I just got back from the monastery. It was definitely an experience I wont forget any time soon. I was supposed to train this afternoon when I got back but being at a monastery in the Thai jungle when you are not used to the monastic schedule is actually pretty taxing on your body. Anyone staying at the monastery has to live by the monks schedule and that means eating once a day (no seconds) waking up at 3 am and sitting for long periods of time. So I am back at my friend’s house in Ubon Ratchathani and pretty worn out. Legacy gym will have to wait for tomorrow.

The temple I was staying at is called Wat Pah Nanachat. They have a website (http://www.watpahnanachat.org) the link doesn’t seem to be working but you can read an article about the place on wikipedia.

Although I want to keep the focus of the blog on MMA Pakistan and my training, I will tell you a little more about the place because it is definitely a very unique experience.

The monastery is a forest monastery so unlike most temples in Thailand which are in the heart of the village these monk live in the forest in secluded huts so they can concentrate on their practice and meditate in peaceful surroundings. The temple grounds are beautiful and it is filled with very old trees. There are a large number of walking paths throughout the grounds which is about a mile on each side. Walking meditation is a big part of the forest tradition. They have two “sala’s” which are where people come to hear the monks speak or to gather and chant. It’s basically the community center. At the second “sala” deeper in the forest the monks also gather to have tea every afternoon at 4:30. There is also a “bot” which is a marble structure smaller then the “sala” which seemed a lot more formal and wasn’t a place for lots of guests to come and gather like the “sala’s” were.

Because I was there mainly to visit my friend Niran whom I had known in high school when I lived in Malaysia (he’s originally Thai but is really an international guy, went to international schools like where we met in Malaysia). A lot of my time was spent sitting outside his hut talking and laughing about what jack asses we were when we were young. I think all that laughing also has played a part in how beat I am today. I must have spent a solid 5 hours in absolute hysterics.

I however did take part in the daily monastic activity. I wore the white pajamas that laypeople (people who are not in the process of being monks but at the same time are not guests) who are staying at the monastery overnight wear. I was awake by 3 am (actually for some reason I woke up even earlier, 1 am and 2 am for some reason). I would lay in my bed and listen to the chanting that started at a little past three which was quite something listening to young monks chant in ancient Pali in the middle of a dark forest. After washing up I would begin sweeping leaves along with the other laypeople until it was time at around 6 am for the monks to go asking people for alms.

Monks (in the forest tradition at least) are not allowed to touch money or buy anything and so rely on the public to be fed. They cannot store food and so every morning they go out, begging bowl in hand to collect alms. They never ask but walk along the road where the faithful wait for them to place food (ranging from sticky rice and bananas (if they are poor) to Oreo’s and other packaged food (if they are more well off). I went along with my friend Niran on both mornings, along with some very adorable novice monks of elementary school age to collect alms. He would be barefoot with begging bowl and I would be in my sandals with an extra bag if the bowl got too small. This was probably the most interesting part of the experience. I had seen monks go on their alms run many times, most often when I am up doing my morning run for training but to be on the walk with them was quite something else.

We would get back at 7 whereupon all the food would be collected together and at 8 was the only meal of the day. I would line up with a big metal bowl at the end of the line (monks go first with their more proper eating bowls) dump what I wanted in the bowl and go sit down with other lay people to eat in silence. Once that was done, it was mostly cleaning up and doing chores and then doing your own thing, be it meditate, read etc. At 4:30 there was tea and then at 7 pm chanting and group meditation before bed. I don’t know when most of the other people went to sleep but i would read until about 10-11. I didn’t get too much sleep at night although I did doze off during the hottest part of the day.

That’s my trip in a nutshell. I will probably visit again a couple times (although for shorter periods, maybe ONE night or just for the day or an afternoon) before leaving Ubon. Tomorrow will be back into training at Legacy Gym. Some of their guys fought at Art of War an MMA promotion in China. Check it out at MMACHINA.COM.

Also, on the Pakistan front I am having an official Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan web page made. I will still have this blog here but in the future I may move it to the website. I will let you all know when that is completed. Now off to eat and sleep and wake up bright and early for training .

This entry is going to profile one of the kids that I was/am teaching in Pakistan. However, before I get into that I will tell you an update on my training here in Ubon at Legacy Gym.

prevalent amongst that rotation of students. Because Thais are generally non aggressive and non confrontational Thai trainers typically don’t let students beat the crap out of each other or let more experienced students bully novices (sabai,sabai or easy, easy is what you will often hear). However, because the type of students change every few weeks, sometimes you will have a camp full of jocks more interested in hurting someone as opposed to learning technique and enhancing skills. Sparring days is where you find this out.Today’s sparring session was very good and this is coming from someone who has a bit of ring rust so I was kind of nervous as to what to expect. What I noticed is that the the ring was for the advanced fighters, the cage for the intermediate and the novices did not spar at all. This is my perception and I may be totally wrong about this. Regardless, everyone kept their power in check and sparring was very technical and supervised by a trainer. The intermediate group in which I was a part of did 6 rounds at about 3:30 to 4 minutes per round switching partners every two rounds. I was happy with my performance, I must say that due to the time I have spent in the country training I was probably at the top of my group level but not quite up to par with the guys in the ring, some of whom looked like Lumpinee level fighters. So far, Legacy is living up to its reputation as a good gym to train in. I am happy with the training so far, although I cannot yet comment on the pad work which is in my opinion the standard to judge a camp by. The students who come here who are overwhelmingly Scandinavian have all been very nice and serious in their training. Although I have seen a couple of what I like to call “Muay Thai Nerds.” No offense to these guys because to each his own but what I mean by this label are the guys with all the Muay Thai Tattoos who like to Wai everyone and their mother every two minutes (absolutely unnecessary) but still look like they were taught to throw a round house kick yesterday. Maybe I am being harsh but I would think that putting i all that effort to show how hardcore Mr Muay Thai you are would
also show up in your skill level. These “Muay Thai Nerds” are at every camp and though I would say there are less at Legacy then at some other places, I still saw a couple. Anyway, so far so good. I will keep you updated and add some pics (I know I keep promising them, they will be here, be patient).

Now onto a profile of one of my students. I am gonna give a few profiles over the next couple weeks in these entries so everyone can get a feel of the human element at play in all this work. I asked the boys to dictate to me most of their profile so much of it is their thoughts paraphrased and translated by me (they spoke to me in Urdu).

The first kid’s name is Shakeel Ahmad and he was born January 5th 1994. He was from the first group of kids that started training with me a year ago when I showed up at their Tae Kwon Do class. In my honest opinion he is one of those guys with lots of raw talent and because of this he sometimes gets lazy when it comes to the conditioning, doing half assed push ups and taking breaks when he could push himself further. However when it comes time to spar or roll, pound for pound (he is about 125-135 lbs) he is the most athletic one of the group and is known throughout the town for being a top player in every sport he takes part in be it cricket, hockey, track and field, you name it. He started Martial Arts three years ago in a field near his neighborhood. He has trained in mostly Tae Kwon Do and also has trained in Drunken Monkey style. A year and a half after training informally at the field someone told him that good training was available (Again in Tae Kwon Do) at Nasir Fighting Club at the nearby community sports center. He trained there for approximately one year a half. It was in that same club I came and he started training Mixed Martial Arts. He’d always been interested in the fight game and saw MMA was a little different. He particularly liked the ground aspect because he thinks it really requires thought instead of just sheer aggression. He’s trained one his own and with friends since I first showed up and so has trained for one year. He wishes that MMA becomes famous throughout Pakistan. He wants to help in spreading knowledge of Mixed Martial Arts to others. In my opinion if this guy keeps it up he alot of potential. He is still very young and has alot of natural talent. I hope to keep coaching him over the years and to get better with him. The picture you see up top are of him at one of our makeshift “training centers” (we’ve had three so far, this one in particular is in my grandparents backyard).

That’s it for now. Tomorrow I head to the Monastery to visit my friend for 2 days. I will be back on Monday. Til then.

So, today was my first day in Ubon. It felt good to wake up in Thailand. It felt even better to eat breakfast. Som Tum, Koy Kung and Tom Plaa. That’s Papaya salad, baby shrimp salad and fish soup. A wonderful break from the ghee, red meat and naan (bread product) I had been eating on a daily basis. I love Pakistani food but it’s not always the best for training. Thai food is not only delicious but it doesn’t make your arteries scream as the morsel enters your mouth.

Like I may have mentioned I have come to Ubon to visit a friend of mine from long ago. His name is Niran and we used to go to school together in Malaysia (International School). I have not seen him in ten years. He lives in a forest monastery outside of the city. It is a very tranquil place and definitely resonates a very peaceful vibe. We met each other as if we had seen each other a week ago and conversation was not awkward at all. After talking to him for a bit he asked if I would like to stay at the monastery for a few days. Anyone who stays under three days is not obliged to shave their head . I agreed and so I will be a guest in the forest monastery after Saturday morning training.

Speaking of which, I did my camp search today and it turns out that a 15 minute walk from Niran’s family house is a very well known Muay Thai and MMA camp called Legacy Gym (www.legacygym.com). This is quite lucky for me as this is one of the foremost gyms in Thailand that caters to foreigners and also the only other major gym in Thailand that has a reputable MMA program. Oddly enough this fits in very nicely with my whole journey to Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan.

A crucial component to setting up MMA Pakistan is the success of MMA in India and my relationship with the pioneers of the sport there, Danial Isaac and his team at Tigers Gym. Tigers Gym sends it’s fighters quite often over here to Legacy so it’s nice how things worked themselves out on their own. By the way, I will also include an entry later on about my experience at Tigers Gyms India, which was amazing.

I did my first training session there today but I don’t want to give a full review because I haven’t trained in so long and I wouldn’t be able to give a fair assessment of the pad work considering I wanted to die after about a minute. However, I have been here before (meaning, fresh in Thailand) and my stamina will be decent in about a week and I can give a full review. I will give you my first impressions though.

First of all, it seems to me in the 3 hours I was there that this is a serious camp and most of the guys here, are not here for a Muay Thai holiday that involves drinking and partying with an hour of training a day. Guy’s are preparing for fights and there is not alot of lounging around at the water cooler talking about crap. The camp is smaller then i expected but has plenty of different bags and pieces of equipment to work with. They have a full size ring and also a full size cage.

I did some time on the pads and I was so out of gas that I can’t tell you how the pad work is as I said before. One, two kick was all I needed at this point. I also did some grappling in the cage. The main instructor was not there as I beleive he is cornering one of their fighters for the upcoming Art of War show in China (MMACHINA.COM) but the substitute instructor went over the basic armbar, triangle and a sweep and then we rolled. I don’t want to make too many comments until i spend some more time training there. I’ll include photos as well. I think it should be up in about a week or so.

I just arrived in Thailand today. I flew out from Lahore at midnight of the 25th and arrived 4 hours later in Bangkok. it was sort of like coming back home, I’ve been here so often. I immediately went to the bus station to get a bus to Ubon Ratchathani where a friend of mine is currently staying at a monastery as a monk. His family has a house nearby and his family is nice enough to let me stay here. the house is very big with a lot of rooms so I feel very lucky having a nice room to myself. It feels good to be back in Thailand. I love Pakistan, it is my home, it is my soil but there is a lot of tension there at the moment. Thai people are very carefree and gentle and it is much more suitable to my demeanor. This country very rightfully deserves the title “Land of Smiles.”

I will be in Ubon for the next 1-2 weeks. There are a few Muay Thai camps around and I will go check them out tomorrow as well as go visit my friend Niran at the temple. The next two weeks will be one of breaking myself in to the training regimen that is full time Muay Thai as well doing a little bit of reflection with the forest monks. A wonderful combination for a Martial Artist.

Before leaving Pakistan I had a talk with an aunt of mine who is a lawyer and she will be guiding me for the next year or so in establishing a governing body for Mixed Martial Arts in Pakistan. Since there really isnt a MMA scene right now I am not in a hurry to get it registered and would rather take my time and make sure the parameters I set are exactly what i want them to be. I will keep you all updated on that front.

Anyway, I am going to go to bed right now. I want to write more but I am tired and I will try to give you guys a more thorough reading i the next couple of days.

I leave for Thailand tomorrow. Another stage in this journey is to begin.

Yesterday I said goodbye to my main students. The ones who not only shined the most in terms of skills but the ones who truly were committed and believe in what I am doing. They have advised me on the best way to approach the establishment of Mixed Martial Arts in Pakistan. They were there to affirm that I was going to be successful. I never have had any doubts that I will be but it is nice to see young Pakistanis stand with me with the same resolve as I have. This core group I have are the ones are going to be part of the first generation of Pakistani MMA competitors. These are the guys who are going to pass on the knowledge and spread the word of this sport and way of life.

When I came to Pakistan last year I took a group picture before leaving. I keep that picture with me at all times. Before I fight I stare at that picture and burn into my mind one of the main reasons I am fighting. I’ll post that picture in the next few days.

I fight for many reasons, I’ll write about it later at some point. But one of the reasons I fight is for these guys. They have put their faith in me and I cannot let them down. My success in the ring and/or cage is linked to the success they will have as players in the MMA world.

In a little bit I will post some of these guys profiles so everyone can get a real grasp on the human element at work in all this. This is my last post that I will write from Pakistan for some time.

Next time you hear from me I will be in Ubon Rachathani, Thailand. See ya then.

I have three more days until I fly out to Thailand. I am excited and sad at the same time. I am excited to leave because I am not getting the train I need over here. Other then the three weeks I spent at Tigers Gym in Nasik, India (Tigersgym.com) my workouts in Pakistan have been very limited. I am sure to get my ass kicked in Thailand for the first two weeks until I get back into the groove of things again. I will be traveling to 4-5 different places in Thailand to train and see some old friends. For those of you interested in possibly training in Thailand in the future I will give you some of my opinions regarding camps although there is a great website out there focusing exclusively on that topic called fightpassport.com.

I will continue to be in touch with all my guys and guiding them on what to train and how to train. I will also be in contact with my good friend, (brother would be a more appropriate word), Danial Isaac who runs Tigers Gym in India to give you the latest on the MMA scene in South Asia. I’ll also let you know whats going on in terms of the bureaucratic front regarding the making of the MMA Federation in Pakistan.

My last few days here I am just going to start packing and dwelling on what it is I need to do and focus on for the next 6 months. I am going to give my guys a sort of “farewell address” to keep them motivated and hungry to train. The hardest part about this whole thing is not teaching the kids. Its instilling in them the confidence that they can teach themselves and get better even if I am not there. That’s what I have been trying to drill into their heads since I got back from India a few weeks ago.

Anyway, to anyone reading this, PLEASE, PLEASE go to any forum you are a member of or join one and spread this blog PLEASE! As awareness grows, so will the results. Thanks Guys.

This is a blog about MMA in Pakistan. It’s also going to be about a lot more. It’s not going to take place only in Pakistan. I am going to guess that for at least the next two years I will not be in settled in one country for more then 6 months at a time. Although my focus certainly will, what I am doing at the moment will not always have to do with MMA in Pakistan. By that I mean, I will not be training people in Pakistan every single day of this blog. I will be travelling and training myself. It is imperative that I get better if I am to be of any use to Pakistan. So some of these blogs are going to be about me in other places in the world training in some form of combat sport. Other times I may be writing about what I am doing in terms of setting my own brand of gear. I need to make money somehow so I can support myself while pursuing my dreams. Sometimes I may write about the nitty gritty paperwork or beaucratic headache I will go through in creating federations or establishing rules for competition between myself and other local martial arts schools. Other days might be something totally different but the focus is always going to be in the creation of Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan. I just don’t want anyone to think “I thought this was about this guy training kids in Pakistan, and he’s writing about how much his shins hurt from training in Thailand.” Trust me, my aching shins in Thailand, will be releveant to the story thats Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan. So anyway, here are general ideas of where I will be next.

A week from now (March 24th 2009) I will be in Thailand training in Muay Thai although I might do some MMA training at the camps that offer both. I will be in Thailand until early August where I will head back to the States for a bit. A few months after being back in the States I hope to leaving again for either Brazil or back to Pakistan and India.

There are some other plans I have going on but they are not confirmed. I only want to give you the information which is pretty much 100%.

Anyway, I have gotten into this blog and I feel my entries getting better. Let’s see how I feel a few months from now. I am having more fun writing this than I originally thought. As more people keep signing up its only going to give me more motivation.

Right now I am in Lahore. My Grandmother is not doing so well so I am coming up to see her. I will go back to my hometown for possibly the last time tomorrow and I will meet up with all the guys I have been training with and have a couple of final seesion along with a farewell party.

See you all later.

I arrived in my hometown last night from the city of Lahore where my grandmother is currently admitted into a hospital due to a stroke. She is better now and I came back to attend a wedding. A wedding in Pakistan typically entails about a week of dinner and functions for family and friends. Many people sleep at dawn eating and talking and wake up in the afternoon and begin getting ready for another evening. This goes on for at least 3 days, and for about a week if your a close member of the families getting married.

Anyway, this being a small town, two students that I am teaching found out I was back and knocked on the door this morning. They had taken off from school or had been given a holiday (a common thing in Pakistan, teacher will decide on a whim that he doesn’t want to teach that day) so they were free. I told them to come back in an hour to train since I was pretty sure I won’t be back in a regular teaching schedule due to weddings and my grandmothers illness. Might as well train when we can. they showed up an hour later and I took out a canvas tarp along with some insulation foam and set up my makeshift rolling mat in my grandparents front lawn. We then did some drills we had been working on on the ground. Escaping the mount and sweeps from the guard. Very very basic stuff. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 101 for sure. We did that for about an hour and then rolled for another hour. First the two students, whose names are Shakeel and Omar. Then each student rolled with me for a bit. We did this and I finished the class off just giving them some tips on how to train while I was gone and what possibilities I foresaw for the future of the sport in Pakistan. Its the 12th today and I leave on the 24th. After that it will be about 9-10 months before I get a chance to see how far these guys have progressed.

By the way I found out this morning that the owner of TapOut “Mask” passed away. He did alot to promote the sport from way back when it was still “human cock-fighting.” So I hope MMA fans thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends he has left behind.

First off I need to say that I have not written in this blog in about a week. I really hope no to have that again but we don’t know what life happens in life. My Grandmother had a stroke a week ago and I was busy with her at the hospital. By the grace of God she is recovering now and I have returned for a few days to my town for a wedding. Spending much of my past week in a Pakistani hospital was quite a bizarre experience and it feels good to get back to the quiet of my small rural town.

Anyway, I decided to write a little more about the first trip. Like I said before I ran into a cousin of mine who told me about a Tae Kwon Do instructor in my town. At first I asked him if I could just train there, but after a couple days I was teaching MMA.

The TKD instructor himself had no idea what the heck MMA was. To this day despite me explaining to him how MMA started, telling him about The Gracies, Vale Tudo and the first few UFC’s. Showing him videos of MMA matches and websites of MMA gyms and organizations around the world he cannot grasp the concept. Much of this has to do with the fact that Martial Artists in Pakistan are still stuck in the past. With MMA being the undisputed grounds for the most effective fighting style in a lot of the world especially Japan, South and North America. In Pakistan the top fighters in the martial arts scene are still the Grandmaster types with black belts in 5 disciplines, their own styles and who know secret moves only seen Street Fighter 2.

The importance given to belts here is great. Other than BJJ black belts, belt ranking is no longer of much improtance in the MMA scene. One of the reasons that the TKD instructor gave to me as to why MMA was not effective and not a martial art is because there are no black belts. Another reason he cited is that there is no federation for MMA in Pakistan and no certificates. To anyone who has watched YouTube videos under the genre “MMA vs (insert style here)” knows that a Mixed Martial Artist can and has on many occasions made a high ranked black belt look like someone who just walked into the dojo.

All this means is that Martial Arts in Pakistan is in a low state of development at the moment. I just think the understanding people have right now is where the US was in the 80’s. Hopefully things will change in the near future .

In December of ‘07 me and my cousin went to Pakistan. Being Pakistani and having a family numbering around 5,000 people we return often, about once every two years to visit our grandparents, multitudes of aunts and uncles and loads and loads of cousins.

This trip however had a very special meaning. We were going to lay the first brick in creating the foundation for Mixed Martial Arts in Pakistan. We had high hopes for the trip, I would dare say it felt like a part of our destiny. By chance we even boarded the same flight on a stopover in London that would go onwards to Islamabad.

We didn’t really have much to start with. Our plan was to go to some dusty cricket field where kids gathered to play sports and start hitting some pads, doing some light sparring and rolling. We hoped that this would attract some attention with which to get a group of guys together. What happened was even better. A cousin of mine told me that there was a TKD teacher in our hometown. I decided to go check him out and talk to him and see what he might know about the sport of MMA. The guy had no clue but was open in letting me train with his class. I went to his class later that evening and once again the next day. On day number three he said he had some work to do and that I should start warming up the class and he would return in a bit. Well, he didn’t return and I decided to start teaching MMA. I think the first day I did some basic boxing and ended the class with ground fighting. The kids became very interested. The next day the TKD instructor told me that I could teach the class for the rest of the time I was there. This was perfect. I didn’t have to stand in some dusty cricket ground next to a landfill trying to get garbage scanvengers to become my new students. I had a core group of two dozen kids who were already interested in Martial Arts to work with. From that day on and for the next three weeks I would bring in video clips of gret MMA fighters, Sakuraba, Rampage, Silva etc… I explained to the kids the philosphy of MMA that its not about the style but the fighter. That the best way in the words of Bruce Lee was “no way.” Take what works for you and put the rest to the side. After three weeks I had a core group of a dozen or so kids who had become convinced that MMA was the premier way to fight and to train. It just made such logical sense to them and there was now no other style that they could train in and in my opinion these kids are going to become the first MMA fighters in Pakistan.

So thats, the first part of this story in a nutshell. I am sure I will go back to that first trip and give you guys a couple of stories in detail and maybe introduce you to some of the kids that make up this core of MMA fans. Until then, check you guys later.