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History
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This page is dedicated to the history of Thai Boxing, particularly to the development of the sport in Britain. As ever History is very much an individual thing, we all see the same events through different eyes. If you have a story to tell or disagree with anything written here let me know and I'll let you have your say on the site.
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STEVE HATELEY - A LIFE IN MUAY THAI
In the 1970s, Muay Thai was little known, either to the general public or the majority of martial artists. Over the last 25 years this has changed so much that most areas now boast at least one Thai or Kickboxing club, and almost every weekend sees a fight promotion.
To help trace the origins and development of Muay Thai in Britain over these years, we present the story of Steve Hateley, chief instructor of the Rama camp, former fighters' representative and coach-tutor of the BTBC, British champion, and trainer of many champions over the years. With 27 years experience of the full contact fighting arts and 24 years in Thai Boxing, Steve has lived a life in Muay Thai.
"My dad, Cecil, introduced me to the fighting arts back in the 1960s. He was an ex-professional boxer and still did some training, showing me how to look after myself on the streets. We would go around to some of the amateur clubs and I'd train with him there. I never fought as Dad only had one amateur fight before turning professional and wasn't very impressed with the set-up. Dad had over 300 fights, he used to fight up to five nights a week, licensed and unlicensed. He'd fight anywhere, as he needed money for the family.
My exposure to the oriental arts came through a man called George Taylor and Pak Mei kung fu. My training partner at that time was John Blackledge, now the WKA chief referee. We hadn't been training 18 months when he asked us to help out teaching. We used to go to Liverpool and Wallesey. I was only a green sash and, looking back, the standard didn't seem that good, but he used to let us teach anyway.
I wanted to get into full contact because of the background with dad. Danny Connor was running the first ever fights around 1974 and we were going down. I fought on a couple of their shows, but they were still using the 4-oz tag gloves, and it was just dangerous. The first fight I remember clearly was at Rochdale College when I fought a Karate 4th Dan. I was a boxer who could kick and he didn't understand my footwork. I couldn't understand some of the things he was doing, but I won that one.
By then there was nothing left in kung fu for me - by doing full contact I was enjoying myself again. I was introduced to Master Toddy by a Jiu Jitsu man, Alan Tattersall, who had promoted the fights at Rochdale. At the time they were doing the Thai Kwon Do, the normal Tae Kwon Do with the leg kicks and knees. I went along to Chapel Road to watch a session and thought, " These guys are good", so I decided to train with them.
In 1977, Toddy was teaching everything in the same class but some of the lads, such as Mark Hadfield, Andy Harrop and Kevin Lloyd, were beginning to spar quite heavily but without shinpads, body protection or any gloves. It was just tough. We had bags up, but no ring or mats. It wasn't until we had the class at Danny Connor's place in Deansgate that we got the ring. By 1978 we had a session on Saturday afternoon for the seniors and fighters, Toddy had one room and Master Sken had the other. I remember Sandy Holt starting training down at Deansgate. Later on Ronnie and I ran the class on Tuesday and Thursday evening.
At the time there was no circuit to fight Thai on, just the full contact shows. The first Thai fights I ever went to were in Amsterdam in 1979. I was in the corner for Ronnie Green, who fought a Cambodian, Longkira. He was supposed to have had 117 fights and this was Ronnie's first fight. Toddy used to say his guys could fight anybody in Europe and maybe he was right. Ronnie stopped him in the 4th round. Ronnie should have fought Lucien Carbin from Mejiro, but Lucien had broken his arm, which was quite lucky for us. Carbin had fought and beaten most of the top fighters around.
At this time all the masters were training together, Master Woody and Master Toddy came first and Master Sken joined them about 18 months later. They decided that they could have a good system here with the Thai Boxing, so they agreed to spread apart but stay friendly and work together. Toddy opened a gym in Laystow Street, Manchester. Sken was already training in Ancoats but went after his own premises, and Woody decided to have his gym in Oldham. It worked well at first but it became quite unfriendly. Then it was decided that Sken would have to leave the country, due to immigration problems. He was no longer a student so had no right of residence. Toddy and Woody had married English girls so they didn't have to leave. By that time I don't think Sken and Toddy were getting on too well. Sken thought that if he went back to Thailand he'd not return, so he went to Holland for a while. He was teaching at the Samurai gym, run by Peter Stolpes, who was strictly third division, not in the same class as Mejiro or Chakuriki. With Master Sken he could have come up, but some strange things happened to Sken whilst he was out there. The established gyms didn't like him and maybe they thought that if they got rid of him they could have a good thing. The British Council for Thai Martial Arts was formed in 1978, as they intended to bring in Krabi Krabong as well as Muay Thai, but when Sken returned to England he joined with Master Woody to form the British Thai Boxing Council.
By 1979 I was training full time, and though it upset one of the senior students, Toddy decided he would let me open a club in my hometown, Middleton. My nickname at that time was Jorakay (crocodile), so I called the club Jorakay Thai Boxing. That's not the way most people spell it now, but that was Toddy's spelling and I didn't know any better. I was the first one of the lads to have their own place and on the first night I was amazed by the number of people wanting to train in Thai Boxing. A couple of the girls, Sandra and Marie, organised everything; I just turned up and ended up with 45 students. Today, with restrictions on training space I'd have to halve the class. It was atrocious.
My first fight under Thai rules was in Paris in 1980 against Jean-Luc Lugoues over 5 rounds and, boy, when you come in raw from full contact it was such a difference. When I got hit in the first round, I can't remember anything until the third. I had concussion. It was a comedy of errors. I only recovered when the corner put ice down my shorts because they thought I'd caught a knee in the groin. I came back in the last 3 rounds, but ended up losing by one point. It took me another 8 months to recover from the damage. After that I had another 7 fights, just picking up fights whenever I could. It wasn't a problem for Toddy if you gave away weight. In one fight I fought someone a stone and a half heavier than me. I never lost to an Englishman, just the Frenchman, Lugoues.
The return with him, at Bellevue in Manchester, was even sillier. I lost in the second round by a knockout. I'm quite willing to show anyone the film; it's the best comedy act I've ever seen. By the time I was thirty, I decided to retire, as I didn't have the time to train. Toddy offered me a fight with a Thai to tempt me back but I wasn't training enough.
Shortly after my retirement, things became very strained between Toddy and myself. I wanted him to do some courses for me at Middleton, as the lads were very, very keen and we had some good fighters, such as Paul Hornsby, Wayne Curry, Robert Alien and Peter Hopkins . Toddy was really under a lot of pressure with the other club and couldn't do it.
I asked for a meeting but he refused, so I told him on the phone I was leaving. I wished him the best of luck and that I hoped we could stay friends, but it didn't work out that way. I joined the BTBC and at the first meeting, at Master Woody's house, we were told we would have to join either Master Sken's camp or Woody's. Sken had the majority of clubs, but Woody had the older end of the Chapel Road students and wasn't doing too well, so I decided to join Woody. He left us alone quite a lot once he saw we could do the job. He encouraged us a great deal and helped a lot when we first joined, but soon after he started up his own restaurant and he had little time to actually teach.
He would come down and do the gradings with us, but they're very hard to do without a grading syllabus in your hand. We'd ask, and he'd say it was in his head. It was hard to get your people ready without a proper syllabus. In 1986 I took every syllabus that the BTBC had, and rewrote it so that everybody worked towards the same goal. I'm not saying that my syllabus is better than anyone else's, but that's what we should be working towards, a common syllabus.
In 1984 I started as the fighters' representative, dealing with fair play for the fighters, contracts and safety. By 1985 I was organising the fights for Master Sken, but by 1987 I gave that up, to start as the coach-tutor. No one was doing anything with coaching, so I was mainly concerned with organising the first coaching courses in 1988.1 think that the coach education programme is a must, as all the techniques in the world don't help you to prepare a fighter. I was working with Tony Gummerson and it was a lot of hard work for both of us. That's what prompted me to leave the BTBC. They had made a sad mistake, when they suspended the coaching programme. Having said that, there were a lot of strange political moves at the top, which wasn't conducive to progress. It wasn't easy to leave; I didn't want to set up my own association, the UK Rama Thai Boxing Group, but in the end I had no choice when they insulted Tony Gummerson and refused to pay him for the work he'd done.
It seems to have worked out okay, I still stay in touch, my students can fight on any shows, and we can train abroad without any hassle. If you've been in the game since 1977, out there fighting and training fighters, you do get to know a lot of people. I get on well with Lincoln Boney, Frank Bowen, Sandy Holt, Steve Logan, as well as Jan Plas and Lex Kristall in Holland. In the BTBC we couldn't get involved with other groups, at least now we don't have to worry about the politics."
Written in 2001 for Fighters (never published).
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUAY THAI IN BRITAIN
Thai Boxing had received a limited amount of exposure in the British martial arts press in the early 1970's’but few people had any in-depth understanding until the arrival of Master Toddy (THOHSAPHON SITIWATJANA) and Master Woody (CHINAWUT SIRASOMPON) in Oldham in 1975.
They taught in various locations (Warehouses, nightclubs etc) before opening the club in Chapel Road teaching a combination of Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai that they called Thai Kwon Do. At the same time the full contact scene was gathering strength in the Manchester area due mainly to the influence of Danny Connors and Alan Tattersal. This helped to focus training on the traditional Muay Thai techniques rather than the Tae Kwon Do syllabus, as well as influencing the type of student attracted to training under the Thai masters.
By 1979 the Chappel Road fighters were beginning to fight under Thai rules in Amsterdam and Paris, rather than limit themselves to the Full Contact Karate (KickBoxing) tournaments available in England. The squad became the unofficial British team whenever they fought abroad. By now Master Sken (SKEN KOWPADONG) was also teaching and student demand had grown to the point that each of the masters was able to set up their own camps. The original British Council for Thai Martial Arts was followed by The British Thai Boxing Council, incorporating Thai clubs from London, Brighton and the Midlands. By now the first generation of students was opening clubs of their own, starting with Steve Hateley’s Jorakay Thai Boxing club in Middleton.
The 1980’s saw a major rise in the popularity of the art with other political groups forming such as The British Muay Thai Association, affiliated to the Netherlands based European Muay Thai Association.
The growth of the art in Holland and the professionalism of their Holland v Thailand promotions was a major inspiration to the British associations and by the late 1980’s many Dutch fighters would come over to contest European titles on BTBC promotions.
By the early 1990’s the development of satellite television gave valuable exposure to the major promotions and helped raise public awareness of Muay Thai. Many martial arts clubs adopted the full contact format and incorporated Thai techniques so they could compete against other styles in the ring. As a result the BTBC allowed many KickBoxing clubs to join, but what should have been a golden age for the sport became a period of division and conflict. Many camps split from the BTBC and formed their own associations. Reasons were varied and usually well meant, but the result was smaller shows and the loss of the exposure they had previously enjoyed. Master Woody retired to run his restaurant business. Master Sken formed his own organisation, Sitnarong International Muay Thai Association and has spent much of his time promoting his clubs throughout Europe. Master Toddy has relocated to Las Vegas where he has successfully promoted a national fight circuit. Steve Hateley was awarded the Rama Camp on Master Woody’s retirement and has since formed the U.K. Rama Thai Boxing Group to meet the challenge of the NVQ / Coach Education legislation.
The 1990’s started quietly with smaller shows and fewer meaningful fights, but in the last few years there have been many major promotions and the sport is once again finding a place on satellite and cable television. This decline was mirrored in the Netherlands where the NKBB and the MTBN split to pursue their own interests. As a result the focus for international promotions has shifted to Japan and the K-1 tournament format using modified Muay Thai rules.
Recent years have seen the re emergence of Holland with major promotions by the WPKL and the spread of K-1 style tournaments to Britain and Europe. In Britain dedicated Muay Thai associations such as the World Muay Thai Organisation and the Thailand sanctioned United Kingdom Muay Thai Federation are building a strong base, promoting regular championship fights. Established Kick Boxing organisations such as the WKA and WAKO Pro have also introduced Thai rules bouts on their shows, and allied with the emergence of several specialist magazines and satellite exposure for the sport, it is once again possible to be optimistic about the future of Thai Boxing in this country.
Written for Senior Instructor grading - 2003
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