Kem Sitsongpeenong - Building a System (52 min)

Kem Muaythai Gym, more widely known as Kem Sitsongpeenong, one of the best fighters of his generation, shows me the building blocks of his system.

I can’t say enough about how beautiful Kem’s gym is, in the mountains of the Khao Yai area of Khorat. You have to drive up this steep hill on a road that looks like it must wash out several times each rainy season, winding up and down this mountain village that is a mix of resorts and homes of families - packs of little kids playing wild in the dirt. It’s awesome. And Kem is certainly no less remarkable. The first time I visited his gym he wasn’t there, so I didn’t get to meet him and wasn’t all that familiar with him as a fighter, though I certainly knew his name. I was there for Yodwicha, who is absolutely a gem within a gem of a gym. But on my second visit I got to meet Kem and just watching how he keeps an eye on the training of his students, incredibly focused and with a meticulous eye, before stepping in and demonstrating the technique he wants with such precision it’s almost unreal. His movements are truly beautiful. His style isn’t complicated, it’s just really, really well practiced and executed.

 TIP BOX if you want to show your appreciation you can send gratuity directly to Kru Kem, $5 or more via PayPal to the address sylvie@8limbs.us, please in the "add a note" section specify "for Kru Kem".  I will transfer the funds.  Go to PayPal now.   

When I finally got the opportunity to get a private with Kem for Patreon, I had the benefit of him having watched me fight live once, by coincidence, and jumping in to help in my corner just because he and his team are awesome, and had put money on me. So he knew I’m a knee fighter and, with the precedent of Yodwicha who had moved to Kem’s gym after having reached Lumpinee greatness - Yodwicha, the modern knee fighter - Kem was very clear about how he wanted to develop my tactics. But what he showed me is able to graft onto any style. Watching this video to do the voiceover, I was going nuts about how beautiful his technique is. Every single time he shows something it’s so clean and identical in effort and execution to the one before. Like Cus D’Amato said of the result of getting his guys to repeat movements, “get ‘em so they can’t do it wrong if they tried.” And in Kem’s process of how he worked me through the session, he’s got a similar ethic. He started me out with jumping rope for 15 minutes, then lots of pullups and pushups to kind of wear me down before even getting to the technique (we didn’t film that). That’s a brilliant way to train because you really need technique to be right when you’re tired. When you’ve got power, who cares? A lot of folks let their technique fall apart with the excuse, “I’m tired,” but that’s when you need it to be really crisp and easy. So that’s what Kem has you do: start out with your toe on the line of being a bit spent.

His first exercise was to have me hold weights, not super heavy, maybe 1 kg, in each hand and march back and forth just throwing a jab and cross. The thing to focus on was popping from the shoulders, so you’re not using your arms but actually trying to burn your arms out pretty fast and then just use the technique, shifting your weight and hips, popping your shoulders, to keep the punches going. It’s so hard. No arm punches. I struggled with my jab more than the cross, I think because my left foot doesn’t step properly to allow my hip and shoulder to engage and I ended up trying to carry the weight - albeit a small weight - with the strength of my arm. It’s only 1 kg, but damnit, that gets heavy fast. It was actually at the very end of the drill that my form got better, when I was the most fatigued. What does that teach you?

He then watched my shadowboxing to get a better assessment of my patterns, balance, technique, diagnose weaknesses, etc. He’s in the “lean back” school of thought regarding knees, as oppose to Yodwicha (at Kem’s camp), Dieselnoi, and Yodkhunpon who all insist on not leaning back on knees. Once we got to padwork, he had Kru Dam (still an active fighter under the name Phetdam) hold for me while he watched and taught. This is a classic Arjan style way of instructing. Hippy and Sangtiennoi both did this as well when I filmed them. Kem broke down each round into a particular category, so starting out with “everything,” then narrowing down to rounds that were just elbows or just knees. This was, again, a brilliant way to structure training for technique because as a fight goes on and you get tired, simplifying and using more teeps to keep distance so you can breathe is your best bet for a nice-looking finish. 

Kem’s Corrections:

1. corrected my weight distribution so that I was on my toes more, which he says makes all your movements faster and more powerful. 
2. He tried to get me to grab across my body on long knees (grabbing your opponent’s neck with the same side as the knee you’re throwing, but across your body) so that you control your opponent but also have a built-in guard.
3. He emphasized the importance of the off-hand on kicks being relaxed so you can whip it for torque and power.
4. In later rounds he wants me to teep a lot more, rather than just rushing into the clinch (which he corrected Yodwicha away from when he started fighting on an international stage, where clinch is often not permitted or is limited)
5. Taught me a teep, fake the teep and then throw an upward elbow move that he really worked with me on a lot. It’s really good for forward-fighting, aggressive opponents.
6. In clinch he really insisted on bringing the leg back when turning, not only so you use less energy to turn but also so you can throw a powerful knee straight off the turn. He also instructed a “push” with the forearm behind the neck rather than the classic pull that everyone in the west learns.
7. How to move backwards and still be able to strike.

That last one is a huge one. The end of this video is basically Kem chasing me in the ring and I have to use balanced footwork to get out of the way but still have the right timing to post and attack. The teep/elbow move he taught me is ideal for this, but what I really struggled with is moving backwards in a deliberate, measured and controlled way. Lots of us learn to fight forward (by “lots,” I mean everyone) but very, very few of us in the west are taught how to effectively fight backwards. If you can’t go backwards confidently, it affects going forward because you end up preserving space as a defensive strategy rather than believing that you can back up and come again. If you watch Kem’s footwork in demonstrated retreat, it’s almost slow. It’s not, actually, but it looks slow because he only uses as many steps as are needed and it’s so smooth. Smooth is fast. I end up running backwards in what I call the “Bugs Bunny” run, because you can almost hear that sound effect that goes with his tiny steps, that “doodledoodledoodle” sound. So, while watching Kem chase me around the ring might not appear super interesting, it is an incredible thing to work with me on and I’m really grateful for it. And by watching how he puts that pressure on me (which is what shortens my steps and then I can’t coordinate properly to post and shoot that teep off with any power), you can see how a trainer can use this same method to really give a gift to their fighters. And watch the last bit where he shows me how to just pivot off to the side instead of only going straight back. Duh, but still… I wasn’t doing it.