4 Minutes with Chatchai Sasakul - Balance & Power Bringing Boxing to Muay Thai

The next session in the Muay Thai Library will be with Chatchai Sasakul, a legend in the history Thailand's Muay Thai and boxing. A long time fighter in the Golden Age who faced many of the best of the sport, he reached fame when he turned to Western Boxing, becoming WBC world champion in the late 1990s, a belt he would surrender to Manny Pacquiao. Then Chatchai would go onto become the best boxing coach in Thailand, mentor to numerous world champions, winning Coach of the Year twice. He teaches out of the new Thaipayak gym in Northern Bangkok, and I've filmed with him several times for the Muay Thai Library over the years. His views of weight transfer are technique and body changing. Be sure to watch the previous sessions if you want to get the most out of the coming one.

As a fighter I've begun to drive up Bangkok regularly, from Pattaya, just to get private study in with him, this footage is from yesterday's work, bringing a little of that to you in prep for what is coming.

I learn so much from Chatchai, every time I work with him. He's the teacher who, the most of anyone, has emphasized and made me realize the value and primacy of feeling over understanding or knowing. When you work with him, he guides you through the techniques by feeling.

In this video, shot informally near the start of our session, Chatchai is correcting my shadowboxing toward relaxation. He demostrates the popping shoulders that, to me, are so signature of skilled boxers, and I laugh a litle because I've never been able to achieve this. But he shows me how to feel my way through it: shorten the punch, so it doesn't ever fully extend the arm and can snap back. He holds up his hand shows me that you are punching just past the target, but not so far that if you miss that you've now lost your ability to snap back into a balanced position to move again. I ask where is the tension, because it's not in the shoulder, and he says it's momentarily in the forearm. A littel later he compliments my hook, says it's beautiful, and I explain that it feels great when I shadow, but the moment I have to hit a target (like a bag or a pad), the elbow raises too high and it gets distorted. But we work through that, too. At the last he's showing me the way in which the feet drive the power, maintain the balance, and ulitmately allow for a kind of "perpetual motion" where the punches and rotation just keeps flowing. His head remains so relaxed, like when you see a runner and their head just floats above their torso as they're flying over space. He's so relaxed, so efficient, and all these movements are like turning on a water tap.

Study more here:

#14 Chatchai Sasakul 1 - Perfecting Hands (106 min) watch it here

Former WBC world boxing champion at Flyweight, and winner of Best Coach of the Year in Thailand, Chatchai in this nearly 2 hours of video makes micro adjustment after micro adjustment, honing in pristine technique in the basic strikes of boxing, for use in Muay Thai. It's all about weight transfer.

#64 Chatchai Sasakul 2 - Elements of Boxing (72 min) watch it here

Chatchai is not only a former WBC world champion, he also is the recipient of Thailand's Coach of the Year. He is one of the great striking coaches in the world, and in this session he breaks down all the basics from the footwork on up. Nobody has a more beautiful and potent hands foundation. Watch and learn from a master.

#109 Chatchai Sasakul 3 - Developing Rhythm & Precision (1 hr, 46 min) watch it here

The best boxing coach in Thailand, former WBC World Champions Chatchai Sasakul, teaches the importance of rhythm and precision. Chatchai's instruction brings western boxing technique to Thailand's Muay Thai, as he was also a Golden Age stadium fighter.

Bonus Session 5: Chatchai Sasakul Southpaw Hands | 52 min - watch it here

Chatchai's stance and striking system is not only ideal for boxing - he was  the WBC Flyweight World Champion in 1997 - it instills a basic weight transfer balance that can dramatically improve your Muay Thai. Watch it being installed on me for the first time from the Southpaw stance.