Asian Adventure

Art of Fighting: Hide-its the fight in the dog!

2010-01-18T20:00:00.001-08:00

A Lesson in Perseverance, or Proof that Talent Means Nothing
By Antonio Graceffo

Robert M. Clyne, host of “The Art of Fighting,” made this incredible video about his friend and loosing fighter, Hide, who lives in Tokyo. Hearing what Robert has to say about Hide, I came off lucky in my appearances on The Art of Fighting.

“Hide is what most people consider a looser. He works as a dishwasher. He is not very handsome. The police don’t like him. He dropped out of school. He has almost never had a girlfriend. He doesn’t have cool clothes or tattoos. He’s not very athletic, and he’s actually a pretty skilless fighter.”

“But Hide has heart. That is something you can’t buy and you can’t fake.”

Robert Clyne on “The Art of Fighting”

Out of all the episodes of “Fight Japan” and “The Art of Fighting” I relate to the Hide character the most. For some reason, certain people are just dealt a lesser hand from the start. Things are always harder on these people. But whether you have innate talent or not, life is all about what you, yourself do with it.

Watch: The Art of Fighting: Hide-its the fight in the dog!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOAmz-7PHDM

When the chips are down and the deck is stacked against you, when you have nothing left, remember that there is always a chance. There is always an “if”, the most powerful word on the planet.

Fail the first one hundred times but come back and win the hundred-and-first.

“If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;”

“If,” by Rudyard Kipling

Dream and push through, make your dreams a reality, and you have won.
The winnings are tallied at the end of the fight, not at beginning of round one.

Talent is the same as capacity. It means that all thing being equal, the talented person should find it easier to succeed. It doesn’t mean that he will. The white belt who never quits eventually becomes the black belt. And it has NOTHING to do with talent. Countless people write to me on the internet and tell me how they believe themselves to be talented language learners, or that they have this or that innate advantage for learning foreign language. And they may have a greater capacity or a more probable rate of success, and yet NONE of them speak eight languages. The vast majority haven’t mastered even a single second-language.

Talent should just make the trip easier and shorter, but you still have to complete it, which is the point that most people fail to see and the point which separates a looser from a winner.

There are countless people with lots of talent standing in bread lines.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."

 (John) Calvin Coolidge

And finally, no matter how badly you fail. No matter what advantages the other guy has, don’t let anyone take your dreams. Never stop dreaming. No one owns you, and no one has the right to dictate what happens in your head. You own your dreams.

Dream big, but then make your dreams a reality.

Dream a hundred dreams and complete two of them and you have doubled the success of the average person.

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”
T. E. Lawrence (from Seven Pillars) (also known as Lawrence of Arabia)

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Parts ( 1 - 8 )
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kleow4PEh_k

Robert Clyne, host and creator of “The Art of Fighting”, conducts an in depth interview with Antonio Graceffo, the Monk from Brooklyn. Beginning with his childhood in New York and tracing his family move to Tennessee. Antonio talks about his early years and how he first got into martial arts. In this extremely candid interview Antonio talks about his family and the events of his childhood which set the stage for his years of wandering and fighting in Asia.

Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kleow4PEh_k

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

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New video: Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon (Parts 1 - 4)

2010-01-12T21:17:00.000-08:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon (Part 1)

Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon), Antonio Graceffo trains at Vietnam’s first MMA and Muay Thai gym, K-1 Fight Factory. Instructor, David Minetti, the star of the recent Vietnamese action movie, “Bay Rong,” English title, “Clash.” The program at K-1 Fight Factory is incredible. Professional MMA fighters can train three times per day, once for conditioning, once for striking, and once for grappling. Antonio only trained half of one session and got tired.
Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_lv760R724

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXvdc5aVMQ

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U43HcikLHyg

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvC2ioVLcMY

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 2

David Minetti and his brother FX put Antonio througha rigorous MMA conditioning routine. The overall program; including conditioning, striking and grappling is the best one Antonio has found in Asia, so far. David explained to Antonio that while you may know how to box and do Muay Thai, you need to learn to do boxing and Muay Thai specifically for MMA. Fighting with no gloves on, you need to move your head out of the way every time, and you need to make every shot count.

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 3

Antonio Graceffo and David Minetti talk about the early days of MMA and how much the sport has evolved. David and Antonio spar and David painfully teaches Antonio lessons about keeping your chin down, your legs square and wide, and about moving out of the way.

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 4

At the K-1 Fight factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, David Minetti gets in the ring and smacks Antonio Graceffo around. David and his brother, FX Minetti demonstrate their amazing grappling skills.

Antonio Graceffo

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk2, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,training,gym,Vietnam,Vietnamese,MMA,muay,thai,kick,boxing,kickboxing,Saigon,ho,chi,minh,city,David,Minetti,k1,fight,factory,bay,rong,clash,rebel,fx

2010-01-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

New video: Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon (Parts 1 - 4)
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon (Part 1)

Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon), Antonio Graceffo trains at Vietnam’s first MMA and Muay Thai gym, K-1 Fight Factory. Instructor, David Minetti, the star of the recent Vietnamese action movie, “Bay Rong,” English title, “Clash.” The program at K-1 Fight Factory is incredible. Professional MMA fighters can train three times per day, once for conditioning, once for striking, and once for grappling. Antonio only trained half of one session and got tired.
Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_lv760R724

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXvdc5aVMQ

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U43HcikLHyg

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvC2ioVLcMY

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 2

David Minetti and his brother FX put Antonio througha rigorous MMA conditioning routine. The overall program; including conditioning, striking and grappling is the best one Antonio has found in Asia, so far. David explained to Antonio that while you may know how to box and do Muay Thai, you need to learn to do boxing and Muay Thai specifically for MMA. Fighting with no gloves on, you need to move your head out of the way every time, and you need to make every shot count.

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 3

Antonio Graceffo and David Minetti talk about the early days of MMA and how much the sport has evolved. David and Antonio spar and David painfully teaches Antonio lessons about keeping your chin down, your legs square and wide, and about moving out of the way.

Martial Arts Odyssey: MMA Saigon Part 4

At the K-1 Fight factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, David Minetti gets in the ring and smacks Antonio Graceffo around. David and his brother, FX Minetti demonstrate their amazing grappling skills.

Antonio Graceffo

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk2, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,training,gym,Vietnam,Vietnamese,MMA,muay,thai,kick,boxing,kickboxing,Saigon,ho,chi,minh,city,David,Minetti,k1,fight,factory,bay,rong,clash,rebel,fx

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Parts ( 1 - 8 )

2009-12-28T08:47:00.001-08:00

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk 1

Robert Clyne, host and creator of “The Art of Fighting”, conducts an in depth interview with Antonio Graceffo, the Monk from Brooklyn. Beginning with his childhood in New York and tracing his family move to Tennessee. Antonio talks about his early years and how he first got into martial arts. In this extremely candid interview Antonio talks about his family and the events of his childhood which set the stage for his years of wandering and fighting.

The interview is at times both humorous and painful, as Antonio talks about his past, his family, and his early struggles to complete his education and make good on the promises made to his deceased mother and grandparents.

“As immigrant children, we have it drilled into our heads. We know that grandma and grandpa sacrificed so we could be born in this country.” By succeeding in life, we can justify their suffering and poverty.

H. David Collins, of the American School of Empty Hand Fighting (ASEF) in Blountville, Tennessee was Antonio’s first martial arts teacher, the man who taught Antonio to fight and set the stage for his future adventures. Antonio’s grandmother was his first language teacher, who developed Antonio’s love of foreign languages and helped cultivate his interest in other countries and cultures.

Down and out, kicked out of college, having no money, no job skills and seemingly no future, a random meeting with a man who had been shot in the leg pirates eventually turned Antonio’s life around. Through the merchant marines and some help from his siblings, he finished college, in Germany, and went on to a professional career.

After leaving a successful career in America, Antonio embarked on his martial arts odyssey, which, at the time of this writing, has been going for more than eight years.

“In retrospect, the signs were there. It was obvious I was going to do something like this. And I think both my grandmother and David Collins predicted it.”

Watch, The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Parts 1 – 8.
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kleow4PEh_k

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 2
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t_zVi9IH0Q

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 3
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRODmkT6w5A

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 4
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkywKMP-cMk

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 5
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVAPb9FoR48

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 6
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxvX3nEhp_M

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 7
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEB8ikQ2y7k

The Art of Fighting: Brooklyn Monk Part 8
Watch it free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB3hSXAy3TI

Martial.arts,odyssey,interview,history,background,muay,thai,kick,boxing,kickboxing,martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,training,gym,Chaiya,Bangkok,Thailand,Chaiya,training,kick,boxing,box,lek,kru,Ajarn,Kridakorn ,Sodprasert,Ajarn,Lek,chayia,Robert,clyne,fight,japan,the,art,of,fighting,Collins,david,H,fire,water,American,school,empty,hand,fighting,of,the,ASEF

Brooklyn Monk: Pra Kru Ba The Muay Thai Monk

2009-12-28T08:46:00.001-08:00

Pra Kru Ba is a Muay Thai monk who rides horses on the Burma border helping hill tribe people and orphans from the war in Burma. In 2003 he took in Antonio Graceffo, his first foreign student. He taught Antonio the Thai language, Muay Thai, and Thai Buddhism. In 2009, Antonio returned to the monastery to see his old teacher. Many things had changed at the monastery. In the intervening years, Kru Ba had grown from being a renegade forest monk, opposed in many established circles, to being a popular, iconic figure, who receives hundreds of visitors per day. But, the relationship between student and teacher hadn’t. Kru Ba was excited to hear about Antonio fights and travels. Antonio was please to have even a few minutes with one of his favorite teachers.

Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
Pra Kru Ba The Muay Thai Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR2aNVVC4Xw

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,thai,Thailand,TMA,kick,kickboxing,boxing,chiang,mai,kawila,muay,MMA,Buddhist,religious,sangha,pedro,khru,villalobos,kru,ba,pra,prah,khru,bah,golden,horse,monastery,wat,acha,tong,chiang,mai,chiangrai,asia

Martial Arts Odyssey: Vo Co Truyen (Parts 1and 2)

2009-11-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

Hanoi, Vietnam, Antonio Graceffo seeks out the original Vietnamese martial arts form, Vo Co Truyen. Vietnamese martial arts competitor, Le Trung Linh invites Antonio to Quan Thanh Temple, where Teacher Bui Dang Vang teaches him the fighting applications of Nam Hong Son, a local style of Vo Co Truyen.

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Watch it for free on youtube.
Martial Arts Odyssey: Vo Co Truyen Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brElCuZaqGg

Martial Arts Odyssey: Vo Co Truyen Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHk1Vd22OZU

In Part 2:
Martial Arts Odyssey: Vo Co Truyen Part 2

Antonio Graceffo learns more of the Vo Co Truyen fighting applications with Teacher Bui Dang Van. Side kicks, face slaps, and groin strikes, Vo Co Truyen is very different from Muay Thai. Antonio meets Teacher Bui Dang Van’s first teacher and knocks forearms with a guy hanging around the temple.

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk2, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

Vietnam,Vietnamese,traditional,nam,hong,son,vo,co,truyen,le,trung,linh,bui,dang,van,quan,thanh,temple,kung,fu,wu,su,san,da,Chinese,CMA,china,muay,thai,kick,boxing,kickboxing,martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,training,gym,Chinese,shaolin,van

Brooklyn Monk in Asia: Cham Muslims in Cambodia (Parts 1 and 2)

2009-11-17T05:32:00.000-08:00

Antonio Graceffo has been writing about the Cham ethnic minority in Southeast Asia for years. Once the Kingdom of Champa ruled the Mekong Delta area, from Vietnam to Cambodia, and sacked the Khmer capitol. Eventually, Cambodian King Jayavarman VII defeated the Cham, whose kingdom soon went into decline. The Cham people were scattered throughout Southeast Asia. Today, many still live in Cham communities, speaking their Cham language, practicing their culture and the Islamic religion. Antonio has personally explored Cham communities in Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as a small Cham enclave in the Philippines.

Watch it fee on youtube
Brooklyn Monk in Asia: Cham Muslims in Cambodia (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhi0n3qMbeo

Brooklyn Monk in Asia: Cham Muslims in Cambodia (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Obajcrjgs

Brooklyn Monk in Asia: Cham Muslims in Cambodia (Part 2)

Antonio Graceffo meets with the Mullah of the local Mosque to get a more personalized look into the lives of Cambodia’s Cham minority and their relationship to the religion of Islam, as well as their relation to the outside world.

Antonio Graceffo is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn,” and is he host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts odyssey.”
Contact Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com
Send him email Antonio@speakingadvdenture.com

Antonio,graceffo,Brooklyn,monk,martial,arts,linguistics,odyssey,language,Cambodia,khmer,cham,islam,Islamic,muslim,minority,champa,Jayavarman,Kampuchea,krom,Vietnam,ethnic,from,asia,south,east,southeast

Martial Arts Odyssey: Tomoi Malaysia, Kru Jak (Parts 1 through 4 )

2009-08-20T08:23:00.001-07:00

Kru Jak tells host, Antonio Graceffo, about his own martial arts origins. He talks about his first teacher, who taught him Muay Boran on the Malaysian/Thai border. He goes on to demonstrate how the Malaysian blade techniques can replicate the elbow strikes of Muay Thai Boran.

Tomoi, A Malaysian word for martial art including Muay Thai and weapons. Kru Jak a former professional Muay Thai fighter and a recognized Silat Master learned the ancient art of Muay Thai Boran, as well as Thai and Malaysian weapons. He believes the Boran techniques are best in the fighting ring. He also sees the parallel between armed and unarmed combat, as he applies many of the same concepts with a weapon as without.

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Watch it for free on youtube.
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxvtRv50iY0

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H32EFh7W9eU

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU2swiMzPhU

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n4XRFR2BZY

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,guru,kru,jak,ottman,otman,muay,thai,boran,Malaysia,malay,Malaysian,islam,muslim,kung,fu,religion,religious,boxing,kickbox,kickboxing,cardio,fitness,selangor,silat,boran,silat,weapon,chaiya

Martial Arts Odyssey: Malaysia, Boxx Warriors (Parts 1 and 2)

2009-08-20T08:07:00.001-07:00

Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo travels to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he trains Muay Thai at Boxx Warriors. Owner Kirsty Dzulkarnain explains how she based her program on the best training and fighting she found in Thailand. Her Thai husband, Saksit Chosipasert, a Muay Thai Champion, and now a military officer, was also instrumental in helping her start Boxx Warriors. No pushover, Kirsty runs the gyms three locations herself, recruiting the best trainers from Thailand. “If they don’t train the people well, I send them home, back to Thailand.” said Kirsty.

The training and teaching at Boxx Warriors was some of the best Muay Thai training, Antonio has ever had. “Gyms in Thailand are convenient because they are always open and there are so many teachers available to take you on the pads, but they often don’t teach or give actual instructions. The trainers at Boxx Warriors really helped me with proper foot placement and body mechanics.” Said Antonio.

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Watch it for free on youtube.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Malaysia, Boxx Warriors (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4tOcStseo4

Martial Arts Odyssey: Malaysia, Boxx Warriors (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At86IRNL0Ho

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,box,Warriors,muay,thai,boran,Malaysia,malay,Malaysian,islam,muslim,tomoi,boxing,kickbox,kickboxing,cardio,fitness,selangor,silat,boran,ampang,box,warrior,warriors

Martial Arts Odyssey: Guru Azlan Silat (Parts 1 and 2)

2009-08-20T08:05:00.001-07:00

Islamic Kung Fu in Malaysia

Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo heads to Malaysia to explore the martial arts of this fascinating peninsula. The population of Malaysia is composed largely of Chinese, Tamil, and Malay people, all of whom have their own distinct brands of martial art. Silat is the Malay art, but each guru teaches his or her own, unique brand of the arts. Some focused on grappling, some on knife fighting, some on meditation, others on striking.

This was Antonio’s first foray into Islamic martial arts, and he welcomed the opportunity to learn about the religion and culture and share it with the world.

In Kuala Lumpur, Guru Azlan Ghanie teaches an internal style of Silat which stresses an complete exercise program, similar to Tae Chi, which works all parts of the body, the joints and muscles, and includes breathing exercises. At higher levels, students work with the curved Malaysian blade, the Kris (Keris or Kuris). Azlan also teaches simple, effective self-defense techniques which require little or no energy. The art is extremely good for women and older people, but the health benefits are invaluable for anyone and everyone.

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Watch it for free on youtube.
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKdqKAlkQk

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qRZwAnX7ZU

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,guru,azlan,ghanie,silat,keris,kuris,kris,Malaysia,malay,Malaysian,islam,muslim,kung,fu

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Malaysia, Kru Jak

2009-08-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

In Selangor, just outside of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Kru Jak Othman has created a Muay Thai based fitness program that appeals to students and young professionals who want to get super fit while punching out their frustrations.

Kru Jak is a former professional Muay Thai fighter and a recognized Silat Master. He knows that most “normal” people don’t need to learn the hardcore fighting skills, so he gives them fitness training instead. Those who want to learn Silat and fighting can attend special classes.

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NF7z8nqsYI

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,guru,kru,jak,ottman,otman,muay,thai,boran,Malaysia,malay,Malaysian,islam,muslim,kung,fu,religion,religious,boxing,kickbox,kickboxing,cardio,fitness,selangor,silat,boran

Muay Thai Chaiya

2009-08-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

It’s nothing like Muay Thai
By Antonio Graceffo

I recently discovered Muay Thai Chaiya, which I train with Kru Lek. It is an ancient form of Muay Thai, a codified martial arts fighting system, which students learn step-by-step from the ground up.

NOT ANOTHER SHADE OF MUAY THAI

Muay Thai Chaiya has almost no similarity to modern, sport Muay Thai. In fact, it is so different, that nothing I have done in the past, not my boxing, not my kick boxing or Muay Thai can help me in the ring with a Muay Thai Chaiya fighter. The body mechanics and the movements are so different than any other martial art that they have to be learned from scratch.

Normally we think a fight is a battle of opponents, not arts, but in the case of Chaiya, it is the art that wins.

I was so taken by the art, that I have done the unimaginable; at the age of 42, and after having studied countless martial arts, around the world, with various teachers, I have submitted myself to a master, Kru Lek, and begun training, as a beginner in a fighting art. It pains my ego to be in a class of children and women and people with not even a tenth of my martial background, and to see that ALL of them are better at Chaiya than I am.

Most will learn Chaiya for the art and for exercise and culture, but the ones who fight, fight extremely well. Chaiya fighters aren’t trying to develop muscles, physical strength or even toughness. Instead, they are practicing their drills and movements over, and over again until they are automatic, perfect. As a rule, the best Muay Chaiya fighter will be the one who logged the most hours practicing Muay Chaiya. It is pretty straight forward, cross training won’t help at all. You learn Chaiya by practicing Chaiya.

Interestingly, you don’t learn kicking and punching by kicking and punching. You learn the steps and movements. You do them a million times, and then start to slowly learn kicking and punching. After about a month of training, I was finally allowed to kick the bag, but it was obvious that I wasn’t ready. So, I went back to doing the steps and exercises.

With the exception of having to harden your shins, they don’t require toughness because they just don’t get hit very much.

All of their movements are based on a rocking horse. Their torso pivots they strike in one direction which sets them up for a strike in the other direction. They don’t leap like Tony Jaa and Muay Boran, but they hop. At first, I thought the hopping was part of showboating and I wasn’t interested in learning it. Now I understand that hopping is a way of changing balance and direction instantly, with no loss of motion. Hopping makes the fighter unbelievably fast. Kick with the left foot, hop and at the same time kick with the right foot, hop, spin and kick backwards. All of the while, the torso is rocking, taking the face and body out of the range of the opponent’s strikes.

When you strike a Muay Chaiya fighter, the only targets in range are his shins and elbows, which you really don’t want to strike.

When I first arrived at the Muay Thai Chaiya school at Baan Chang Thai, with Kru Lek, I thought the regimented series of excerises tthey did every session were simply to build strength, stamina, and balance. After a month of sparring, I realized that every exercise has a practical application. In fighting the Muay Chaiya guys, I see the exercises. In each of their movements in both offense and defense, I can see the specific exercises we practiced in class.

I did two “Martial Arts Odyssey” episodes about Muay Chaiya. Then I worked with Robert Clyne, of “The Art of Fighting,” to do an episode on the art. Afterwards, we realized we hadn’t done the art justice. Now that I have been training with Kru Lek, I realize the depth of the art. We are currently working on a much deeper, longer documentary to attempt to explain what is so special about Muay Thai Chaiya.

Here are links to my show, Robert’s show, and to trailers for the movie “Muay Thai Chaiya” which feaures Kru Lek’s leading student, Prawit Kittichanthira (Tae), who also appears in Martial Arts Odyssey.

Muay Thai Chaiya All links

The Art of Fighting: Muay Chaiya Fundamentals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU9XpW8x-Ek

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Chaiya Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_w0VsiMes

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Chaiya Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9mJxif18hQ

Muay Chaiya movie trailer: featuring my friend Prawit Kittichanthira (Tae) who I fight in my Chaiya videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tejWz439L4

Another trailer for the Muay Chaiya movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spQyrzcOdng

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

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Martial Arts Odyssey: Tomoi Malaysia, Kru Jak (Parts 1 through 4 )

2009-08-17T10:49:00.001-07:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Silat “Because of God” (Parts 1 and 2)

2009-08-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

Guru Dr. Zahalan Bin Man shares his Islamic martial art and his fascinating life philosophy of peace and gratitude with Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo. “We eat because of God. We drink because of God. We practice martial art because of God.” Guru Dr. Zahalan Bin Man wants people to remember how lucky they are that they can practice martial art, that they can walk, and speak, that they are not ill or suffering. He says that if we always remember to be grateful, we will be happier, healthier people.

In a Muslim community outside of Kuala Lumpur, in Selangor, Malaysia, Antonio explores a version of Silat, the many faced Malaysian martial art. Silat, as taught by Guru Dr. Zahalan Bin Man is a solid self-defense and combat martial art which uses a lot of stand up grappling. In Dr. Zahalan’s martial art, you never attack, but when your opponent attacks, you tie him up with his own limbs and kick him into submission.

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Watch it for free on youtube.
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGLs-Xqj39Q

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doy_-kudvv8

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Graceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

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Antonio Graceffo Featured on “The Art of Fighting: Muay Thai Chaiya Fundamentals”

2009-07-27T19:31:00.001-07:00

Living in Japan, Filmmaker Robert Clyne produced a show called “Fight Japan” for years. Now, he has moved his show to Thailand, where it is called “The Art of Fighting.” In this extremely well-produced episode, Robert meets up with Antonio Graceffo (the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey” to explore Muay Thai Chaiya, an ancient and extremely effective form of traditional Muay Thai, taught by Kru Lek.

Muay Thai Chaiya stresses strong defense, using elbows and forearms to wrap around, and protect the head. Defense can quickly convert to offense, however, when those elbows are used for vicious strikes and attacks. The Muay Thai Chaiya kick is something Antonio has never encountered before, as he struggles through a sparring session with one of Kru Lek’s leading students, Tae, a Thai movie star and professional fighter with a winning record. See Antonio get kicked repeatedly with the low, sneaky Chaiya kick, which cripples the legs and neutralizes even the strongest attack.

Watch it on youtube: The Art of Fighting: Muay Thai Chaiya Fundamentals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LXXlIcEpJo

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

Catch all of Robert Clyne’s “Fight Japan” videos on his youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/fightjapanrc

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Antonio Graceffo on Inside Martial Arts TV

2009-07-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Inside Martial Arts TV just did a documentary/interview with Antonio Graceffo, tracing his eight year journey through Asia, studying martial arts and languages, moving from country to country and studying with master after master. The Odyssey began in Taiwan, led to the Shaolin Temple, in China, and then on to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao, Burma, Korea, and the Philippines. Along the way, Mr. Graceffo published five books, wrote for major magazines, made several movies, appeared on TV and radio shows, and created youtube videos, documenting his travel.

The interview gives some insight into Antonio’s web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which now comprises more than 60 episodes, shot in twenty or more locations across Asia.

http://www.insidemartialarts.tv/video1.php

“I think Inside Martial Arts did a great job on this video, as they do on all of their stuff. They were one of the only media ever to cover Burmese Katchin martial arts, and that’s how we became acquainted.” Said Mr. Graceffo, AKA The Brooklyn Monk.

Antonio went on to say, “They made this Antonio guy seem so cool, I really wanted to meet him. But then, I have been a huge fan of Antonio Graceffo for years. The video made me want to tune in to Inside Martial Arts TV all of the time and also read a bunch of Antonio’s books.”

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Antonio,graceffo,martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,from,muay,bokator,lai,
tai,Thai,boxing,wrestling,mma,Taiwan.roc,cma,tma,mma

Martial Arts Odyssey: OLD SCHOOL Taiwan (Parts 1 and 2)

2009-04-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

In a small gym, in Tainan, Taiwan, Host Antonio Graceffo meets 62 year-old Chen Ging Hway a former champion of boxing and San Da (Chinese kickboxing). He teaches Antonio some old-school professional fighting and tells stories about the early days of Syo Bodji, free fighting, in Taiwan. Still active, Chen Ging Hway is an official in the Taiwanese Kudo association and trains Taiwanese fighters who go to competitions in Japan. Kudo is a new form of MMA from Japan which is sweeping Asia.

Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbCI0bbrh38

Martial Arts Odyssey: OLD SCHOOL Taiwan Part 2

Antonio helps train a young Taiwanese Tae Kwan Do practitioner who wants to fight San Da and MMA. Sixty-two year-old Chen Ging Hway a former champion of boxing and San Da (Chinese kickboxing) Teaches Antonio the painful wedge-hand strike that he used to use to lay his opponents out.

Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp2FZRx3SXo

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay,thai,kick,boxing,kickboxing,martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,china,Chinese,san,da,Taiwan,ROC,mixed,traditional,CMA,TMA,grappling,striking,clasic

Shan Medical Mission (Parts 1 and 2)

2009-04-18T19:11:00.001-07:00

“In Shanland: Medical Mission (Parts 1 and 2),” the latest video in the series In Shanland, shot in the war zone of Burma, by Antonio Garceffo is now available on youtube.com

Antonio Graceffo accompanies a volunteer medical mission on a visit to SSA headquarters in Loi Tailang, where they render much needed medical aid to the war orphans and abandoned children. Hear “Steve” an aid worker, with nearly twenty years of Burma experience explain the conflict. “What these children need most is the one thing no one can give them right now, freedom for their country.” Steve goes on to say, “I don’t believe it is wrong for them to fight for their country, to even kill for their country, but …even in the act of killing, you can be motivated by love.” Steve applies his life philosophy to the children of the conflict, “The most powerful force, historically is not hate, and it’s not brutality, which this regime is known for, it’s love.”

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO28ivXBD0Y

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo.

SSA,brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,thai,Thailand,thai,shanland,junta,shanland,rebel

Martial Arts Odyssey: Master and Soldier

2009-04-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Calling attention to the genocide with a martial arts video

Martial Arts Odyssey: Master and Soldier

In the war zone of Burma, Antonio Graceffo meets Mater Kawn Zanie, a legendary, undisputed master of Lai Tai, Shan Kung Fu, a soldier with decades of combat experience who often goes out on patrols armed only with Shan double swords, and no gun. The Shan have been fighting a defense war against genocide and oppression for more than forty years. Mater Kawn Zanie a veteran of countless battles said he training kept him alive.

Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_R65F3mxw

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,lai,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,kung,fu,thai,Thailand,TMA,SSA.thai,shanland

Martial Arts Odyssey: Practical Fighting (SSA) Part 1

2009-04-15T05:02:00.001-07:00

A detailed explanation of the practical fighting program: Teaching basic hand-to-hand fighting skills to soldiers, Host Antonio Graceffo goes back into the war zone of Burma, with the Shan State Army, a rebel group, protecting the Shan people from genocide committed by the Burmese government. Practical fighting is a basic program of 18 strikes, beginning with the head, and working its way down, using each part of the body as a weapon. The system is very basic and easy for people to learn, even if they have no martial arts background at all.

Using martial arts to educate the world about the plight of the Shan people of Burma. A lot of fight fans don’t get very involved with international politics. Hopefully featuring the Kung Fu of the Shan people will help call attention to the genocide in Burma.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clAPcgcSOeI

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,lai,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,kung,fu,thai,Thailand,TMA,SSA.thai,shanland

In Shanland: At the Battle Front

2009-04-15T05:01:00.001-07:00

by Antonio Garceffo

Host, Antonio Gracefo, takes us to the front lines of the world’s longest running war. He explains the history of the conflict and how the genocide is being fueled by the drugs trade. He joins a patrol of Shan soldiers, sent out to prevent the SPDC from killing Shan families who are returning to their village after celebrating Shan children’s day. Meet two young war orphans, and a woman who had to abandon her four-year-old child when she fled her village. Now, nearly ten months pregnant, it seems her second child is afraid to be born.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fiEUuqoWx4

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo.

SSA,brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,thai,Thailand,thai,shanland,junta,shanland,rebel

Martial Arts Odyssey: Military Fighting (SSA) Part 1

2009-04-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Military Fighting (SSA) Part 1

Calling attention to the genocide with a martial arts video

Martial Arts Odyssey: Military Fighting (SSA) Part 1

Host Antonio Graceffo, in the war zone of Burma, teaches practical military hand-to-hand fighting techniques to the soldiers of the Shan State Army, a rebel group, protecting the Shan people from genocide committed by the Burmese government. Practical fighting is a basic program of 18 strikes, beginning with the head, and working its way down, using each part of the body as a weapon. The system is very basic and easy for people to learn, even if they have no martial arts background at all.

Using martial arts to educate the world about the plight of the Shan people of Burma. A lot of fight fans don’t get very involved with international politics. Hopefully featuring the Kung Fu of the Shan people will help call attention to the genocide in Burma.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXO-jaiNbA4

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,lai,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,kung,fu,thai,Thailand,TMA,SSA.thai,shanland

In Shanland: Grandfather With One Leg

2009-04-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

“In Shanland: Grandfather With One Leg,” the latest video in the series In Shanland, shot in the war zone of Burma, by Antonio Garceffo is now available on youtube.com

In this new episode, Antonio Graceffo interviews an aged Shan man who was captured by the Burmese SPDC forces, held and tortured for four years, and then released to a life of slave labor. The Burmese soldiers used him as a human mine detector and porter, forcing him to walk in front of them through the minefields. Eventually, his luck ran out. He stepped on a mine and his leg was blown off. He lay for six days, suffering in the jungle, where the Burmese soldiers left him. Eventually, he was found by a Shan State Army patrol, who took him to the SSA base at Loi Tailang, where he lives today, playing grandfather to the many refugee children.

Inside the war zone of Burma, under protection of the Shan State rebel army, Host, Antonio Graceffo interviews refugees, soldiers, civilians, all victims of the junta that rules Burma. The Shan are one of Burma’s many ethnic minorities being subjected to genocide at the hands of heir own government.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JVx8CcK_w

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo.

SSA,brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,thai,Thailand,thai,shanland,junta,shanland,rebel

Martial Arts Odyssey: Bokator Radio

2009-04-05T03:28:00.001-07:00

The art was almost lost in the Cambodian genocide, but it is making a comeback in Phnom Penh, thanks to the efforts of Grand Master San Kim Saen.

Martial Arts Odyssey: Bokator Radio
See it on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

“Martial Arts Odyssey” host, Antonio Graceffo, was the first foreigner to ever train in or write about the Cambodian martial art, Khmer Bokator. Since his first story about the art appeared in “Black Belt Magazine,” five years ago, the art has been featured in various international TV shows and documentaries. Antonio’s own efforts to film the art and make it available to the world have been fraught with difficulties. The release of the full-length Bokator film he was involved in is two years behind schedule. The Six episodes of “Martial Arts Odyssey” he shot in Cambodia were done on a borrowed camera, in some strange HD format, which he has been unable to edit.

This compilation video was done from various Bokator clips, filmed over a period of five years, combined with audio provided by a radio interview Antonio did with DJ Julian of Love FM in Phnom Penh, during the filming of the movie, “Brooklyn Bokator.” Viewers will get a real treat as they will see the Antonio get fat, get fit, get fat, and get fit again, as the video clips were shot over a period of years.

Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Yb5LTYSFg

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To. Some of the video was shot by Tim Pek of Transparent Pictures, and it features a radio interview courtesy of DJ Julian and Love FM of Phnom Penh.

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Antonio,Graceffo,bokator,boxcator,Derek,morris
Khmer,bradal,pradal,boxing,kickboxing,karma,black
Muay,Cambodian,san,kim,saen,tim,pek,transparent,pictures

Learning History and Culture Through Martial Arts

2009-04-03T19:27:00.001-07:00

David Calleja talks to Antonio Graceffo, host of web TV show, Martial Arts Odyssey, and leading kuntaw instructor Grandmaster Frank Ayocho. about the importance of history, culture and identity within lesser-known martial arts. It's all about discovery.

Read it on Foreign Policy Journal;

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/articles/2009/04/03/calleja_martial-arts-odyssey.html

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Martial Arts Odyssey: Strength Training in Lao Part 1

2009-03-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

It’s the only weight-lifting gym in Laos, so it must be the best. Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, learns about cross-training, using weights to build strength for fighting. In this episode, we see a training day in Lao, back and forth between the Muay Lao fighting stadium, and the weight lifting gym. Join Antonio Graceffo on facebook.com

Martial Arts Odyssey: Behind the Scenes at Martial Arts Odyssey

2009-03-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

A show about the show.
Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1fVfH6iCzs

This is a look into the new web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey” hosted by Antonio Graceffo. In this short overview, Antonio explains how the show came about and what the basic premise is.

Host Antonio Graceffo has been living in various countries in Asia, studying martial arts, for nearly eight years. Along the way, he was writing articles and books about martial arts, available on amazon.com, now, equipped with a video camera, he has been retracing his steps, so you can meet the masters and see the various martial arts. The basic format of each show is that Antonio goes to some interesting location and trains with a unique master in an obscure or well known martial art. Episodes have been filmed in Burma, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, and more. Some of the featured arts include: Bokator, Yaw Yan, Kuntaw, Lai Tai, Thieu Lam, Bradal Serey, MMA, Arnis, Muay Boran, Boxing, and Muay Thai.

The show is completely non-commercial. Whatever Antonio wants to shoot, he shoots. If you want to have your art or your school featured on “Martial Arts Odyssey,” just contact Antonio. Send him email or join him on facebook.

The episodes run for free so everyone can watch them. Antonio used to live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan. “My show might be the only chance some people back home get to even see Asia. So, for ten minutes they can take an exotic holiday and maybe learn something about a foreign culture.” A lot of martial artists dream of coming to Asia to train. Antonio hopes that “Martial Arts Odyssey” can give them a small glimpse into their dream.

On practical note, Antonio hopes the show will inspire people to take chances in their lives and follow their dreams, whatever those dreams might be.

Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1fVfH6iCzs

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay,thai,kick,boxing,kickboxing,martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,china,Chinese,san,da,kung,fu,monkey,fist,Taiwan,ROC,MMA,mixed,traditional,CMA,TMA,grappling,striking,bokator,kuntaw,arnis,kali,lao,lai,tai,yaw.yan,thieu,lam,bradal,serey,pradal,khmer,boxkator,boxcator,Cambodia,cambodian

Martial Arts Odyssey: Shan Kung Fu

2009-03-30T22:26:00.001-07:00

Inside the war zone of Burma, under protection of the Shan State rebel army, Host, Antonio Graceffo is one of the first foreigners ever to experience Lai Tai or Shan Kung Fu. The Shan are one of Burma’s many ethnic minorities being subjected to genocide at the hands of heir own government. Meet young Master Kawn Wan, whose parents were murdered by the SPDC Burmese government army. Now, he lives on the Shan State Army base, teaching Lai Tai Kung Fu to the war orphans in the hopes of preserving the Shan culture. One of the Shan army lieutenants ominously told Antonio, “If the world doesn’t come to help us soon, your video will be the last record of our people.”
Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Yb5LTYSFg

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Antonio Garceffo and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

martial,arts,odyssey,Brooklyn,monk,brooklynmonk,Antonio,Graceffo,shan,state,army,lai,tai,burma,Burmese,refugee,displaced,war,kung,fu,thai,Thailand,TMA,SSA.thai

Martial Arts Odyssey: Behind the Scenes at Martial Arts Odyssey

2009-03-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Martial Arts Web TV Show Inspires and Educates

2009-03-19T07:00:00.001-07:00

By David Calleja

Martial arts enthusiasts of all levels can now learn from the best trainers and
fighters in the industry by watching Martial Arts Odyssey on the internet.

Hosted and produced by Asian-based New Yorker Antonio Graceffo, Martial Arts Odyssey
has gained popularity by taking viewers into the heart of Asia, providing details of
fighting techniques across a range of disciplines. The show also emphasises the
importance of cardio and strength training.

Originally shot as a pilot in the Philippines two years ago, Martial Arts Odyssey
has expanded to cover a number of countries throughout Southeast Asia. There are now
over 20 episodes on the internet, with the promise of more to follow.

In addition to researching and filming martial and combat arts that are popular
amongst westerners, Martial Arts Odyssey places the spotlight on lesser known
fighting forms and others thought to have been extinct or are in danger of dying
out. Antonio discovered Bokator in Cambodia and Shan Lai Tai while in Burma’s
warzone with the rebel Shan State Army, and believes that he may have the only
footage of Master Kwan Wan to date performing this unknown art.

According to Antonio, the aim of the show is to encourage people to be the best they
can be through a combination of fitness, education and reaching goals in life. “I
hope to inspire them (people) to take a chance and go back to school, finish a
degree, start a business, change jobs, get a promotion, and (if possible), travel
and study martial arts and languages,” Antonio said.

With an extensive three decade career competing professionally in triathlons, boxing
and numerous martial arts (including the last eight years in Asia), Antonio
maintains a sharp focus and plans to extend Martial Arts Odyssey into Central Asia,
the Caribbean and Africa in the future.

You can subscribe to Antonio’s channel on YouTube and follow his trail around Asia
watch with Martial Arts Odyssey for free. The address is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Contact Antonio by emailing: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Visit his website, Speaking Adventure, by typing: www.speakingadventure.com

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Surin Part 1

2009-03-18T18:40:00.001-07:00

Tracing the footsteps of martial arts legend Tony Jaa, Host Antonio Graceffo, travels to village where Jaa was born. He continues learning Muay Boran from Jaa’s first trainer, Adjan Sok Chai, and he explores the world of the Kuy tribe, Jaa’s people, who live with the elephants. Join Antonio on facebook

Watch it for free on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9KG5jKWolI

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on www.facebook.com

His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This was among the first episodes of “Martial Arts odyssey” edited by Antonio Graceffo. So, please excuse the quality, he is still learning. But, it still features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

Muay,thai,boran,Antonio,graceffo,martial,arts,odyssey,surin,khmer,thailand,bokator,monk,Brooklyn,box,boxing,kick,kickboxing,jaa,sok,chai,tony,surin,boran,Jaa,tony,adjan,sok,chai,kuy,elephant,tribe,surin,khmer

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Surin Part 2

Footsteps of Tony Jaa

Antonio Graceffo

Adjan Sok Chai

Monks live and meditate deep in the jungle.

Monks make statues of the gods

Even dwellings are made to look like elephants.

The hammer fist can be used to keep from injuring your hand.

Hanuman presents the ring
sweeping the leg

End Part 1

Special thanks to Prah Sameth
And
Adjan Sok Chai

Antonio Graceffo

Contact Antonio
Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join Antonio
on facebook.com

Get Antonio’s books
On
Amazon.com

See Antonio’s website
www.speakingadventure.com

Watch
Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Surin Part 2

Hanuman techniques

New video series: My Bokator Story (Parts 1 through 8)

2009-03-13T19:36:00.001-07:00

My Bokator Story (Parts 1 through 8)

Searching for Traditional Khmer Martial arts

In this eight part documentary, Antonio Graceffo, the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” describes how his Asian martial arts adventure began in Taiwan, then lead to the Shaolin Temple, followed by Thailand’s last Muay Thai Temple, studying with Kru Bah and eventually took him to Cambodia, where he was the first westerner to study Bokator, traditional Khmer martial art, Bokator, with Grand Master San Kim Saen. Along the way, he also learned some Khmer traditional wrestling, and studied Bradal Serey and trained in professional boxing with Cambodia’s lead international trainer, Paddy Carson. The story is also mapped out in greater detail in his books, available on amazon.com

See all 8 parts on youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrdhn1GQlWE

Antonio asks you to join him on www.facebook.com

Antonio Graceffo is the author of five books, available on amazon.com. He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” To see Antonio Graceffo’s Burma and martial arts videos, check youtube. His book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and all of his books are available on amazon.com see al of his videos on his youtube channel brooklynmonk1 http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Contact him; Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Antonio,graceffo,Brooklyn,monk,Cambodia,khmer,bradal,pradal,bokator,san,kim,saen,boxcator,martial,arts,odysseycambodian,muay,thai,shan,Taiwan,roc,Thailand,boxing,paddy,Carson,gym,kickboxing,kick,box

Martial Arts Odyssey: Kuntaw Fighting 1 and 2

2009-03-07T02:41:00.000-08:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Kuntaw Fighting 1 and 2

Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, is back in Manila, learning Kuntaw, the Filipino traditional art of hand and foot fighting. The art includes grappling, striking, stick, and knife. Master frank Aycocho, a living legend of the art, demonstrates some techniques and explains his philosophy of martial arts practice.

Watch the

See it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5u5r3nbd5o

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries. His website is www.speakingadventure.com

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com

This was among the first episodes of “Martial Arts odyssey” edited by Antonio Graceffo. So, please excuse the quality, he is still learning. But, it still features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

Kuntaw,Filipino,Philippines,manila,frank,master,aycocho,Antonio,graceffo,martial,arts,odyssey,metro,monk,Brooklyn,box,boxing, kick,kickboxing,arnis,kali,escrima,knife

My Bokator Story (Parts 1 through 8)

2009-03-07T02:40:00.003-08:00

Searching for Traditional Khmer Martial arts

In this eight part documentary, Antonio Graceffo, the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” describes how his Asian martial arts adventure began in Taiwan, then lead to the Shaolin Temple, followed by Thailand’s last Muay Thai Temple, studying with Kru Bah and eventually took him to Cambodia, where he was the first westerner to study Bokator, traditional Khmer martial art. Along the way, he also learned Bradal Serey and trained in professional boxing with Cambodia’s lead international trainer, Paddy Carson. The story is also mapped out in greater detail in his books, available on amazon.com

See all 8 parts on youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrdhn1GQlWE

Antonio asks you to join him on facebook.com

Contact him; Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Antonio,graceffo,Brooklyn,monk,Cambodia,khmer,bradal,pradal,bokator,san,kim,saen,boxcator,martial,arts,odysseycambodian,muay,thai,shan,Taiwan,roc,Thailand,boxing,paddy,Carson,gym,kickboxing,kick,box

Filipino Knife Fighting on Martial Arts Odyssey

2009-03-07T02:40:00.001-08:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Kuntaw Knife 1 and 2

The Filipinos love knife fighting arts. Kuntaw is the grandfather of all Filipino martial arts, including knife fighting. Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, is back in Manila, learning Kuntaw knife fighting, with Kuntaw Master frank Aycocho. Return to sender, disarm, control and leverage. Turn your opponent’s weapon against him.

Watch parts 1 and 2 on youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5u5r3nbd5o

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries. His website is www.speakingadventure.com

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com

This was among the first episodes of “Martial Arts odyssey” edited by Antonio Graceffo. So, please excuse the quality, he is still learning. But, it still features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

Kuntaw,Filipino,Philippines,manila,frank,master,aycocho,Antonio,graceffo,martial,arts,odyssey,metro,monk,Brooklyn,box,boxing, kick,kickboxing,arnis,kali,escrima,knife

Martial Arts Odyssey: Yaw Yan Hybrid Part 1

2009-02-28T03:25:00.001-08:00

MMA Filipino style: Host, Antonio Graceffo, takes us to Manila, Philippines, to learn Yaw Yan Hybrid, a deadly martial art, which is winning MMA competitions in Asia, Yaw Yan. Traditional Yaw Yan was a Filipino kick boxing art, similar to Muay Thai, founded by Napoleon A. Fernandez in the 1970s. The founder of Yaw-Yan Hybrid is Sir Henry Kobayashi, who added ground fighting to the Filipino kickboxing and built one of the most powerful MMA teams in the Republic. Meet Sir Henry and his assistant, Sir Jerry, who beat up the Brooklyn Monk and demonstrate the power of this composite combat art.

See it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBHHTegnehk

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries. His website is www.speakingadventure.com

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com

This was among the first episodes of “Martial Arts odyssey” edited by Antonio Graceffo. So, please excuse the quality, he is still learning. But, it still features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

Yaw,Yan,hybrid,MMA,grappling,Filipino,Philippines,cubao,henry,sir,jerry,Antonio,graceffo,martial,arts,odyssey,metro,manila,monk,Brooklyn,box,boxing, kick,kickboxing,Kobayashi,mixed

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Boran Part 2

2009-02-23T18:11:00.001-08:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Boran Part 2

Host, Antonio Graceffo, travels to Khmer Suring province of Thailand to study Muay Thai Boran with Adjan Sok Chai, the first teacher of film star Tony Jaa. Adjan sok Chai is an ascetic, a kind of Brahman Holliman, who lives a life of meditation, suffering, training and helping. Khmer Surin province used to be part of Cambodia, and Antonio explores the connection between Khmer Bokator and Muay Thai Boran.

Watch it for free on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoQ6r9jXu0A

See all of Antonio’s videos on his youtube channel, brooklynmonk1, send him a friend request or subscribe.
http://www.youtube.com/user/brooklynmonk1

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This was among the first episodes of “Martial Arts odyssey” edited by Antonio Graceffo. So, please excuse the quality, he is still learning. But, it still features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

Muay,thai,boran,Antonio,graceffo,martial,arts,odyssey,surin,khmer,thailand,bokator,monk,Brooklyn,box,boxing, kick,kickboxing,jaa,sok,chai,tony,surin,boran

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Lao Part 3

2009-02-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

For nearly eight years Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, has been traveling through Asia training in martial arts and learning languages. This is the third installment of his training in Lao, learning the local kickboxing art, Muay Lao, including stand up grappling. Also, meet Jordan, a Canadian who is training in Lao to prepare for training in Thailand. Here him talk about the life you can expect if you come to Asia for training.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKIHobMRpjM

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Taiwan’s own, “Ohio” Jon Dickerson and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay, thai, lao, laos, kick, boxing, kickboxing, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, brooklynmonk, Antonio, Graceffo

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Lao Part 2

2009-02-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

Still in Lao, Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, continues his training at the national boxing stdium in Vientiane. The coach works with Antonio, teaching him stand up grappling, kicking, and knees. We also see some of the leading professional boxers in Lao, and Antonio is amazed at how hard they can kick, given how small they are.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zeVBK0eeLtc

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Taiwan’s own, “Ohio” Jon Dickerson and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay, thai, lao, laos, kick, boxing, kickboxing, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, brooklynmonk, Antonio, Gracef

Martial Arts Odyssey: Training with the Monkey Master Part 2

2009-02-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

San Da Master, Hisham, continues to school Antonio Graceffo, the Brooklyn Monk, on his special blend of traditional Chinese martial arts and San Da (Chinese Kickboxing). In this episode we learn about punching bags filled with metal sand, kicking tires, and hitting wooden dummies.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=-c_SRDlrqw8

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Taiwan’s own, “Ohio” Jon Dickerson and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay, thai, lao, laos, kick, boxing, kickboxing, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, brooklynmonk, Antonio, Graceffo, china, Chinese, san, da, kung, fu, monkey, fist, Taiwan, ROC

Martial Arts Odyssey: Kuntaw Stick Fighting (Part 2)

2009-02-03T16:28:00.001-08:00

Part two of the video: Martial Arts Odyssey: Kuntaw stick fighting. See it for free on youtube.com

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHlRtCG12w

Return to Manila with Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, to study stick fighting techniques with Kuntaw Master Frank Aycocho. As a Kuntaw master, Master Frank believes strongly in using only one stick. This way, one hand is free to use for grappling, disarming, and striking. The Master also demonstrates the grappling and throwing techniques which are possible if you leave a single hand free.

This video was edited by Andy To, the American film student, who is quickly building a name for himself as a an expert with martial arts videos.

Watch it on youtube:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHlRtCG12w

Antonio Graceffo is the author of five books, available on amazon.com. He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” To see Antonio Graceffo’s Burma and martial arts videos, check youtube. His book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and all of his books are available on amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=antonio+graceffo&x=16&y=14

See his website www.speakingadventure.com
contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com

Tags: Kuntaw, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, Antonio, graceffo, master, frank, aycocho, FMA, Filipino, Philippines, manila, stick, fighting, arnis, cali, escrima

Cambodian and Thai Martial Arts Explained

2009-01-31T07:55:00.000-08:00

By Antonio Graceffo

Since the launch of my web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” more than 18 months ago, I have received a lot of email asking about Khmer and Thai martial arts, what they are, and which is better.

This is just a brief overview to help people understand the martial arts of Cambodia and Thailand. You can also google my name, plus the words “Khmer martial arts” or Muay Thai and find more in-depth stories I have done on those arts. Also, you can see “Martial Arts Odyssey” on youtube, for free. Or you can get some of my books on amazon.com

Martial Arts Odyssey
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=martial+arts+odyssey+antonio+graceffo&aq=f

Cambodia has exactly three martial arts.

1. Bradal Serey (Pradal Serey), which is kick boxing, with nearly exactly the same rules and style as Muay Thai. Bradal Serey is the national sport, and the national television networks features professional fights weekly.

2. Bokator (Boxkator) which is an all encompassing ancient fighting art, includes punches, kicks, knees, elbows, grappling, ground fighting, and weapons. The practitioners fight without gloves. Their hands are wrapped with ropes or traditional krama scarves.

3. Japbab Boran Khmer (Khmer wrestling) The least practiced of the Khmer martial arts. There are a handful of wrestling clubs country wide. They meet annually for the national wrestling competition, which is a big spectator event. In Khmer wrestling, the goal is to force the opponent’s back onto the ground.

There are numerous Khmer words which mean fighting or martial art Khorm Yuth, Labok Katao, Kbach Kun Khmer, Wy Khun, Yuthakun, Yuth....but it is all either Bokator or Bradal Serey. One more name I found on the web was Kbach Kun Dambong Veng, which just means short Khmer fighting stick. It is not a separate art but just a small piece of Bokator. Over the last five years, I have met, interviewed, photographed and trained with nearly every single Khmer Bokator master except for two or three who I plan to go see when I return to Cambodia.

Grand Master San Kim Saen opened his school in Phnom Penh, which is the largest Bokator club in Cambodia. He has had literally thousands of students in the last few years alone. Most of the other masters I visited had at most twenty students, many of whom weren’t active. Grand Master spent years codifying the system, writing it down, photographing it, and collecting styles and movements from everywhere. The other masters all had their specialty, such as sword or stick or kick boxing, but San Kim Saen was the only one with the complete style.

By traveling to various small Bokator clubs around the country you can learn various techniques, but you can learn literally all of them at the club in Phnom Penh.

No one knows the exact age of Bokator. The first known reference to Bokator is in the carvings on the walls of Angkor Wat Temple, made between 900 and 1,000 years ago. Anything else about the origin and history of the art is legend, theory and conjecture. The first articles written about the art are only a few years old.

Bradal Serey probably had very distinct styles at one time, but since the Khmer Rouge killed most of the masters and practitioners, the few who survived have had to build up the art from nothing. As a result, Bradal Serey is pretty much homogenous throughout the country. Also, as it is a competitive, professional fighting sport, it is subjected to rules, which fairly standardize the art. There are differences from teacher to teacher, but these are more because of personalities, methods…not truly codified style differences.

In Thailand there are two martial arts, Muay Thai and Krabi Krabong. If you would consider Muay Thai Boran a separate art, then Thailand has three arts.

There are countless styles of Muay Thai depending on which part of the country you come from and which master you follow, but it is all Muay Thai. When they fight professionally the rules are the same.

Some styles, such as Muay Chaya are very old, and there are written documents dating back several hundred years. Others, such as Muay Thai Sangha, a religious form of Muay Thai, are fairly new, with the founder still living.

Krabi Krabong is fighting with stick and sword. Krabi Krabong is often incorporated into Muay Thai Boran to the point that it is almost never taught separately.

Muay Thai Boran, Boran just means ancient, Muay Thai Boran has more techniques than modern Muay Thai because it has many moves which would be illegal in professional fighting. Muay Thai Boran doesn’t use gloves, so there is a bit more stand up grappling and throwing. Muay Thai Boran also doesn’t actually fight. So, there are more flying knees and flying elbows and techniques which are dramatic to watch. If you see a Tony Jaa film you will see Muay Thai Boran.

As a side note, there has been much debate as to whether Tony Jaa is Khmer or Thai and if his art is Bokator or Boran. There are even rumors he trained in Cambodia. To find the answer, I traveled to Khmer Surin province, Thailand, where I sought out and trained with Jaa’s first teacher, Sok Chai. Accompanied by Khmer monk friends, I also visited his house and interviewed his parents. We went to the elephant village where Jaa was born and explored the temple where his father had been a monk.

The answer is, Jaa is from Khmer Surin, so he and his parents speak Khmer. In fact, our interview was conducted in Khmer. His ethnicity however, will probably be a shock to all but die-hard fans. He is a member of the Kuy tribe, who are the royal elephant keepers, who have served His Majesty, the King of Thailand for generations. Jaa’s father confirmed that Jaa’s first visit to Cambodia was tied to the release of the film “Ang Bak,” So, there is no way he could have studied Bokator in Cambodia before becoming fanmous. I also interviewed nearly every master in Cambodia, all of whom confirmed that Jaa was never their student. Finally, his first teacher, Ajan Sok Chai, who is also from Surin, is ethnic Thai, not Khmer. He taught Tony Jaa Muay Thai Boran and movie fighting.

Saddly. it is nearly 100% certain that Jaa has never studied, and possibly, never heard of Bokator.

Khmers believe that Muay Thai Boran was stolen from Bokator and this would explain similarities between the arts. No one knows for sure, but what is certain is that knowledge and borrowing of culture and martial arts flowed in both directions across the Thai-Cambodian border. It is unlikely that there was ever a time that one or the other of these two countries didn’t have some type of fighting system.

With the possible exception of a very large sword academy outside of Bangkok, Muay Thai Boran and Krabi Krabong are taught as extras at Muay Thai camps and schools. Because there are no professional fights in these two arts, fighters can’t afford to spend a lot of time learning them. Most only pick up a few moves and spend their energy and time concentrating on the money art, Muay Thai.

Many traditionalist Muay Thai trainers teach their students legal Muay Thai Boran moves because they believe that the old ways are the most lethal in the ring. Famous people who fall into this category include Prah Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto, Thailand’s last warrior monk, who I trained with at Wat Acha Thong. The fighetrs learn the Boran style, but then get in a real professional ring and fight for money. Another exception was Kru Pedro, who founded Muay Thai Sangha. He no longer allows his students to fight for money, however. And, most famous of all was Nong Tum, the “Beautiful Boxer.”

Whichever art came first, or who stole from whom, is a mute point. Modern Bokator is a codified martial art with a prescribed system of movements, tests, and belts, taught in a systematic fashion, leading to Black Krama. Muay Thai Boran/Krabi Krabong are generally taught sporadically, a few moves here and there.

Bradal Serey, Muay Thai, Bokator, and Muay Thai Boran all include stand up grappling. In Thailand, the words “jap ko” are often used. This literally means, “grab the neck.” Only Bokator has ground fighting. Bokator encompasses all of the movements of Bradal Serey plus all of the movements of Khmer wrestling. In my Odyssey through southeast Asian martial arts, Cambodia seemed to be the only country which still practices traditional wrestling.

If Thailand ever had traditional wrestling, it has died out. I couldn’t find traditional wrestling or martial art in Lao, although Muay Lao (kickboxing) is still being trained and fought at the national stadium. There is or was an ancient Lao form of martial art, called Ling Lam, but I was unable to find it while I was there. In Vietnam, the traditional art, Vo Vinam had some elements which were similar to Khmer arts, but seemed more closely to resemble a mix of Chinese and North East Asian Arts. There were rumors that traditional wrestling still existed, but I was unable to find it. So, I will be returning to both Vietnam and Lao. Vietnam did not have a traditional kickboxing art of any kind. In fact there is no professional fighting in Vietnam at all.

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries. See it on youtube.

Martial Arts Odyssey
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=martial+arts+odyssey+antonio+graceffo&aq=f

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

Khmer, Cambodian, box,boxing, fighting, muay, thai, lao, laos, kick, boxing, kickboxing, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, brooklynmonk, Antonio, Graceffo

Martial Arts Odyssey: Monkey Master

2009-01-31T07:54:00.001-08:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Training with the Monkey Master

Travel with host, Antonio Graceffo, the Brooklyn Monk, to Taiwan, where he trains in San Da (Chinese Kickboxing) with traditional Monkey Master, Sifu Hisham. Shifu Hisham is a no-nonsense, practical fighter who believes that the thousands of years of history in traditional Chinese martial arts makes them applicable and deadly in kick boxing, K-1, or MMA.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=IHfK6eeMTkA

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Taiwan’s own, “Ohio” Jon Dickerson and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay, thai, lao, laos, kick, boxing, kickboxing, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, brooklynmonk, Antonio, Graceffo, china, Chinese, san, da, kung, fu, monkey, fist, Taiwan, ROC

New video: Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Lao

2009-01-28T09:01:00.001-08:00

Martial Arts Odyssey: Muay Lao

Travel with Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, as he takes us into the country of Lao, to explore the traditional kickboxing art of Muay Lao.

Watch it for free on youtube.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZRimGmHd5U&feature=channel_page

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the host “Martial Arts Odyssey,” a web TV show which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.

His books are available on amazon.com
Contact him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook.com
His website is www.speakingadventure.com

This episode was edited by Taiwan’s own, “Ohio” Jon Dickerson and features the official Martial Arts Odyssey intro and outro by Andy To.

muay, thai, lao, laos, kick, boxing, kickboxing, martial, arts, odyssey, Brooklyn, monk, brooklynmonk, Antonio, Graceffo

New Video: Kuntaw Stick Fighting (Part 1)

2009-01-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

New Martial Arts Odyssey video release, Kuntaw stick fighting. See it for free on youtube.com

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6ipYeRwoD1M&feature=channel_page

Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, takes you back to Manila, to the dojo of Kuntaw Master, Frank Aycocho, who demonstrates the basics of Filipino stick fighting, and explains the difference between Kuntaw and Arnis. This video was edited by Andy To, the American film student, who is quickly building a name for himself as a an expert with martial arts videos.

Watch it on youtube: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6ipYeRwoD1M&feature=channel_page

Antonio Graceffo is the author of five books, available on amazon.com. He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” To see Antonio Graceffo’s Burma and martial arts videos, check youtube. His book, “The Monk from Brooklyn” and all of his books are available on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=antonio+graceffo&x=16&y=14

See his website www.speakingadventure.com
contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com

Muay Lao the forgotten Art of kickboxing

2009-01-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

By Antonio Graceffo

“You can gain extra power on your kicks by throwing your kicking arm down, but you need to protect your face with a cross arm defense.” Explained Adjarn Ngern, at the national kick boxing stadium in Vientiane, Lao.

In Tae Kwan Do and a lot of other kicking arts, the right hand comes down when you kick. This is the moment when a good boxer should step in and punch the kicker in the face. Adjarn Ngern was the first person ever to show me the cross arm defense, basically wrapping your free arm across your face to cover up when you kick. This gives you safety and power.

It was my first day of learning Muay Lao and I wondered what else they had to offer.

For years I had been training off and on in Thailand and Cambodia. I had heard that the national sport in Lao was called Muay Lao, but I didn’t know anyone who had actually gone there for training.

Lao is a sleepy country. The population is less than six million and nearly all of the development is in the capitol, Vientiane, which is a cute, peaceful city which feels like a small town in the US from the 1950s. Apart from the docile feeling in the air, Lao is surprisingly good for training. There is a weight lifting gym located in a tenement block, beside the national sports stadium, where you can do your strength training for a small donation of fifty cents per day. You can get a bed in a dormitory for $3 a day or stay in a hotel, as I do, private room, TV, cable, hot water, private bath, and air-conditioning, for $12 per night. Food is excellent in Lao, French, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Lao or western, and most meals in a restaurant will cost you about $2.50. You could probably live even cheaper if you wanted to eat the street food which would probably run you less than a dollar per meal. In Lao, they accept US dollars, Thai Baht, or their local currency, Kip. Muay Lao training costs 200 thai Baht, about $6 USD per session, for private training.

The travel guides were all dead wrong about the Muay Lao training. Most books said it was held at the national sports stadium in Vientiane. Actually, the Muay Lao training is held at the National Muay Lao stadium, which is located about fifteen or twenty minutes outside of the city. The stadium boasts a full size ring, a row of kick bags, and a row of uppercut bags mounted on the wall. The coaches are excellent in the ring working the pads with you.

Adjarn Ngern, the head coach of the Lao National Muay Lao Team, told me that Muay Lao is a much smaller sport in Lao than is Muay Thai in Thailand. Professional fights are only held in the National Stadium twice per month. There are only a handful of registered professional fighters in the whole country.
“How is Muay Lao different than Muay Thai?” I asked.
“It’s exactly the same.” Said the Adjarn.
“Cambodians are angry abut the name Muay Thai. They feel they invented kickboxing and it should be called by the Cambodian name, Bradal Serey, not Muay Thai. What do you think of that?”
Without a second’s hesitation he answered, “Muay Thai was invented in Cambodia, but Thailand has the money and got famous.”

The Adjarn had me start with warm up exercise, a very complete stretching routine which covered all parts of the body, especially the neck and shoulders where injuries can occur in kick boxing.

He watched me shadow boxing for a few minutes then asked, confused “Do you also kick?” I think your fist martial art stays with you forever. You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the boy. No matter how long I train in Asia, I will always look like a boxer or street fighter.

We readjusted my stance. He didn’t want me to hold my hands next to my face like I do in boxing. Instead, he wanted the lead hand out in front and a bit lower than what I do for boxing. He also didn’t want the hands touching my face in case I was punched or kicked and it would force me to hit myself.

Next, we worked combinations on the uppercut bag one, two, and upper cut switching off left hand upper cut and right hand upper cut. He was excellent about correcting my form while I trained. Adjarn made me turn out my back foot on straight punches, and go up on my toes at impact. On the Upper cut, he also had me up on my toes, and made me turn my heel in.

We transitioned to kicks, on the bag. The important point which he kept stressing here was to get up on the toes of your base foot, and rotate the foot with the kick. Next, you must be careful to twist your hip and butt into the kick. The leg must travel parallel to the ground, and strike at an almost ninety degree angle, kicking IN not UP like in a Tae Kwan Do kick. Of course, in Muay Lao, like in Muay Thai, the roundhouse strikes with the shin.

Other combinations we worked on required me to kick off the front leg. A lot of teachers tell you to hop, scoot the front leg back, then kick with the front leg. Adjarn Ngern wanted me to minimize this hopping and leg shuffling. He told me to only to slide my left leg back slightly, then kick off of it. The right leg didn’t really move at all. It felt awkward at first, but it was a good technique. It was faster and less exhausting than the more common hop and shuffle. It just took a lot of practice for me to get it. To save even more time, he showed me that when the left leg hit, instead of bringing it back, just bring it straight down to the ground. Now you are in close so immediately throw an overhand elbow with the right arm.

With the knee kick, Adjarn Ngern always wanted to lead hand straight out. You could use this hand to measure distance, and time your strike. When your left hand just about makes contact with the opponent, step in and decimate him with your right knee. The extended arm is also a good defensive tactic. This way if your opponent takes this opportunity to throw an elbow or a punch, you could catch it with your lead hand, long before it hits you. In fact, you could catch/deflect his elbow with your floating lead hand, and still complete your knee strike. In that instance, the power would be multiplied by the fact that your opponent would be coming forward with his own strike. This would be one of those knees to the solar plexus which could end a fight.

Once again, when reaching out with your left/lead hand, you could either use your right hand to do the cross face defense, as you did in the kick, or you could throw the right hand down and back to add extra power to the knee. The lead hand can be used to grab the back of the opponent’s head and pull him into the knee strike. And remember to go up on the toes of the base leg to get those last few extra inches of extension and power.
After you have thrown the knee, you can step trough with an elbow because you have already closed the distance.

To help me get up on my toes and swing my hips, the coach and one of the fighters stood behind me, twisting my legs and hips and trying to get my position right. It was a lot to remember, and there was nothing natural about having two men twisting and prodding my body while I practiced. It was like a dance lesson gone wrong.

Adjarn had me hold the bag and do left right knee combinations, fast. But, he kept stressing that each of the knees had to be a real technique, a solid knee strike. Most people who practice the fast alternating knees on the bag just barely touch the bag with each knee, then shuffle and throw the next one. But this type of exercise has nothing to do with real fighting. It’s not just aerobics. In a fight every technique must be right. Every knee strike must count.

Blocking, the knee can be used several different ways. One common option is to block a kick by brining the knee straight up, and allowing your shin to hit the opponent’s shin as he kicks. A more offensive block is to quickly raise your knee higher than the attacker’s kicking leg, and bring you knee straight down into his leg, hitting him with your knee on his thing, just above his knee. This could render his leg useless for the rest of the fight. Once, again, after you have blocked, you have already closed distance, so the quickest follow up is to bring your leg straight back to the floor and step in with a close elbow.

Some coaches tell you to knee strike with your foot at a 90 degree angle. Other coaches tell you to point your foot at the floor. Both camps claim that they get more power. I don’t think there is a clear answer on which is better. This coach wanted the foot pointed at the ground.

With both a knee and a kick one more thing to remember is to arch your back to get the extra extension and power.

The coach taught me a fake. He did a shuffle, as if getting ready to kick with his left, lead foot, but instead, he threw a punch to the face.

“If you see the punch coming you can use Teep to protect yourself because your leg is longer than his arm.” Explained Adjarn Ngern, teaching the push kick.

When executing a push kick, the toes must be curled back and you strike with the ball of the foot. It is really hard to do because you have to develop the muscles in your feet. I can’t curl my toes back at will. Teep can also be done with the heel of the foot, but Adjarn Ngern claimed that it wasn’t as powerful. Muay Thai Boran practitioners find that the heel of the foot works just fine, however.

Very few people in Lao speak any English at all. Most people in Vientiane, including Adjarn Ngern, speak excellent Thai. So I was able to communicate with him in Thai. Thus far, I was impressed with Adjarn Ngern and how modern his training and thinking was. He was one of the few coaches I had worked with in Asia who could really analyze and discuss the sport of fighting. But his old-school training suddenly showed when he did the thing where he put rope in his mouth and used his neck to lift a heavy bucket full of cement.

He invited me to try it next, but one look at his used saliva dripping off the rope made me thing twice about it.

“Aren’t you going to boil that rope?” I asked.

We opted to move on to the next phase of training instead.

In Muay Lao, as in Muay Thai the fighters often lock up, grappling. They grab each other behind the back of the neck and struggle to get dominance over the opponent. It is amazing how many throws a good fighter can do from this position. A significant component in learning Muay Lao is practicing grappling from the neck.

The goal in Muay grappling is to achieve the dominant position, which means, getting your two hands on the inside. The two fighters start with one in and one out, then they compete to get both hands inside. Once you have both hands inside, you can plant your elbows in your opponent’s chest, leverage his head and take him. In any type of fighting, if you want to control a man, grabbing the back of his neck is good because then you are pulling against muscle, not bone. Grabbing higher on the head gives you extended leverage, multiplying your power. Post your hips back, bend at the knees and bring your entire body weight to bear on his neck muscles.

Adjarn Ngern showed me how you could grab the back of the head with one hand and slide your hand down under the elbow for leverage. Then in one quick, jerking motion, you could pull down on the head and push up on the elbows at the same time and throw the man. In wrestling never let your legs stand square, one foot beside the other or you have no base no balance and can easily be knocked down.

Another exercise we worked on, one man held his hands behind his back and the other man tried to throw him. It is a simple technique, step out on the right, throw on the left. Step out on the left, throw on the right.

Training in Lao was just one more piece of the puzzle. The art of kickboxing is widely practiced in Lao, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma. Only by training in all four countries could I get a good overview of the art. So, Burma was next.

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The latest episode, shot inside of Burma with the Shan State Army rebels, is running on youtube, click here. http://youtube.com/watch?v=rCjNaHnk7Jw Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

Join him on facebook

Cambodian Kick Boxing Master

2008-12-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

National Treasure
By Antonio Graceffo

Eh Phou Thoung and Oed Phuo Thoung are Cambodia’s champion fighters but they live in squalor and obscurity.

In the world of professional sports, politicians have long learned that great athletes make great PR. Basketball player Yao Ming is probably the first Chinese national to become a household name. Paradorn brought a lot of positive media attention to Thailand. And, you would have to go into the deepest regions of a remote jungle to find someone who has not heard of Tiger Woods.

In return for making the country popular around the world, top athletes are paid huge salaries. Boxing champion, Manny Pacquiao, has become a national legend, almost attaining god like status, and even made a run for the congress. The Philippines is a relatively poor country, and yet, Manny is earning $5,000,000 (USD) for his next fight. Muhammad Ali hasn’t fought in over twenty-five years, but has been a goodwill ambassador of the US as well as the US ambassador to the Islamic world for years. Last year, he appeared on a list of highest paid entertainers, earning an income of $55,000,000.

Cambodia suffers from such a lack of marketing that even Angkor Wat failed to be recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Ask strangers on a street in Europe or America, and most likely the only famous Cambodian they can name is Pol Pot. The only other names which come up frequently in search engines and chat rooms are the two Khmer boxing champions, brothers, Eh Phou Thoung and Oed Phou Thoung. For overseas Khmers, the two brothers are major heroes. Fight fans around the world, would love to see the brothers fighting the leading champions of other countries, particularly Thailand.

Unfortunately, the big international fights never happen, as the Cambodian powers that be have more or less forbidden the brothers the right to fight outside of the country. They could have been respected international champions, brining pride to their beleaguered nation, instead, they live in absolute poverty, doomed to a life of obscurity with no end in sight.

Is this the right way to treat your national treasure?

Behind the ugliest slum building in Phnom Penh, is a neighborhood associated with prostitution, drugs, and gambling. Down a filthy dirt road, where local inhabitants sort trash to make a living, there is a two story wooden house, which serves as Eh Phou Thoung’s gym, as well as home for his family and his stable of twenty fighters.

Eh Phou Thoung, a veteran of more than 160 fights, sits listlessly on a wooden bench, with a look of tired boredom on his face. In spite of his ferocity in the ring, he is a kind and boyish fellow, who I have known for years. Every time I look at my old friend, I can’t help but feel that his life is something that happened to him, rather than something he chose.

At age 36, he has gained a lot of weight and clearly lost interest in training.

“I still fight sometimes, but only a little bit.” He said. He tells me his official record is 156 fights, with 7 losses and 4 draws. “No one in Cambodia can fight with me.” He lamented. Now, when he gets fights, they are mostly with foreigners.

“I fought in Thailand once, on the king’s birthday.”

Prize money is doubled on the King’s birthday.

“I won two and lost one.”

Now, eh dedicates most of his time to raising his twenty young boxers. “It is like a big family, and I am the father.” He laughs. Eh buys ice cream from a passing vendor. He eats three while we talk.

“Some of my fighters can get as much as $80, but some only get $15. It depends on ability and weight.”

To give every club an opportunity to fight, the two networks, CTN and TV 5, each allow one fighter from each club each week. Since the club gets to keep a percentage of the purse, this means that Eh’s club has an income of some percentage of $30 - $100 a week. It also means that each fighter will only fight a few times per year.

Cambodian boxing is a far cry from Manny Pacquiao.

“Some of the kids don’t even want to be fighters.” Says Eh. “They want to be bodyguards. Sometimes important people come here to scout for bodyguards.”

Flies buzz as the neighbors dump endless piles of trash on the muddy ground. They pick through the refuse like jackals on a fallen zebra. I am told that the house with all of the people crowding around and shouting is an illegal gambling parlor. The police stop by approximately every fifteen to twenty minutes and come out, slapping their front short pocket.

Eh gets slowly to his feet to work the heavy bag. He has gained about 15 Kgs since I lost saw him. The tattoos and cup marks from traditional medicine treatments dance across his skin as he kicks. As soon as he breaks a sweat, he sits back down and returns to his catatonic state. His twenty boxers return from running. They train on the cement porch in front of Eh’s house. Other than two heavy bags, their only equipment is a pile of moldy boxing gloves laid out on the roof of an abandoned car.

Even overweight and lacking training Eh is a dangerous fighter. In three of his fights against foreigners, he managed to break the opponent’s arm with a kick. Unfortunately, he has only had a few fights in the last several years.

“I really want to fight again.” He tells me. “I never get to fight now.”

One of the main reasons given why Cambodian fighters can’t fight abroad is because Cambodia refuses to join the World Muay Thai Council. Khmers feel that they invented kick boxing and don’t want to support a sport which has taken a Thai name. To circumvent this issue, promoters have come, asking Khmers to fight in the ISKA, American or Australian Kick Boxing leagues. But even these politically neutral alternatives were rejected by the contract holders. Most people believe that corruption is keeping Cambodian fighters down. If Cambodian fighters start6ed fighting outside of the country, then local promoters and managers would lose the stranglehold they exert over them.

Now, in Japan, the K-1, the Super Bowl of kick boxing with prizes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is holding tournaments, aimed at South East Asian fighters, with weight limits as low as 70 Kgs. Either Eh or Oed Phou Thoung could qualify, but they both believed they would never be given the chance.

“We don’t know how to go there and fight.” Said Eh. “We need sponsors. And no one knows who we are.”

When I told Eh Phou Thoung how famous he is on the internet and what a great hero he is to verseas Khmers, he didn’t believe me.

The only time I saw Eh Phou Thoung is when he is training his five year old son. The little boy works the bag with his legs, throwing tiny little knee kicks. When he punches the bag, he shakes the pain out of his hands. He is cute, and with Eh for a father, he will be a great fighter. But for what? There is no future for boxers in Cambodia. Which is a sad realization because boxing is the national sport.

“I am fighting tomorrow.” He says, out of the blue. It was a charity event, sponsored by Wild Aid, to raise awareness and protect endangered species.

“Oed is fighting in Australia.” He was referring to his younger brother Oed Phou Thoung, who is a brilliant fighter in his own right. “He’s coming home tomorrow.”

The next day, I stopped by the house to talk to the 26 year old Oed Phou Thoung, the four time champion at 67 Kgs. Oed has had over 200 fights since he was ten years old. When I asked him how he got permission to go fight in Australia, he laughed.

“I didn’t tell anyone. I just went.”

According to Oed, in Australia a lot of people were waiting for him to fight, but the fight had been cancelled twice, by the power people in Cambodia. As a result, ticket sales were poor for this fight, since people didn’t believe it was going to happen.

Although Oed helps train the fighters at Eh Phou Thoung’s gym, his brother is not his manager. His contract is held by someone else, and he is only permitted to fight on TV 5. He is also not permitted to fight or leave the country without permission.

In Australia Oed Phou Thoung won his bout and earned a purse of $500 Australian after deductions for passport and visa. “But this is good compared to Cambodia.” He assured me. “In Cambodia , when I fight a foreigner I gets $300. If I fight a Khmer, I only get $150.”

He said the hardest thing about the Australia fight was fatigue, as he arrived and fought the very next day.

“In Cambodia I can only fight about once every three months. So, the money is very little.”

“The problem is when the sponsors send money from abroad it doesn’t reach me.” It only reaches the boss. “That’s why we only have two boxing sacks to train twenty fighters.”

Oed said that in a perfect world he would get to fight and then rest two or three days before fighting again. I told him that in other countries, fighters only fought once every few months. I asked if he had heard of Muhammad Ali. He said that he had. He was shocked when I told him that Muhammad Ali had only about 55 fights in his life. Oed had had more than that by his 18th birthday. And his combined earnings for his entire career probably amounted to only a few thousand dollars.

To make ends meet, Oed worked as part of the crew at TV 5, helping the doctor with injured fighters.

“One boxer, Phin Sophal, committed suicide.” Said Oed, sadly. “He had been very famous, with a lot of fights. He drank and took drugs, then cut his own throat. They took him to the hospital and the doctors saved him. But the wound reopened and he died.”

Things are hard for fighters everywhere. And the ring is full of sad stories. But the hopeless situation facing Khmer boxers is unparalleled in any other country.

Oed got up and worked the bag, pow, pow, pow, slap, slap, bang. The whole house shook as his knee left deep dents in its surface. His knees were clearly as well developed as his shins. Every muscle in his body was absolutely taught, perfectly trained.

Unlike his brother, Oed was still training. He had a glimmer of hope in his eye. Maybe his unauthorized trip to fight in Australia set a precedent. Maybe he would take control of his life and make some serious money. Or, maybe at age 26, his prime was past, and he was doing too little too late. Maybe he would manage Eh Phou Thoung’s young son, and help raise him to be a champion on the international circuit.

Either way, Cambodian had missed a great PR opportunity and had squandered a national treasure.

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure travel and martial arts author, living in Asia. His specialties include ethnic minorities, languages, and martial arts. He has studied Kung Fu at the Shaolin Temple and lived in the last Muay Thai monastery in Thailand. Antonio has published five books, including, “The Monk from Brooklyn,” are all available at amazon.com.
See his videos on youtube.
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f

His website is speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com
Contact Antonio: antonio@speakingadventure.com

The Last Muay Thai Monk

2008-12-29T07:21:00.001-08:00

Prah Kruh Bah, The Golden Horse Monastert Wat Acha Tong
A new martial arts adventure video, by Antonio Graceffo
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QPYj-YoQxXU

In 2003, Antonio Graceffo went to Thailand to find a Buddhist monk, named Prah Kruh Ba, a former professional Muay Thai fighter, who lives in a jungle monastery on the Burmese border, where he takes in tribal kids, orphaned by the war in Burma.

Antonio cut the Kruh Bah story out of a Taiwanese newspaper, flew to Thailand and walked around the border town of Maesai, showing people the photo, until he eventually wound up in the monastery. Within minutes of arriving, Kruh Bah had Antonio fighting in a ring.

During the three months that Antonio lived in the monastery he learned Thai language and Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing). Most importantly, he learned about Kruh Bah’s work along the border, helping tribal people, subjected to genocide by the Burmese government. Among the friends he made in the monastery were members of many of the ethnic minorities: Akha, Lihsu, Lahu, and Shan.

The story of the Shan people and their struggle for survival would touch Antonio so deeply that he would eventually go on to work with the Shan State Army inside of Burma. But that is another story.

See part one of the Kru Bah story on youtube.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QPYj-YoQxXU

Antonio Graceffo is the author of four books, available on amazon.com. He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” To see Antonio Graceffo’s Burma and martial arts videos, click here.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo+shan+state+army&search_type=

See his website www.speakingadventure.com
contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com

Letter From a Burmese Exile

2008-12-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

Former Burmese Freedom Fighter Cries for his Stricken Land
By Antonio Graceffo

“I am not that happy at all in (The name of his new country has been deleted for anonymity purposes.) but Freedom I love this, and I want all Burmese people, anyone who is living in Burma, any ethnic, I want them to see and feel freedom like here.”
Kyaw, an exiled Burmese resistance fighter.

His wife is dead. His parents and siblings are missing. His country is gone. Kyaw (not his real name) is stranded forever, in the purgatory of a foreign culture, where he struggles to raise his daughters, learn a new language and come to terms with his heart-wrenching past.

Driven from their homes, murdered, raped, tortured at the hands of their own government, the ethnic minorities of Burma: Shan, Karen, Karenni, Pa-O, Lahu, Lisu, Rohinga, and others have been suffering for sixty years. In the face of genocide it is easy to forget the suffering of the country’s majority, the ethnic Burmans.

In 1988, after the government slaughtered pro-democracy protestors in the streets, a group of ethnic Burman students, including young Kyaw, formed an organization called ABSDF All Burman Student Democratic Front. They took up weapons and fled to the jungle. Many were welcomed into the ethnic armies, particularly the Karen. The government reaction was so violent, that within a few years, the Karen would lose their headquarters. The Shan State Army would be reduced by 90%, and all of the ABSDF fighters would be either killed, captured, or driven over the border into Thailand, where many still live, working illegally. The lucky ones became refugees and were resettled in a third country.

Lucky to be alive, they suffer the complete loss of everything they ever knew or called home.

Because of the videos I published on youtube about my time in Shan State
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo+shan+state+&search_type=&aq=f

and the articles I published, I receive a lot of email from Shan and Burmese exiles all over the world. This most recent one was particularly moving. I wanted to share it with the world. Let the world be reminded of how bad things are inside of Burma. And let those of us who work on the conflict, with the various ethnic groups, remember that ethnic Burmans are also victims.

Here is the letter from Kyaw, with some editing of his English, for readability, and some author’s notes I interjected, for those unfamiliar with the details of Burma’s civil war, the longest running armed conflict on the planet.

Hi, Mr. Antonio,

I left my family when I was 14, studying at year Eight in 1988. So, I hadn’t finished school yet. Even if I finished, and if I stayed in Burma, I have no Idea what kind of job I would get. I lived in Shan State capital city, called Taunggyi. It is the third biggest city in Burma, second is Mandaly, and the capital was Rangoon.

(Author’s note: The SPDC, Burmese government, moved the capital to a secret, undisclosed mountain location in 2007. Rangoon was changed to Yangon, but it is still considered to be the real capital by all but the junta themselves. The junta also changed the country name from Burma to Myanmar. But no one outside recognizes this change.)

After I left home I never saw my brothers or my parents anymore, and still haven’t had contact with them. So, I left it, as this is life, and I am lucky that I am still alive. After I left home I was in ABSDF( All Burmese Students Democratic Front ) for 14 years. In those years, we fought with the Burma army often and a lots of my friends died in the war. We didn’t stay close to the Shan State Army, but we often crossed Shan State armed areas. We lived in the Pa-O area, which is part of Shan state, Karanni state, and Karan state.

(Author’s note: The Pa-O are one of the smallest ethnic groups in Burma. They live primarily in Shan State and had their own resistance army, until the major onslaught from the SPDC nearly crushed the resistance. Since then, the armed Pa-O have been absorbed into Shan State Army. The SSA commander, Col. Yawd Serk has a policy of ethnic equality and welcomes all ethnicities who live in Shan State. When I was with the SSA I met soldiers who were Pa-O, Lahu, Karen, and even Chinese speaking soldiers who I had to translate for.)

After the Karen (KNLA) fell in 1995-96 our ABSDF organization also collapsed and our base fell in to Burmese government hands, because we are dependent on living with the Karen.

(Author’s note: One of the biggest blows to the rebellion was when the Karen lost their headquarters. It was overrun by government forces and the army took years to regroup. The ABSDF were primarily college students from the big cities. They often didn’t know how to survive in the jungle and were very dependent on the help given them by the tribal people.)

Karan and Kachin State where the biggest and strongest organizations in Burma. Also Shan was powerful in around 1970 and 1980 but the Burmese military crossed the whole Shan State with powerful regiments, burning and killing whatever they saw. After that, the Shan army was not strong enough anymore.

The last, biggest Karan State fell in 1995. Our revolution groups were no more strong enough, but just small groups, still fighting for their homeland, and also ABSDF

(Author’s note: The ethnic soldiers were and are still fighting in the very place where they were born, where their parents, their children and their ancestors grew up. There is that feeling of defending the homeland. Among the ethnic soldiers, there is a feeling that the ABSDF were outsiders. Yes, they also opposed the Burmese government, and they were willing to pick up a gun. But there was still a distrust of outsiders.)

The small groups continued to fight along the Thai -Burma border, but just small groups.
.
I still support AB and still work for it. I am Burmese and I can speak a little Shan, Karen, and Pa-O language. I can also speak and read Thai well. But now I am trying to learn the English language. It’s very hard for me.

I am not that happy at all in (The name of his new country has been deleted for anonymity purposes.) but Freedom I love this, and I want all Burmese people, anyone who is living in Burma, any ethnic, I want them to see and feel freedom like here.

I feel sad about Burma.

I have two daughters and my wife died after we arrived here with stomach cancer. So, I live with my 2 daughters 11 and 9 years old. However far apart from Burma, I am always looking back and helping when I can.

I am so proud of you had helped Burma land. I wish you always remember Burma land. I always know Burma is very beautiful country and Burma has everything more than Thailand.

Just because of the government, all Burmese people have been sick, and a sick life is hell.

(Author’s note: Please say a prayer for the people of Shan State and for all of the people of Burma.)
Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He spent several months, in and out of Burma, documenting the light of the Shan people. Those stories have been widely published and readily available through a google search. His is the author of five books, including, The Monk from Brooklyn, which are all available at amazon.com.
See his videos on youtube. http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f
His website is speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com
Contact Antonio: antonio@speakingadventure.com

Wrestling the Monkey Master

2008-12-01T08:08:00.001-08:00

By Antonio Graceffo

Telling the world that traditional Kung Fu could be win MMA, Master Hisham, one of Taiwan’s only remaining Monkey masters, shows the Brooklyn Monk his ground game.

“The MMA people say to me, ‘you have no ground game. You can’t fight.’ But I tell them, ‘you haven’t seen my style yet. How can you know?’

Master Hisham takes a break from his rigorous training schedule to teach me something about Monkey style ground fighting. After an afternoon of training, to quote Mr. T, “I pity the fool” who gets in a ring with Hisham. The man is strong, fast, and powerful. He can hit like a ton of bricks, and he can wrestle to the death.

Using Monkey style on the ground, Hisham says, “You have no idea what is coming next. It could be a sweep, a fist, like ground and pound, or a kick. It could be an attack on a body part that normally doesn’t get attacked.”

Hisham tells me to lay on my back and get in the guard. “I see the MMA guys try to push the feet out of the way and attack the man on the ground. But I would just strike the acupuncture points and not bother to move the feet.”

Hisham has a license for Chinese medicine and acupuncture. He says this training gives him specialized knowledge into the body’s pressure points and wear to direct his strikes.

With his feet up in the air, defending himself, the opponent leaves himself open to Hisham’s brand of attack. “There are many points of attack on the back of the calf or the Achilles tendon. They are extremely painful, and makes it impossible for the man to stand afterwards.”

The Sambo fighters, Russian submission wrestlers, also attack the Achilles tendon, but they do it with a grab of the ankle or top of the foot. Hisham explained we shouldn’t grab the foot at all, just strike.

“I can strike with my forearm.” Hisham’s forearms are like stone. Getting hit anywhere with his forearm would be like being hit with a baseball bat. A well placed strike would be crippling.

There are few kung fu styles that can fight off of the ground. According to an old book Hisham found, there was one called, The Great Earth Style, but it has nearly died out. “The monkey incorporates these techniques. You see so many rolls and ground attacks in monkey style, and only in monkey style. The Tiger doesn’t have many. The Praying Mantis has very few, and so on.”

If you look at Shaolin Monkey forms, they do rolls and jumps. Hisham sees practical applications for these techniques.

“There are even Monkey techniques in some forms of wrestling. In Pankration (the ancient Greek martial art which combines wrestling and boxing) there is a monkey roll which leads to a knee bar. You take the leg.” Hisham constantly reads books about Pankration and ancient Greek and Roman martial arts. His wife also helps him to translate antique Chinese Kung Fu texts which they find at specialty shops around the island. “In Pankration, there is a technique where you grab your opponent’s foot, roll into him, and now you have him in a leg submission.”

“Another technique is that when you are thrown, you grab the opponent and roll with him. So, there are many aspects and movements in monkey that an experienced fighter can recognize. Once I showed my uncle, a master of traditional wrestling, the monkey low stance. He said ‘this is a wrestling movement.’ I said no, this is from Monkey style kung fu. He said, for him, it was wrestling. He watched the form and said all of the movements were attacks and counters for wrestling.”

“In Shaolin and Wu Su there is very little left of the original style, only acrobatics and show. There are very few teachers who remember how to use the monkey to fight. Your martial art must not only be good looking. And, you must not only make funny faces and noises. The monkey contains good fighting techniques inside, and you must be lucky to learn these techniques. You have to be lucky enough to find someone who can teach you. Next, you must have the body for the style.”

“In China, small boys are taught Monkey style, usually from ages six to eight. For adults, normally, rolls are too hard to learn. The ligaments and tendons are too hard. The rolls don’t only work the body, they are a form of internal massage which works on the organs. Practicing Monkey is a good way to massage the inside of the body. I have no interest in learning these types of styles. It is very hard to learn, and you can get injured. It looks nice but where is the application? This is only artistic, and you can’t do artistic stuff anymore when you are 60. For ground fighting, however, there is an old master in America who could still choke people out into his sixties.” Hisham was talking about "Judo" Gene LeBell, a contemporary of Bruce Lee whose martial arts career spanned more than 350 movies and TV shows and fifty years. Hisham also spoke of world martial arts legend, Dan Inosanto, who was took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) when he was sixty. “They had experience and could look at an art and say what is usable what isn’t.”

Taking the best from the Monkey style is Hisham’s focus.

“The leg stance is the most important in monkey style. If you watch BJJ they work with their legs and arms together. This comes from monkey techniques. I found an old book where they were doing triangle leg chokes and such with their legs in china.”

“There is an old Chinese art called Ro Su, which uses the same Chinese characters that the Japanese use for Jiu Jitsu. In this art, I saw the leg wraps, using the legs as arms, just like in BJJ. Ho Chuen Ro Su the art of monkey wrestling.”

The up kick has been very popular the last few years in MMA. Many fighters practice laying on their back and kicking up in the air and a few MMA fights have been won by knock outs from this position. “The up kick is already a technique which is part of monkey. The monkey is always low and strikes from low to up. There is no other martial arts style which has the ground punches and kicks that monkey has.”

Although Monkey and other arts have some ground fighting and wrestling, it still would not be advisable to try and wrestle with someone whose primary skill is grappling. So, we return to our strikes, our most powerful weapons. “We must practice punching from the ground.” Says Hisham. “If the man is on top of you, in your guard or past your guard, you can punch up and knock him out, but you need to practice it everyday, just as you do when you are working the bag.”

“You don’t need your shoulder for this. You need triceps, elbows and wrist power. Then you practice the explosive power of Bruce Lee’s one inch punch.”

Here again, Hisham’s teachings echoed lessons I had acquired in my martial arts journey, which now spans more than thirty years, the last seven of which were spent in Asia. When I first learned Muay Thai Boran, in a monastery in Thailand, I was impressed with the incredible number of elbow strikes which the art contained. Hanaman, the Monkey god is widely worshipped among fighters, and Hisham sees a connection between the Monkey of South East Asia and the monkey of East Asia. While living in the monastery, I worked a lot with my team mates, teaching them to use their devastating elbows to fight from and on the ground, and to use the sharp points of the elbow to strike pressure points.

Hisham always looks to the ancient arts for his modern answers. He spoke again about how the old Syrian wrestling masters would grab the opponent’s flesh, before throwing them. I had the same experience once, wrestling in Burma, when Kawn Wan, a young Shan Kung Fu master grabbed the skin under my armpit and threw me. He also showed me how he could force his fingers in, behind my jaw bone, and throw me this way.

Hisham had similar techniques. “In MMA or on the street, the opponent may not be wearing a shirt, which would be a disadvantage to BJJ practitioners, who base many of their throws on grabbing the opponent’s clothing. But for someone who is very proficient in Kung Fu, they would need only to dig their fingers into the opponent’s body, grab his flesh or his fat and use that as handle to throw him.

My friend Kawn Wan, the young Shan master, walked around the village making fists, opening and releasing his fingers all day, thousands of times, to strengthen his grip. Hisham and other Chinese masters use similar techniques. “All day when you have time you need to make fists and train your fingers.” Hisham said the old masters would be able to crush a coffee cup with their fingers.”

To train his gripping power, Hisham used a variety of balls, sticks, bundles of sticks, and heavy vases, which he would grip in various ways. He also used a windlass, a stick, with a rope on it. You hold the stick in both hands out in front of you and twist the stick, rolling up the rope which is attached to a heavy weight. I did that for boxing it was so painful.

In the west when people ask to see your muscles, you show them your bicep. When I was at Shaolin they asked to see your wrists. If your wrists were as hard as stone they knew your Kung Fu was strong, but if not, you had a long way to go.

Hsiham’s final words were. “I would tell the people of the world, don’t give up on your Chinese Kung Fu. The art is thousands of years old and has lots of techniques inside which you can use to fight. But you have to know how to condition and how to train.”

Antonio Graceffo is the author of four books, available on amazon.com. He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” To see Antonio Graceffo’s Burma and martial arts videos, click here.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo+shan+state+army&search_type=

See his website www.speakingadventure.com
contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com

Philippine Knife Fighting In the War in Burma

2008-12-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

Teaching Practical Philippine Martial Arts to the Shan State Rebels
By Antonio Graceffo

Using the butt of the knife for grabbing and grappling is one of my favorite knife fighting techniques. Unfortunately, the knives used by the rebels in Burma were about twice as long as the Philippine bolo. So, when I was grabbing my opponent with one end of the knife, I had to be careful not to poke out my eye with the other end.

Ethnic cleansing has been going on in Burma for more than fifty years. The recent cyclone has shown the world how disinterested the Burmese government is in the well-being of its own citizens. Many people also don’t know that Burma is composed of countless ethnic groups, most of whom the junta lead government is trying to kill.

In Shan State, the Burmese army troops frequently burn villages to the ground. They use gang rape on very young girls as a means of intimidation. They force Shan villagers to works as slaves, porters, carrying ammunition through the jungle until they die of over-work and starvation. Shan civilians are used as human mine detectors and combat shields. The Burmese soldiers hide behind the civilians during firefights.

The war in Burma has created more than two and a half million refuges. Some people refused to leave, however. After their village was burned and their families raped, tortured or murdered, many men join the resistance, the Shan State Army.

The Shan State Army (SSA) is one of the rebel groups fighting against the Burmese junta. A friend of mine, from the Swedish army, had been working with them for years. He arranged for the rebels to smuggle me across the border and have a meeting with their commander, Colonel Yawd Serk. I was asked to be his guest at a huge banquet, where he asked me to teach hand-to-hand fighting to his soldiers.

For the next several months, on and off, I would sleep in the cinderblock house, belonging to the Lieutenant. Although enemy camps were so close that we could see them on the next hilltops, it is amazing how well you sleep when you are surrounded by landmines and armed soldiers.

I don’t like to train early in the morning. I have always been a firm believer that any training you do at 6:00 AM could be done much better at 10:30. The next morning, during a leisurely breakfast, I slowly formulated a plan as to what I would teach the men. For years, I had been developing a system of practical fighting for police and military in Taiwan and other countries. The empty hand fighting was largely based on Khmer Bokator and Muay Thai Boran, but also included grappling techniques from Kuntaw. The stick and knife fighting would come nearly 100% from the Philippines.

One of the biggest reasons I do martial arts is for the cultural exchange. Now, because of my internet show Martial Arts Odyssey, people in Cambodia are watching videos about Kuntaw, and my Filipino friends are watching videos about Bokator. It is such a great thing that the people of southeast Asia can share their culture and martial arts with each other on the internet. After I taught the soldiers in Burma, I filmed their martial art. The Shan people practice Lai Tai kung fu, and now my Filipino friends are learning about Burma.

I grabbed a Shan knife, which is longer than a bolo, sharp on one side, and tapers to a point. As I was walking up the trail to the training ground, a group of foreign medics came running by in formation.

“Come join us, do some cardio exercise.” They shouted to me.
“I hate running.” I answered. “In fact, I learned to fight so I don’t have to run.”

The soldiers sat at the position of attention on the parade ground. Nearly one thousand Shan rebels, whose people had been in a constant state of war from the time of their grandfathers. They wore uniforms, but most covered their feet with flip flops, or went barefoot. Their weapons were old M-16s left over from the Vietnam War and AK-47s made in China.

In my system of practical fighting, we start with striking, then move to grappling, and end with knife and stick fighting.

Before I began, I explained the program to the soldiers. Shan language is pretty close to Thai, so I use that language to communicate with them. My assistant is a Shan sergeant, named Hsai Kong, who studied Shan martial art his whole life. He speaks fluent Thai, so he helps me, translating the parts that I have trouble expressing.

Practical fighting contains 18 basic strikes, designed to take a non-fighter and teach him to fight inside of a week or a month. Once the fighters know the routine, they need to practice everyday. The practice begins with one session per day, of the eighteen strikes in sequence, every day, five reps each, on each side of the body. This will increase over time to ten and then twenty reps per strike on each side of the body. Just as with Kuntaw, we can use the entire body as a weapon. We start with the head and work down to the feet.

I got the soldiers on their feet and started. The warm up cane from Shaolin Temple. We all stood in a low, Shaolin horse stance, with hands out straight in front of you. On the first day, we only held the position for one minute. Then we stood up straight and shook it out. Next, back down in horse stance for one minute, this time doing curls with imaginary weights. Then rest. Then horse stance again, doing overhead presses with imaginary weights. We repeated the horse stance, this time doing peck deck exercise with the arms. As the weeks of practice go on, each set of horse stance could be increased to three minutes, then five, ten… Even without weights, doing all of those curls in the air, you will feel the burn.

After the warm up, I explained the basic premise of self-defense. Never show your intentions before you move. Do not telegraph. Wait for the right moment, and then strike hard. Never threaten or even appear aggressive till the exact moment that you attack.

When someone gets aggressive with you on the street, don’t scream back. Don’t look mean. Look humble. Put you hands in center of chest in prayer position and look penitent.

In any type of stand up grappling, the man with his hands on the inside is in the dominant position. In Thailand, we spend hours practicing our Muay Thai wrestling. Two fighters lock up, head to head, grabbing each other behind the neck. At the beginning of the exercise, they both have one arm inside and one arm outside. When the coach signals for the exercise to start, they fight to get both their arms on the inside. The fighter with two hands on the inside is in a better position to throw his opponent.

This is an exercise which can also be practiced as part of practical fighting. The wrestling is good upper body work. The throwing is an excellent skill to develop.

The reason you put your hands in prayer position when someone is threatening you, first, because this will tend to make the attacker relax and get careless. Second, because now, both your hands are on the inside. You have already got the dominant position, and you haven’t even begun yet. If your hands are on your chest, the attacker will probably grab your shoulders or throat from the outside. Strike one of practical fighting is the head butt. When the man grabs you, you grab the back of his head, pull him forward, and smash his face with your skull. He is moving forward and you move right at him, using his forces against him. The power with which he was grabbing you is now directed at his face, shattering his nose or chin.

When teaching soldiers, it is important to remember that they aren’t martial artists or professional fighters. They need to learn simple, effective techniques that could save their lives in combat. But, when teaching people who have a longer time frame, these techniques can be expanded. For example, the simple head but can be made doubly as effective if before you strike, you drop, bending your knees, bringing your head down below his chin, and then pop back up with all your bodyweight, launching your head into his face, like a bullet.

Always remember, with a head butt, contact should be head-to-face never head-to-head.

In a longer course, we can actually practice these techniques with a partner. But for the short course, I have the men practice five times in the air, grabbing and striking an imaginary opponent. On the first day of training, they will do five of each exercise, eventually, over a period of time, they will build up to twenty of each.

Next, moving down the body from the head to the elbows, we learn the elbow strike.

For the rest of the exercises the men are standing in a comfortable fighting stance. The legs are roughly shoulder with width apart, with the dominant leg (for most people this is the right leg) slightly out in front. The knees should be slightly bent and a fighter should always avoid getting in a straddle stance.

The hands are up in a modified boxing stance, slightly higher than boxing to protect the face against elbow strikes. The elbows are slightly further apart than in boxing because you need a good field of vision all around, to be able to see kicks coming up from underneath.

Practical fighting includes six basic punches: Left jab, straight right, left and right upper cut and left and right hook.

Like in boxing, everything works of the left jab. When the jab is thrown, the whole entire weight moves forward. The hip twists into the punch, and the shoulder turns into it. The entire body must work together, with the punch originating somewhere down, deep in the Earth, working its way up the leg, to the hip, then to the shoulder and down the arm, focusing the full force of the blow on the two first knuckles.

In the short course, this is pretty much where the explanation would stop. Then the soldiers would practice five times. But for students who have time and desire to practice, in addition to hitting the air, you should hit a punching bag or other object many times. Afterwards, check your knuckles. If only the first two knuckles are red, then you are executing the technique correctly. If all of the knuckles are bruised, then you need to concentrate on only hitting with the first two knuckles. This will give your punch a devastating, penetrating force, like stabbing someone with the point of a knife.

Another advanced technique is to remember to tuck your chin into your shoulder for protection, so you don’t get hit in the chin and knocked out, while punching.

The right punch works the same way as the left. On both the left jab and straight right, remember to turn your fist over when you are making contact with your opponent. Concentrate on turning into the punch, twisting the hip, turning the shoulder, and landing on only two knuckles. Before you throw an uppercut, make sure to bend your knees, drop your weight, and explode upward, driving your fist into your opponent’s solar plexus, floating ribs, chin, or nose. On the hook, twist the hips and really turn your body into the punch. Don’t rotate your hand on a hook. Most martial arts teach that you should rotate your hand on all punches. But, in pro-boxing, you don’t rotate your hand on a hook. Still, you will need to concentrate and make sure that all of the force is landing on the first two knuckles.

Muay Thai Boran contains sixteen basic elbows. Bokator has even more. But for practical fighting, we only teach three: overhead, uppercut, and hook.

To execute the overhead elbow, simply rotate your elbow from fighting position, do a big inward circle, brining the elbow high up over your head, then crash down on your opponent’s skull. Turn your body into the strike, brining all your weight down, concentrated on the point of your elbow. As a more advanced technique, lift your foot when you begin the elbow’s inward circle, smash your foot down on the ground or on the opponent’s foot at the exact second that your elbow makes contact with his head.

The uppercut elbow is the same as the uppercut punch. Drop low first, by bending your knees. Then, pop tall and strike your opponent under the chin.

The hook elbow moves just like a hook punch. You will use this one to strike your opponent in the temple, the side of the jaw, side of the nose, or to slice the skin of his forehead, causing blood to run into his eyes.

The soldiers practiced each elbow, five times on each side. You want to build up to doing each elbow twenty times on each side.

Always grab the back of your opponent’s head before doing a knee strike. Pull him into your strike, bring your knee up into his solar plexus. Advanced fighters can strike the opponent in the chin with their knee. Another advanced variation is to drop your body weight when you grab the man’s head, then jump back up and hit him with your knee while he is on the way down. Stand up on the toes of your base leg when throwing a knee.

The hook knee is thrown exactly like a roundhouse kick. The entire body has to turn into. You must stand tall on the toes of your base leg, and rotate into the strike. Make sure you hip is fully engaged in this strike.

When kicking, use your shin, rather than your foot to hit your opponent. The shin kick, roundhouse can strike low, on the muscle of the calf. In Kuntaw, the same technique is used as a sweep, where you strike with your foot. Striking with your shin can still sweep the opponent, but it can also bruise him. If done correctly, this kick will cause his leg to drop out from under him and become useless. The next kick is just above the knee cap. Basic students are taught to throw a round house, just above the side of the knee. Advanced students learn to do a straight kick, above the top of the front of the knee, striking with the ball of the foot.

There is also a downward knee. This is used as a defense against a kick. When a kick comes on the right side of your body, you block it by brining your left knee high in the air, across your body, and it smashes down on your opponent’s kicking leg.

The entire knife fighting portion of practical fighting was taken from Filipino martial arts.

The best rule for self-defense knife fighting is, don’t fight with knives. If someone else has knife, pick up a stick, a rock, or a gun and take care of that situation.

Although the Filipnio arts of Kuntaw and Arnes have nearly unlimited numbers of knife strikes, practical fighting has to be simple. So, there are only five. Right downward slash, left downward slash, downward cut on the top of the head, upward cut through the groin and midsection, and the thrust.

The basic knife fighting stance is the same as Kuntaw stance. The fighter is in normal fighting position, but with the knife held in the rear hand, more or less at the center of the chest. The empty, left hand is held out in front, to be used for grappling or disarming.

The right downward strike is done by stepping forward and brining the blade down on the opponent’s shoulder. Imagine cutting all the way through his body, from shoulder to hip, at a 45 degree angle. The left downward strike is identical. In Kunatw, you learn to change the knife hand, handing the blade off from the right to the left. But for the soldiers, the simple technique is that the knife remains always in the right hand.

Next, step forward, bring the knife up over your head, and smash down on the center of the opponent’s head. You step at the same instant, imagine the blade cutting from the center of the skull all the way down, to the naval.

For the upward strike, the blade rotates out and in toward your body. It circles around, and comes up, under the opponent’s groin. It continues on, cutting all the way to his chin.

The final knife strike is a thrust. You simply step in, and drive the point of the blade into the opponent’s solar plexus, coming out somewhere in the back between his shoulder blades.

As with all other techniques in practical fighting, we practice. Each strike is practiced five times on each side, building up to twenty times on each side.

In more advanced training, we can work with partners to practice grappling and disarming techniques.

The opponent strike with his right hand, the blade coming at you from the left side of your body. You block his blade with your blade. At the same time, you place your empty hand against his wrist, redirecting the strike in a safer direction. Next, grab the wrist, and slash it with your blade. Still holding tight to the wrist, slash him under the arm pit. A slash to the wrist will usually disarm an opponent. A slash under the armpit will cause lethal bleeding.

If your opponent thrusts, you step in, blocking with your blade held vertically, pushing his blade down, and away. Use the combination of his motion and yours, while he is moving forward and you are moving forward, rotate your knife up into a stabbing position and stab him in the lower abdomen. With your free hand, you can grab him and pull him into your thrust.

The techniques can get longer and more and more complex as you practice. You can do the block, slash to the wrist, slash to the armpit, then bring the blade up through his groin, wind milling around, and smashing down on his head.

In Kuntaw we frequently use the butt of the knife as a striking or grabbing weapon. Use the butt of the knife as a hook to grab the back of is head, the same as we would do in Muay Thai. Use your body weight to pull him down and knee him in the face Step in, insert your knife into the crook of his arm and get leverage under his arm pit. Twist his arm with your blade behind him. You can easily use your free hand to take away his blade now. If it doesn’t come out easily, press against the flat of his blade with your empty hand, pushing his blade in such a way, that the handle slips through the gap between the tips of his fingers and the palm of his hand. Once he is disarmed, you can follow through, pushing on your own blade, breaking his arm and shoulder.

When a thrust or strike comes, you can block it gently with your free hand. Don’t grab the wrist. Just ease the hand in a safe direction, so you don’t get stabbed. Step in with your whole bodyweight, and trap his knife arm against his chest. Now, use the butt of your knife in the side of the jaw, temple, or the back of the head. A variation of this technique, instead of the repeated but strikes, you can stab the opponent in the throat or kick his legs out from under him.

All of the empty hand fighting techniques can also be used in a knife fight. For example, the opponent thrusts. You block, grab his wrist and pull him towards you, using his momentum. Just be careful to redirect his blade away from you. As he is coming in, hit him with a knee in the solar plexus. Then, reverse his knife hand, press your full bodyweight against his elbow, and drive his knife right into his googlies. While trapping an opponent’s knife arm against his body, you can step around, behind him. You can step on the back of his knee, which will drive him to the ground. Rest your body weight on the beck of his head, force him forward, stabbing him in the face with his own blade.

In truth, although I like learning and teaching these techniques, I think the best defense is to avoid any situation even remotely similar to those described above. Try to grab anything and use it to your advantage. Throw sand in his eyes. Do anything, and get away.

For the Shan soldiers in Burma, however, fighting is not an option. They have been forced into a horrible war, where most of the casualties are innocent civilians. If they use these techniques to take out even one Burmese soldier, I will be happy.

Antonio Graceffo is the author of four books, available on amazon.com. He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” To see Antonio Graceffo’s Burma and martial arts videos, click here.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo+shan+state+army&search_type=

See his website www.speakingadventure.com
contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com

Monkey Master in the Cage

2008-11-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

One of Taiwan’s last remaining Monkey Masters wants to fight in the K-1 and UFC to show the world the power of traditional Chinese martial arts.
By Antonio Graceffo

Master Hisam’s hands are huge and swollen, as hard as rocks. In demonstrations, he uses them to smash granite slabs to dust. One could only imagine what those hands would do to your skull, even through boxing gloves.

The gym is a four story walkup, overlooking a highway in Tainan, the ancient capital of Taiwan. Here, 37 year old Al Haroun Hisham, a German born Syrian is one of the last keepers of the traditional monkey fist. After several hours of forms and body hardening exercises, Hisham begins his daily ritual of bag work, running, weight lifting, and wrestling with a 50 kg dummy. This the training that won him the International San Da Wang championship last year, and the one which he hopes will carry him on to a repeat win of San Da Wang, followed by the Art of War in China, and eventually landing him in the UFC or K-1.

Hisham weighs over 80 Kgs of rock solid muscle and carries very little body fat. At first glance, his routine looks like a mix of East and West, new and old, but, Hisham says that most of the techniques he uses were developed in China centuries ago.

“The ancient monks ran. They hit the bag. They did everything that we do today. But, they also used meditation and Chinese medicine to harden the body both inside and out.” Explains Hisham. He doesn’t believe he is brining something new to the MMA world. Instead, he believes he is helping the world to rediscover something that was lost.

“My traditional Chinese martial arts training involves hardening the forearms, inside and outside. In the monkey, we punch with the wrist, so we have to harden the wrist. We punch back hand, and hand knife edge, as well as the palm. If we condition the entire hand, the monkey claw is very, very dangerous.”

Hisdham also uses Chinese conditioning on all parts of nees, elbows, and feet. “I practiced the conditioning like iron shirt, combined with Chinese medicine. Internal and external training: this make the body like a weapon.”

Hisham’s family originates in Damascus. “My father immigrated to Berlin in early 60s. Back in Damascus, my family practiced wrestling for generations. I grew up with it. My grandfather wrestled. My uncle was a wrestling master, a national team member. He won many regional championships and went to the Asian games. He was my first teacher. We didn’t have a real school, so we wrestled on the floor with mattresses.”

“Old school wrestling in Syria is different than modern Greco Roman They used to head-butt and grab skin or cheek muscles. So, when they threw you, they ripped out the flesh and muscles. And, they did really bad stuff to you on the ground.”

Hisham first fell in love with Chinese Kung Fu when he was a young buy, watching movies.

“My father exported German cars Damascus. He used his money to buy several cinemas in Berlin. In the 1970s, we were the first ones playing Chinese martial arts movies. My father sat my right in the front row, when I was only four years old. He watched the Shaw Brothers and all of these old school martial arts movies. Afterwards, I went home and practiced what I shad seen.”

“My parents pushed me to do some exercise. My mother was a ballet dancer. My father didn’t want me to do that, but my mom taught me the split and stretching. My father always wrestled with me.” But most important was the influence from the movies. “My goal was to become a Shaolin monk. This was something I really admired.”

While growing up, Hisham earned a black belt in Tae Kwan Do. While he did his national military service, he also learned some Chinese martial arts which were taught to German paratroopers. He eventually found a monkey master in Berlin and studied with him for four years. He liked the Chinese martial art that he was learning, but he suspected that something was missing.

“It all looked like the ballet my mother used to do. It was very beautiful, but where was the application?”

The old school wrestling had taught Hisham that modern sport arts could be watered down versions of ancient, deadly martial arts which were applicable in real fighting. So, in 1996, he came to Taiwan first time.

“I did a lot of research which said that there were three major migrations of Chinese Kung Fu masters to Taiwan. The first was in 1644, during Ming and Ching Dynasties.” Next, the Boxer, after their failed rebellion in the summer of 1900, escaped to Taiwan. Finally, during Mao’s cultural revolution, when all masters of ancient arts were being killed, many Kung Fu masters took refuge in Taiwan.

According to Hisham, “The real martial art is not found in Mainland China because of the communism. But, I thought it could be found outside of china, in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

Hisham used money he earned from his school in German and from his work as a bodyguard, to finance his trips back and forth to Taiwan, seeking the masters. Eventually, in 2005, he settled permanently in Taiwan. He is married to a Taiwanese woman, who shares his vision of rediscovering the ancient Chinese arts and showcasing them to the world by winning the K-1 or UFC.

“I am not a snake. I am not a tiger or a praying mantis. My body looks like a monkey. So, this is a style that works for humans, and the animal inside you can come out. I traveled all over Taiwan to find masters. I heard some legends that they didn’t pass their knowledge because monkey is a special technique which they didn’t want to teach just anyone. They taught some bits of monkey and incorporated it into existing animal styles. But no one wanted to teach the real monkey because it is so deadly.”

Hisham feels that the Hanaman boxing practiced in Thailand should also be included into Monkey Kung Fu. After all, it is the same monkey god in both countries. Therefore, he used flying knees and elbows.

Eventually, Hisham found an 88 year old master, who was practicing monkey, but teaching crane. This master was one of only two which Hisham found, and he has since died.

Next, Hisam went to the monkey temple. “They had a Dao oracle, who meditates then goes crazy, gets possessed, and people ask him questions. I was watching and he called me in and asked what do I want what is my wish. I asked him some questions he couldn’t know, things about Germany. And he gave me some answers which were correct. I don’t really believe but my family does some Sufi things so I asked more about monkey fist.’

Eventually, Hisham was given permission to meditate in the temple. After 12 days, something happened. I started to move in a strange way, I couldn’t open my eyes, and I nearly collapsed.” Then came the visions. “People told me they saw me and knew the Monkey King was in my body. I saw monkeys jumping around. I was very afraid. Afterwards, I created some new techniques which I learned from the visions and I made a new monkey form.”

“I believe this because it happened to me. If I tell westerners they don’t believe. But I have a different background so it is different for me.”

During his search for a monkey master, Hisham found a lot of so called masters, but they weren’t fighting.

“In Germany there is a branch of Wing Chun which made their name fighting like the Gracies did. They challenged everyone and won. So, now there is no question. We all know Gracie jiu Jitsu is good. Some people say you shouldn’t fight, it is against the code. But how do you know what level you are at if you don’t fight?”

“I want to fight in MMA and K-1 because there aren’t many Chinese or traditional martial arts in there. I think in the beginning there were a few, but I don’t know if they had thirty years of experience.”

“When you meet MMA guys, Thai boxers, and boxers, if you tell them you do TMA, they look at you and smile.”

A lot of the reality and professional fighting crowd think TMA is a useless joke. Ken Shamrock said in his interview, after his loss to Hois Gracie, that when he saw Gracie come in, wearing a ghi and a black belt, he just assumed that he didn’t know how to fight. Ken guessed wrong that day. And this is what Hisham hopes to show to the world.

“People look down on Chinese martial arts. They say Muay Thai are the hardest, boxers are the fastest…But what about traditional martial arts? They have 3000 years of development. How can they not be good? I think the big question is how you practice martial art. If you really practice six hours a day you can be good. If you chose the right way, and if you don’t involve into so many techniques you can be good.”

“I was a student of TMA before. The master said, for that style, you need 36 forms. For that one, 72 forms. But after a while, I wondered why am I trapped into a lot of techniques if I can’t use them. So, real martial arts only have a handful of forms five is enough, including a breathing form. And then the rest is application.

Hisham has many reasons for wanting to fight on the world stage. “First, I want to prove if this thing I made up works or not. Secondly, for a boxer, 25 years old is peak, but for TMA 40 or 45 is the peak. I really admire old MMA masters Randy Coutour for example the best example for real martial artists. He is over 40, but it is not easy to defeat him. The young guys 25 to 30 are good, but how long can they keep this level?”

Hisham tells about a Taiwanese master who still trains at age 88.

“Chinese martial arts says, learn chi and ne gong, and you can stay healthier and stronger. Add the gong the working out and the skills and this is real kung fu.”

Hisham says, “Many masters are practicing martial art, but they forgot the martial part.” He went on to say that many westerners are only practicing the external, the fighting, and have forgotten to add the rest. Hisham believes a complete Chinese TMA fighter can win.

“I want to fight first in San Da Wang in Taiwan, again, and the Art of War, in China because I want to show the biggest audience in the world that traditional martial art can win. Today everyone is looking at MMA looking to the west rather than to CFhina and to traditional martial art. They say Gracie Jiu Jitsu is the best, but Randy Couture doesn’t do BJJ he does traditional wrestling and he shows everyone there is something more.”

Hisham wants to do the same, to show the world that there is something beyond the mat.

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. His book, The Monk from Brooklyn, is available at amazon.com. See his vieos on youtub.
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f

His website is speakingadventure.com
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Contact Antonio: antonio@speakingadventure.com

Brooklyn Monk learns Vietnamese martial art

2008-11-22T08:10:00.001-08:00

VoVinam, The Traditional Vietnamese Martial Art
Antonio Graceffo

They beat the Chinese, the French, the Americans, and even Genghis Khan in war, so I figured the Vietnamese could teach this Brooklyn Monk Something about fighting.

Vovinam is taught everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The practitioners see it as a matter of national pride, similar to the way Koreans view Tae Kwan Do. Vovinam is a very complete martial art with elements taken from many styles. There are kicks from Tae Kwan Do, but also a limited number of shin kicks and knee kicks. There are grapples from Hop Kido and throws from Judo. There are also a limited number of elbow strikes. They train with an array of weapons, taken from China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

Because Vietnam is still a communist country, there is no professional fighting at all. So, the Vovinam guys weren’t ready to go fight in the UFC. But, with a bit of tweaking, the style looks like it could be modified to use in MMA competitions. As far as traditional martial art (TMA) goes, Vovinam was a lot more interesting and complete than Tae Kwan Do. Anything that includes a grappling component is more multi-dimensional than a stand up kicking art. Unfortunately, because Tae Kwan Do is now part of the Olympics and the SEA Games, there is a huge push, particularly in Communist countries, to build world class teams. The cost is that the local martial arts are dying out.

In Cholon, Saigon’s China Town, I found a massive sports center. In the basement there was a full weight lifting gym. Gyms in Vietnam were quite complete and training was cheap. Membership in a gym costs les than $10 per month. The other five floors of the building were dedicated to martial arts. Walking up the stairs, I felt like Bruce Lee, climbing the tower in “Game of Death.” On the first floor there were about a hundred people doing karate. On the next floor, Kung Fu. Up a level, Kendo and Aikido. On the next floor, Karate and Tae Kwand Do again.

The price of martial arts training was $6 per month.

On the top floor, I found my home, boxing.

I was in Vietnam to learn something new, so I concentrated on Vovinam. The problem with most TMA (Traditional Martial Arts) is that there isn’t enough of a cardio component, nearly no strength component, and no toughening or fighting training. So, I set up a training schedule of weights in the morning, followed by Vovinam in the evening and boxing at night. The boxing was the perfect addition to make my training day complete.

In Ho Chi Minh City people, go out late, study late, and train late. The streets are full of cars and motorcycles, at all hours. Boxing started at 7:30 PM, which is amazing, because in Cambodia, no one would ever consider going out that late. Even more amazing, as I was leaving the two hour workout, people were coming in for their martial arts lessons.

When you walk into a new martial arts school in Asia, there is always the thing about showing respect. They are sizing you up, so you don’t want to look weak. But you don’t want to look challenging either. If they think you have only come to fight, they may not train you, or they may hurt you. Or if they think you are showing disrespect, they won’t deal with you at all.

In boxing, there is none of this. The minute I walked into the boxing gym, the coach, Mr. Ahn, welcomed me with open arms. He was all smiles, asking me a million questions about my training and experiences in other countries. He called the boxers around to listen to the stories and ask me questions. With the martial arts guys, I have to build rapport before I can take out my camera. Mr. Ahn, on the other hand, immediately asked if the boys could take some photos with their new American friend.

As there is no professional boxing in Vietnam, all the boys were amateurs. Most were around 22 years old. They attended university fulltime and boxed part time.

I asked if I could fight in Vietnam, Mr. Ahn laughed and told me that in the whole country there were only four boxers registered at 81 Kgs, the highest weight division. “At national championships they give one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. So, everyone wins.”

In Thailand I am always amazed at the steps they are taking to improve their training, such as brining in foreign coaches or sending coaches to other countries. Vietnam was the same. One of the team’s coaches had trained in Thailand with the Vietnam national boxing team.

“We can learn from them.” Said Mr. Ahn. “In the lower weight divisions, the Philippines and Thailand are the best in Southeast Asia.”

Philippine champion, Mani Paquoia (Pac Man) was almost as much of a hero to the Vietnamese boxers as he was to the Filipinos.

Talking about my Muay Thai experience, Mr Ahn told me, “We had kickboxing prior to 1979. But then it was banned. Now they would like to bring it back, but there isn’t even an association or a team yet.”

“Traditional wrestling is also dying out. Maybe it exists in the provinces, and probably not every day, just at festivals.”

The good thing about training in a socialist country is that the government supports sports and education programs. Sports are made available to nearly everyone, regardless of how poor they are. The downside, of course, is that while top athletes will have state of the art training and equipment, the average gym is not as good as one we would pay for in a rich country. Boxing training at the sports complex was free, but the boxing team had absolutely nothing. They had half a heavy bag and some rotting, smelly glove.

The bag was hung too high and not heavy enough for me to do body punches or low kicks. There were no coache’s mitts for pad-work. Mr. Ahn showed me where there had been a floor to ceiling bag, but it was broken. One very cool piece of equipment they did have was a makiwara board hanging on the wall. This padded boarded is normally used in karate and other martial arts to practice focus punching. The boxers used it for speed and power drills. One guy would stand at board, throwing one-two, one-two as fast and hard as he could for thirty seconds, while his partner shadow boxed. Then they would switch off. Thirty second board, thirty seconds shadow, alternating for three minutes. It was brutal! By my third rotation on the board I was completely beat. My arms would barely stay up.

During the drill, Mr. Ahn stood by, and made sure my hands were coming back to a proper guard position between punches, so I was punching off my face, straight through.

Usually when I train with amateurs the coaches leave me alone and let me train what I want, which is nice, if I am there for a short time. I like them to leave me alone because amateur boxing is so different from professional boxing. Fr example, they turn their hands over when they hook, which pros don’t do. I don’t want them to undue my skills.
But if I am going to be there for a year it is a problem because then I am not learning anything new.

Watching one of the best guys train, he was very fast and had good form and tremendous power or his size, but his hands were down at his sides, like Muhammad Ali, and he was wide open. Maybe he was fast enough that it didn’t matter, but I was shocked at how open many of them were.

The gym didn’t have a heavy bag, which would be the bulk of my training as a heavyweight pro. I got the impression that amateurs didn’t work the heavy bag the way pros do. Most of their work was shadow boxing and mock sparing. Amateurs I have trained with in Philippines, Vietnam and other countries did a lot of things we don’t do, such as sliding drills, punching drills, and blocking drills. Maybe we could benefit from these training techniques too.

After the board work, Mr. Ahn had me spar with two of his guys, one round each. We didn’t hit each other hard, just worked.

The second boy I sparred with had one hand on his waste, and punched off his hip. He did all right with it, but it still looked dangerous. The cool thing he kept doing was switching off, left and right hand lead. He didn’t actually change his lead leg, but would twist his body about 50% and lead with a right hand jab. It was tricky and kept giving me a new picture to look at.

They didn’t have a ring, so we were sparring on the floor. Normally I shepherd my opponent onto the ropes or into the corner and pound them. This is much harder to do in an open fighting situation. The speed and stamina of the smaller amateur is a bigger advantage in an open situation.

In pro boxing you are always looking for that knock out or a win by attrition. You lead with the left, but you are constantly trying to set the man up for the big right hand. In amateur boxing, you are trying to win by points. Throwing a flurry of punches, whether they are hard or not, will win you points.

Training with the Vietnamese was great fun, and I look forward to continuing my study of Vovinam, supplemented with boxing and weight lifting. Maybe I will find out who is trying to start the professional kickboxing league and I can help out. Maybe we can build a Vietnamese MMA team and take the Southeast Asian title.

Tan Da helped me to find a school where I could learn Vovinam, the quintessential Vietnamese martial art. Vo means fight. Vovinam is also called Viet Vo Dao, or the way of Vietnamese fighting.

Vovinam is a synthetic martial art, founded by Nguyen Loc in 1938. The practitioners wear blue karate ghis and earn belts just as in many traditional martial arts.

Apparently in the past, the Vietnamese martial arts were as developed as those of China. A martial arts university was founded nearly a thousand years ago, where students studied all forms of combat and also read the classics, such as Tsun Zu, “The Art of War.” National exams were held regularly until some time during the French occupation. Even under the French, martial arts continued to develop with Vietnamese students competing in French competitions of foreign martial arts from Korea, Japan, and China.

Today, the students of Vovinam seem very proud to be studying their national art, but like in many parts of the developing world, society pushes young people to excel in their studies, particularly English and IT, and to make money. Given the difficulty I had in finding teachers and teams I would say that martial arts are on the decline in Vietnam but still infinitely more alive than in Cambodia or Lao. Tae Kwan Do seems to be extremely popular and was being taught at many high schools and universities. Most parents feel that letting their kids study Tae Kwan Do is a good compromise since they probably won’t get injured. And, now that Tae Kwan Do is in the SEA Games and the Olympics, Tae Kwan Do becomes a matter of national pride, the same as gymnastics or other Asian dominated sports.

The sad thing about the rise of Tae Kwan Do and economic prosperity is that it means the demise of traditional martial arts.

Training with a team who met in one of the most famous high schools of Ho Chi Minh city, at a glance the art looked a lot like Tae Kwan Do with that same round house kick, which hits with the top of the foot. Tae Kwan Do style kicking pads were used and students did drills, running and kicking, leaping and kicking multiple targets. The forms also looked like Tae Kwan Do katas. But when I started rolling with one of the instructors, I found there was a lot more to the art than high kicks and leaps.

The teacher was named Master Hai. I would find out that nearly everyone I met in Vietnam was either named Hai or Nguyen. Nguyen was a traditional hero in ancient literature and was also one of Ho Chi Minh’s original names. Hai admonished me for taking photos of his class. As a result, the story was never able to run in American magazines because there were no images. I try to like TMA but I sometimes get angry and just want to punch these guys in the head. I just didn’t think it was good for PR to prevent foreigners from studying your art or photographing it.

Hai did agree to let me train with him, and once again the price was very low, a few dollars per month. He required me to wear a blue ghi, which is the typical uniform of Vovinam. Almost all of the students were black belts, but I would find out that red was the highest. Remember, when you invent your own martial art, it is important that black not be the highest belt. That way you can be totally unique. One of the styles I had studied in Philippines the highest belt was red, white and blue.

Vovinam contained a lot of impressive joint locks and locking throws, similar to Hop Kido. There were some throws that seemed to have come right out of a judo textbook, “In judo they grab the clothes.” Explained the teacher. “But if you try and grab someone by the T-shirt it will rip and what if he isn’t wearing a shirt? So, we only practice throws that can be done from body lock positions.”

He had a few very cool hip throws where he either locked his arms under mine or grabbed my head and threw me.

When the throw is completed the students did a lock and control or followed up with a punch. I didn’t see any actual submissions, chokes or finishing moves.

The strike side of the art showed the influence from neighboring Cambodia and Bradal Serey (Khmer kickboxing). Vovinam contained low kicks, all be it with the top of the foot, but still they were striking down into the calf muscle. They used some knee strikes. The most obvious connection with Cambodian martial arts was the use of elbows. Vovinam had about five different elbow strikes, including the uppercut elbow, hook elbow, and spin elbow which are techniques pretty much unique to Cambodia and Thailand.

Hai kept referring to Vovinam as Vietnamese kung fu, showing the Chinese influence in Vietnamese culture.

Vovinam was one of those typical traditional martial arts that I have trouble practicing. I hate wearing a ghi. Southeast Asia is bloody hot and I prefer wearing my Muay Thai shorts and T-shirt. We had to stand in rows, military style, according to rank, and do our exercises in unison.

There was a lot of standing and static throwing punches, chops, and elbows. The knees were straight during these drills. Hai yelled at me for dropping into a fighter’s crouch.

I asked one of the instructors if Vovinam used elbows. He answered, “Yes, several of our combinations involve elbows.”

Vovinam has a number of standard combinations. If your opponent kicked a certain way, you countered with combination 3. if he struck another way, you countered with combination 7. From what I understood, if you started a combination, you had to finish it and these strikes could only be done within the context of these combinations. It seemed very restrictive and not at all conducive of actual fighting.

Being TMA they practiced the old, strike at my face with a lung punch, freeze, and I will block it, deflect it, twist your arm and throw you. I kept wanting to ask him if anyone had ever done any of these techniques for real. One of the stupid drills they had me do was to stand square, once again with your knees stiff, and my hands on my hips. The teacher would throw a very slow punch to my face and I was supposed to block it with my opposite hand. Any time I didn’t do it exactly as he wanted, Hai would laugh at me.

“If you do this in a fight, you will get your nose broken.”

I wanted to answer, if you mouth of at me again, your going to get your nose broken. The only way I can even tolerate TMA is by convincing myself that it isn’t supposed to be about fighting. It is supposed to be about art or culture or tradition or something. But then when they bring up the subject of foght9ng I just get aggressive. If this isn’t fighting, why is he talking about fighting? And if this is fighting, why I am standing with my knees braced, my legs square and my hands on my hips? Who would fight like that? And it’s not like, he is a master and he could fight like this and win. No, the rules are the same for everyone, I don’t care who you are. If you come into a fight like that, you will lose.

How was this stance superior to my normal fighting stance, my Muay Thai/boxing stance?

Hai wanted to teach me a hook, but when I moved my legs, he yelled at me. He wanted me to hook from this same stupid position with my hands on my hips and my knees straight. Then he yelled at me for not putting my shoulder into. I was like, what are you retarded? Boxers through the best hook in the world. And believe me, if someone showed me a better hook I would do it. To hook properly, have to stand in fighting stance. And the way you get your shoulder into is by rotating at the hips and pushing off with your back leg. Standing square like this not only were you not going to have any power, but you were going to hurt yourself.

Maybe that was the plan all along, to get me to through out my back. Perhaps this was revenge for the war. You never knew in Vietnam when the war would rear its ugly head.

The next argument came when he wanted me to turn my fist over on the hook. This is a repeated argument I have had all over Asia. Modern fighters, ones who absorb(rather than reject) the new information flowing throughout the world, do not turn their fist over on a hook. You always turn your fist on a straight punch, but never on a hook. But all of these traditional martial arts have you turning the fist on a hook. But once again, they are only punching the air. None of them train on a bag for several hours per day as a real fighter would and none of them are actually fighting. So, I guess they can throw their hook however they want to and it will be fine.

One thing they did right in Vovinam was the warm up. It was composed of useful martial arts techniques. When you do Tae Kwan Do in other countries, often, they rush through the exercises counting very fast in Korean ish, ni, sam sa….which actually isn’t even the counting system Koreans use for counting exercises in Korea. In so many of these schools I have seen the amount of time they hold a stretch is less than ten seconds. The only reason they don’t have more injuries is because the guys are so young. But, in Vovinam we did real exercises and at a pace that was appropriate.

In most martial arts schools I have trained in (non fighting schools) they do like ten pushups and ten sit ups. In Vovinam we did pushups for about three or four minutes and abs for about twenty minutes. We also did kicking and punching drills which looked as if they were taken from Tae Kwan Do. One guy held up the TKD style kick pad and the other guy kicked it as many times as he could in a certain time limit. Real fighters don’t do this drill because it doesn’t test your ability to throw good kicks. It tests your ability to do the drill. The first kick is real. After that, the guys are only bringing their leg back half way before kicking again. They are practicing wrong, but very fast. And admittedly they can all do this drill better and faster than me. But this has zero impact on whether they can kick in a fight or not.

When people practice this type of drill the kick pad is general held high, head or shoulder height. This is also something I almost never practice. In Muay Thai, most of our kicks are from the floating ribs down and of course we hit with our shins, whereas these guys were hitting with the tops of their feet.

In their kicking and punching drills they either stood still or moved in a straight line. Real fighters practice moving in circles.

While I was kicking I saw the guys practicing their grappling. On the whole, and as far as TMA goes, Vovinam was infinitely better than Tae Kwan Do or other traditional martial arts I had seen. It was more multi-dimensional. They had a lot of grappling. Some of it looked like Hop Kido and a little clearly came from judo. The Korean influences were obvious in all aspects of the art. After a throw they would go to the ground and use a lock to submit and control the opponent. But because this was TMA the series ended when the thrower put the opponent into a lock. There was no actual wrestling or countering or escaping going on. It was, you attack me. I throw you and put you in a joint lock. Ok, now, you stand up and I attack you and you throw me and put me in an arm bar.

Like in most TMA when Hai talked about fighting it was always theoretical. “If someone strikes you …” They had prepared various silly self-defense techniques such as if someone grabs you from the side, from behind in a bear hug, in a choke…You employ this tricky means of escape. They also had misconceptions about other arts. One of the instructors explained to me that Vovinam was more lethal than Muay Thai because in Muay Thai you just kick once and stop, but in Vovinam you kick and punch at the same time.

I really wanted to fight him so he could show me the failings of my boxing and Muay Thai.

Once again, I was having trouble studying TMA. I know there a lot of cultural and health benefits to TMA, but I still couldn’t do it.

Traditional martial art can be excellent for your health because it will increase the range and variety of your movements. We lose flexibility and get sick in old age because we reduce the types of movements we do. We stand up, walk, sit at a desk, and open the refrigerator everyday. When you were a child you climbed, you slid, you jumped, you belly flopped, you went under the couch…you moved your body in every way possible. As an adult, even if you exercise you are limited in what you are doing. If you lift weights, how much are you actually moving? How many different kinds of motion do you do in a day? Yoga would be an exception but even a dance class or aerobics has you on your feet most of the time.

I can do all my boxing and kickboxing movements, but those are pretty limited compared to what children can do or what TMA requires. Even as a boxer, I, you, all of us do the same things every day. Muscles and joints begin to function only with the scope of very limited range of motion. The movements I do in my boxing routine are the same ones I have done for twenty years. If I do something that feels like boxing or Muay Thai I am pretty good at it. But as soon as I get out o that comfort zone I am lost.

Looking at one of my Vietnamese training partners I could see that a kid sixty kilos is stronger than me at certain angles. When I actually threw a kick or a hook the way he wanted me to, he was stronger. I am certain that my hook, thrown my way, is stronger than his hook thrown his way. But if I see TMA as exercise then throwing his hook would be a way for me to develop muscles I don’t normally use. It is the same concept as swimming as cross training. You work muscles which are neglected in your regular workouts.

As you get older you develop these tunnels of motion in all of you joints, your wrists, neck, elbows, back, shoulders… If you move within your familiar range you are fine. If you do anything else, you get injured.

I think for an older guy, doing TMA may be a really good way of preserving general health. The problem is doing TMA alone won’t do it because there is not enough cardio and almost no strength work. The cardio at Vovinam was running around the gym in circles. That is just silliness. I refuse to run inside of gyms or dojo. That is not cardio. It is an excuse for cardio and it is really bad for your knees to run in too tight of a circle. You need at least twenty minutes of cardio work to get a work out.

As with Tae Kwan Do practitioners, the dexterity that the Vovinam guys had with their feet was impressive. They were as good with their feet as I am with my hands. They can put a kick anywhere on your body they want and use any part of the foot they want. They can effectively plant a kick up, down, or sideways. That is impressive and they have a lot of techniques kicking low and then high with out the foot touching the ground. The flipside of course is that they have never kicked anything; never kicked a bag, never kicked a target. Most likely, they can’t do it in a real fight, or they might hurt themselves.

Vovinam had more grappling than most TMA. Once you have kicking, punching, and grappling you have a pretty complete martial art. I wish that more people around the world were doing Vovinam rather than Tae Kwan Do. But in a country with no professional fighters at all how could you expect them to learn it? In Cambodia I don’t know how kickboxing and TKD could exist in the same universe. Can’t the TKD people see how weak their style is compared to kickboxing? Now, MMA and k-1 are big I Korea and yet they still believe in their TKD.

I was not in Vietnam to disprove them. In the context of what they were doing, Vovinam was very good. The pride is also a good thing. They love their country, and they should be proud of Vietnam’s progress. In Cambodia I always had a feeling that there was no hope for the future. But in Vietnam I think the people are capable of achieving anything they want to.

The final martial art I looked at in Vietnam was Tieu Lam, Vietnamese Kung Fu.

The aged Master Hai (everyone in Vietnam is named Hai) draws his sword and bows. He drops into a low stance and the sword comes over his head and around his body. He rises up on one leg, steps out with his foot and drops back into a low stance. With the perfection of a warrior sculpture he pauses in a forward stance, the sword fitting his frame like an extension of his arm. Sword practice over, he goes through a similar routine with a long spear. Fighting imaginary opponents, he shuffles forward, backward, turns, strikes behind him, leaps, smack the floor with the weapon, and lunges forward. His practice continues with a chinese fan, wielding the delicate weapon with lethal precision. Last, he practices with his bare hands. This is a daily routine which he has maintained for nearly half a century.

The art is Thieu Lam, and Master Hai has practiced his whole life. In spite of his advanced years, he still manages to teach several group classes as well as private lessons in the Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) sports complex, located in China Town. His favorite form which he demonstrates for foreign visitors is called call “Lao Ho Thuong Son,” which encompasses fifty-eight movements.

“This form contains all the best of Vietnamese Martial Art.” He explains. The form takes nearly four minutes to complete, months to learn, and years to master.

According to data published by the Thieu Lam association, Thieu Lam can trace its origins to China. The art was developed as a hybrid art, a mix of Choy Gar and Hung Gar style of Kung Fu and was originally taught in Guangdong province. Later, Wing Chun was added to the mix.

In watching the master and his students go through their paces, the influence of Northern styles is clear. In fact, much of the movements they use are identical to techniques and forms taught at the Shaolin temple today. At times, however, the southern influence becomes apparent, as they sometimes use a pigeon toed stance. The students would also hlaf twist at the hips and drop into a low stance, similar to that used in Wing Chun.

The Thieu Lam style was brought to Vietnam by M° Luu Phu, who was born near Canton in 1909 and died in 1971 in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). He trained with his master in China, until 1937, when he left China, fleeing the Japanese invasion. Millions of Chinese live in Vietnam. They came in various waves, most recently, escaping the Japanese war or the Chinese civil war. At the beginning, they lived in tight Chinese communities, divided into dialect groups, with Fujians living together and Guandongese living together. At that time, Kung Fu was not taught to outsiders, and Thieu Lam remained a purely Chinese art. After 1975, Vietnamese students were permitted to study the art. M° Sui Dau, a student of M° Luu Phu became a master and taught the art to Chinese and Vietnamese alike, until his death in 1991.

Thieu Lam is divided into two major schools, “Thieu That Son” and “Trung Son Thieu Lam Tu”. Master Hai belongs to a sect called “Kim Ke Tay Son Hac.”

Training a Chinese art in Vietnam is a unique experience. It is always fascinating to see which aspects of Chinese culture they chose to keep, and which they abandoned. In studying other Vietnamese martial arts, such as Vo Vinam, it is also interesting to see which elements of Chinese Kung Fu were adopted and incorporated into other Vietnamese arts.

Thieu Lam included a good number of knees and elbows, including the over the top elbow, which must have been picked up in the Indochina region. There were also a lot more joint locks than you would expect to find in a Shaolin art. These may have been adopted from Vo Vinam, the national martial art, or directly from Korean martial arts such as Hop Kido.

They used a lot of the ever-returning fists, similar to Wing Chun. Master Hai punched, and then in one fluid, circular motion, came back with a back fist, followed by a hammer fist. He was constantly striking in circles or figure eights with repeated strikes.

“Everything we do is based on circles.” Explained master Hai, pointing at a Yin Yang symbol over his door. With his weathered features, his face showing signs of age and wisdom, the Master looked like a caricature of a teacher. If you were casting a Kong Fu master in a movie, Mr. Hai would have been your first pick.

“We use circles both up and down for blocking. We also have animal styles such as monkey and dragon.” Said Mr. Hai, pointing out some similarities with Chinese martial arts.

Several of the Vietnamese students referred to their martial art as Vietnamese Kung Fu, the same way people in China use the name Kung Fu as a general word for martial arts.

Although a close first cousin to Kung Fu, Thieu Lam had its own unique Vietnamese character. “In china they use a low stance, but in Vietnam we use medium stance.”

The horse stance looked like it came from southern China or Wing Chun.

“When your opponent strikes with the right hand, you have to block with the left, and vice versa.”

Mr. Hai showed me that if you block with the opposite hand, you will have your opponent tied up in his own limbs, and it will be impossible for him to hit you. Also, it leaves him wide open for you to do a quick jerking joint manipulation and break his arm at the elbow.

As with many traditional martial arts, there was no sparring. They practiced their fighting in patterns, so, to do the drill, both parties would have to know his script. A student struck, Mr. Hai came of the block and into a strike with the same hand. When rolling with me he hit me in the floating ribs, which is more something we emphasize in kickboxing than in Kung Fu. When I threw a kick, he kicked my leg and hit me with his knee, another Muay Thai-esque technique. When we were playing around, he blocked my kick with a cross knee and then kicked the inside of my thigh with the ball of his foot, This is basically a Muay Boran sequence. The most telling Indochina move was when he blocked and then stepped in with an elbow strike to the head, followed by a forearm smash to the elbow, while trapping the hand and hyper-extending the elbow.

“Concentrate where you hit.” Said Mr. Hai. “In China they hit in the liver. In Vietnam we hit in the heart.”

The thing that some students find boring when studying kung Fu is the lack of practical application. Mr. Hai’s students, for example, never did anything apart from forms, which they repeated over and over again. They never sparred and never tried ttheir techniques against a live opponent. Every few years I try to do TMA(Traditional Martial Art), and always quit because I prefer fighting. Kung Fu, however, is the one form of TMA I can forgive because they never actually claim to be fighters. Kung fu is beautiful and on some level, practicing Kung Fu demonstrates a deeper commitment to the art than does fighting.

The thing I really liked about practicing with Master Hai was doing the warm up. A Kung Fu warm up is a sensible exercise. Not only does it prepare your muscles for training, as well as strengthening and creating flexibility, but moving through all of those stances and techniques is much more interesting than standing in front of a mirror in the gym doing sets and reps. Doing the stances, the squatting, bending, and twisting, up and down, is good for you body, and will help to maintain health and flexibility into old age. Adding TMA, especially Kung Fu, to your overall health regime makes a lot of sense. Most days in ho Chi Minh City, I trained with Mr. Hai and then trained with the boxing team. The combination of the two programs seemed to work well for me.

In addition to Thieu Lam, the Vietnamese have a rich and diversified martial arts history. At a book store I discovered there was no shortage of books about the various Vietnamese martial arts. The only problem was, none of them were in English. So, you’ll just have to wait for my next book.

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. His book, The Monk from Brooklyn, is available at amazon.com. He is the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” See his videos on youtub.
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f

His website is speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com
Contact Antonio: antonio@speakingadventure.com
Antonio Graceffo begs you to please say a prayer for the people of Shan State, Burma.

Antonio Graceffo Wanted for Opposing the Junta

2008-11-18T08:14:00.000-08:00

Wanted for Opposing the Junta
Burma’s ruling junta, the SPDC, uses disinformation and modern technology to issues a wanted order against Antonio Graceffo.
By Antonio Graceffo

A friend who engages in cross-border aid activities in the genocide afflicted war-zone of Burma sent me this link, which, in Burmese, is the equivalent of an old wild-west wanted posted, with my photo on it.

http://www.myanmarnargis.org/content/view/40/5/

If you click over to the poster, the Burmese characters may not come up on your computer, unless you have installed the appropriate software. At a glance, the link appears to be a website of the KNU/KNLA, the ethnic Karen resistance group, featured in the film, “Rambo IV.” The site implies that I am wanted by the rebels, which makes no sense, since the only crime I have committed, if in fact it is a crime, is supporting the rebels.

I sent the link to one of the anti-junta groups I am in communication with, and they verified that it was a proxy site, a fake site, created by the Burmese SPDC junta, to pass on disinformation and create disunity and infighting within the resistance groups. Fortunately, most people working on the Burma issue don’t trust anything written in Burmese. Each of the tribes has its own language and alphabet. Most of them are smart enough to use English on their websites to garner international support. The junta, it appears, is not that smart. But, since General Ne Win forcibly closed all of Burma’s universities, to prevent smart people from meeting and exchanging political ideas, it is no wonder that they are slipping intellectually.

Of those few SPDC officials who speak English and know how to use a computer, many studied abroad. Some studied on developmental scholarships, paid by foreign governments and aid groups, to help raise the general education in what was once the richest and best educated country in southeast Asia. The application procedures, within Burma, are so stilted that often only junta supporters can apply. The education freely given to them, to help the people, becomes another tool of repression against the uneducated and underfed populace.

Here is the translation of the wanted poster. It was prepared by an exiled Burmese intellectual, who had to flee Burma and seek asylum in another country. He hates the junta with a passion and supports the resistance groups.

Translators note: I got your reply, Antonio, that the KNU has cleared your name and so we cannot sell you by the kilo to them.

Translation:

[[article begins; double parentheses [[ ]] are the translators; single parentheses ( ) are the original author's]]

Wanted [[photo of Graceffo]]
Antonia Grace-fawt (former Marine) Italy Citizen

[[no author's name seen]]

The Former Marine Who Would Combine Military Forces with Terrorists.

1-11-2008

To the armed terrorists of KNU, SSA, KNPP who are based in Thailand's Chiangmai City and are present along the Thai-Myanmar border ----- [[there is an]] American & 2 other foreigners who are teaching them Close Combat and how to set up mines and traps.

It is learned that a former US Marine Italian race, American citizen, Antonio Grace-fawt and two other foreigners, a total of 3, had finished discussions with KNU officials about entering and moving around the KNU 2nd Brigade region (Toungoo District).
The aforementioned Antonio group on (08 October 18) came via Chiangmai to Mae Sot. At Mae Sot, they met the new General Secretary Naw See Ra Pho Sein [[I'm just transcribing them phonetically; might not be correct since it is a 2nd or 3rd transliteration]]
KNU Tactical Commander Saw Beelah Sein, 2nd Brigade Commander Ah See and discussed about procedures on how to get help from foreign groups and how to transform the defensive guerilla warfare into offensive guerilla warfare within the KNU areas. It is learned that they discussed plans drawn by the KNU, SSA, KNPP Joint Military Movement Committee and how to put in practice the military tactical procedures.

[[will make my own paragraph here. original writer is having verbal diarrhea and does not appear to know how to make paragraphs]]

KNU 5th Brigade Baw Kyaw Hair [[again, this is just a transliteration and probably has original errors -- SPDC writers are notorious for mispronouncing non-Burmese names... take, e.g., your name]] said that in the areas under his responsibility, the 5th Brigade area, (Papun District), the supply routes for weapons and food for 2nd Brigade had been blocked. He also refused to take responsibility for the security and safe passage of Antonio Grace-fawt's group if they travel from 5th Brigade area to 2nd Brigade area.

5th Brigade Commander Baw Kyaw Hair, on his part, was dissatisfied with how the present congress has appointed a central group in which General Tamlabaw's sons and daughters have important posts in the KNU. [[Baw Kyaw Hair's ]] group favors having a ceasefire with the present military government and exchange arms for peace [[this is an SPDC phrase for complete surrendering of one's forces and one's weapons to SPDC -- very indicative of an SPDC author ]]

[[my paragraphing]] Another brigade that is similar in spirit to Baw Kyaw Hair is 6th Brigade. It is heard that 6th Brigade Commander Hsarmi is dissatisfied with Tamlabaw's circle of family and friends. Therefore Antonio Grace-fawt's group is unable to travel through Baw Kyaw Hair's area and is making preparations to travel through the Mae Hong Son KNPP's area to reach 2nd Brigade area. On (22-10-08) Antonio and group departed from Mae Son [[sic; I think it is a typo]] to Mae Hong Son.

Antonio Grawfawt 's group [[sic, another typo by crazy SPDC author]] is surely going to have to run and escape for their lives as they go through the Armed Forces' Offensives [[but ]] it is more certain they will die violent deaths. [[ i.e., it is more certain they will die violently rather than run and escape with their lives ]]

[[end of article]]

Further translators notes:

It is now evident from the author himself that you were never a wanted man by the KNU. The article is very poorly written and has sloppy composition.

I hear you, Antonio, that you replied it is not true about you meeting the KNU since on the dates mentioned you were out of country. It is funny SPDC is making up all these lies.
But why?

"Wanted" does not mean by the KNU. It means Wanted by SPDC but not explicitly mentioned, only by inference.

And it is not true one faction of KNU hates you. It is just that one faction is said to be discontent with Tamlabaw and therefore will not allow you safe passage.

It is just the age-old SPDC tactics of playing off one brigade commander against another brigade commander and tempting them to surrender to the government, thus scoring propaganda and psychological victories and gradually defeating the KNU.
No faction in KNU hates you, it is only the author who wishes you evil.

Buddha has been famously quoted about not returning evil for evil. Our Monk once taught me that if you send me a package [of evil wishes] and I decline to accept it, then the evil goes back to its sender. Not that I wish the sender any evil; I just simply will not take it and so the sender just gets what his Karma dictates.

What shall we do to protect against the evil efforts of SPDC to discredit each of us, and set one against the other, and tempt us into surrendering. Such things have happened time and again, and it appears the 5th and 6th brigade commanders, if this is true, are wishing to surrender and that they are discontent with Gen. Tamlabaw.
How true could this be? If it is not true, is it possible for the enemy to make it come true and create fear, suspicion, and hatred amongst the KNU? How do we eliminate this and help unify KNU? Perhaps as outsiders with no connections to any faction, we can act as mediators and help make peace. Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall unify the Forces and Defeat the enemy.

It is sad that during Gen. Bo Mya's time, his Christian officers were said to have gotten all the promotions and benefits and the Buddhists did not fare well. SPDC fanned these flames in the early 90's and by 1994 or 1995 were able to split KNU and form a quisling group, the DKBA --- which made it possible to find a way to invade the KNU headquarters, their stronghold, in Manerplaw and conquer that area.

Then, in the last two years, they were able to splinter off other KNU commanders, even the Reverend Timothy, who wanted to negotiate a separate surrender. Now it seems they are working on the 5th and 6th Brigade Commanders.

Oh, God, when and how can we turn the tide?

Antonio Graceffo begs you to please say a prayer for the people of Shan State.

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. His book, The Monk from Brooklyn, is available at amazon.com. See his vieos on youtub.
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f

His website is speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com
Contact Antonio: antonio@speakingadventure.com

Muay Thai Chakrit

2008-10-05T09:18:00.001-07:00

A Brooklyn Monk Training in Bangkok
By Antonio Garceffo

Coach Adjan Chakrit moves in circles, holding up the focus mitts, he calls out the commands. “One, one two.” I throw a straight left, right combination. “Four!” That means, left, right, hook, straight. This part is easy for me. I have been boxing since I was twelve years old. But now he calls for two kicks on the right side, followed by two kicks on the left side. The energy required to throw a kick, versus a punch is incredibly draining. My balance is off now. My weight is all over the place. More punches, more kiks, a series of elbow strikes.

“Block!” he yells.

Instinctively, I drop my elbow to protect my mid-section. Wrong move! His kick catches me just below the ribcage. This is Muay Thai, not boxing. I have to remember to block by brining up my shins, instead of bringing down my elbows.

“Front kick.” He yells, before I regain my balance.

“Knee, knee, straight, block.”

In addition to dealing with the unusual commands in the foreign language, I am fatigued, and my brain is not working as sharply as it should be. There is a long delay before I can react to the commands. Once again, the coach’s shin catches me in the mid-section.

Muay Thai is an ancient martial art which a lot of people believe was developed first in Cambodia, and later adapted by Thailand. The Khmers are angry that the Thais have put their name on the art. Monks and scholars I have spoken to in Thailand believe it is very possible that many of the techniques or refinement of this form of combat were adopted form Cambodia. It is certain, however, that there was some type of unarmed combat technique in Thailand before the Khmer influence.

Written records of Muay Thai date back approximately five hundred years. At that time the bouts had very few rules. The competitors fought essentially bare-fisted with their hands wrapped in ropes.

During the 1920s and 1930s, when Thailand was modernizing, the art was further refined into a professional sport. The first stadiums were built and the ring and gloves were added. This period is really the birth of modern Muay Thai. Today, Muay Thai is a big professional sport in Thailand, with somewhere in the order of 60 - 90 thousand professional fighters. In the west, we would expect good professional fighters to have worked their way up from the amateur circuit, but in Thailand there isn’t much of an amateur Muay Thai circuit. For the most part, Thai people can’t see the point of getting beat up for free. As a result, there is nearly exclusively professional Muay Thai.

Muay Thai has been added to the SEA Games (South East Asian) and it will most likely be added to the Asian Games, which will probably promote an amateur version of the sport. Thailand and Cambodia have had a long running feud because Cambodians feel the art should be called Bradal Serey or free fighting. They are angry about the fact that in Thailand branded the art as Muay Thaii. As a result, Cambodia refuses to compete in the Muay Thai championships in the SEA Games and refuse to join the World Muay Thai Council which governs professional Muay Thai. As a result, Cambodia can’t fight for the championship. Vietnam and Lao are both Communist and support Cambodia, by also refusing to compete in Muay Thai in the South East Asian Games.

Training in Vietnam a few weeks ago, I discovered that they didn’t have any kickboxers or professional fighters in the whole country. Consequently, their refusal to compete in the SEA games is not so significant.

Thailand and the Philippines are doing extremely well on the international fighting circuits, in the lower weight divisions. Japan hosts the K-1 which is basically the Super Bowl of professional kickboxing. Now, they have opened smaller weight divisions to allow Southeast Asians to compete. Japan is, in a way, becoming neutral ground for the politically charged sport of Muay Thai. There is also the ISKA, a professional kick boxing league, based out of the USA, which is also seen as a neutral title. Cambodia, Vietnam, and Lao could compete in the ISKA or K-1 without using the name Muay Thai. While Thailand has been quick to join international boxing leagues such as WBA, WBO and others, the neighboring Southeast Asian nations have been reluctant.

Although Muay Thai encompasses a lot of religious, cultural, and political concepts, in practice, it is essentially Thai kickboxing. They hit with punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. The kicks are very special because they are hitting with the shins, not the feet. The elbows and shins are very hard and can cut you wide open. When someone tries to kick you with their shin, you can’t use your hand or your arm to block because you will get hurt. The way we block is by using our shin bone. You raise your leg up and take the impact shin to shin. You can imagine how much that hurts. As a result, a lot of the Muay Thai training deals with toughening the shins, deadening the nerves, and building up scar tissue. We call it hardening the shins.

In provincial training camps you will find poor Thais who see boxing as a way of earning money to help their family. They go to live in a camp and become pat of the stable of fighters. The camp arranges fights for them and takes a percentage of the purse. In return, the boys get free room, board, and training. In these camps you will see people doing all manner of crazy exercises to harden their shins quickly. They kick trees, kick bamboo, or kick metal poles. At night they sit around hitting their shins with sticks or with bottles. They smear all sorts of traditional medicines, potions and lotions, on the skin to quicken this hardening process. This type op training does work. They can go from zero to totally hardened shins in about 90 days, but it is a terrible experience, and the shins will be all cut, open, bleeding, and infected the whole time.

Modern coaches, such as my Bradal Serey (Pradal) coach in Cambodia, Paddy Carson, believes that your shins should just be allowed to harden naturally, over time by kicking the pads and kicking the bag. This is the same as we do for our hands and elbows.
In hardcore gyms the bags are hard to help you toughen up. In some of the foreigner gyms, the bags are softer and the coaches will do things like fall down or act like you have hurt them to pump you up and make you feel good. But take it with a grain of salt. Remember you re paying them a lot of money for that praise.

When you come to Thailand, you will have the choice between training in Bangkok or training in the provinces. If you train in the provinces you will be surrounded by poor Thai guys trying to earn money for family. Living conditions will be difficult. Training will be Spartan, but not necessarily better. The coaches in the provincial camps aren’t usually trained as coaches. They were chosen because they were winning fighters. Champion fighters aren’t necessarily the best coaches.

Provincial Thai people are very welcoming and will probably invite you to train with them. They may not charge you anything and just ask that you contribute for food. A provincial camp could be a great cultural experience, but if you are serious about learning to fight, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, or one of the more developed areas may be better for you. In a provincial camp, if you don’t know how to box already, you may not learn anything. Your training will consist of a lot of running and bouncing on tiers or jumping rope. You will be told to kick the bag but probably won’t be taught HOW to kick the bag. You may or may not get face time with the coach in the ring, working the pads. And you won’t get a lot of instruction. Also, if you don’t speak Thai, they probably won’t be able to communicate with you.

If you train in Bangkok, the average cost seems to be about seven to eight thousand Baht per month. And that is just for your training. Food and lodging are extra. The advantage is that a coach is assigned to you and get a lot of one-on-one instruction. At Muay Thai Chakrit, where I have been training, I can have as many rounds with my coach on the pads as I want. We usually do three or four rounds of just hands and two of kicks. In better gyms, the coach will also watch you shadow boxing and working the bag, refining your technique. Some gyms actually offer courses where you can learn step by step and even take exams and earn certificates. But many of the gyms in Thailand which cater to foreigners are making the assumption that you have had some training before. And in fact, it is a valid assumption. A lot of the foreigners are here because they are competing in MMA or Muay Thai in their home country and want to get some training experience in Thailand. So, the training in the gym is focused on practice and conditioning and refining technique, but not necessarily on teaching step-by-step, from the ground up.

Training in the other developed cities of Thailand can be much cheaper than training in Bangkok, but may offer the same quality of instruction. If you train in Chiang Mai there are live in camps which are as cheap as 8,000 to 10,000 Baht per month including your lodging

“Muay Thai is not just about fighting for money. It is our art, and I believe Thai people need to practice it. If we don’t, we will lose it.” Said Bom Apiwat, a university-bound student, practicing Muay Thai in Bangkok. In the remote parts of Thailand, professional boxing is seen as a last-ditch effort to get out of poverty, but a new generation of Thai young people are joining expensive gyms in Bangkok, training alongside crazy Farang (foreigners) training for the love of the art.

“I want to go to college and work in tourism, so I can travel the world.” Says Bom. “But first, I want to have at least one professional fight, so I can have the experience.”

Having experience in pro boxing or MMA can be a double edged sword when you are training in Thailand. While you are here to learn their art, you may not want to lose yours.

One of the arguments I get into with my coaches is that they want me to turn my hand over when I hook. Professional boxers don’t turn the hand over on a hook. My Bradal Serey coach in Phnom Penh, Paddy Carson also believes that the hook should not be turned over. He believes the reason all of the Asian martial arts turn the hand over on the hook is because their only experience in the past was amateur boxing. Whatever the reason, I don’t want to undo the things I do which work for me. I want the coaches to improve my kicks and elbows and knees but leave my hands alone.

The next argument was that they wanted me punching form way out, more than eighteen inches. But in boxing, I throw hooks and upper cuts from three inches. Working the pads the way they had me doing it in Thailand I was throwing out my shoulder. Some coaches told me that you can’t use the three inch punch in Muay Thai because you will get hit with knees and elbows. Now, I am waiting to see; are they telling me this because it is right, or telling me this because this is what they have always done? This is often the question you have to ask when you are training in Thailand; are we training to be more effective fighters or training to learn the art of Muay Thai better?

Today, the argument was that the coach said I was pressing him too much when we were working the pads in the ring. Every time I hit, I slide forward a bit. I do this to keep my weight moving into the punches and to make distance as an opponent will often back up when being hit. He said, “no you shouldn’t be moving forward like that.” But again this is a strategy that works for me. If I stay at a distance, the kicker will have an advantage. By coming in close, I can neutralize the kicker’s advantage and maximize my strengths which are boxing and grappling. This is what I have done in kickboxing in other countries. But again, I can’t say for certain that I am right, because maybe in Thailand, with the knees and elbows, this is not the best strategy. What I need, is to hear from the coach he has done research, and thought it through, and made an analysis leading to an answer based on fact, rather than “We teach you to do it this way because we have always done it this way.”

You must be aware that a lot of coaches train everyone the same way. A good coach needs to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the fighter and tailor each fighter’s training to his abilities. Everyone is not a 19 year old Thai guy who weighs 60 kgs and has 0% body fat. A lot of the foreigners training in Thailand are heavyweights and tend to be in their late twenties or early thirties. In fact in my gym, the average age of foreigners is probably around 35. And most are my size or larger. Nearly all have experience in another martial art, boxing, kickboxing, or grappling.

You need to constantly ask your coach why you are doing this or that. Make sure what they are teaching you will work for you.

For example, the coaches wanted me to bounce. They said, “You have to bounce. Muay Thai fighters bounce.” I said, “no way!” I weigh too much. Bouncing would destroy my knees and I would tire out in less than one round. If you watch K-1 those guys don’t bounce if they don’t want to. You have to fight your fight.

Training in Thailand is a great experience. When you come here, you are free of all the other distractions in your life, like working, and you can concentrate on training, eating, and sleeping. If you chose a good gym or great one, either way, you will be getting hours upon hours of training which you never had in your home country. You don’t have to be rich to come to Thailand. The flight is a bit pricey, but once you land, everything is cheap. Excellent Thai food can be had for less than one dollar per meal. Lodging can be found for between three and five thousand Baht per month. Don’t wait till you are rich, or you will never come. Just hop on a plane and get in the ring.

Antonio Garceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. His book, The Monk from Brooklyn, is available at amazon.com. See his vieos on youtub.
http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f

His website is speakingadventure.com
Join him on facebook.com
Contact Antonio: antonio@speakingadventure.com

Book Release: “Rediscovering the Khmers”

2008-09-27T22:06:00.001-07:00

By Antonio Graceffo

Get the book at Amazom.com

http://www.amazon.com/Rediscovering-Khmers-Antonio-Graceffo/dp/1932966560/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222356830&sr=8-3

Antonio Graceffo’s long awaited book about the Kingdom of Cambodia.

“Shortly after the turn of the century, some French guy crawled out of the jungle and announced, ‘I have discovered Angkor Wat.’ The Khmers looked at each other and said, ‘We didn’t know it was missing.’ Just like the famous temple, no outsider can truly discover the Khmers. But if we spend enough time in the country, learn the language, the religion, the martial art, and the culture, maybe we can re-discover them.”

Antonio Graceffo

Mention Cambodia and most people think of either Angkor Wat or the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. But there is so much more! To help "get the word out," Antonio was hired to show Cambodia's possibilities, helping increase its tourism industry. To accomplish this daunting task, he traveled the country and played tourist. It turned out to be an interesting experience, full of an extreme variety of encounters. As you follow his adventures, it is difficult not to agree with his conclusions. Cambodia's infrastructure makes developing a proper tourism industry extremely problematic. However, the Cambodian people make some of the finest friends to be found anywhere. Enjoy traveling through Cambodia as only Antonio can describe, rediscovering who the Khmers really are!

“Rediscovering the Khmers” is Antonio’s fifth book. See all of his books on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=antonio+graceffo&x=15&y=14

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EMS Duty in Tondo

2008-08-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

by Antonio Graceffo

“How do you shower on a twenty-four hour shift?” I asked, noticing that there was no plumbing in the radio shack, where I was told we would be sleeping.

“We can use the hose from the firetruck. Answered the chief.”

Suddenly, I wasn't sure if EMS was really the best career for me.

On Sunday afternoon I started duty in a rough, Manila neighborhood called Tondo with the Chinese volunteer ambulance company. Its the same story all over Asia, the Chinese pool their money, to pay for the best schools and community resources of any group in the country. The ambulance and rescue team had three fire trucks, two of which were pumpers. The bigger one had a capacity of 3.5 gazillion liters of water. I may be off on that number, but it was more water than I would care to drink. Water carrying capacity is really important in the Philippines, because of a severe lack of hydrants. The guys told me that the trucks had to be specially designed for the Philippines because the streets are so narrow in the neighborhoods. American trucks wouldn't fit.

When I told my classmates I had been assigned to Tondo, they all said, “Oh, good, you can learn a lot about stabbings and gunshot wounds.”

Tondo was a pretty frightening place, but I was taking my life in my hands during the commute. I had to take the elevated train (LRT ) to Recto, a den of thieves, prostitutes, and fake diplomas. On my first trip, they were running a special promotion, two STDS and a PHD for 250 Pesos. At Recto I had to take a taxi, but taxis are afraid to stop at Recto. Standing in the road, in my blue uniform, the only white guy, waving at passing cars, I felt like a target. A couple of taxis slowed down. One or two even stopped, allowing me to shout my destination through a two inch space in a partially rolled down window. When they heard Tondo, they just laughed, and took off.

“Take me with you!!!!” I shouted as I watched the taxi disappear. The street people had been casing me. Like the Sand People, they were easily frightened, but they would be back, and in greater numbers.

On my first day of duty, I was lucky enough to find a taxi after only twenty minutes. I got in, locked the door, got away from the windows, and slipped a scalpel out of my medical bag in case the driver tried to rob me. From Recto, we turned into a worse neighborhood, then a worse one, then a squatter area, and finally a really, really bad squatter area, where people were roasting dead animals on trash fires in the street. Eventually we arrived at the EMS base, in a neighborhood which was no worse than where I live in Cubao. By American standards, it was pretty awful, but not too terrible by local standards.

My classmate, Sam, was the son of a Chinese family who everyone in our class referred to as “muchos,” rich people. They owned a number of businesses as well as the EMS service and the fire tucks.

The rescue service volunteers consisted of one trained EMT and several Fist Responders, on the medical side. On the fire side, there were at least eight or more firemen. The Chief took me to visit Sam's house, and of course, they were rich. The house was huge, possessing every amenity known to man. Back at EMT school, we were all fond of Sam. He was brilliant and had already logged countless hours as an ambulance volunteer, although he was only sixteen years old. We were all impressed when he became the youngest graduate of our program ever.

The whole rescue crew also loved Sam, to a point that it bordered on cultish adoration.

“That is Sam's bicycle.” said the Ambulance Chief, giving me a tour. “He rides it to the station. Those are Sam's dogs, but they are sleeping. That is the table where Sam sometimes eats…” It went on and on. I was waiting for him to say, “This is the air that Sam breaths.”

Unlike at City rescue, the people were welcoming and very pro LSTI, the EMT school I had graduated from. Unfortunately they didn’t really have a base. There was a small office where the radio equipment was kept. There was a bathroom, but no running water. Even the toilet had no plumbing. So, you had to pour water down it.

The tiny office was only a radio room. This was not where we waited to be called. The actual crew area was on the sidewalk. They had pulled the seats out of an old car and laid them out on the sidewalk, like a display living room at a furniture store. We sat there under an awning, all day…waiting. The men talked mostly of their love of karaoke, prostitutes, and beer. Although they were volunteers who didn't receive a salary, none of them had jobs, except for a young good-looking firefighter, named Bob who sometimes worked as a driver for the TV station and occasionally had parts in TV shows or movies. He was also called for some modeling work. I wondered what was preventing him from following this line as a full time career.

“Do you want to go with us to fill the tanker?” Asked the chief.

“Sure, why not?” I answered. About twenty of us clambered onto the truck. We drove two blocks to a fire hydrant, and while the tanker filled, we stood around talking, the same as we had back at base.

The ambulance and trucks were donated by Rotary. The problem is that everyone likes to make a high profile donation of equipment, but no one donates a maintenance plan. Consequently, the crew only had one running ambulance. There were about eight crew members scrambling into the back on every call, leaving little or no room for a patient.

After we returned from filling the tanker, we all got in the ambulance, and they drove me over to a municipal parking lot, where I could see the other ambulance. The electric system had blown five years ago, but until today, they didn't have money to repair it.

Sam and his dad stopped by the EMS base. They apologized for missing me earlier, but they had been at the mall buying a perversely expensive cell phone for Sam.

Sam's father was brilliant, and I hoped that I would get a chance to talk to him more. He was clever, intelligent, and was one of very few Filipino men I had met who actually looked young for his age. True to Asian culture, every adult I had met that day had some incredibly impressive title, president or director of this or that. They were so proud of themselves. But, when Sam's father arrived,they all bowed. Men talk a good game in Asia, but the bottom line is money. Whoever has it jumps to the front of the line. Seeing people fall all over themselves to worship Sam made me have even more respect for the boy. He was like the big man on campus. Everyone loved him, and they talk about him all the time. In spite of being sixteen he seemed to handle the fame and attention without getting a swelled head and becoming a jerk. I couldn't help feeling he was being groomed to take over his father' position as benevolent, man of the people.

After Sam and his dad left, there was talk of turning in for the night.

“How do you shower on a twenty-four hour shift?” I asked.

“We can use the hose from the firetruck.” answered the Chief.

What he really meant was that they could theoretically, and maybe they had even used the hose from the tanker to shower, but it wasn’t like it was the standard procedure. The real answer was, nothing got washed.

I had to brush my teeth in the street with my bottle of drinking water like a homeless person.

“Did you bring mosquito repellent?” they asked me.

“No.” I answered, annoyed that in the city there was any indication that I should carry repellent with me.

“Why not?” they insisted” as if I was really remiss in my planning.

“Because I didn’t know we were going camping.”

When night came, they put two mattresses on the floor of the radio room for the crew. It was like the expression “going to the mattresses” in “The Godfather.” In Mafia parlance that means going to war. Here it just meant trying to sleep.

“You can bring your own mattress, pillow, and blanket next time.” They told me.

I was already having doubts about how long I would last on this crew. That was all I needed, to strip my bed and take it with me every morning when I come to work. I was really hating EMS at that point.

The EMS guys and all the bigwigs with titles went home, and I shared the radio room/bedroom with two firemen who couldn’t speak English. Because I was the oldest, they let me sleep on the trolley cart. It was so unbelievably uncomfortable, I felt bad for the patients. Part of the issue was that the mattress was covered by a wooden spineboard. Back at school, our instructor, Sir Aidan had been a staunch opponent of these injurious boards. All spineboard advocates should try sleeping on one, once before recommending them for use on others.

The TV apparently didn’t work, but the computer did, and we watched Rambo IV. The firemen were curious and tried to ask me about the war in Burma. Unfortunately their English and general knowledge were so limited it was impossible to explain it to them.

My favorite scene in the movie is, when sly throws the missionary against the wall and screams “Who are you? Who are any of you?” It was the pain I often felt hearing the suggestions of foreigner visitors who thought they understood the conflict or understood the needs of the people. It was quite presumptuous for outsiders to think they were going to sweep in and save everyone in Burma.

My two companions were completely out. A lot of Asian guys are able to sleep in any uncomfortable position and be fine with it. I was mostly awake all night. The radio kept blaring and I wondered if we were missing emergency calls while the guys slept. One call came in, in Filipino, but I understood they were talking about some kind of emergency in Manila North. So, I woke one of the firemen.

“False alarm.” He said and went back to sleep.

As a pleasant addition to my own private hell, I had contracted diarrhea a few days earlier and needed to go to the toilet about once per hour. The room was so small and my liquid poop so stinky I really felt guilty and considered doing it out in the street. Toilet paper is not so common in public restrooms in the Philippines, so I always carry a roll in my bag. Unfortunately, because of all the crime in Tondo, the Chief had locked my bag in the ambulance. So, every time I needed the toilet I had to ask someone to open the ambulance for me and wait till I finished in the bathroom and then lock the ambulance again. It was humiliating. Finally, I put about half a roll in my cargo pocket, which I should have done from the start. This worked a lot better. It got me through the night, but there was still nothing I could do about the smell. The hot, humid Manila air and lack of air-conditioning or fans didn't help.

During the night I suffered severe cramps and would get up, stepping over the sleeping firemen, and pollute the toilet. There was only a very small quantity of water in a jerry-can to flush with, and I prayed it would last till morning.

When I woke up the next morning, or that is to say, when I gave up on sleeping, I went out to get my toothbrush from the ambulance, but the ambulance was gone. At first I thought it possible that it had been stolen.

The firemen were as curious as I was.

“Where is the ambulance?” they asked me, as if I had misplaced it. I was hoping they wouldn't search my things looking for it. Actually my things were on th ambulance, so we would have to find it first. Anyway I felt guilty. First I had stunk up their sleep, now I had lost the ambulance.

Finally, a text came in telling us the ambulance had been taken for maintenance, which was laughable, since we were supposed to be guarding it. I guess we didn’t do that good of job.

I found my bags under the trolley cart. I really did appreciate that someone had the forethought to leave them there for me. Now, at least I could brush my teeth. At around ten o'clock the director came in and told me to go home. Without an ambulate it didn’t matter if we got a call or not, we couldn’t respond.

We made an agreement that I would go to duty at 4:00 PM every other day and go home at 11:00 AM the next morning. That way I could still do Internet and gym every day, and get 19 hours of OJT. I had 31 hours in the bucket. I needed 219 more for my license.

While I suffered from boredom, fatigue, stinkiness, and stomach cramps at my OJT, on a financial level, I was also suffering from acute broketude.

When I started for home that morning, I had less than $5 USD in my wallet. After paying for my commute, I only had $2 left, and decided to skip breakfast. That money would be needed for the Internet to check on the status of any number of checks and or donations I was expecting.

I had no idea how I was going to return to work the next day, as I couldn't afford the commute.

Magazines that I write for think nothing of paying me months late. The Philippine News Agency (PNA) had owed me money for about year and I was having trouble collecting. At one point, they threatened to have me arrested and deported for working without a permit, so I had to let the money go. I received some donations in the form of checks, denoted in British pounds, which had to be deposited in a bank. I might as well have had Confederate money. It would be months before that money had flown from Britain, to my apartment in Bangkok, to my family in USA where it would be deposited. Then the long wait for clearance would begin. The difference of one or two days was huge to me. Two days without food can seem like ten days or a hundred.

I was really at the end of my rope, and knew I couldn't keep living like this. I wanted to get back to Burma border and help out with the war, but with no reliable support or infrastructure I didn't see how I could.

An old friend of mine, Pierrre, was now Director of Studies at a school in Taiwan. He offered me a teaching job to help me get back on my feet. The offer sounded tempting.

I felt completely exhausted and defeated. Before leaving the EMS station, I had allowed the firefighters to buy me coffee. They had NO income at all, but I let them spend what few coins they had to buy me coffee. After a 20 hour shift and no breakfast, I NEEDED that coffee, but I should have said “no.”

Back in Cubao, my “home”, The room I had been living in for the last four months was a cement cell, slightly larger than my horribly uncomfortable wooden bunk bed. There were no windows, no TV, and no air-conditioning. To make matters worse, every time I tried to sit up in my bed, I would bang my head on the upper bunk. I was constantly collecting splinters from the unfinished wood of the homemade bed frame. With nothing else to do, I lay on my thin mattress, dripping sweat, and thought about my situation. I was also taking stock of my team mates, who were basically nice guys, but as bad as I had it at the moment, I didn't want to trade places with any of them.

My new crew in Tondo consisted of Rescue Nine, who was not married, forty-one, and had a face like a Drakes Coffee cake, with a Manuel Noriega complexion. That is to say, Rescue Nine was hard to look at. He was an EMT, graduate of the same program as me, and had no other job apart from volunteering on the ambulance.

Bob was the son of one of the officers, good looking and twenty-two years old. He sometimes worked on TV as talent and sometimes worked as a driver for the TV execs. But, mostly, he was just a volunteer firefighter. He had two kids by one girl, but he wasn't married to her. His older child was five years old. So, he became a father for the first time at age seventeen.

“Why don’t you two get married?” I asked.

“We have too many plans.” explained Bob.

This was news to me, because none of these guys seemed to have plans of any kind. They just sat around, and sat, and sat. They had no interests, apart from drinking, karaoke, and whores. They didn’t read. They didn’t exercise. They just sat. I didn't see how this plan would leave your schedule to full to marry the girl who bore your children.

“We are too young to get married.” explained Bob.

“But you have two kids. Do you see them?”

“My wife is a beauty consultant for a department stores. She and the kids live with her parents in the province. On Fridays if I don’t have many things to do, I go to visit them and bring money and food.”

Nice, I bet those kids will have a great future.

Ivan was also twenty-two and had five kids by different women. He was only doing volunteer firefighting and nothing else.

I wasn't sure how any of these guys lived.

I also didn’t know what to make of these Tondo boys. They just sat around on their old car seats, on the sidewalk, like rednecks sitting on the porch. They seemed content to do it. There were a lot of them too, at least ten firefighters and a handful of EMTs. I was proud of them for helping the community, but it was strange to me to be so content with doing nothing all day.

A very small amount of money came in through my Paypal account, and I was able to return to duty. This time it took nearly an hour before a taxi was willing to stop in recto and take me to Tondo.

After risking my life to get there, once I arrived, we sat, and we sat, and we sat, waiting for a call. There is a major problem of education and communication in the Philippines, so no one knows about the free EMS service. They also didn't know how to call us, was weren't on the government's notoriously unresponsive 117, emergency number. People had to first know of our existence, and then call our direct line to get us. The guys explained to me that sixty percent of the calls we received were from friends and family of the crew, because they were the only people who knew about the service. Luckily, the neighborhood people knew us, so they called us for all sorts of services. Some poor people used us as doctors because they couldn't afford a trip to the hospital. At least someone was using us. But this was a lot of hardware and talent to leave unused while people died.

Finally a call came in for a motor-vehicle accident. Ten of us piled into the ambulance and drove two blocks.

A sidecar taxi had pulled out in front of a kid on a motorcycle, and he laid it down trying to stop. The kid had banged up his knee and skinned himself, up a bit, but he was fine. Of course he wasn’t wearing a helmet, and the first thing he asked us for was a cigarette. He had five EMTs crawling all over him, rendering first aid. They cleaned his injuries with water from a spray bottle, then put Bedodine on it and bandaged it. I don’t know how bandaging is done elsewhere, but they didn’t use gauze here. In fact when I tried to buy gauze they didn’t even sell it at the medical supply store.
The EMTs took a four by four bandage and just taped it directly to the victim's skin. Ouch!

The bystanders were pretty excited to see a foreign EMT. I was naturally much bigger than my co-workers. I outweighed most of them by forty kilos. Also, I wore a nice new uniform, where they all wore shorts and flip-flops. Most people thought I was in charge, and kept waiting for me to do something wonderful. I felt like saying, “I am not an EMT, but I play one on TV.”

A murmur went through the crowd, as people wondered about me. A young girl turned to her father and said, “I have seen his photo on friendster.com”

Once again I thought, if I could just sing, I think I could be a huge star in the Philippines.

While I had the power and admiration of the crowd, I walked up to the patient, puffed out my chest, and spoke in an authoritative voice, loudly enough that everyone could here.

“I am going to be working in this neighborhood now. If I see you riding without a helmet again, I will pull you off the bike and beat you senseless myself.”

Basically it was the “I am the new sheriff” speech from an old Gene Hackman movie, but I was hoping that maybe it would make an impression on someone, and they would all start wearing helmets.

This may sound completely awful, but on some level, I really wondered if the desperately poor of Manila's slums really wanted to live. Maybe the smoking, drinking, and non-helmet or condom wearing was a form of slow suicide. It made me sad. But then, I had less than five dollars in my wallet again.

The next call came at about nine at night. It was a rekindle. There had been a huge fire earlier in the day in a Chinese factory, next to the Chinese school. The school had been evacuated, then the firefighters climbed up on the second story roof of the school and cut holes in the walls of the second story of the factory to pump water in.

As always the people of Manila, or the people of Philippines, have luck, fortune and corruption completely against them. In the case of fire, fore example, the Bureau of Fire Protection only has 60 fire trucks in all of metro Manila. From that number only 10 - 15 are working at any given moment. The rest are waiting for maintenance.

The volunteers have about 40 tanker trucks and if someone is saved it is normally because of them. Fire hydrants are few and far between so tankers are the most important trucks, brining new water for the hose companies. Complicating matters is that most of the vehicles are donations or picked-up second hand at the lowest price wherever in the world they happened to have been doing duty. Many come from America. Others come from Japan, China, or Korea. A few are European. Some are very old. As a result none of them have compatible or interchangeable parts. So, the pumping procedure is that they find one tanker that can connect to the hoses, and he stays put for the duration of the fire. Then all of the other trucks come and replenish the one that remains stationary.

In addition to the tankers there was a single fire hydrant about five blocks away.

We arrived on scene just as a stand by. You have to have one company of EMTs standing by when you have firefighters in the field. Some of the men had been there since nine in the morning, and they were exhausted. The BFP, the government fire service, only showed up once, with a single truck, and left.

Rescue-nine lead me into the fire. Always in the Philippines, you have to second guess and think about your own safety because those guys weren’t careful. I was pretty certain I shouldn’t be walking into a smoldering building with no protective gear. Walking down a long dark corridor, I could hear the firefighters walking around on the thin aluminum roof above me. Water trickled down, ice cold. We climbed the stairs and there was a company of firemen standing at the huge smoking holes they had cut in the walls. Their hoses were turned off while they waited for more water.

I crawled out on the roof to get a photo. That’s when I learned that the green bits of roof were aluminum, but the white ones were plastic. I almost fell through.

“Some of the firefighter have been there twelve hours.” said Rescue Nine.

There was thick black smoke billowing out, and I wondered if the men shouldn’t be wearing respirators or air tanks.

“We don’t have anything like that.” Explained Rescue Nine.

Many of the men wore turnout coats, helmets, and boots, but that was it. Out in the street many were shirtless or just in shorts and a t shirt. And the preferred footwear was flip-flops.

Philippines is huge on titles, and every single person I was introduced to was the president of something or other; president of a fire company, of the volunteers, of the unit…. I guess if you are unemployed those titles mean a lot to you, but man I don’t get it and I hate sitting around wasting a life like that all day.

The guys asked me again about drinking and sex with prostitutes. It makes me angry. They all smoke. They are already poor. Do they have to make things worse? Can’t they think of something else, like studying and working out or improving themselves? Instead they asked me about drinking and whores. I get email from people all over the world who would give anything to hang out with me and ask about martial arts or linguistics because I have experience most people could never get. But these guys only want to ask me about drinking and whores.

While we were standing around watching the Chinese factory burn, one of the many presidents I was introduced to asked me, “have you gone drinking with these guys yet?”

No, and I never will, because I don’t understand this type of behavior.

Iwas one of only three qualified EMTs in the group. No one had asked me, “Have you started giving classes to these guys yet?”

Sam’s dad was a really intelligent guy and I thought we would have some good conversations. He told me that he was coming to Thailand and would call me.

I said, please do. “I will show you things you have never seen and never could see without me.” I meant I could introduce him to the last Muay Thai monk and ride horses with the warriors on the Burma border, and visit the tribes where I know people by name, and visit the Khmer temple where I study with the monks..

He said, “yes, and we won’t bring Sam, ha ha ha ha.” The implication was more prostitutes and drinking.

Is this all they could get out of life? I had trouble liking them. I had trouble not feeling superior. I was down to my last twenty pesos and I still felt like they were weak.

I spent another shitty night at the base. When we woke up in the morning, the first thing Ivan asked me was, “have you had breakfast yet?”

I looked at him like he was insane. “Are you serious? I just woke up. You saw me just wake up. How could I have had breakfast yet?”

“Oh you don’t eat breakfast.”

“That’s not what I said. I said I haven’t had breakfast yet. I just woke up.”

“Oh, you walked up and ate breakfast.”

“Woke up! I just woke up!”
Part of the problem was probably linguistic, but some of it was just logic. How did he not know that I hadn’t eaten yet? It was weird.

Getting back to my place in Cubao, there were no taxis so I would have to take a jeep back to Recto station.

“It’s easy to take the jeep.” Said Sam’s dad. “Only one ride. You will be there in ten minutes.”

It turned out it wasn’t one ride. It was two. And it would take more than half an hour to get to the train. Worst of all, I would have to change jeeps in a horrible squatter area which was scary and dirty and dangerous.

Bob and his dad agreed to drive me in the ambulance to Recto so I could see how to go. One more issue that I hated was that the people couldn’t give directions to save their lives.

“You see that jeep? The one that says, De la Mancha?” Asked Bob Sr.

“Yes, do I take that one?” I asked.

“No, it goes to the wrong place.”

“So, why are you telling me about it?”

“Take the one that says Sra Clara.”

“And it takes me to the train?”

“Yes, and you change jeeps.”

“Why do I change jeeps if it takes me to the train?”

It went on and on ,as it always does. My brain was filling with extraneous information.

“Don’t take the jeep that says Borton. That will take you to the wrong place too.”

“I wouldn't dream of it.”

He began listing off every possible jeep I should not take. “Don’t take the one marked this or that its wrong.”

“Ok, I definitely won't do that.”

“Do you see the train station there?” he asked slowing down.

“Yes, do I need to go to this one?”

“It is called Salvador. Don’t take that one.”

It went on and on, till I was going nuts. Then the other thing they love to do is give you options.

“You can also take the jeep to such and such, and then take a train from y… and.....”

Finally I yelled. “Please stop giving me information. I have enough information. I just want to know how to get to Recto. That's it. I need to get to Recto and take a train to Cubao.”

After showing me so much stuff then he said, “If you want to go to Cubao you will have to go another way.”

Another way? Where did he think I wanted to go? I was going to Cubao.I understood I was in this vehicle so he could show me how to get to Cubao.

The travel just looked impossible. On the way in, it had taken me 45 minutes of standing in Recto, waiting for a taxi, which I am pretty sure is a record. Now I was going to be taking a jeep which didn't seem advisable.

When they showed me the place where I would have to change jeeps, it looked like a scene from “The Road Warrior,” a post-apocalyptic collective of people, teetering on the edge of survival.

“There is no way I would get out of a moving vehicle here.” I protested.
Looking around the squatter area, my heart went out to the people, but I was terrified of them.

I had reached a point where everything about the Philippines was wearing me out. I hated seeing the poverty. I hated traveling through dangerous or dirty squatter areas. I hated sitting on a car seat on the sidewalk waiting for a response. I didn’t even like talking to my workmates because they depressed me. They were unemployed, they smoked and drank. They had kids by who knew how many women, and appeared to have no desire to do more than what they were doing, which was simply sitting around on the car seats talking and smoking. When a charitable thought came to my mind I realized they were stuck, and there was nothing they could do. And I always had to remind myself that no matter how much I disliked the life, I could leave. They would have to stay forever.

That though depressed me even more. So, once again, I hated everything I was exposed to.

I finally made the call to Taiwan. “Pierre, my old friend, Ranger needs extraction. Get me out of here.” A few days later, I was on a plane to Taiwan, where I would be teaching English to children.

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. See his website speakingadventure.com You can contact him at: antonio@speakingadventure.com join him on facebook.com

Nursing the Shan

2008-08-22T19:02:00.001-07:00

By Antonio Graceffo

On a bamboo bed in a dark clinic at LoiTailang, a woman sits with her three children. One has a severe foot burn, which is all infected and ugly looking. It is very common for children in the rural villages to be burned when cooking pots overturn on the fire at the center of their hut. At the Loi Tailang temple there is a young monk who was horribly disfigured by similar burns which cover his face and head. A health worker explained to me that in the villages burns are often treated with a poultice of cow dung or with oil, both of which worsen the effects of the injuries.

The children sit on a single bamboo bed, beside their mother all day. They have no toys, no TV, and no books, nothing to occupy them at all. They just sit, in sad quiet, waiting for the head nurse, Paw Surgay to bring them their next free meal. The mother had a tremendous tumor on her right arm which was all white and discolored. The tumor itself was visible through the skin. It was the size of a lemon.

Paw Surgay tells me that the woman is HIV positive and suffering from advanced stages of TB. They are planning to surgically remove the tumor, but have to wait till the woman's other infections are under control.

Head nurse and chief of station since 1999, Paw Surgay from the Kerenni tribe, told me that when she first came to the Shan State Army headquarters at Loi Tailang ther was no clinic. “There was a home with some medicine and no staff.” She explained. “There were a few untrained medics who tried to help people.” Since taking over the clinic, Paw Surgay has invested, each year, in training more and more medical staff. Most receive their training at Dr. Cynthia’s clinic in Mae Sot.

Paw Surgay is one more bright face that we find amidst the ruble of the war in Burma. She is a yuong, attractive woman, who has dedicated her intelligence and diligence to helping others live. In this racist conflict, perhaps the most remarkable fact about Paw Surgay is that she isn't even Shan, she is Kerenni. She was able to let the question of race disappear and see the sick and needy simply as people.

“In the beginning we didn’t have any support for medicine or equipment. I relied on small organizations like Partners NGO. to help support what I was doing.” Paw Surgay went on to explain that she couldn’t pay the medics so Free Burma Rangers (FBR) and Partners helped her get started. The current clinic at Loi Tailang was built in 2003. The location was chosen because it was closer to water. In recent years, a foreign engineer put in a water line, which pumps water 300 meters up hill and operates on solar power. “It always works.” Remarks paw Surgay. “They said it couldn’t be done, but it works now.”

The story of the water system is yet another miracle in a land of darkness. The engineer who built the system is a an absolute genius with engineering systems and particularly with anything related to water. Using hand held GPS devices and other scientific equipment he conducted a geological survey to find the best way to build his uphill water pump. I had a chance to meet him, while he was planning plumbing for Lt. Philip's house. He was one of those geniuses who just exists on some other plane of reality. Things were obvious to him which whole teams of mediocre geniuses would miss. When I asked him how he wound up with the Shan, he told me that he choses a worthy location and group of people s. He then does private fund raising to get money or equipment, then he flies in and builds the water system. He had done similar projects with other ethnic groups throughout Burma and elsewhere.

“The hospital used to be down by the stream, but it was not good because pregnant women and injured people couldn’t walk down to it.” said Paw Surgay. Now, because of the brilliant irrigation system, the hospital is at the top of the hill. This position will protect the patients from monsoon flooding and from malaria. “The first two clinics were built complete of bamboo, but it wasn't good because it became moldy in rainy season. Everything, equipment and medicines would be destroyed.”

Eventually, the current structure was built entirely of wood.

Among its many functions, the clinic at Loi Tailang, under Paw Surgay, runs a vaccine clinic once per month. They get a small stipend from a small charity to do this. “It costs about $300 per month.” said Paw Surgay. “All maternal care providers are trained by Dr, Cynthia. Dr Cynthia also does all of the lab work.” The clinic treats between 700 - 800 outpatient and 40 inpatient per month. This inccludes the nearly 1,000 orphans, 350 refugee families, and several thousand soldiers living on the base, as well as villagers who come to the base because it is the only hospital within a month's walk in the jungle . The most common health complaints are: acute respiratory, urinary tract, and skin infections. In rainy season there are a lot of fungal infections and skin infections. These are simple infections, but because they don't get treated they get much worse. In dry season respiratory infections are high because of the dust and jungle pollen that people are forced to inhale. inhaling things.

“The base doesn’t have big problem with malaria because it his high and cool. The people who live in the villages, however, come here with malaria. People who live here don’t usually contract it.” explained Paw Surgay. “Last year, we treated 11 HIV/AIDs patients. Three of them died.”

HIV is a growing concern in Shan State and much of Burma. At Loi Tailang, th medics first do a rapid test. If it comes up positive, they do two more. If all three are positive, then the patient is sent to Dr. Cynthia for blood work.

“No patients pay anything. Even in-patients don’t pay anything, not even for their food.”

One more reason to respect Paw Surgay is how responsible she is with the hospital's finances. She keeps careful tract of all of the donation and expenditures.

Opening her meticulous financial books, Paw Surgay showed us that it only cost 3,000 Baht ($100 USD) per month to feed ALL the patients. It was amazing what they could do for very little money. The total annual budget was only 600,000 Baht For 10,000 patients.

The small hospital does everything from baby birthing to surgery. There is, however no real dentistry. They do extractions for the children if their teeth are badly rotted. Referring to the woman

with the tumor, Paw Surgay said, “We want to operate on it, but it is too hard now. So,we will wait till it gets soft and then cut it out.” She had already started the patient on a regimen of medicine that would soften the tumor.

A male patient, a long term residence of the ward, also has AIDS. “They have no home to go back to. We will try and find financial support for them. Maybe we could build a house for them behind the hospital.”

The two HIV patients were being treated with antibiotics only, no retrovirals or HIV medicines.

“They are treating the symptoms but not that actual illness.” Said a visiting foreign medical aid worker. “They can't afford to buy antivirals so they use an antibiotic.”

The foreign nurse explained that if the immune system is low, the patients get infections. “So, you treat the infections. But once the white blood cell count gets very low, then you can't really treat the them anymore. The immune system goes down over time, the longer they have the disease.”

She told me that she believed the tumor was caused by an extremely advanced case of TB, which would suggest that the body had completely lost the ability to fight off infection. This woman was close to death. Operating on her in such primitive conditions seemed a very risky prospect for all those concerned. The risk of cross contaminations seemed very high.

I was at the Loi tailang clinic as a guest of Partners NGO, which was founded in 1994 by Steve Gumaer and his wife. They had made a back pack trip to refugee camp and started. “In 1994, we made a thirty dollar commitment to save a child for a whole year.” explained Steve who was appalled at how little it cost to save a life and how much money is wasted annually in the west.

“There are millions of refugees.” Said Steve, meaning there was still a huge need for help. In Thailand, one camp alone was home to 140,000 refugees. The people in the first camp Steven visited were Karin, a group who have been fighting against the Burmese junta for almost 60 years.

“There are a few million in camps and a few million scattered around. The SPDC forces people out of villages and makes life impossible. So, they run to camps in Thailand or inside of Burma or elsewhere. I found out that thirty dollars would pay for school, food, and housing for one child needed to survive. A woman who had been raped and tortured for several months by the Burmese army asked us to tell our friends in the west and ask them to help. So, in 1995 we started a newsletter called Partners and used that to start helping people.”

Today, Partners has four programs: relief for displaced people, a child welfare programs, which is helping 1500 children, and education and child welfare inside of Burma, and also training in IDP communities. The new areas they are working in include post traumatic stress and trauma therapy. “We also added capacity building animal husbandry and irrigation.”

Steve and the Partners are saints for the help they have given the ethnic minorities of Burma. Paw Surgay is a national treasure and deserves some type of major award. Dr. Cynthia is gem, her hospital and health care programs have helped countless thousands over the years. FBR, the water engineers, and the Shan, Karen, and Karenni people are all worthy of praise for their tireless resisance to the junta and for constantly putting the needs of others ahead of their own.

Together, all these people, and more, are nursing the Shan. Please remember them in your prayers.

Antonio Graceffo is a freelance journalist in Asia, who has been embedded with the Shan State Army. See his website speakingadventure.com contact him at antonio@speakingadventure.com

Burma Video: Shan Lai Tai Kung Fu

2008-08-22T19:00:00.003-07:00

By Antonio Graceffo

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5pNFM40bxZs

This is the next in a series of 'Martial Arts Odyssey' episodes shot inside of Burma, at Loi Tailang, the headquarters of the Shan State Army. While the army fights to help the Shan people survive and gain independence, Master Kawn Wan struggles to keep his people's martial art alive, and to teach it to the young. See the refugees: orphans, soldiers, and teachers who practice Lai Tai, the Shan art of Kung Fu, so that their cultural heritage will survive.

The video features an in depth interview with young kawn Wan, as he explains his theories of martial arts and of cultural survival.

The Burmese government, the SPDC, killed his family and burned his village, but they couldn't break his spirit. Kawn Wan wages his private war for the benefit of his people.

Enjoy the video, for free, on youtube http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=5pNFM40bxZs
Please, say a prayer for the people of Shanland and all of Burma.

Burma Shan Video: Porter and Human Shield

2008-08-22T18:59:00.001-07:00

By Antonio Graceffo

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7qMyIu4G4

The Burmese SPDC military forces raid Shan villages. They kill, they loot, and they rape. They foce Shan civilians to work as porters, slaves, human mine detectors and human shiels for combat troops.
See the new video, 'Porter and Human Shield' and hear the story first hand from a Shan man, an amputee and one more victim of the SPDC.
Will the world please step in?
Say a prayer for the people of Shanland.
Antonio Graceffo

The Plight of the Shan People of Burma

2008-08-22T18:55:00.001-07:00

By Antonio Graceffo
Genocide, Torture, and Ignorance: The Shan are dying and the world takes no notice.
“When I fled my village in Burma I had to leave my baby behind. She was too small to survive the jungle.” says Nang Ga a 25 year old Shan tribe’s woman.
She hid in the jungle after the State Peace and Development Council, (SPDC) soldiers of the Burmese army demanded that one member from every family be forced to work as porters or be killed.
With tears filled eyes Ga says; “The SPDC said we weren’t allowed to go into the rice fields anymore. How could we survive if we couldn’t grow food?.. They told us if we ran away they would shoot us!”
Many westerners have never heard of the Shan, even though they are the largest ethnic minority group in Burma with a population of approximately seven million. In a brutal war that has been going on for nearly sixty years the Burmese junta occupy Shan ethnic villages to control the rural populations. Rape, torture, murder, slavery and forced relocation are common. Parents are often killed or separated from their children, leaving tens of thousands of orphans living in refugee camps in Thailand or IDP camps in Burma. The Shan are not eligible for refugee status as a result most work illegally as servants, laborers or prostitutes. Children, twelve years old or younger, eke out an existence as undocumented migrant workers in Thailand.
When the SPDC raided her village, Nan Ga’s husband, 21 year old Non Geet, was away from home, serving in the Shan State Army (SSA), a tribal defense force, battling for the independence of Shan State.
Nan Ga hid in the jungle for two months before being found by a SSA battalion. She was reunited with her husband at the rebel armies’ headquarters of Loi Tai Leng.
Nang Ga and Non Geet are among roughly 3,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who have taken refuge at Loi Tai Leng. The base which is set high upon the ridgeline, on the Burmese side of the border with Thailand, is surrounded by minefields and guarded by several thousand rebel soldiers.
Inside the villagers are trying to rebuild their shattered lives. They have built a meeting hall school, a temple, several restaurants, and a school. The children are educated in both English and their native tongue to keep their cultural traditions
Nang Ga says “Life is better here than in our village. The SSA gives us food. In Shan State we had to pay for school, but we were too poor. In Loi Tai Leng school is free.”

The young parents have no news whether their child is alive or dead. The villages don’t have telephones, and visiting the child would mean weeks of walking through hostile enemy territory.
Non Geet has never seen his child (he was with the Shan State Army at the time).
He says; “She would be four years old now.”
Nang Ga is expecting a second child dreams that someday their two children will be reunited to share their bamboo hut.
Motioning toward her pregnant belly she says “This baby will go to school and live in safety. And she will never be hungry.”
When the school bell rings for lunch break the children file out into the street and wait patiently in line for their basic issue of food, as they do three times per day. They are given rice topped off with watery vegetables. They only eat meat once a week.

Kawn Wan, 20 years old, is an English teacher at Loi Tai Lang. He learned to speak English after coming to the rebel base in 2001.
In his first English poem Kawn Wan describes his parent’s murder by the SPDC, “The sound of a gun took my family away.”

He remembers when his parents’ fateful day with vivid detail. Kawn Wan believes he has relatives who are still alive inside of Shan State.

He says, “I haven’t heard anything about them since I came to Loi Tai Lang. They left the village to look for food. Some people told me the SPDC caught them.”

Kawn Wan has lived half of life as an orphan. Now he looks after the 197 boys who live at the dormitory at Loi Tai Leng giving them the care he never had.
Pointing to two young boys who live at the dormitory Kawn Wan says, “They are orphans and have been here for about four years,” shaking his head sadly he says, “They don’t remember anything, not even the name of their village.”
The orphans, refugees and soldiers have formed a new community at the rebel camp while the war in Burma rages around them. In 2005 the base came under attack. For forty-five days the inhabitants were subjected to constant artillery barrages and frontal assaults by the SPDC and United Wa State Army. The Wa are another ethnic minority group who have come to a cease fifre agreement with the SPDC and earn their money from drug trafficking. Loi Tai Leng survived the attack but the memories of the battle are ever present in the minds of the IDP’s at the camp. Things are quiet for now but the villagers know this could change overnight.
The Shan people are part of the Tai ethnic group, which includes the Lao and the Thai. The Shan feel themselves to be the historical cousins of the Thai. The soldiers were given a day off to celebrate the 80th birthday of the king of Thailand. In every Shan home, there is a Buddhist shrine depicting images of the current Thai King, His Majesty Rama IX and the ancient Thai King Naresuen, who helped the Shan king fight against the Burmese.
The King of Thailand is credited with providing most of the outside aid to the Shan. Unfortunately, to maintain good relations with Burma, Thailand cannot officially or openly endorse the Shan resistance.
Tun Yee is a young Shan soldier. Yee says; “I am not sure if I am twenty or twenty one. It seems like a long time ago. My father died when I was very young. When I was about ten, the SPDC attacked our village when my mother was in the rice fields”.

The monks who lived in his village helped Tun Yee escape.
He says, “We walked through the jungle for about a month.”

Tun Yee lived illegally in a Shan temple as a monk in Thailand until he was fifteen and he moved to Loi Tai Lang, to attend school for the first time in his life.

Tun Yee doesn’t know if his mother is alive. Recently, a newly arrived refugee told Tun Yee that a Shan woman, bearing the same name as his mother, and who also lost her son, was living in the city of Fang, in Northern Thailand.

The soldiers had to restrain the impetuous youth, to prevent him from running across the Thai border where he was sure to be arrested. Once again, the monks intervened. The head Abbot of the temple at Loi Tai Lang ordained Tun Yee as a ten-day monk. His head was shaved and he donned the sacred robes of a novice. Together, with the head Abbot, he made the long journey by car, first to Chiang Mai, and then Fang. Along the way, they were stopped numerous times by Thai military, but the Abbot talked them through all of the checkpoints, before reaching their destination.

Yee says with tear filled eyes, “It wasn’t her. I don’t even remember what she looks like. When I close my eyes, I try to imagine her face, but I just don’t see it anymore.”
At eighteen years of age Hsai Leurn is the youngest teacher at the school. Hsai Leurn is a budding artist. He has drawn portraits of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and has learned to sing the song, “Freedom from Fear.”
Aung San Suu Kyi, the brave woman who the west has chosen as the face of the conflict in Burma, won the only free election in recent Burmese history, and has been under house arrest ever since. Her party, National League for Democracy, is extremely popular among Burmese in exile. Inside of Burma, however, open support for the NLD or the mere mention of the name, Aung San Suu Kyi, could be dangerous business, resulting in arrest, torture, or execution. Her biography, “Freedom from Fear,” has become a kind of Bible for Burmese who dream of a brighter future. The book inspired a song by the same name, which has become a mantra.
Freedom from Fear could be interpreted this way. If you can release yourself from fear, you can have anything. Or maybe, it means that when the Burmese have political and spiritual freedom, they will also have freedom from the fear which rules their everyday lives.
In the free countries, when small children sleep, their parents leave a light on, so the children won’t be scared. In Shanland, turning on the lights would give the enemy a target for artillery fire. Only a free election, not a nightlight, could free the Shan children from fear.
Hsai Lern says; “We respect Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD). Although She has never made any official statement regarding the independence of Shan State, many Shan support Aung San Suu Kyi. Whether or not they gain independence, the Shan will probably have a better life under a free democracy than under a dictatorship.
Kawn Wan says, “The NLD have never visited us in the jungle. They cannot help us. They cannot even help themselves... You foreigners, when you aren’t happy with something, you go and change it. You protest and fight, but here in Burma, it is impossible for us. I want the American people to know that we have a country, but we cannot live. We have no human rights. The government doesn’t do anything for us. We want the international community to tell the SPDC to give us democracy. We want to live freely like other countries. In America and democratic countries they have freedom and they have rights. They can use their rights to help us. When I lived in Shan State I didn’t know about democracy. When I went to school I learned about free society and human rights... Now I want to use this knowledge to help my people.”
Adventure and martial arts author, Antonio Graceffo has lived in Asia for nearly years, publishing four books, available on amazon.com and several hundred articles in magazines and websites around the world. He has worked as a consultant and writer for shows on the History and Discovery Channel and appears on camera in Digging for
the Truth, and Human Weapon. Antonio is host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” Antonio was embedded with the Shan State rebel army in Burma, documenting human rights abuses, and doing a film and print project to raise awareness of the Shan people. To see
all of his videos about martial arts, Burma and other countries:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search=Search
Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact
him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website
www.speakingadventure.com

VoVinam, The Traditional Vietnamese Martial Art

2008-07-09T20:46:00.001-07:00

Antonio Graceffo

They beat the Chinese, the French, the Americans, and even ghengis Khan in war, so I figured the vietnames could teach this Brooklyn Monk Something about fighting.

Vovinam is taught everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The practitioners see it as a matter of national pride, similar to the way Koreans view Tae Kwan Do. Vovinam is a very complete martial art with elements taken from many styles. There are kicks from Tae Kwan Do, but also a limited number of shin kicks and knee kicks. There are grapples from Hop Kido and throws from Judo. There are also a limited number of elbow strikes. They train with an array of weapons, taken from China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

Because Vietnam is still a communist country, there is no professional fighting at all. So, the Vovinam guys weren’t ready to go fight in the UFC. But, with a bit of tweaking, the style looks like it could be modified to use in MMA competitions. As far as traditional martial art (TMA) goes, Vovinam was a lot more interesting and complete than Tae Kwan Do. Anything that includes a grappling component is more multi-dimensional than a stand up kicking art. Unfortunately, because Tae Kwan Do is now part of the Olympics and the SEA Games, there is a huge push, particularly in Communist countries, to build world class teams. The cost is that the local martial arts are dying out.

In Cholon, Saigon’s China Town, I found a massive sports center. In the basement there was a full weight lifting gym. Gyms in Vietnam were quite complete and training was cheap. Membership in a gym costs les than $10 per month. The other five floors of the building were dedicated to martial arts. Walking up the stairs, I felt like Bruce Lee, climbing the tower in “Game of Death.” On the first floor there were about a hundred people doing karate. On the next floor, Kung Fu. Up a level, Kendo and Aikido. On the next floor, Karate and Tae Kwand Do again.

The price of martial arts training was $6 per month.

On the top floor, I found my home, boxing.

I was in Vietnam to learn something new, so I concentrated on Vovinam. The problem with most TMA is that there isn’t enough of a cardio component, nearly no strength component, and no toughening or fighting training. So, I set up a training schedule of weights in the morning, followed by Vovinam in the evening and boxing at night. The boxing was the perfect addition to make my training day complete.

In Ho Chi Minh City people, go out late, study late, and train late. The streets are full of cars and motorcycles, at all hours. Boxing started at 7:30 PM, which is amazing, because in Cambodia, no one would ever consider going out that late. Even more amazing, as I was leaving the two hour workout, people were coming in for their martial arts lessons.

When you walk into a new martial arts school in Asia, there is always the thing about showing respect. They are sizing you up, so you don’t want to look weak. But you don’t want to look challenging either. If they think you have only come to fight, they may not train you, or they may hurt you. Or if they think you are showing disrespect, they won’t deal with you at all.

In boxing, there is none of this. The minute I walked into the boxing gym, the coach, Mr. Ahn, welcomed me with open arms. He was all smiles, asking me a million questions about my training and experiences in other countries. He called the boxers around to listen to the stories and ask me questions. With the martial arts guys, I have to build rapport before I can take out my camera. Mr. Ahn, on the other hand, immediately asked if the boys could take some photos with their new American friend.

As there is no professional boxing in Vietnam, all the boys were amateurs. Most were around 22 years old. They attended university fulltime and boxed part time.

I asked if I could fight in Vietnam, Mr. Ahn laughed and told me that in the whole country there were only four boxers registered at 81 Kgs, the highest weight division. “At national championships they give one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. So, everyone wins.”

In Thailand I am always amazed at the steps they are taking to improve their training, such as brining in foreign coaches or sending coaches to other countries. Vietnam was the same. One of the team’s coaches had trained in Thailand with the Vietnam national boxing team.

“We can learn from them.” Said Mr. Ahn. “In the lower weight divisions, the Philippines and Thailand are the best in Southeast Asia.”

Philippine champion, Mani Paquoia (Pac Man) was almost as much of a hero to the Vietnamese boxers as he was to the Filipinos.

Talking about my Muay Thai experience, Mr Ahn told me, “We had kickboxing prior to 1979. But then it was banned. Now they would like to bring it back, but there isn’t even an association or a team yet.”

“Traditional wrestling is also dying out. Maybe it exists in the provinces, and probably not every day, just at festivals.”

The good thing about training in a socialist country is that the government supports sports and education programs. Sports are made available to nearly everyone, regardless of how poor they are. The downside, of course, is that while top athletes will have state of the art training and equipment, the average gym is not as good as one we would pay for in a rich country. Boxing training at the sports complex was free, but the boxing team had absolutely nothing. They had half a heavy bag and some rotting, smelly glove.

The bag was hung too high and not heavy enough for me to do body punches or low kicks. There were no coache’s mitts for pad-work. Mr. Ahn showed me where there had been a floor to ceiling bag, but it was broken. One very cool piece of equipment they did have was a makiwara board hanging on the wall. This padded boarded is normally used in karate and other martial arts to practice focus punching. The boxers used it for speed and power drills. One guy would stand at board, throwing one-two, one-two as fast and hard as he could for thirty seconds, while his partner shadow boxed. Then they would switch off. Thirty second board, thirty seconds shadow, alternating for three minutes. It was brutal! By my third rotation on the board I was completely beat. My arms would barely stay up.

During the drill, Mr. Ahn stood by, and made sure my hands were coming back to a proper guard position between punches, so I was punching off my face, straight through.

Usually when I train with amateurs the coaches leave me alone and let me train what I want, which is nice, if I am there for a short time. I like them to leave me alone because amateur boxing is so different from professional boxing. Fr example, they turn their hands over when they hook, which pros don’t do. I don’t want them to undue my skills.
But if I am going to be there for a year it is a problem because then I am not learning anything new.

Watching one of the best guys train, he was very fast and had good form and tremendous power or his size, but his hands were down at his sides, like Muhammad Ali, and he was wide open. Maybe he was fast enough that it didn’t matter, but I was shocked at how open many of them were.

The gym didn’t have a heavy bag, which would be the bulk of my training as a heavyweight pro. I got the impression that amateurs didn’t work the heavy bag the way pros do. Most of their work was shadow boxing and mock sparing. Amateurs I have trained with in Philippines, Vietnam and other countries did a lot of things we don’t do, such as sliding drills, punching drills, and blocking drills. Maybe we could benefit from these training techniques too.

After the board work, Mr. Ahn had me spar with two of his guys, one round each. We didn’t hit each other hard, just worked.

The second boy I sparred with had one hand on his waste, and punched off his hip. He did all right with it, but it still looked dangerous. The cool thing he kept doing was switching off, left and right hand lead. He didn’t actually change his lead leg, but would twist his body about 50% and lead with a right hand jab. It was tricky and kept giving me a new picture to look at.

They didn’t have a ring, so we were sparring on the floor. Normally I shepherd my opponent onto the ropes or into the corner and pound them. This is much harder to do in an open fighting situation. The speed and stamina of the smaller amateur is a bigger advantage in an open situation.

In pro boxing you are always looking for that knock out or a win by attrition. You lead with the left, but you are constantly trying to set the man up for the big right hand. In amateur boxing, you are trying to win by points. Throwing a flurry of punches, whether they are hard or not, will win you points.

Training with the Vietnamese was great fun, and I look forward to continuing my study of Vovinam, supplemented with boxing and weight lifting. Maybe I will find out who is trying to start the professional kickboxing league and I can help out. Maybe we can build a Vietnamese MMA team and take the Southeast Asian title.

Tan Da helped me to find a school where I could learn Vovinam, the quintessential Vietnamese martial art. Vo means fight. Vovinam is also called Viet Vo Dao, or the way of Vietnamese fighting.

Vovinam is a synthetic martial art, founded by Nguyen Loc in 1938. The practitioners wear blue karate ghis and earn belts just as in many traditional martial arts.

Apparently in the past, the Vietnamese martial arts were as developed as those of China. A martial arts university was founded nearly a thousand years ago, where students studied all forms of combat and also read the classics, such as Tsun Zu, “The Art of War.” National exams were held regularly until some time during the French occupation. Even under the French, martial arts continued to develop with Vietnamese students competing in French competitions of foreign martial arts from Korea, Japan, and China.

Today, the students of Vovinam seem very proud to be studying their national art, but like in many parts of the developing world, society pushes young people to excel in their studies, particularly English and IT, and to make money. Given the difficulty I had in finding teachers and teams I would say that martial arts are on the decline in Vietnam but still infinitely more alive than in Cambodia or Lao. Tae Kwan Do seems to be extremely popular and was being taught at many high schools and universities. Most parents feel that letting their kids study Tae Kwan Do is a good compromise since they probably won’t get injured. And, now that Tae Kwan Do is in the SEA Games and the Olympics, Tae Kwan Do becomes a matter of national pride, the same as gymnastics or other Asian dominated sports.

The sad thing about the rise of Tae Kwan Do and economic prosperity is that it means the demise of traditional martial arts.

Training with a team who met in one of the most famous high schools of Ho Chi Minh city, at a glance the art looked a lot like Tae Kwan Do with that same round house kick, which hits with the top of the foot. Tae Kwan Do style kicking pads were used and students did drills, running and kicking, leaping and kicking multiple targets. The forms also looked like Tae Kwan Do katas. But when I started rolling with one of the instructors, I found there was a lot more to the art than high kicks and leaps.

The teacher was named Master Hai. I would find out that nearly everyone I met in Vietnam was either named Hai or Nguyen. Nguyen was a traditional hero in ancient literature and was also one of Ho Chi Minh’s original names. Hai admonished me for taking photos of his class. As a result, the story was never able to run in American magazines because there were no images. I try to like TMA but I sometimes get angry and just want to punch these guys in the head. I just didn’t think it was good for PR to prevent foreigners from studying your art or photographing it.

Hai did agree to let me train with him, and once again the price was very low, a few dollars per month. He required me to wear a blue ghi, which is the typical uniform of Vovinam. Almost all of the students were black belts, but I would find out that red was the highest. Remember, when you invent your own martial art, it is important that black not be the highest belt. That way you can be totally unique. One of the styles I had studied in Philippines the highest belt was red, white and blue.

Vovinam contained a lot of impressive joint locks and locking throws, similar to Hop Kido. There were some throws that seemed to have come right out of a judo textbook, “In judo they grab the clothes.” Explained the teacher. “But if you try and grab someone by the T-shirt it will rip and what if he isn’t wearing a shirt? So, we only practice throws that can be done from body lock positions.”

He had a few very cool hip throws where he either locked his arms under mine or grabbed my head and threw me.

When the throw is completed the students did a lock and control or followed up with a punch. I didn’t see any actual submissions, chokes or finishing moves.

The strike side of the art showed the influence from neighboring Cambodia and Bradal Serey (Khmer kickboxing). Vovinam contained low kicks, all be it with the top of the foot, but still they were striking down into the calf muscle. They used some knee strikes. The most obvious connection with Cambodian martial arts was the use of elbows. Vovinam had about five different elbow strikes, including the uppercut elbow, hook elbow, and spin elbow which are techniques pretty much unique to Cambodia and Thailand.

Hai kept referring to Vovinam as Vietnamese kung fu, showing the Chinese influence in Vietnamese culture.

Vovinam was one of those typical traditional martial arts that I have trouble practicing. I hate wearing a ghi. Southeast Asia is bloody hot and I prefer wearing my Muay Thai shorts and T-shirt. We had to stand in rows, military style, according to rank, and do our exercises in unison.

There was a lot of standing and static throwing punches, chops, and elbows. The knees were straight during these drills. Hai yelled at me for dropping into a fighter’s crouch.

I asked one of the instructors if Vovinam used elbows. He answered, “Yes, several of our combinations involve elbows.”

Vovinam has a number of standard combinations. If your opponent kicked a certain way, you countered with combination 3. if he struck another way, you countered with combination 7. From what I understood, if you started a combination, you had to finish it and these strikes could only be done within the context of these combinations. It seemed very restrictive and not at all conducive of actual fighting.

Being TMA they practiced the old, strike at my face with a lung punch, freeze, and I will block it, deflect it, twist your arm and throw you. I kept wanting to ask him if anyone had ever done any of these techniques for real. One of the stupid drills they had me do was to stand square, once again with your knees stiff, and my hands on my hips. The teacher would throw a very slow punch to my face and I was supposed to block it with my opposite hand. Any time I didn’t do it exactly as he wanted, Hai would laugh at me.

“If you do this in a fight, you will get your nose broken.”

I wanted to answer, if you mouth of at me again, your going to get your nose broken. The only way I can even tolerate TMA is by convincing myself that it isn’t supposed to be about fighting. It is supposed to be about art or culture or tradition or something. But then when they bring up the subject of foght9ng I just get aggressive. If this isn’t fighting, why is he talking about fighting? And if this is fighting, why I am standing with my knees braced, my legs square and my hands on my hips? Who would fight like that? And it’s not like, he is a master and he could fight like this and win. No, the rules are the same for everyone, I don’t care who you are. If you come into a fight like that, you will lose.

How was this stance superior to my normal fighting stance, my Muay Thai/boxing stance?

Hai wanted to teach me a hook, but when I moved my legs, he yelled at me. He wanted me to hook from this same stupid position with my hands on my hips and my knees straight. Then he yelled at me for not putting my shoulder into. I was like, what are you retarded? Boxers through the best hook in the world. And believe me, if someone showed me a better hook I would do it. To hook properly, have to stand in fighting stance. And the way you get your shoulder into is by rotating at the hips and pushing off with your back leg. Standing square like this not only were you not going to have any power, but you were going to hurt yourself.

Maybe that was the plan all along, to get me to through out my back. Perhaps this was revenge for the war. You never knew in Vietnam when the war would rear its ugly head.

The next argument came when he wanted me to turn my fist over on the hook. This is a repeated argument I have had all over Asia. Modern fighters, ones who absorb(rather than reject) the new information flowing throughout the world, do not turn their fist over on a hook. You always turn your fist on a straight punch, but never on a hook. But all of these traditional martial arts have you turning the fist on a hook. But once again, they are only punching the air. None of them train on a bag for several hours per day as a real fighter would and none of them are actually fighting. So, I guess they can throw their hook however they want to and it will be fine.

One thing they did right in Vovinam was the warm up. It was composed of useful martial arts techniques. When you do Tae Kwan Do in other countries, often, they rush through the exercises counting very fast in Korean ish, ni, sam sa….which actually isn’t even the counting system Koreans use for counting exercises in Korea. In so many of these schools I have seen the amount of time they hold a stretch is less than ten seconds. The only reason they don’t have more injuries is because the guys are so young. But, in Vovinam we did real exercises and at a pace that was appropriate.

In most martial arts schools I have trained in (non fighting schools) they do like ten pushups and ten sit ups. In Vovinam we did pushups for about three or four minutes and abs for about twenty minutes. We also did kicking and punching drills which looked as if they were taken from Tae Kwan Do. One guy held up the TKD style kick pad and the other guy kicked it as many times as he could in a certain time limit. Real fighters don’t do this drill because it doesn’t test your ability to throw good kicks. It tests your ability to do the drill. The first kick is real. After that, the guys are only bringing their leg back half way before kicking again. They are practicing wrong, but very fast. And admittedly they can all do this drill better and faster than me. But this has zero impact on whether they can kick in a fight or not.

When people practice this type of drill the kick pad is general held high, head or shoulder height. This is also something I almost never practice. In Muay Thai, most of our kicks are from the floating ribs down and of course we hit with our shins, whereas these guys were hitting with the tops of their feet.

In their kicking and punching drills they either stood still or moved in a straight line. Real fighters practice moving in circles.

While I was kicking I saw the guys practicing their grappling. On the whole, and as far as TMA goes, Vovinam was infinitely better than Tae Kwan Do or other traditional martial arts I had seen. It was more multi-dimensional. They had a lot of grappling. Some of it looked like Hop Kido and a little clearly came from judo. The Korean influences were obvious in all aspects of the art. After a throw they would go to the ground and use a lock to submit and control the opponent. But because this was TMA the series ended when the thrower put the opponent into a lock. There was no actual wrestling or countering or escaping going on. It was, you attack me. I throw you and put you in a joint lock. Ok, now, you stand up and I attack you and you throw me and put me in an arm bar.

Like in most TMA when Hai talked about fighting it was always theoretical. “If someone strikes you …” They had prepared various silly self-defense techniques such as if someone grabs you from the side, from behind in a bear hug, in a choke…You employ this tricky means of escape. They also had misconceptions about other arts. One of the instructors explained to me that Vovinam was more lethal than Muay Thai because in Muay Thai you just kick once and stop, but in Vovinam you kick and punch at the same time.

I really wanted to fight him so he could show me the failings of my boxing and Muay Thai.

Once again, I was having trouble studying TMA. I know there a lot of cultural and health benefits to TMA, but I still couldn’t do it.

Traditional martial art can be excellent for your health because it will increase the range and variety of your movements. We lose flexibility and get sick in old age because we reduce the types of movements we do. We stand up, walk, sit at a desk, and open the refrigerator everyday. When you were a child you climbed, you slid, you jumped, you belly flopped, you went under the couch…you moved your body in every way possible. As an adult, even if you exercise you are limited in what you are doing. If you lift weights, how much are you actually moving? How many different kinds of motion do you do in a day? Yoga would be an exception but even a dance class or aerobics has you on your feet most of the time.

I can do all my boxing and kickboxing movements, but those are pretty limited compared to what children can do or what TMA requires. Even as a boxer, I, you, all of us do the same things every day. Muscles and joints begin to function only with the scope of very limited range of motion. The movements I do in my boxing routine are the same ones I have done for twenty years. If I do something that feels like boxing or Muay Thai I am pretty good at it. But as soon as I get out o that comfort zone I am lost.

Looking at one of my Vietnamese training partners I could see that a kid sixty kilos is stronger than me at certain angles. When I actually threw a kick or a hook the way he wanted me to, he was stronger. I am certain that my hook, thrown my way, is stronger than his hook thrown his way. But if I see TMA as exercise then throwing his hook would be a way for me to develop muscles I don’t normally use. It is the same concept as swimming as cross training. You work muscles which are neglected in your regular workouts.

As you get older you develop these tunnels of motion in all of you joints, your wrists, neck, elbows, back, shoulders… If you move within your familiar range you are fine. If you do anything else, you get injured.

I think for an older guy, doing TMA may be a really good way of preserving general health. The problem is doing TMA alone won’t do it because there is not enough cardio and almost no strength work. The cardio at Vovinam was running around the gym in circles. That is just silliness. I refuse to run inside of gyms or dojo. That is not cardio. It is an excuse for cardio and it is really bad for your knees to run in too tight of a circle. You need at least twenty minutes of cardio work to get a work out.

As with Tae Kwan Do practitioners, the dexterity that the Vovinam guys had with their feet was impressive. They were as good with their feet as I am with my hands. They can put a kick anywhere on your body they want and use any part of the foot they want. They can effectively plant a kick up, down, or sideways. That is impressive and they have a lot of techniques kicking low and then high with out the foot touching the ground. The flipside of course is that they have never kicked anything; never kicked a bag, never kicked a target. Most likely, they can’t do it in a real fight, or they might hurt themselves.

Vovinam had more grappling than most TMA. Once you have kicking, punching, and grappling you have a pretty complete martial art. I wish that more people around the world were doing Vovinam rather than Tae Kwan Do. But in a country with no professional fighters at all how could you expect them to learn it? In Cambodia I don’t know how kickboxing and TKD could exist in the same universe. Can’t the TKD people see how weak their style is compared to kickboxing? Now, MMA and k-1 are big I Korea and yet they still believe in their TKD.

I was not in Vietnam to disprove them. In the context of what they were doing, Vovinam was very good. The pride is also a good thing. They love their country, and they should be proud of Vietnam’s progress. In Cambodia I always had a feeling that there was no hope for the future. But in Vietnam I think the people are capable of achieving anything they want to.

The final martial art I looked at in Vietnam was Tieu Lam, Vietnamese Kung Fu.

The aged Master Hai (everyone in Vietnam is named Hai) draws his sword and bows. He drops into a low stance and the sword comes over his head and around his body. He rises up on one leg, steps out with his foot and drops back into a low stance. With the perfection of a warrior sculpture he pauses in a forward stance, the sword fitting his frame like an extension of his arm. Sword practice over, he goes through a similar routine with a long spear. Fighting imaginary opponents, he shuffles forward, backward, turns, strikes behind him, leaps, smack the floor with the weapon, and lunges forward. His practice continues with a chinese fan, wielding the delicate weapon with lethal precision. Last, he practices with his bare hands. This is a daily routine which he has maintained for nearly half a century.

The art is Thieu Lam, and Master Hai has practiced his whole life. In spite of his advanced years, he still manages to teach several group classes as well as private lessons in the Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) sports complex, located in China Town. His favorite form which he demonstrates for foreign visitors is called call “Lao Ho Thuong Son,” which encompasses fifty-eight movements.

“This form contains all the best of Vietnamese Martial Art.” He explains. The form takes nearly four minutes to complete, months to learn, and years to master.

According to data published by the Thieu Lam association, Thieu Lam can trace its origins to China. The art was developed as a hybrid art, a mix of Choy Gar and Hung Gar style of Kung Fu and was originally taught in Guangdong province. Later, Wing Chun was added to the mix.

In watching the master and his students go through their paces, the influence of Northern styles is clear. In fact, much of the movements they use are identical to techniques and forms taught at the Shaolin temple today. At times, however, the southern influence becomes apparent, as they sometimes use a pigeon toed stance. The students would also hlaf twist at the hips and drop into a low stance, similar to that used in Wing Chun.

The Thieu Lam style was brought to Vietnam by M° Luu Phu, who was born near Canton in 1909 and died in 1971 in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). He trained with his master in China, until 1937, when he left China, fleeing the Japanese invasion. Millions of Chinese live in Vietnam. They came in various waves, most recently, escaping the Japanese war or the Chinese civil war. At the beginning, they lived in tight Chinese communities, divided into dialect groups, with Fujians living together and Guandongese living together. At that time, Kung Fu was not taught to outsiders, and Thieu Lam remained a purely Chinese art. After 1975, Vietnamese students were permitted to study the art. M° Sui Dau, a student of M° Luu Phu became a master and taught the art to Chinese and Vietnamese alike, until his death in 1991.

Thieu Lam is divided into two major schools, “Thieu That Son” and “Trung Son Thieu Lam Tu”. Master Hai belongs to a sect called “Kim Ke Tay Son Hac.”

Training a Chinese art in Vietnam is a unique experience. It is always fascinating to see which aspects of Chinese culture they chose to keep, and which they abandoned. In studying other Vietnamese martial arts, such as Vo Vinam, it is also interesting to see which elements of Chinese Kung Fu were adopted and incorporated into other Vietnamese arts.

Thieu Lam included a good number of knees and elbows, including the over the top elbow, which must have been picked up in the Indochina region. There were also a lot more joint locks than you would expect to find in a Shaolin art. These may have been adopted from Vo Vinam, the national martial art, or directly from Korean martial arts such as Hop Kido.

They used a lot of the ever-returning fists, similar to Wing Chun. Master Hai punched, and then in one fluid, circular motion, came back with a back fist, followed by a hammer fist. He was constantly striking in circles or figure eights with repeated strikes.

“Everything we do is based on circles.” Explained master Hai, pointing at a Yin Yang symbol over his door. With his weathered features, his face showing signs of age and wisdom, the Master looked like a caricature of a teacher. If you were casting a Kong Fu master in a movie, Mr. Hai would have been your first pick.

“We use circles both up and down for blocking. We also have animal styles such as monkey and dragon.” Said Mr. Hai, pointing out some similarities with Chinese martial arts.

Several of the Vietnamese students referred to their martial art as Vietnamese Kung Fu, the same way people in China use the name Kung Fu as a general word for martial arts.

Although a close first cousin to Kung Fu, Thieu Lam had its own unique Vietnamese character. “In china they use a low stance, but in Vietnam we use medium stance.”

The horse stance looked like it came from southern China or Wing Chun.

“When your opponent strikes with the right hand, you have to block with the left, and vice versa.”

Mr. Hai showed me that if you block with the opposite hand, you will have your opponent tied up in his own limbs, and it will be impossible for him to hit you. Also, it leaves him wide open for you to do a quick jerking joint manipulation and break his arm at the elbow.

As with many traditional martial arts, there was no sparring. They practiced their fighting in patterns, so, to do the drill, both parties would have to know his script. A student struck, Mr. Hai came of the block and into a strike with the same hand. When rolling with me he hit me in the floating ribs, which is more something we emphasize in kickboxing than in Kung Fu. When I threw a kick, he kicked my leg and hit me with his knee, another Muay Thai-esque technique. When we were playing around, he blocked my kick with a cross knee and then kicked the inside of my thigh with the ball of his foot, This is basically a Muay Boran sequence. The most telling Indochina move was when he blocked and then stepped in with an elbow strike to the head, followed by a forearm smash to the elbow, while trapping the hand and hyper-extending the elbow.

“Concentrate where you hit.” Said Mr. Hai. “In China they hit in the liver. In Vietnam we hit in the heart.”

The thing that some students find boring when studying kung Fu is the lack of practical application. Mr. Hai’s students, for example, never did anything apart from forms, which they repeated over and over again. They never sparred and never tried ttheir techniques against a live opponent. Every few years I try to do TMA(Traditional Martial Art), and always quit because I prefer fighting. Kung Fu, however, is the one form of TMA I can forgive because they never actually claim to be fighters. Kung fu is beautiful and on some level, practicing Kung Fu demonstrates a deeper commitment to the art than does fighting.

The thing I really liked about practicing with Master Hai was doing the warm up. A Kung Fu warm up is a sensible exercise. Not only does it prepare your muscles for training, as well as strengthening and creating flexibility, but moving through all of those stances and techniques is much more interesting than standing in front of a mirror in the gym doing sets and reps. Doing the stances, the squatting, bending, and twisting, up and down, is good for you body, and will help to maintain health and flexibility into old age. Adding TMA, especially Kung Fu, to your overall health regime makes a lot of sense. Most days in ho Chi Minh City, I trained with Mr. Hai and then trained with the boxing team. The combination of the two programs seemed to work well for me.

In addition to Thieu Lam, the Vietnamese have a rich and diversified martial arts history. At a book store I discovered there was no shortage of books about the various Vietnamese martial arts. The only problem was, none of them were in English. So, you’ll just have to wait for my next book.

Antonio Graceffo is a martial arst and adventure writer living in Asia. See his website www.speakingadventure.com or join him on facebook.com
You can email him: Antonio@speakingadventure.com

Boxing the Vietnamese

2008-07-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

A Brooklyn Monk trains in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
By Antonio Graceffo

An old man slapped me under the chin with the palm of his hand. My head whipped back, and I saw stars.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Asked my Vietnamese friend and guide in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I guess I did, but I hadn’t counted on it hurting so bad.” I answered.

To understand why I was in Vietnam, we have to go back to why I was in Cambodia. And that adventure started in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I had been studying Muay Thai Boran in a forest monastery on the Burmese border for three months. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I emerged from the jungle to take a shower, sleep in a bed, and eat at McDonalds. A few days of rest, and I got restless. What was next? What would be the next obscure martial art in a remote location?

Burmese boxing looked really interesting. It is, to my knowledge, the only place in the world where people are still fighting with absolutely no rules and no gloves. They are even allowed to head-butt.

Burma, now called Myanmar, lay just over the border. I could see it from John’s Café in Mae Sai, where I where I would pick up stories from the road during my monthly visa runs. But Myanmar was fraught with political issues. A civil war had been burning there for about fifty years. Most of the boxers I had trained with in Thailand were actually Burmese refugees. Burma didn’t look like a viable option. I am a fighter, not a soldier.

“Every Asian country must have martial arts.” I surmised. So, I went on line looking for arts I had never heard of in the surrounding countries. I did Google searches for martial arts in Lao and Cambodia. Eventually I found a name, Bokator, a nearly extinct martial art in Cambodia, believed to be the origin of all Southeast Asian martial arts. And so I hoped on a bus and I went. Three days later, I was in Phnom Penh, looking for Bokator. It took me eighteen months to find the master. That began a three-year-long odyssey of trips in and out of Cambodia to train with Master San Kim Saen and to document the art so that it would not be lost from the Earth.

After I earned my black belt in Bokator, I began looking for the new, new thing. Back to the Google search, I found a slue of martial arts in Vietnam. When I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (by plane this time, now I was a famous martial arts write), I began looking for the arts. What I found in Vietnam was similar to Taiwan and other developed countries I had trained in. The main focus in the society was economic development and advancement. Parents pushed their kids to excel in school, study English, and make money. Martial art was low on the priority scale.

Most Vietnamese said to me, “But why do you want to waste time on martial arts? You could teach English and make a lot of money.”

Research told me that the Vietnamese had a traditional wrestling form which seemed to have disappeared or may still exist in remote provinces, so it may take me month or even years to find it. Historically, there was also a Vietnamese kickboxing art, similar to Muay Thai or Khmer Boxing, Bradal Serey (Pradal Serey). But, as far as I was able to find out, this art has died out.

The two main arts I was able to find were Thieu Lam, Vietnamese Kung Fu, and Vovinam, a hybrid martial art, invented in Vietnam in the 1920s. The art is also referred to as Viet Vo Dao, or the way of Vietnamese fighting.

The Thieu Lam master is the one who slapped me under the jaw, so I focused most of my energy on Vovinam.

Vovinam is taught everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The practitioners see it as a matter of national pride, similar to the way Koreans view Tae Kwan Do. Vovinam is a very complete martial art with elements taken from many styles. There are kicks from Tae Kwan Do, but also a limited number of shin kicks and knee kicks. There are grapples from Hop Kido and throws from Judo. There are also a limited number of elbow strikes. They train with an array of weapons, taken from China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

Because Vietnam is still a communist country, there is no professional fighting at all. So, the Vovinam guys weren’t ready to go fight in the UFC. But, with a bit of tweaking, the style looks like it could be modified to use in MMA competitions. As far as traditional martial art (TMA) goes, Vovinam was a lot more interesting and complete than Tae Kwan Do. Anything that includes a grappling component is more multi-dimensional than a stand up kicking art. Unfortunately, because Tae Kwan Do is now part of the Olympics and the SEA Games, there is a huge push, particularly in Communist countries, to build world class teams. The cost is that the local martial arts are dying out.

In Cholon, Saigon’s China Town, I found a massive sports center. In the basement there was a full weight lifting gym. Gyms in Vietnam were quite complete and training was cheap. Membership in a gym costs les than $10 per month. The other five floors of the building were dedicated to martial arts. Walking up the stairs, I felt like Bruce Lee, climbing the tower in “Game of Death.” On the first floor there were about a hundred people doing karate. On the next floor, Kung Fu. Up a level, Kendo and Aikido. On the next floor, Karate and Tae Kwand Do again.

The price of martial arts training was $6 per month.

On the top floor, I found my home, boxing.

I was in Vietnam to learn something new, so I concentrated on Vovinam. The problem with most TMA is that there isn’t enough of a cardio component, nearly no strength component, and no toughening or fighting training. So, I set up a training schedule of weights in the morning, followed by Vovinam in the evening and boxing at night. The boxing was the perfect addition to make my training day complete.

In Ho Chi Minh City people, go out late, study late, and train late. The streets are full of cars and motorcycles, at all hours. Boxing started at 7:30 PM, which is amazing, because in Cambodia, no one would ever consider going out that late. Even more amazing, as I was leaving the two hour workout, people were coming in for their martial arts lessons.

When you walk into a new martial arts school in Asia, there is always the thing about showing respect. They are sizing you up, so you don’t want to look weak. But you don’t want to look challenging either. If they think you have only come to fight, they may not train you, or they may hurt you. Or if they think you are showing disrespect, they won’t deal with you at all.

In boxing, there is none of this. The minute I walked into the boxing gym, the coach, Mr. Ahn, welcomed me with open arms. He was all smiles, asking me a million questions about my training and experiences in other countries. He called the boxers around to listen to the stories and ask me questions. With the martial arts guys, I have to build rapport before I can take out my camera. Mr. Ahn, on the other hand, immediately asked if the boys could take some photos with their new American friend.

As there is no professional boxing in Vietnam, all the boys were amateurs. Most were around 22 years old. They attended university fulltime and boxed part time.

I asked if I could fight in Vietnam, Mr. Ahn laughed and told me that in the whole country there were only four boxers registered at 81 Kgs, the highest weight division. “At national championships they give one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. So, everyone wins.”

In Thailand I am always amazed at the steps they are taking to improve their training, such as brining in foreign coaches or sending coaches to other countries. Vietnam was the same. One of the team’s coaches had trained in Thailand with the Vietnam national boxing team.

“We can learn from them.” Said Mr. Ahn. “In the lower weight divisions, the Philippines and Thailand are the best in Southeast Asia.”

Philippine champion, Mani Paquoia (Pac Man) was almost as much of a hero to the Vietnamese boxers as he was to the Filipinos.

Talking about my Muay Thai experience, Mr Ahn told me, “We had kickboxing prior to 1979. But then it was banned. Now they would like to bring it back, but there isn’t even an association or a team yet.”

“Traditional wrestling is also dying out. Maybe it exists in the provinces, and probably not every day, just at festivals.”

The good thing about training in a socialist country is that the government supports sports and education programs. Sports are made available to nearly everyone, regardless of how poor they are. The downside, of course, is that while top athletes will have state of the art training and equipment, the average gym is not as good as one we would pay for in a rich country. Boxing training at the sports complex was free, but the boxing team had absolutely nothing. They had half a heavy bag and some rotting, smelly glove.

The bag was hung too high and not heavy enough for me to do body punches or low kicks. There were no coache’s mitts for pad-work. Mr. Ahn showed me where there had been a floor to ceiling bag, but it was broken. One very cool piece of equipment they did have was a makiwara board hanging on the wall. This padded boarded is normally used in karate and other martial arts to practice focus punching. The boxers used it for speed and power drills. One guy would stand at board, throwing one-two, one-two as fast and hard as he could for thirty seconds, while his partner shadow boxed. Then they would switch off. Thirty second board, thirty seconds shadow, alternating for three minutes. It was brutal! By my third rotation on the board I was completely beat. My arms would barely stay up.

During the drill, Mr. Ahn stood by, and made sure my hands were coming back to a proper guard position between punches, so I was punching off my face, straight through.

Usually when I train with amateurs the coaches leave me alone and let me train what I want, which is nice, if I am there for a short time. I like them to leave me alone because amateur boxing is so different from professional boxing. Fr example, they turn their hands over when they hook, which pros don’t do. I don’t want them to undue my skills.
But if I am going to be there for a year it is a problem because then I am not learning anything new.

Watching one of the best guys train, he was very fast and had good form and tremendous power or his size, but his hands were down at his sides, like Muhammad Ali, and he was wide open. Maybe he was fast enough that it didn’t matter, but I was shocked at how open many of them were.

The gym didn’t have a heavy bag, which would be the bulk of my training as a heavyweight pro. I got the impression that amateurs didn’t work the heavy bag the way pros do. Most of their work was shadow boxing and mock sparing. Amateurs I have trained with in Philippines, Vietnam and other countries did a lot of things we don’t do, such as sliding drills, punching drills, and blocking drills. Maybe we could benefit from these training techniques too.

After the board work, Mr. Ahn had me spar with two of his guys, one round each. We didn’t hit each other hard, just worked.

The second boy I sparred with had one hand on his waste, and punched off his hip. He did all right with it, but it still looked dangerous. The cool thing he kept doing was switching off, left and right hand lead. He didn’t actually change his lead leg, but would twist his body about 50% and lead with a right hand jab. It was tricky and kept giving me a new picture to look at.

They didn’t have a ring, so we were sparring on the floor. Normally I shepherd my opponent onto the ropes or into the corner and pound them. This is much harder to do in an open fighting situation. The speed and stamina of the smaller amateur is a bigger advantage in an open situation.

In pro boxing you are always looking for that knock out or a win by attrition. You lead with the left, but you are constantly trying to set the man up for the big right hand. In amateur boxing, you are trying to win by points. Throwing a flurry of punches, whether they are hard or not, will win you points.

Training with the Vietnamese was great fun, and I look forward to continuing my study of Vovinam, supplemented with boxing and weight lifting. Maybe I will find out who is trying to start the professional kickboxing league and I can help out. Maybe we can build a Vietnamese MMA team and take the Southeast Asian title.

If you are in the USA and interested in training in Vietnamese martial arts, contact vietdefense@yahoo.com see their website at: www.vovinamusa.org

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The Pilot episode, shot in the Philippines, is running on youtube, click here. The Monk From Brooklyn - Kuntaw in the Phillipines Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

Kampuchea Krom

2008-07-09T20:35:00.001-07:00

Kampuchea Krom, The Cambodian speaking provinces of Vietnam serve as a repository of Khmer culture and language.
By Antonio Graceffo

Very little is known about the Angkorian Empire because they did not leave any written records, apart from the inscriptions on the temple walls. Researchers know that the ancient Khmers used a Pali based writing system, often referred to as Khmer Boran, which they carved onto bamboo “pages,” which were used to construct primitive books. Very few, if any of the books have survived the ravages of war and time. The humid jungle climate of Cambodia, combined with termites and other pests, would destroy one of these books in a matter of months or just a few years.

Apart from the bamboo books, the ancient Khmers developed a second, lesser known method, for preserving written texts. In stead of carving on bamboo, they carved their letters onto specially prepared leaves, which were later bound into volumes. As testament to the durability of this method, several hundred of these books still exist. The books as well as other aspects of the traditional Khmer way of life have been preserved, not in Cambodia, but in Kampuchea Krom, the Khmer speaking provinces of Vietnam.
Much of southern Vietnam, particularly the Mekong Delta region, once belonged to the Khmer Angkor Empire. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), which the Khmers called Prey Nokor, was the most important trading port. In the 17th century, ethnic Vietnamese began moving into this predominantly Khmer area. By the mid eighteenth century, the Khmers, descendants of a fallen empire, became a minority in their own land. In 1757, the Vietnamese colonized the provinces of Psar Dèk (renamed Sa Dec in Vietnamese) and Moat Chrouk (Chau Doc in Vietnamese).
In 1954, France granted the remaining provinces and Mekong Delta lands to a newly independent Vietnam. Many Khmer people went to sleep in Cambodia, but found that they woke up in Vietnam.

Vietnam is home to 54 ethnic and religious minorities who often found themselves at odds with the government, particularly after the end of the American War, in 1975. Reports of human rights abuses and marginalization have been widely publicized with foreign NGOs and activists petitioning the Vietnamese government for fair treatment of the ethnic minority and tribal people. To date, the UN has failed to recognize the Khmers of Kampuchea Krom as an ethnic nation, and no western government has intervened on their behalf.

Estimates of the Khmer population in Vietnam range between 500,000 and several million. Independent NGOs have reported human rights abuses and suppression of the Khmer culture. In the past, many Khmer were forced to accept Vietnamese names. There were also reports of suppression of the Khmer religion and that Khmers did not have access to education or jobs.

On a recent visit to Kampuchea Krom, it was difficult to find evidence of repression, as the majority of Khmers in Vietnam seemed to live much better than they would in Cambodia. The streets in Kampuchea Krom were paved, whereas in Phnom Penh less than half the streets are paved. Kampuchea Krom had ATM machines and internet shops. The homes looked clean and well-appointed. In talking to Khmers ranging from monks to pharmacists, moto-drivers, and security guards, they all agreed that 100% of Khmer children attended the Vietnamese school, which was free and most likely at a higher level than the average school in Cambodia.

Before 1991 ALL religions were suppressed by the communist government. Since then, there has been a loosening up of controls on religion, including Khmer Buddhism. In one province alone there were 73 Khmer temples. While it is true that Khmer language is not part of the school curriculum, the temples had a sophisticated education system, and children and adults would attend classes at night and on weekend in Khmer literacy.

The role of temple as school is one of many small pieces of Khmer culture which have been preserved in Vietnam, but which no longer exist in Cambodia.

“Vietnamese students have to score 24 on the entrance exam to attend university.” Explained Da, a graduate, working in Ho Chi Minh City. “But Khmer only need 16. This is our government’s way of promoting their education.”

The temples are the best place to obtain information in Kampuchea Krom, as they serve as centers of the Khmer culture. The wats were the same style as those of Cambodia, but they were freshly painted, kept in good repair, and set on manicured grounds. Many were surrounded by bonsai trees. The walls were decorated with colorful paintings, depicting scenes from the Ramayana, an ancient religious story from India.

Prah Samnang, a Khmer monk, explained. “About 80% of the population are Khmer. Among Khmer boys, about 60% of them will become a monk for some period of time.”

This figure of 60% was probably true of Cambodia before 1975. Today, however, this devotion and service to the religion seems to be more common in Kampuchea Krom than in Cambodia.

Prah Samnang, as well as the other Khmers of Kampuchea Krom, spoke a dialect of Khmer which was almost exactly like that spoken in Phnom Penh today. This is probably because the provinces have only been separated from Cambodia for fifty years. This was in stark contrast to Sorin, the Khmer region of Thailand, which was annexed nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. The dialect spoken in Sorin is very difficult for modern Cambodians to understand.

“The Khmer children go to Vietnamese school for a full day.” Continued Samnang, who is a teacher of Khmer literacy. “Then, they come to the pagoda to learn Khmer. Everyone here speaks it quite well. Nearly 100% of the children can read and write Khmer.”

In Cambodia only about 50% of the people can read and write Khmer.

Things were not always easy for the Vietnamese Khmers.
“The temple was completely destroyed during the war.” Said Samnang who was just a child during the war. “For twelve years, I used to come and go, come and go at the temple. I couldn’t find my way. Finally, I became a monk.”

“We still observe all of the Khmer holidays, such as Pchum Benh and Khmer New Year. We even have wrestling at the pagoda on special holidays.”

The predominant religion in Vietnam is Buddhism, but a different sect of Buddhism than that practiced by the Khmers.

“The important thing is that we are all Buddhists, but we do some things differently.” Said Prah Samnang. “Vietnamese are Mahayana Buddhists. The Khmer are Theravada. Vietnamese monks can’t eat any meat. Khmer monks can eat meat, but we cannot kill or order killing. Vietnamese monks can eat three times per day. Khmer monks are prohibited from eating after twelve-noon.”

Language presents another difference between the two related religions. Apart from the Vietnamese and Khmer languages being different, the ancient religious texts and influences come from two different languages.

“The Khmer religious language is Pali, from India. The Vietnamese religious language is Chinese.”

The monks are easily recognizable. Khmer monks wear saffron robes. Vietnamese monks where shirts with buttons.

Vietnamese burry their dead, where as, Khmer burn theirs. The temple grounds contained massive furnaces where the bodies were cremated.

At the Museum of Khmer Culture, in Tra Vinh, a caretaker spoke of some of the Khmer cultural aspects which have been lost in Kampuchea Krom. “We don’t sampea very much anymore.” He was referring to the traditional Khmer greeting, of placing the hands in prayer position. “The Cham still wear the Kroma, but most Khmer don’t.” This is a Khmer scarf which can be worn as a head wrap or a belt. “We only wear sarongs a few times a year, at the Khmer holidays.”

A visit to a nearby mosque revealed the presence of the Cham ethnic minority. These descendants from the Kingdom of Champa are a unique, Malay speaking people, found predominantly in Vietnam and Cambodia. In addition to their own language and Vietnamese, the Cham also spoke fluent Khmer. Once again there did not seem to be a repression of religion or a singling out of any of these Khmer groups. The presence of the Cham and of a Khmer-speaking Chinese minority made Kampuchea Krom feel like a nicer, wealthier, slice of Cambodia.

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The Pilot episode, shot in the Philippines, is running on youtube, click here. The Monk From Brooklyn - Kuntaw in the Phillipines Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

Impressions of Ho Chi Minh City

2008-07-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)
A City on the Rise
By Antonio Graceffo

Every morning I wake up and shout out my window “GOOOOOOOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!”

Ho Chi Minh city (I don’t call it Saigon. I have to be Politically Correct because I live here.) is awesome. I don’t know why my older brother and his friends tried so hard to get out of going to Vietnam in the late sixties. It is huge and loud and crowded and constantly on the move. I have never seen a city that looks so busy. Obviously in New York, Hong Kong, and Bangkok, people are rushing, but here, they are scurrying. You just know that every waking moment is spent trying to make a buck.

The streets are full of motorcycles, the 100 cc brand of scooters which proliferate the streets of most Asian metropolises. Bumper to bumper traffic moves at a brisk forty kilometers an hour, and you risk a fatal collision about once every thirty seven seconds (Disclaimer: Statistics prepared by a third party, independent observer. Your experiences may vary.) Space is limited, so each bike is only allowed about half its width. You better not let your knees or elbows stick out or they will get sheered off.

The motorcycles share the road with trucks from China, Mercedez cars, and cyclos. It is hard to believe but the traditional three wheeled bicycle taxis are still in wide use in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to being a pleasant experience, taking a cyclo tour is an excellent way to see the city.

On the way to the airport in Phnom Penh, my home, I bought a Lonely Planet guide from some street children. Nick Ray, the author, is a personal friend of mine, and I wanted to make sure he would still get his royalties off of the pirate copies. I wrote down his address and the kids assured me they would swing by his house and pay him 9% of the purchase price of $4. So, that should go like clockwork.

Vietnam has a written history of universities, languages, learning and studies dating back about two thousand years. The first university opened there a thousand years ago. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there were country wide exams in martial arts. The best students were sent to a martial arts and military tactics university. Vietnam’s military knowledge is extreme. They are the only country in the world who fought and defeated China, Mongolia, Khmer, Champa, France, tied with USA, and had a no contest with China. They have every reason to be proud of their history and the fact that they were never re-gobbled-up by China. And now, the economic leaps they have made in the last fifteen years are astounding.

Still no McDonalds though. How can one refer to ones self as civilized if one does not possess a McDonalds? KFC abounded in Ho Chi Minh City, but they had roles instead of biscuits. And I couldn’t find a happy meal to save my life.

People always ask me “is Cambodia fun?” and I say, Cambodia is interesting. There is always something for me to learn about and write about. But Vietnam has as many layers or more than Cambodia, but with the advantages of an upwardly mobile state in the process of modernizing and passing its neighbors. I think I could live, study, and write here for a hundred years.

For many Americans, the name, Vietnam, has been synonymous with the conflict we fought there in the sixties and seventies. I think the new slogan for Vietnam tourism should be: “Vietnam, it’s not just a war. It’s a country.”

The Vietnamese currency is called Dong, and you get about 16,000 for US dollar. At the airport money changers, an Irish guy in line in front of me changed $300 US dollars and got such a huge packet of Dong, he could hardly fit it in his pants. Now he knows how Italian men feel every day. The conversion is a bit awkward and you have to be very careful not to miscalculate or to confuse a 100,000 note with a 10,000.

Things are noticeably cheaper in Vietnam than Cambodia, but more expensive than Thailand. For about $6 US you can get a cyclo and driver for a half day tour. The Vietnam will rush by you, while you slowly meander along. This is probably how Lao feels all the time. The slow pace gives you time to take in the sites and to get great photos without actually walking or applying any effort what so ever.

If you check the Lonely Planet guide book, most of the attractions listed are temples, and the city certainly has a lot of them. Religion was suppressed during much of the communist rule of Vietnam, beginning in 1975. In 1986, a new administration began a program called, Doi Moi, and the country began to open up. By 1991 there was private ownership of businesses as the country moved to a free capital business model. Restrictions on religion began to loosen up, and today, a number of religions are practiced openly in Vietnam. In fact, communist party membership is down to 200,000 while membership in organized religion is in the tens of millions.

The predominant religion in Vietnam is Mahayana Buddhism, the same branch of Buddhism practiced in China, Japan, and Korea. This makes Vietnam unique in Indochina, since the other Indochinese countries, Lao, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma all practice Theravada Buddhism. Vietnam was a colony of China, until winning their independence more than a thousand years ago. As a result, every aspect of the culture, from religion to language and martial arts, all bear a distinct Chinese influence, but the Vietnamese have created their unique and fascinating culture. The Vietnamese Buddhist temples are distinct because of their color and architecture. The Vietnamese temples are a yellowish cream color.

Vietnam is home to millions of Chinese, many of whom still live and trade in tight communities. They have their own Chinese high schools, which are reported to be some of the best in Vietnam. They also have Chinese temples, which are easily recognized by their raucous red, blue and gold color and the presence of large green dragons.

A third brand of Buddhism, Theravada, is practiced by the Cambodian inhabitants of Vietnam’s Khmer provinces. The monks wear orange robes and most bys are expected to serve as a monk at some time in their lives.

In Ho Chi Minh city there are two principle mosques. The majority of Muslims in Vietnam belong to the Cham ethnic minority, many of whom speak Khmer, in addition to their native Cham language. Cham can be found in the Khmer and Cham provinces. The Muslims in Ho Chi Minh City, however are mostly of Indian ancestry.

Apart from the many temples, the city offers great shopping at both traditional markets, as well as modern shopping centers. There are numerous cinemas, theaters and shows to catch. Water puppets are a popular form of traditional Vietnamese entertainment. Hanoi is the famous place to see water puppets. There is, however, a water puppet theater in Ho Chi Minh City. Tickets are only 65,000 Dong (About $4 US), and there are shows nightly.

In the puppet theater, musicians in traditional clothing, play ancient Vietnamese instruments while narrating the story and doing the various voices of the puppet characters. They sit in a circle around a stage which is filled with water. When the puppets enter, the magic begins. They dance, the wiggle, they leap. They were amazing. One of the traditional folk tales in the presentation was abut a fisherman and his wife. They waded in water up their waste, swinging the basket, catching the fish which leapt across the water. A mother duck paddled along the water surface, followed by her brood of babies. Suddenly, a tiger dives into the water, snatches a baby duck in his mouth, and scurries up a tree.
Probably the most popular legend old I the puppet theater is story of the hero Le Loi, who won Vietnam’s independence from China in 1427 and became emperor. The legend says that Le Loi had a magical sword, which was given to him by a golden turtle. Once China declared Vietnam’s independence, the turtle resurfaced and took the sword to the bottom of the lake.
I have no idea how they controlled the puppets and made them climb and fly. It was a truly amazing performance.

Sports programs are extremely well developed in the city. In China town, there is a huge martial arts training center with a gym in the downstairs. All manner of martial arts were on offer, both Vietnamese and foreign, most for about 60,000 Dong per month. A gym membership at a private gym only costs about 100,000 Dong per month. So, even if you will be in the city for a short stay of a week or two, just pay for the month and you are only out six dollars.

The Vietnamese have a number of martial arts. They have Thieu Lam, Kung Fu brought by the Chinese, as well as traditional Vietnamese wrestling. In the parks in the morning and evening you will see people doing Tae Chi. The principal martial art is called Vo Vinam and there are teams everywhere. It is easy to find and study this hybred art. The martial art contains both foreign and domestic elements. There are movements that look like Hop Kido, Tae Kwan Do, Judo, and Muay Thai. Once again demonstrates how the Vietnamese took the best from abroad and made it their own.

Visiting a café is another worthwhile experience in Vietnam. Going to one of the new style cafes is like having a night out at the disco, up beat music, metropolitan young people, and décor like a mid-town bar in New York. Coffee is good everywhere in the city, but the new style cafes are the best place to get excellent cakes and ice cream coffee drinks.

Vietnamese drink a lot of ice coffee, sweetened with condensed milk. It may taste a bit sweet to most westerners, so you could order a second cup of black coffee on the side and mix them together. The culture is full of hidden surprises and elements of ingenuity. For example, when I ordered a hot coffee, it came served in a glass, soviet style, but the glass was set in a bowl full of cold water. This way, the outside would cool and you wouldn’t burn your fingers.

Vietnamese food good, but not as exciting as Thai food. Every kind of international food from Indian to Chinese, Mexican, and Italian is on offer. In small Vietnamese eatery you can have a good typical meal for about $1-$2 US dollars. Make sure to try the Vietnamese wraps. They are made from prawns and vegetables, scented with herbs, wrapped in a thin rice pancake, with a side of sauce for dipping. Served cold, they make an excellent light snack or can be eaten as an appetizer.

The vibe in Ho Chi Minh City is very positive. The people have education. Young people can find well-paying jobs and can participate in the new economy. One of the many informal economic indicators is that when you go a nice restaurant or a fancy café, the majority of the patrons are young Vietnamese. Other than district one, which was expensive and developed even by western standards, there seemed to be a lot less economic apartheid in Vietnam than in other Southeast Asian countries.

English is not as widely spoken in Vietnam as it is in neighboring Cambodia. This is because there has only been a push for English education in recent years. Already, however, there are English language kinder gardens, where children as young as three or four years old are receiving lessons in English. There are countless private foreign language academies where Vietnamese of al ages go to study English. Many academies begin lessons as early as six or seven in the morning, so people can study before work, and end at ten or later in the evening.

One trait which the Vietnamese share with the Chinese is a love of education. They work hard at their studies and mot likely, the general level of English will increase at the same rate as the economy, which is growing at double digits.

The Vietnamese will probably wind up speaking better English than Khmers, with time, because they have a much better study ethic and work really hard, plus their general education level seems to be much, much higher than in Cambodia. In Cambodia when they try to learn English one problem is that they don’t have the concepts or vocabulary in Khmer. For example if you try to teach them the English words for time zones, compass directions, map reading, longitude and latitude, the average Khmer college graduate wouldn’t know any of these concepts or words in Khmer. So, the he has to learn the concept and the English word at the same time. Vietnamese, on the other hand, seem to have a much better general education, and so they only need to learn the words in English. Where Khmers have had nearly twenty years exposure to foreigners, Vietnamese have had less than ten. So, with time, the Vietnamese will catch up and pass Cambodia in English fluency.

As a linguist, who is planning to live in Vietnam and study Vietnamese, I have to say, the language is a nightmare. It sounds like a bunch of whinny, angry people shouting at the top of their lungs. Vietnamese is a monosyllabic, tonal language, like Chinese. Your pronunciation has to be perfect or else people won’t understand you changing the tone, rise or fall of your voice, changes the meanings of words.

One advantage of Vietnamese language is that it is written with Latin script, so for a visitor, it is good, because you can read street signs. But, almost nothing is written in English. Even companies and universities and government offices don’t have English translations under their names. In Korea, the law says every public sign must be written in Korean, Chinese, and English. In Phnom Penh, nearly every government office, ministry, university, hospital, or department is written in Khmer, French, and English. Nearly all private companies write in Khmer and English. As for people speaking English, English is much more widely spoken in Cambodia.

As a side note about education, the schools were never closed in Vietnam. During the war and after, schools remained opened and kids could attend. Most likely there were some southern families who were punished and relocated, but wherever they went, even in the countryside, there was a school of some kind, and of course universities remained open. Vietnam has the oldest operating university in Asia, nearly 1,000 years old. In Cambodia, there was only one high school and one university in Phnom Penh before 1975. The Khmer rouge closed all of the schools, burned all of the books and killed all of the teachers and students. Schools only reopened in 1983. Most people first had access to education after 1987. The first high schools opened outside of Phnom Penh around 2002. And the first university opened outside of Phnom Penh in about 2005.

Living in Phnom Penh and having lived in China, so far my comparison is this. Occasionally, I catch a glimpse of something in Ho Chi Minh, which reminds me of Phnom Penh; for example, the French colonial buildings. Occasionally they are painted communist yellow in both countries. But more likely they are refurbished and made to look nice in Vietnam. Both countries have shops with goods piled on the side walk. But in Vietnam the piles are orderly and there are a lot of shops with glass fronts. There are also chain stores and foreign chains such as Lotte. And chain restaurants like Jolly Bee, KFC, and others. There is even a Nike outlet store. In district one you will find international brands and luxury watches, jewelry and clothing. While the worst district of Ho Chi Minh City is richer than the best district of Phnom Penh, district one is almost on a par with Bangkok.

Prices seemed to be much lower in Vietnam than in Cambodia. My guesthouse had a private bath with a bath tub and shower with hot water. I don’t have hot water or a tub at my apartment in Phnom Penh. The room also had cable and air-conditioning, which I also don’t have at my apartment in Phnom Penh). The price was a mere $12 per night.

On the whole, I would say Vietnam is much more like China than it is like Cambodia.

The Vietnamese do have a reputation for not smiling and for being a bit pushy. But this is simply a cultural anomaly, and you have to get over it. The whole time I was in Vietnam, o one tried to rob me or cheat me and many people went way out of their way to help me, even when we couldn’t effectively communicate.

Da, a twenty four year-old Vietnamese guy is an example of the new economy and the new Vietnam. He graduated with a degree in IT and has a well-paid position in a Vietnamese financial firm.

“Today, a recruiter called me to see if I want to change to a new company. But I was busy, so I told him to call back tomorrow.” He told me.

In Cambodia it is impossible for graduates to find a job. And in Bangkok, the lucky ones who do find work in their filed are extremely underpaid. In the bustling economy of a growing Vietnam, however, qualified young people are sought after and offered incentives to change companies.

The Vietnamese are very nationalistic, but their pride seems to be expressed in a positive way. They always point at actual, rather than imagined achievements of their country.

“My country is the fastest growing country in Southeast Asia.” Said Da.

They always refer to Vietnam as “my country,” such as, “how do you like my country?”

“My country borders on Cambodia, Lao, and China, but we are only afraid of China. We are going up and up. In five years we will pass everyone.”

Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The Pilot episode, shot in the Philippines, is running on youtube, click here. The Monk From Brooklyn - Kuntaw in the Phillipines Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com