Sports and the culture around them are a bit different in Thailand, as compared to the US. The only real sport that people coalesce around and have favorite teams for is football (soccer). There are a few other sports that people like to play recreationally, like volleyball, dtagraw, and futsal. But perhaps the sport that Thailand is most famous for is muay thai.
Muay thai is a form of martial arts and is known as the combat of eight limbs, referring to the use of fists, elbows, knees, shins and feet. The sport grew out of the style of fighting used in combat and traditionally did not use gloves (which fed into an old Thai saying referring to unprotected sex, “Real Thai men box without gloves,” which was combated by the family planning efforts and focus of Mechai Viravaidya).
Muay gained much of its popularity in the mid-19th Century. King Chulalongkorn, a king who was as revered as the current monarch, was a huge fan of the sport. This prompted training camps to open that would adopt boys as fighters and where royal scouts would go in search of fighters for royal matches.
Just before Thailand became a constitutional monarchy, King Rama VII began to make standardized rules for muay: referees were introduced, rounds were timed, gloves were worn – first in fights against foreigners and then after a death in the ring attributed to the knotted ropes wrapped around the knuckles of fighters, in Thai fights as well. Then in the early ’90s, as the martial art gained international popularity, amateur and professional governing bodies were established, and as of 2012 had over 70 member countries.
There are a number of different moves used in muay thai with each one having a name, but typically use of kicks and punches happen when the opponents are standing and apart from each other and the use of knees and elbows come into play when the players are clinched together. The moves are performed using the full body, and gain most of their power from the rotation of the hips. There is heavy emphasis on using the shin as the point of contact for blocks, as opposed to the foot which has many small, easily broken bones.
This past weekend I got to experience my first taste of muay thai. My school hosted a fundraiser disguised as an anniversary celebration, which included singing, dancing, a movie on the lawn and muay thai. The boxing was by far the biggest draw. I moseyed up to the ring and took it all in: the sweat droplets flung from the boxers’ bodies as they moved, the sounds of a well-landed kick, the grins of the boxers who knew they were doing well, the pre-fight prayer rituals, the cheers and groans of the crowd as each strike landed, the look on the young men’s faces when they were knocked to ground and unable to continue, the quiet and humble surrender of a boxer who knew he was bested and danced around the ring with his opponent to run out the remaining time of the round and match. It was all very exciting. Check out the pictures:
