New website for Baan Chang Thai - www.samkhum.com

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Great news, Kru Lek's (Baan Chang Thai) new website is pretty much finished (there's a few links that are still not working) so get on over and check it out at www.samkhum.com.

The bad news, it's only in Thai so I'm afraid for most of you it won't make a lot of sense. I'm finishing up a few things of my own, and then I'll be translating it into english, so stay tuned.

But for now, there are plenty of pictures and a few videos to check out.

For pictures of Muay Chaiya follow this link.

For the videos, follow this link and then scroll to the bottom of the page. There's four videos:

1. Montage of Tae Chaiya in training (see if you can spot me in there)
2. A video of one of the choreographed sequences that Kru Aof and K.Tae perform (Muay Chaiya vs Knife).
3. A video of Baan Chang Thai's recent visit to Spain, showing them teaching some of the Chaiya Look Mai to some spectators
4. Footage of k.Tae and Kru Aof demonstrating some Muay Chaiya combinations if the kick pads

There's lots of information on this site, but for now, you'll have to get a Thai friend to translate for you. I'll let you know when it's available in English.

As a side note, check out the video on the home page. This features footage of Kru Lek and Tae Chaiya 'playing' at a recent visit they made to Spain. They playing the Dopp Hoo game (slap ears) which is one of the basic training methods that we use for reactions and timing. I spoke to Ajarn Lek shortly after they got back from Spain, and he told me that his body was soar all over. After seeing this footage, I can understand why!

The dop hoo game is fun, but if you play it hard and fast, then it can really hurt... not the person blocking, but the person hitting! K.Tae is very good at this, and when you go full force, you will come away with your forearms fully bruised, and your thighs smarting (trust me I know). But it's all good fun, and a great way of training.