Hardcore Muay Thai training

[Omar]

That **** is NOT old school. Teachers used a stick, but they wouldn't whack the **** out of you with it...they'd use it to correct stances, etc. A sharp rap on the back of the leg is different than a cranial injury...

As for body conditioning, those guys weren't anywhere near ready for anything like that.

I don't care who this guy is. He's an asshole. :XXphyhsas

A couple things.

Lot's of great sucessfull teachers/trainers are never the less....assholes.

Merciless beatings of students I believe was in fact more common in "the day". The stories are all over the place with varying degrees of credibility. It's one reason why some of the most famous masters in China never left much of a legacy. Some of those great fighters were evil bastards who either never attracted many students or never kept them because they beat the **** out of them too much.

Like it or not...that IS a bif part of "traditional" training. Nobody seems to believe the stories but the official story is that one of Yang Lu Chan's sons tried to kill him self at one point rather than endure his fathers training methods.

[KeithAtTakadaDojo]

I've seen this posted many times on many forums over the past few months. You can tell it's an old clip because of the hair style. I don't know what the story is with beatings on this specific clip, but that really is Satoru Sayama...and he really is one of the founders of Shooto.

Sayama is still around and still somewhat living off his fame from his Tiger Mask period. He was running "SWA Ultimate Boxing" events for a while, but I don't know if that's still happening or not. Those events were all striking, both standing and on the ground. No subs allowed.

If anyone is interested, here's Sayama's website...

http://www.seiken-do.com/

[lifetime]

Without being condescending, that kind of training is actually considered more acceptable in Asia than it is in the US and UK. It's actually a running belief amongst a lot of Asian people that their (our) harder work ethic and tougher training methods in just about every pursuit be it academics or athletics makes us just as, if not more successful than those "soft" Westerners despite perhaps our other flaws.

Finding one that will tell you that to your face, however, is a different story. We've mostly just given up because everyone who's NOT Asian refuses to accept that as the truth. Most Americans are (correctly or incorrectly) represented as whiners who sue or quit at the drop of a hat. Again, not totally truth, but a common perception in Asia.

Ask most people acquianted with Asian culture and tradition and they'll probably tell you similar stories; it's not a purely Japanese thing either.

Lauren Burns (first person to ever win Olympic Gold in TKD) in her autobiography actually wrote about traditional TKD training in Korea, where athletes who don't perform up to the standard are beaten with a stick across the thighs and legs. Her first response was to cry about it and then complain to the AOC about the harsh treatment of Olympic athletes, eliciting an official apology. Most TKD athletes in Korea undergo the same treatment every day, without complaint; most of the trainers administering the punishment also would have been treated in a similar way in the past. It's Asian quality control.