83 Year Old Legend Arjan Gimyu Clips - Gimyu and the Thai Principle of Doh (ต่อ)
Arjan Gimyu and the Thai Principle of Doh (ต่อ), in his 6 decades of training and teaching an understanding like no other
above are clips from the full MTL session which can be seen here
The more we’ve studied and filmed with legends of the sport the more we’ve come to realize how much the Thai Principle of Doh (ต่อ), which is usually translated as “continue” is what underwrites so much of Golden Age greatness. Linked to Doh is the Thai emphasis on Rhythm (Jangwa), its how you continue, in what rhythm and tempo, far more important than the technical (mechanical) precision of strike choice or execution…because Doh and Jangwa are generative principles. They produce a creative muay that comes out of the deeper senses of the fighter. One can see how combination memorization (specific strikes determined in order to a more or less fixed rhythm), really goes against this deeper, generative sense.
Above is a collection of clips from Arjan Gimyu’s session in the Muay Thai Library (watch the entire session here and read about his career). Arjan Gimyu at 83 goes further back into the roots of Thailand’s elite Muay Thai than anyone else we have filmed, instructing as early as the last of the 1960s, and what he teaches here is just so significant as a key to understanding not only Golden Age Muay Thai, but also the way in which Western Boxing (which contains its own principles of Doh) melded with traditional Muay Thai. Both he and his fighters fought both in Boxing and elite Muay Thai. In the session, if you are attentive to it, Arjan Gimyu is cuing in the ways in which weapon choice and rhythm change allow a continuous Doh, which seamlessly incorporates Western Boxing at its preferred distance, folding it into a larger, more comprensive fight space as that Muay Thai has. In a little over 30 minutes of film he covers all the distances of Muay Thai, and the fluidity of a Western Boxing sensibility, moving Sylvie through each of the spaces, such that they can be creatively and electively transitioned into, notably with pace. Watch how Arjan Gimyu himself speeds up and slows down in his holds and directions. Also note the ways he instructs interruptive techniques designed to pin or delay the opponent, to cut into their rhythms, so that the rhythm "count" is on your time, not theirs. He is writing a temporal poem, in his actual instruction, pulling Sylvie along the rhythms he himself feels are desirable. This is over 60 years of bodily knowledge, many of his fighters fighting at the very top of the sport, decade after decade. This is a very important session because its pointing to the way that things should be sewn together in a single over-arching aesthetic, ultimately an aesthetic that needs to be grounded - generatively - in the fighter’s body. This is very far from practicing and perfecting individual techniques, or memorized series of techniques.
It is also quite incredible that Arjan still has this drive to teach and lead in these rhythms, to climb into the ring with the pads and gesture out the sum total of his knowledge. This is what the Library is about. - Kevin writing, with Sylvie input
The Lineage of Arjan Gimyu
These below are Muay Thai Library sessions of fighters who learned under Arjan Gimyu. We've documented 8 fighters/krus who incorporated Arjan Gimyu's principles in their own way. See if you can trace his influence in their principles:
#113 Arjan Yai Muangsupan - Golden Age Forms & Dynamics (119 min) watch it here
Arjan Yai gives a keyhole into basic Golden Age forms of Muay Thai that have not all been preserved over time. He was a padman and trainer in the famed Sor. Ploenjit gym when the great Kaensak was Fighter of Year twice. He still trains stadium Muay Thai fighters. In this session he starts from the ground up in a beautiful documentation.
#24 Kaensak Sor. Ploenjit - Explosive Defense (55 min) watch it here
Kaensak, the 2 time Fighter of the Year, teaches the keys to his explosive, defensive first style, showing how training timing and open side tracking can produce powerful counters. This is blueprint to one of the most unique and admired fighters of the Golden Age.
#137 Kem Sitsongpeenong 3 - Balance, Fakes and Calm (102 mins) watch it here or podcast here
Kem goes right to the heart of his beautiful, explosive style. It's all about calm and balance, and using that balance to create change of speed and direction, exposing your opponent to sudden attacks, set up by a mix of fakes & rhythm. What is being taught here can add to the effectiveness of any style fighter, filming at his beautiful gym in the Khao Yai mountains.
#53 Kem Sitsonpeenong 2 - Mastering Everything In Between (80 min) watch it here
With one of the great technique krus of Thailand, Kem Kem Muaythai Gym, in his gym in the mountains just below Khorat. A special session that details how to work on all the things in-between strikes. So much to learn in this 80 minutes. He's a special teacher.
#13 Kem Sitsongpeenong 1 - Building a System (52 min) watch it here
Kem, one of the best fighters of his generation, shows me building blocks of his system. He teaching a firm, defensive frame, and especially likes an upward elbow that explodes out of blocks, checks and fake teeps.
#159 Lakhin Wassantasit #2 | The Art of Close Power Fighting - Muay Maat (1 hr, 23 mins) watch it here
One of the most devestating small-framed punches in the Golden Age Lakhin shows this subtle things that made him so hard to handle as a fighter, keys to proximity, but not too much proximity. This session builds on the first session we filmed with him almost 6 years before. They make a perfect pair giving insight into heavy hands in traditional Muay Thai.
#75 Lakhin Wasantasit #1 - Boxing & Muay Thai Organized Destruction (76 min) watch it here
Lakhin was a beast, to stand in front of him was to invite disaster. Perhaps no fighter of the Golden Age was more feared for his hands. In this session he shows just what made him so intimidating, and how he developed a style predicated on inflicting maximum damage.
A training hint, something we have learned. When on the bag and you continually "reset" (often with an unconscious but habitual step back hop out) to restart your stack so to speak, you are defying Thai "doh". In shadowboxing when you stop and reset, begin again, you are defying Doh. Doh is about continuing, finding the strike, technique, step, shift, tempo change, distance change, the weight shift that continues from exactly where you are. You don't have to take it absurd levels, but the idea is to always continue, just as if when you learn a language when fluent you can keep speaking. You can even continue with silences or gaps.