I recently got The complete Muay Thai Home Study Course link. It is made by Scott “Bam Bam” Sullivan who runs Bam Bam martial arts school. Link
Mr. Sullivan’s Bio here: Needless to say he is a qualified instructor and has earned the whiskers to make such a series. He was and may still be part of the TBA of USA organization of Ajarn Surachai(Chai) Sirisute. The TBA site is down so I couldn’t verify current status. None the less he is credible. He is a very animated speaker and like many energetic martial artist adds sound effects to the techniques as he demonstrates them. Nothing wrong with that I do it also. With his fight name Bam Bam and the noises he makes add into some old original batman series bangs and pow animations would really make for some humor. In all seriousness how he speaks its good, he understands how people learn.
DVD 1: Muay Thai Fundementals
Very good coverage of basics. This doesn’t cover every technique used in TBA curriculum but it cover the ones a fighter would use 99% of the time. His terminology works but it is different than what I have been introduced to with other TBA coaches. Nothing wrong with that you would just have to make that adjustment yourself if your working long distance with a different coach. This is truly a fundamentals disk, nothing fancy or unexpected.
My only con from this disk is that the cover hand the fingers are nearly fully extended all the time. I was taught to have a loose fist and not present my finger like the top of a rooster. He sometimes has his thumbs extended when making fists also. I was taught that was another no – no. Let me state he didn’t say do these two things but if some one analyzes the video they could pick it up.They can get injured more easily.
Other than that this is good. He shows how the body should move without the punch being thrown, I thought that is a useful tool a lot of beginners get hung up on the tool and the end of the technique and not the foundation.
DVD2: Mastering the Muay Thai Clinch
This again is pretty basic. I do like the a couple of the clinch drills on the series. I wouldn’t say this is mastering the clinch but definitely developing it. The sparring session on the end had a focus on a couple of guys who were really rigid and neither one was getting much from the drill. Mr. Sullivan is also showing and shows that looseness and fluidity that allows both people to learn and develop from the drill.
DVD3: Muay Thai Attack and Defense Techniques
This has a ton of options and the only thing I didn’t really see was the raise leg block for the midline kick. Albeit his defense is more than likely a better block then the raise leg for midline. One thing I notice other than the teep he doesn’t really show or advocate the lead leg use of the kicks or knees. He recommends stepping or hopping which all essentially put that lead leg in the rear.
This is getting lengthy so I will make a second posting to review the rest of the material.
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