Good post Dave Croft.

My first gym was in Master Sken's Sitnarong camp. I first went to Thailand nearly 20 yrs ago when few westerners went compared with todays standards. The only farangs were a few brits, a few aussies and a few scandanavians. We were the only westerners who could clinch, knee and throw correct roundhouse kicks. None of the Thais had heard of Master Sken but they complemented us on the technique we has learned from him.

Sken is a true gentleman and wished to build a strong foundation for muay thai in this country. His style including the spectacular techniques that he used to teach which I was always too fat and stiff to make work for me in the ring is not to everyones taste but it is all thai technique.

He used to advocate muay boran style techniques and the spectacular kicking because he said many top thai gyms only taught very basic technique that worked in the ring and were neglecting the old muay boran type kicks and techniques which he loved. That was only his opinion. At no time did we learn anything TKD technique.

I have adapted my style and simplified it to be more orientated for competing in the ring so I choose not to teach the muay boran techniques that were part of the Sitnarong style.

As for kicking apples off swords this was only done to excite the public at demonstrations.

Nephlim says "No real disrespect intended, before the fanboys lynch me, the man did a lot for the sport, but I'm just stating the facts"

You have not stated one single fact Nephlim just your opinion. Maybe if your post had been written with a little more thought you would not have attracted such a passionate response from Dave.

Say what you like about Grand Master Sken, love him or hate him, the FACT is he is a certified Grand Master from Thailand, home of Muay Thai, NOT Korea, home of Taekwondo.
If you look at his 'family tree' of Instructors he has trained there are not many successful gyms around today that did not originally learn from Sken, Toddy, Woody etc. If he was merely a TKD instructor who saw a gap in the market in this country for muay thai as you suggest would he really have been honoured by the Thais and given the the title of Grand Master.

I am not trying to cause an argument with you Nephlim or stop you posting on AX, nor I am a fanboy, I have not seen or spoken to Sken since 1998 and would doubt he would remember who I was. I just hate people being unjustly treated.