Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn - How to Fight Tall (69 min)

The above session is with a guided audio commentary, you can also watch a commentary-less version (here), so you can choose between two!

This is a unique session in that it's a glimpse into Dieselnoi's style of instructing private lessons (which he's had much practice in since staying at my gym 3 days per week for the past 6 months, advising at regular training and offering private sessions), but it's also a kind of explication of how to fight like Dieselnoi - the "Art of War" as written by the King of Knees, in a way. In past Muay Thai Library sessions I have been the subject. It is absolutely not true that you have to be tall to fight like Dieselnoi, it can work on any frame, and I definitely have successfully employed things he's taught me effectively in many fights, but it is something special to watch him teach a tall student, how to fight tall.  In this special session I'm not the primary student, rather, Kero is being taught and I'm translating and explaining in real time as Dieselnoi - who is speaking Thai but, as someone who speaks Thai, he practically has his own language... it's taken me a while to also "speak Dieselnoi." Kero is a great student for Dieselnoi because they have similar builds, so his ideas and tactics and techniques hang on her just right, and perhaps become more clear.  She is an an intermediate student with about 8 fights, and has a real love for the Muay Khao style. Additionally, Kru Gai is floating around to be a padman during moments when trying out these techniques and methods occur. Kru Gai is also in the Muay Thai Library and is a wonderful session, so it's kind of like a cameo in a Marvel movie or something.

Dieselnoi likes to give his students a lay of the land: this is how you solve each style. If you face a puncher, fight like this. If you face a fellow knee fighter, do this. Against a kicker, do this. But before any of those things, above all else, he makes very clear the Muay Khao ethic: of all the styles, Muay Khao must train the hardest, get the most tired, be the toughest. Strong legs, strong core, strong arms - you're just strong and relentless.  Of great importance as well - maybe most important, and made possible by your strength - is never allowing your "roop" to break. This means your posture, or your image as a fighter. You don't wiggle or wilt or bend. You're upright, tall, and poised.

If you ever go to a fight where Dieselnoi is invested in the fighter, he'll be screaming at top volume, all throughout the fight, "teeeeeep!" It wasn't until a few days ago that a full fight of Dieselnoi (vs Samart) became available online, against a top opponent. I was amazed, and I don't know why, at how much he teeped. He uses it as a timing mechanism, to kind of sneak in his strikes or back his opponent into the ropes. But the interesting bit is how he emphasizes where to teep (a puncher gets teeped in the chest, a kicker gets teeped low), and even as a tall fighter you don't want to "reach" with the teep because it's too easy to bat it away.

There's also a great deal of strategy, way beyond the "just go in and knee" that it appears like when he's turned his thresher on somebody. He teaches how to track the open side. He shows how to use the front side weapons to set up for the power side, by forcing your opponent to turn. How to let your opponent go first, so you don't get countered, and either make them hurt themselves on your body (his low kick blocks are awesome; his knees to a kicking leg's hamstring is awesome) or you counter while they're striking and let your reach win. That's why seeing Kero learn this makes a lot more sense than someone my stature... I don't win the reach game, but the timing is exactly the same as a "hurt you more than you hurt me" counter for someone small, like me.

Dieselnoi teaches Kero how to knee the corner of the ring, which is something she does every day already, learning it from me and from Dieselnoi himself at the Muay Khao Summit last year. But even those of us who do it every day miss these little details. He shows her how to slam the knee up, like how an uppercut goes through the target a bit. And I understood more than ever how the height of these practice knees are training for fatigue. At any given moment, whether there's a technique or strategy being taught in tandem, Dieselnoi is above all else always teaching heart.

Study the other Dieselnoi Muay Thai Library sessions here:

Dieselnoi (1982):  #48 Dieselnoi Chor. Thanasukarn - Jam Session (80 min) watch it here  AND  #30 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 2 - Muay Khao Craft  (42 min) watch it here  AND  #3 Dieselnoi  Chor Thanasukarn  - The King of Knees (54 min) - watch it here  

Watch This For Better Understanding

If you want to really understand what Dieselnoi is teaching, it's best to see it in action. Watch the recently found footage of Dieselnoi vs Samart in 1982. All his principles come together. This Library session above, and the Samart fight make a perfect pairing:

watch this fight here 

Kevin's Stills from the Session

If you enjoyed this session there are other excellent Muay Khao sessions in the Library you might also like. These are some of them:

#2 Joe Hongthong - Developing Muay Khao Style (87 min) - watch it here 

This is nearly an hour and a half of straight on Muay Khao instruction. Joe was a top stadium fighter and he's watched me fight for several years, so this is Advanced Level tweaking, as he teaches how to bring elbows and knees together, discussing the ways that dragging back can work for a forward fighter, and the differences with more technical (femur) approaches. Muay Khao is a technique unto itself. 

#4 Yodwicha - Clinch and Muay Khao (Knee) Specialist (35 min) - watch it here 

Yodwich shared the Fighter of the Year award as only a 16 year old, and his success in the Lumpinee ring made him one of the most feared clinch fighters in Thailand. In this session he goes through his favorite Muay Khao techniques, shows why he prefers side-attack locks, and turns. 

#10 The Clinch Techniques of Yodwicha - Session 2 (34 min) watch it here 

This is my second session with Yodwicha, you can see the first further down below. This one really gets into the specifics of clinch technique and defense. One of the best clinch fighters in Thailand, co-Fighter of the Year, sharing his unique attack style.

#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. 

#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.

#41  Samson Isaan - The Art of Dern Fighting (64 min) watch it here 

To "dern" in Thai is to "walk", which means basically to just come forward no matter what, to create a relentlessness. Voted Fighter of the Year in 1991, Samson Isaan was one of the great Dern Fighters of the Golden Age, and in this session he shows his forward pulsing techniques which are meant to just overwhelm his opponent. Also a great session for pressure Southpaw fighters. 

#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.

you can browse the full Muay Khao archive here 

TIP BOX: if you are inspired by what you see and want to show added appreciation you can send gratuity directly to Dieselnoi. Every time I send these extra donations and thank yous the Krus are really touched. Just message $5 or more via PayPal to the address sylvie@8limbs.us, please in the "add a note" section specify "for Dieselnoi". I will transfer the funds, and cover any extra fees.

KRU FUND: additionally, 10% of the net of all Patreon pledges go into my Kru Fund, and is directed back to the Krus and ex-fighters who have helped make this documentary Library possible: http://8limbs.us/muay-thai-thailand/starting-the-kru-fund