Aerobic work like running improves your heart rate and breathing. You may not rely on aerobic breathing in a MT fight but your heart rate does matter. A heart that doesnt suddenly start beating at 160BPM 30 seconds into the round is going to work to any athletes advantage. My preference is for interval sprints over a long distance, while this works explosive power for the sprints it is still running and still aerobic to some degree. Learning to walk doesnt suddenly mean I can no longer crawl, the body is capable of performing at different levels and responding to different tasks. I dont believe that running would make you a worse fighter, given unless sprints are included it will not improve your anerobic capacity but the body doesnt function in exclusive systems and is capable of both anerobic and aerobic tasks. Tai Chi is a martial art, and its movements can be used in self defence. Everyone starts out training slow as they learn new movements, there would be no point in just thrashing away and paying no attention to correct form. Perfect practice makes perfect, shoddy practice makes for shoddy technique, your body remembers how you train and learns to repeat the same form, eventually no matter what speed you execute it. If Buakaw had a great base for his kicks with time his body would automaticly execute the kick well each time, but we are not talking about someone who has been training for 6months doing 200 kicks we are talking about someone who has probably been training since he was a very young child. Im not a fan of sit-ups myself and not realy sure they are that great for the core, I know people who do endless sit-ups and still have a weak stomach, I think the thais get their core from kicking and their balance work and sit-ups may be a waste of time. I think the advantage the Thais have over Farung fighters is more psychological than related to any particular training technique. There is less agression to their fighting and more patience in the way they fight and more emphasis on total body fitness and making sure the basics dont let you down. Thai fighters seem to wait for their moment rather than let rip with agression, they spend ages on stretching and weights and cardio- neglecting no area of fitness, and their core muscles are an obsession of theirs. Alot of Farungs just want to get down to sparring or fighting and spend less time on the techniques and want to execute their moves rather than waiting for the ideal moment. Im definitely generalising because some Farung show all these traits but they are the ones who fight like thais and more often than not have trained there, and some thais are agro and impatient but they never last long in the thai fight environmrent. I like tai chi and BJJ they are great for instilling the patience and the precision that can make you a better fighter. And I would love to be able to do 200 kicks in a row but would probably pass out if I tried, to see a fighter rapid fire multiple kicks is fantastic and it definitely puts the opponant in the defensive rather than the attack if its fast enough. If I had any idea that Buakaws routine would work for me I'de give it a try but I suspect it would just cripple me. Just like training like Tiger Woods wont make me any threat to him on the golf course.