"Kru Pot" Bunpot Sor. Boonyaa - Muay Khao Depth (63 min)

Kru Pot is a wonderful teacher. At the end of our session, Kevin had him just shadow for a couple minutes for the "Slow Motion Capture" project we're doing, and just watching his knees in shadow thrilled me. In fact, it's what he'd started out with on his corrections, this focus on balance and power. Yodkhunpon makes a big deal about this as well: if you can throw your knees in shadow, you can throw them in a fight. Likewise, if you're off-balance in shadow, you can't throw anything in a fight. Kru Pot is economical, and very punctuated in his movements. It's beautiful. He's also really good at finding the exact point that's causing issues of balance or power in what you're doing, just these minor corrections like where you foot landed, how high up on your toe you're going, or whether you're letting your arm be lazy.

Prior to this trip, I'd never had the opportunity to go down to the South of Thailand, but when that opportunity came I knew for sure I wanted to get Kru Pot into the Muay Thai Library. He is hands-down one of the best Muay Khao teachers in Thailand, despite not being very old. He was a fighter at Lumpinee and Rajadamnern and absolutely has a recognizable style in how he moves and how he teaches. I loved how, in the session, he constantly vacillates between offense and defense, teaching a counter and then the counter to the counter. If your opponent fights like this, do this. If they stand like that, do that.  He considers everything. He's thoughtful in what he's teaching and how he solves whatever puzzle an opponent puts in front of him. Something I've come to realize, being a Muay Khao fighter myself, is that it's a game of distance. You're battling over distance, whose distance you'll be fighting at, whose distance will win. I really appreciated how he covered so many different facets of how to win that game. 

I'd just come off of a session with Kru Diesel at F.A. Group, a man responsible for some of the top Muay Khao fighters in contemporary Muay Thai. The two men aren't similar. Their styles, while both Muay Khao, aren't similar. And I love that, because to mistake categorization for "simplicity" is foolish at best. Part of it is that Kru Diesel's experience is in building fighters, whereas Kru Pot's experience is closer to when he was a fighter. But that difference is beautiful. The variation and vast "vocabulary" of any given style - in this case Muay Khao - is one of the greatest things about the Muay Thai Library. You get to see so much of it by the disparities, differences, similarities and variations between all these different teachers.

Some Stills from Kru Pot as a Fighter

Some things to watch for in the session:

1) Balance: this is a major and primary focus in Muay Thai scoring and aesthetic. If you're off balance on a strike, or after a strike, it detracts from it in a significant way. Kru Pot immediately sees that I'm twisting on my standing foot, which is making my knees lose control on their impact point and makes it so I don't come back to start ready to fire again. This is a big thing for Muay Khao. In a forward style, you never throw just one strike, so coming back on balance and being ready to strike again is really important. How high up you go on your toe is one part of it, but not twisting is a bigger part.

2) "Yab Num, Teep Num": jabbing and teeping as a means to close distance for your knees is a huge part of how to separate the wheat from the chaff among knee fighters. The kind of dumb, kwai, "bull" fighters just run forward and try to knee, getting teeped off or countered or hooked or dodged. A thinking fighter teeps and jabs first, closing the opponents eyes, off-balancing them, forcing them to fire their shot first and countering. Kru Pot is the smart fighter, not the bull.

3) Trailer Hitch: I came up with this name from training with Yodkhunpon, who uses his hand on the back of your head or neck like he's "hitched a trailer" and you cannot - cannot - get away from him. Kru Pot does the same and shows how this is not only a way to measure your distance (if you can touch the head or neck, you're close enough for your knee to land), but it also keeps your opponent from getting away from you while you want to keep kneeing.

4) Timing as a Backwards Fighter: I loved this. At some point my own trainer, Kru Nu, specified to me that when someone raises their leg in a block to stop you from striking, you just wait for the leg to come down and then fire your shot as a leg kick. People who know this trick, it's harder to use against them. But people who don't know it, it's like your mind is being read. Kru Pot's version is when you're backing up and timing an opponent who is coming forward, kind of marching, with their blocks. You just time for right after the block and then fire the kick as that leg is coming down. Easy.

5) Teep Counters: how you bat a teep away, or catch it and pull it for a counter depends on which leg your opponent throws and which side you want to counter on. That's it. You catch the same, you parry the same, but you have to be ready to land to the open side.

6) Clinch Escapes: one of my favorite tricks was in the clinch, where Kru Pot shows how the placement of your opponent's elbows when they've got a lock on you allows you to figure out the escape. If their elbows are narrow, you just crush them inward - I love it.  

Kevin's Stills from the Session

Kru Pot and Saenchai

Below a link to the older video of Kru Pot crushing Saenchai in the clinch, which really shows Kru Pot's style. Kru Pot has size on Saenchai, and they are getting Saenchai ready for a fight so they are kind of shark tanking him, which explains the relentless, but it really is impressive just how much Saenchai is overwhelmed by the pace and the level of Kru Pot's knees.

watch the video here 

above, Kru Pot fighting in 2003 (in the blue stripe shorts) - watch it here 

If you enjoyed this session, and want to see more of the Muay Thai style in the Library, check out these sessions too. 

#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.

#23 Boraphet Pinsinchai - Muay Khao Mastery (64 min) watch it here 

Kru Ten (Boraphet Pinsinchai) lives and breathes the Muay Khao fight style, and in this session just unfolds a treasure of interlocking techniques, all of which express what I would call his "sticky" style. Trips, counters, locks, elbows the list is extensive, almost too much to fit into an hour.

#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.

#45 Langsuan Panyutapum - Monster Muay Khao Training (66 min) watch it here 

One of the greatest knee fighters who ever fought, 1987 Fighter of the Year Langsuan shows how an elite Muay Khao fighter of his day trained. This session is powerful on the basics that elevate the body and mind, at high repetition, allowing the relentless, pressing style that made Langsuan the fighter nobody wanted to fight.

#74 Samson Isaan 2 - Muay Khao & Western Boxing Excellence (59 min) watch it here 

In 1991 there was no fighter more of a force than Samson Isaan, who took Fighter of the Year then. His relentless style combining Muay Maat punching aggression with Knee Fighting pressure and clinch made him a wrecking ball. In this session discover what made this little fighter so impossible to handle.

#66 Kru Gai Petchrungruang - Proper Dern and the Impossible Trip (63 min) watch it here 

One of the great Muay Khao padmen of Thailand, Kru Gai teaches the proper, unabated but unhurried Dern (walking) attack of Muay Khao, and don't miss his incredible trip that feels almost impossible to defend. Not easy to master, but if you do it could make you unstoppable.

#77  Kru Diesel F.A. Group - 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.

You can also go to the bottom of this post and find the "Muay Khao" tag to go to all of the Muay Khao sessions in the Library, browsing them as you wish. 

Thank you to everyone who is helping bring this incredible archive of the men and techniques of Thailand to life!