get on to the vanishign flame newsletter list and continue Vincent Giordano, he is definitely a top practitioner in the thai arts and one of the top researchers in se asia systems, vanishingflame(at)gmail.com--well worth your time.
Sai Varley in Derby, at Studio 2000, runs a Muay Boran course. Master Lec, who teaches out of Liberty's Gym in Nottingham, is a Muay Boran teacher and I think he gives private lessons. He doesn't teach a Muay Boran class to my knowledge. I hope this is helpful, sorry for resurrecting this ancient thread, but I thought it might be useful.
Thanks for the link. I didnt know there were so many styles of Thai-Boxing. They all seem very different from each other. How would the "Modern" Thai-Boxing ring methods do against these older traditional styles?
