The wai kru

Well after I thought gradings and forms were behind me…..I am learning the wai kru (ram muay) for my first muay thai grading! I have posted one at the bottom but it’s not quite the same as the basic one I am doing. Well, I thought I would leave gradings, but I might as well go for it to get my first armband (pra jiad) and it’s all basic stuff anyway. I need to sort my license soon too, so I can get my gradings and fight record on there too. Ahhhh and I thought all that was in the past. I think I have a more sensible attitude to the whole grading thing now though. We have someone from another club come and grade us ,we do various combinations,advanced boxing technique,advanced knee technique, advanced elbow and kicks too.   I am still having to work on my round kick , to get my hip right into it and to get that power into it.

When I see it done properly it amazes me just how much power it delivers and don’t want to be on the receiving end of some of the guys who have it spot on in class. I have till the end of February to get it all sorted and memorised,along with the first wai kru.

 

It’s not really the same as a form, it doesn’t have the same feel anyway.It contains various blocks but it’s more about showing respect to your kru .Wai is an action of Thais to show respect to others by putting the hands together like in prayer. Khru means teacher. Ram means dance in the old Thai traditional style. Muay means boxing. Usually Thais prefer to call it short Ram Muay or Wai Khru. Ram Muay is the way to show respect to the teachers and the trainers. Also, in past muay Thai was usually fought in front of the king, so Ram Muay was also to apologize to the King for the brutality in fighting. 

The first one isn’t very long really but I am admittedly quite excited about it.It’s nice to have a traditional element to the training. Anyway ,training time now.