Muay thai, for king and country

The following editorial comes from Joel Huncar, an instructor in muay thai and Filipino styles out of British Columbia, Canada. His commentary on the importance of humility and respect resonated with me, especially the concept that while individualism is important, fighting for the benefit of the greater good is not virtue to let go of. 

Do you feel strongly about self defense, close quarter combat or the preservation of older muay thai systems? Write it  up and I may feature it on this blog. Submit your articles to donnie@oldstylemuaythai.com. That is all, Donnie-


Muay Thai is a combat sport that has been growing in popularity in the last two decades in North America. It is reputed to be one of the most important stand up styles for MMA and is highly regarded as one of the most effective striking systems in the world. It is quickly replacing styles like Tae Kwon Do and Karate in popularity across North America. This is of course partially due to the press it gets from MMA and shows like The Ultimate Fighter and Fight Girls. Unfortunately the MMA mainstream only sees the ring sport side of Muay Thai; they do not get to see the deeper value of Muay Thai.

The most important thing about Muay Thai is that at its roots it is martial art, not just a combat sport. Historically this art was practiced by Thai (Siamese) warriors and was used to protect king and country. This fighting style was held in such high regard that a boxing match was sometimes used to decide matters of state. This may seem a bit radical and strange when you read it but remember western Europeans regularly did the same thing in medieval times with trial by combat. Trial by combat is used in cultures that look at their martial arts as sacred skills. We have lost that in our culture but in Thailand and other Asian cultures they still view their martial arts as sacred cultural treasures.

Modern Thai fighters are expected to safeguard the sacredness of Muay Thai by exemplifying the virtues of the Thai warrior. They must be humble and fearless. They must show respect to their Kru, their king and their country. Our culture can learn a lot from the ideals of Muay Thai.

Most westerners scoff at virtues like honor and true nationalism but children taught true Muay Thai will be taught to embrace these ideals. This is perhaps the greatest gift a Kru can give his students and his community. Teaching Muay Thai without understanding these virtues is not teaching Muay Thai; it is simply teaching fighting. While learning fighting will help you to gain glory for yourself and your gym it will do nothing for your community, your youth and your country. Learning Muay Thai however will make you a better person and citizen and will help build a stronger community. After all in Thailand they teach Muay Thai not just to fight but also to honor their King and Country: That is the true fighting spirit of Muay Thai.

John Huncar
Rocky Mountain Academy of Martial Arts
http://www.rmama.ca

Hey ladies, check your privacy settings, hey stalkers, check out this app

Along the lines of women's self defense...

A key tactic taught in women's self defense classes / seminars is to harden the target e.g. look pissed, stay off the phone while walking to your car, shoulders back/head high. All good advice for both sexes. But in the age of location based social media apps where you can broadcast to the world where you;re eating lunch, or getting drunk, such as FourSquare, Facebook mobile, Twitter, Gowalla, Loopt, Yelp. I could keep going, but you get the point.

What I haven't seen of heard of being taught is the skill of remaining inconspicuous; unseen; hard to find. An article in the San Jose Mercury News brought to my attention a mobile app dubbed 'Girls Around Me'. This app works much like the AroundMe app that us iPhone users have come to love, but Girls Around Me serves a more nefarious purpose. Let's say I'm looking for a gas station nearby, AroundMe provides me with a list of gas stations based on proximity to my mobile device.

Girls Around Me works the same way. According to the Mercury News article, Girls Around Me mashes up data from a number of social networks (that is available to app developers) and uses the data to identify females near your location. This information that they gather, is information you are posting about yourself. So, the app can provide data such as your picture and profile information, oh, and your exact location. Do you know what a Cold War era OSINT analyst would give for this kind of real-time information?

The app requires you to be a FourSquare member to use their service, and apparently FourSquare has cut off openly available data to the Moscow based company, I-Free, and Apple has since removed the app from its app store.

But here's the deal. Your personal information is out there in the open. Your work history via LinkedIn. Your friends and family, who & where they are, what they look like are all available on (insert social network of your choice). A predator can use open source research, i.e. the Internet, to find out enough about you to put you in trouble. Location based social networks, like FourSquare are where I'm torn. On one hand, I get to share with my friends where I'm at, on the other, I provide strangers who follow me online, my exact location. So if some dude from Fairtex or TapOut has a beef with me, he could, in theory, find me.

See where I'm going with this?

Just because Girls Around Me was squashed, does not mean that this concept will go away. We'll see this app again, and again, and again, each time a little more sophisticated - harder to identify as a predatory tool. Guys will always find (and pay for) an easier way to identify where the women are, there is no doubt about that.

Given that I'm in the business of competitive intelligence, I use OSINT everyday to collect, process, and analyze what my competitors are doing. Yes, I have a day job. And I am uniquely qualified to understand the amount of information out there on you, and how simple it is for those who knowhow to use the tools, to find you. Yeah, I can find you, no problem.

So, please if you've read this far, take an additional 5-10 minutes and go through the privacy settings on the social media tools you use on a regular basis. If you have an account you don't regularly check, like a MySpace account, cancel it. Don't allow people outside your network of friends to see your status updates or photos. Set your LinkedIn profile as anonymous. Be very selective about where you check-in. I badges are rad, but, they aren't that rad.

Information is a powerful thing, and if you think your crazy ex-boyfriend (or girlfriend, or kinda weird, but sorta nice guy at the coffee shop) isn't keeping tabs on you, think again. Limit the amount of information you share and you'll make yourself safer. Basic OPSEC, folks. And while you're at it, change your passwords.

 Anonymity is a a good thing ladies, and gents.