TAMMA TALK! We're back after the office move, with TAMMA Talk updating news and movement in MMA文A

Summary文A

TAMMA TALK! We're back after the office move, with TAMMA Talk updating news and movement in MMA with Achilles Rallye, Vice President of the Thailand Association of Mixed Martial Arts, and guests

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TAMMA TALK! We're back after the office move, with TAMMA Talk updating news and movement in MMA 
with Achilles Rallye, Vice President of the Thailand Association of Mixed Martial Arts, and guests

Transcript文A (facebook_whisper)

Mix Martial Arts AssociationThe Thailand Association of Mixed Martial Arts is the sole regulatory body appointed by the Sports Authority of Thailand to govern the sports of Mixed Martial Arts since 2019.Lead by the President, Sirichet Puntipayanon, and General Secretary, Achilles Rallye,TAMA has elevated the development of MMA in Thailand to global leadership status.TAMA is an affiliate of GAMMA, the world body of MMA, and TAMA is an affiliate of AMA, the Asian body recognized by OCA Asia. TAMA received recognition from the world body that set the final direction. TAMA is building something that will create happiness, building the best teams, the best work, so TAMA can be the best and can build the best team to make champions like Kenneth Thongson in the championships and Noel Guangjong in the championships. TAMA has a mission to represent Thailand on the world MMA stage, not only to complete that mission, but TAMA has GAMMA and AMMA to build the best work in world MMA. You can say Thailand is one of those with success in showing its picture to the world by building the best. TAMMA is building a continuing path as a mission so children who have not yet succeeded get a good path, a path that builds the best, like OG F4 Academy in Khlong Toei. TAMA is an association that builds a plan and is an opportunity for young thai admins to achieve domestic and global success which showcases to the world the power and potential of thailand Hello, wow, today we're glad to be with the Mixed Martial Arts Association of Thailand, TAMMA. I'm Vice President Achilles Rallye. Today we are with the President of the association, Dr. Sirichet. Others know him as Dr. Nat. Today we will talk about many things. They will all be important matters — sending the national team to compete abroad, domestic activities, and international activities. Wow, many topics. Let's start with having just sent the national team to compete in Uzbekistan, right? Yes. We sent our national team to compete in Uzbekistan in the AMMA Championship. We had several athletes. This event is a pathway into the major games, both the Asian Games and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Of course athletes from all over Asia joined this competition. And how did we do? From the results so far we got one, for the Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Other athletes may still have a chance — we're waiting for the announcement of who gets tickets to the Asian Games and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Looking at the opponents we sent our athletes to face, how much have they developed since last time? Opponents now have developed a great deal. Recently they also allowed semi-pro and professional MMA athletes to compete, so it was quite tough for our amateur-level athletes. We have to keep developing. But after this competition we learned many things from various countries whose skills have developed a lot, and our athletes performed excellently — both Kritsada Kongsrichai, or Dream Man, and two new athletes who reached the quarterfinals. That's interesting because there's been very good development. Many people may look at it and be a bit confused because MMA is developing fast, but the federation we're a member of — the Asian continental federation, AMMA — they have two categories, modern and traditional, which are all on mats. So people think it's something new. In our country versus other countries, they've started getting used to the new rules and formats. In my personal view, when we picture MMA, we have to play in a cage, right? Play in an octagon or a cage. So when they adapt it to be more like platform boxing, it may be said to be for newer athletes, athletes just starting out, or those who don't yet have the skills for the wall or the cage. That skill set is cut out. Sometimes people wonder, is this MMA or is it platform boxing? Their view is that amateur means we try to get athletes to learn the fundamentals first before building toward the future. Abroad they come from full MMA already, with World Game, good clinching, good Transition. So this is something we have to develop further. Yes, exactly. I wanted to ask you something I think most people don't know about the association. When we send the national team abroad we run into many problems that the general public may not see or encounter. Could you tell us a bit, as president and as the association, how we deal with these problems — for example delays at the airport, or rule changes without enough notice? How does the association handle this when our team is abroad? The latest trip to Uzbekistan, we ran into several problems, starting with immigration — it took 4-5 hours before they picked us up at the airport. Then at the meeting they changed the rules again. From the association and athletes' perspective we have to accept it and try to use the resources we have as efficiently as possible. Don't forget that when they change the rules, other countries get hit the same as us. Or they may change in someone's favor, but everyone plays by the same rules. Sometimes it's a ruleset we're not used to, so our results may suffer. Really, there needs to be more clarity and efficiency in the competition rules system. This brings up Regulation of the field of play internationally — what kinds of competition surfaces are there? We are members of several federations. The rules include a field of play that is a padded mat, because there is a safety net to prevent falling, and another type that's in a cage. So there's a wide spectrum. A cage uses one skill set, a ring uses another, a mat uses another. These can connect — you might start on a mat, develop onto a ring because there may not be as many cage skills yet, then build up with Cage MMA skills. The foundation is laid step by step. On the mat you may focus on Striking, Transition, some Grab, but in a ring there's more clinch, hugging, Take Down. In Full MMA in a Cage or Octagon, all the combinations of skills come together. So in terms of the association's Sanction, we cover from beginner to Advanced. You can see it in our athletes. We have several at a high level now. Take Amp — Amp already Qualify for the Asian Games. He's probably used to competing on various FOP, because we sent him to Brazil, competed in a cage, went to AMMA on mats, and when we hold events in Thailand we also use a ring. So you see the diverse skills. Yes. If he can combine them and set a game plan systematically, he can develop toward a pro career. We'll need a platform to send people from youth, from amateur, through to professional. From what we hear from various countries and organizers, when they look at our national team, Team Thailand, we're at a high level too. They have quality that covers everything for MMA, whether platform boxing or Muay Thai. Usually when they face Thais in MMA they write them down as Muay Thai. Yes, they're very afraid of Muay Thai, afraid of the stand-up skills, so they have to take us down. Once they take us down we're in the ground game, where we may be at a disadvantage. So the coaching team is developing ground-game technique to be more effective, so we can play every way going forward. You'll see our results developing step by step. At the last SEA Games, our athlete Keng, Noratchat, is a professional Muay Thai fighter, but once he learned a bit of platform boxing — well, more than a bit — wow, nobody could take him down. If they can't take him down, it's over. Keng's stand-up is good, so of course they try to force him to the ground. But in the 4 bouts that passed, the coaching team had good counters, so Keng survived and won gold. That's experience. Noratchat has been with the association since the beginning, since the Asian Championship in Pattaya, and went to Gamma World, so he's a pioneering athlete. And recently he boxed with Mr.Fight too, right? Went on to Muay Sokkon — a complete university-level fighter. You see how the levels differ. People who are professional also compete amateur for the national team — they have to take it seriously or they can't win. Yes. Now we're trying to find coaches with diverse backgrounds to work with our Staff Coach — Coach Muay Thai, Coach Grappling, and Coach MMA. So technique is developing a lot, and we have athletes that transition from various sports, both BJJ and platform boxing, so we fill in what's missing. The more we do, the more we grow. Like our national team coach, Coach Kieo, he's been doing this a long time, and as we grow he also becomes someone who looks after the athletes. The more athletes, the more time the national coach needs for the national team as well. So we grow together. Yes. We try to work as a team system. Whatever we're missing, or the coach is missing, we help fill in. Whatever athletes are missing, they can Request, and whatever we can arrange we will, within the limited budget we get from the Sports Authority of Thailand. The latest quotas we got, whether Amp's in China or the other two or four people in Uzbekistan — that's income for the association that we try to put toward creating opportunities for Team Thailand. And we have to thank our partner One Championship, who see the importance of developing MMA and combat sports in Thailand. That's the starting point that lets our work keep running. Of course TAMMA at the world and international level has a big reputation, we're confident about that, whether we've hosted big events or sent teams abroad, the world knows us. But we still consider ourselves a new association in Thailand. Could you tell us about this year's activities the association will hold in Thailand? This year, the world economy is struggling, so events of all kinds are heavily affected, including multi-sport games. For TAMA this year we will Invest more in things that are Tangible — things you can actually use, training centers, a Stadium we can use independently. We have to build our own Stadium so athletes have a place to compete, a stage to show their ability, and we can grow a larger Community. So this year most of the Budget will focus on Facility. But we still have Event, because this year we have a strong partner in T1 Fight Academy, who help us with venues for national-team training, training venues for instructor and referee courses, and competition venues. This year we'll have T1 Tama, a grappling competition. Why grappling? Because grappling is one skill in MMA. If you know grappling, know how to survive, know various survival techniques, you can build toward MMA in the future. We're trying to build a Community that can Transfer skills — Striking, Ground, grappling. And this year we'll have the MMA national championships in August, plus GAMMA Asian Championship around late July, early August, which will be in Malaysia. That's a good opportunity to send youth athletes and national-team athletes to get experience for the association and for the Asian Indoor Games later. And now we're trying to grow the community bigger and bigger to push toward the Olympics, which is very possible. Wow, the calendar is full, and we haven't even talked about the courses. Courses — we have those too, right? Yes. This year we have 2 programs: a coach course around June, starting in 2 weeks, a regional coach course, and a regional referee course. Wait for the announcement on the association's page. Follow the association page so you don't miss important news and activities. I'd like to go back to grappling a bit, because we've been through something similar with GAMMA's rules, where they have MMA Striking — they kind of split Striking out of MMA, maybe not just for Beginner but for people who want that separate track. For people with stand-up experience, we want a Spectrum of the sport that is more diverse, so they can be inspired to move into higher skills. If you're good at stand-up you might go to the ground, if you're good on the ground you might try stand-up. That creates movement in the sport. So we break down the related skills into parts. There are about 3-4 parts: stand-up, ground game, wall game, and various transitions that make up the whole. I think this makes the sport more accessible. We also got a bit of Inspiration from One Championship. The events we'll hold include Professional grappling, which we'll hold in a cage. We've done a trial before, but this is the first time we'll do it for real as Professional. Professional, like what we see from One Championship — they compete 10 minutes, no points, they try to finish the fight. So the level is very high, because grappling is dangerous if you're not that skilled. So even though we're an MMA association, we still want to help push related professional sports. Simply put, if these sports grow, we grow too. If the parts of MMA grow, we grow. So we want to create events people can compete in and learn from — if they want to go on to MMA, what else they need, where they're still weak, what they still need to adjust. The national championships — everyone probably remembers last year's nationals, still intense. Competed at T1, and last year's finals were at Wow Siam Stadium, the first time amateurs got a Title Shot on True Sport, right? Yes True Sport. Tell us a bit about getting the chance to watch a sport people want to watch. It's already watchable, but we also have a duty to make it watchable. If we don't organize it properly, it won't look good. Yes. Sport, if we look at it, we can't look only at competition. What we've done is try to build the whole ecosystem — athletes, coaches, accessible platforms, and things that let our athletes continue and have higher profiles and enter professional events. The key is we have to build an ecosystem. When efficient ecosystems connect, the pathway to develop athletes is efficient. If everyone does their own thing — I'll do mine, you do yours — then when athletes transition across ecosystem they waste time adapting and learning. That's why sometimes there's no standard. We try to create standard for refereeing, competition standards, safety, and matching athletes with similar skill levels. People whose skills are far apart we try not to match, because that's a risk of injury. Sometimes you see clips online of athletes not being protected, or the referee not keeping up and letting extra shots happen after the stop. That may thrill some viewers, but it's not safe for athletes. The more dangerous it is, the more rules you need. Yes. It has to stay within the rules, especially combat sports. Ajarn James, you used to be in amateur boxing, right? You did amateur boxing back then, Olympics. Let's compare a bit — amateur boxing and MMA in terms of risk, the danger we were just talking about. Amateur boxing has risks. Every combat sport has risks. The way we make it safe is through many things — technique and skill levels that are close to each other, and officiating. If something risks injury, we have to save the athlete first. Not just let it go — one cut and you still don't stop it, still don't call a foul or TKO. That makes the fight more violent. In sports with accumulated damage, once they're hurt they stop fighting and protect themselves. Conversely, the attacking side has to keep coming. If the referee sees the athlete is no longer responding but still lets it continue, the injury risk keeps rising. Most people don't think about this. If they compete under the association they already have an expectation that it must be safe. For amateurs, more than 2-3 unanswered shots and it should be stopped. Most people have to trust the system. It's not like fighting in unsanctioned events where you don't know what will happen or who's responsible. That's hard, because when you want to put on a show, then something unforeseen happens, finding someone responsible is difficult. Like the Muay Thai fighter cases. Even when you have to get a permit and meet standards, when a death or injury happens there's no responsibility — there have been many cases. So I want to ask parents: sometimes we don't give this enough importance, that it may affect our children in the future, or athletes we look after long-term. Right now I want people to look at athlete-first — athletes must come first. Otherwise there won't be a sport to play. They'll get safety concern, warning. When we go abroad to big events, we know if an athlete is injured the federation will take care of them, so you feel a bit safer. Importantly, if we send athletes abroad and their fitness doesn't pass the tests, they won't let us go. See? There are multiple layers of standards overseeing this, so safety increases. This could go on about sports science, what you have to prepare — the Sports Authority has been doing this a long time. Yes. They're trying to build standards, so don't break the standards. Look back at what was done well and what went wrong, and get it back in the frame. Last topic: as a new association organizing domestic activities, from your view, what should we be doing? There are a hundred sports, a hundred associations, we're new — what should we do so the Sports Authority supports us more? Right now, last year we got support from the Sports Authority for only one project, 140,000 baht, and almost no budget to run the association. So we think we have to create a Vision Model that will generate income for the association. This year we focus on investing in facility so we can hold event more often and use less budget. This is a question I wanted to go deeper on. Since we're building a model that helps the association on the business side, can we be an example for other associations that struggle to find funding? I don't mean other sports aren't watchable, but compared with MMA we have to tell the truth — people watching MMA keep increasing worldwide. Can what we're doing transfer to other sports? If there's an ecosystem, of course it can plug in, it can transfer — sharing facility, finding joint income from event. Right now we're looking at the fact that in Thailand, as we said, we lose a lot of income from Single Sport thinking. If we look at it — ninety associations, ninety days of associations — if everyone thinks Thailand is Single Sport, that means 1 year will have 90 events, if they have to hold them. 90 events against 365 days means an event every 3 days. That's quite a lot. How are athletes supposed to compete? If we focus it down further, combat sports have a huge variety of events. Having many events may be good because athletes have places to compete, but each event we hold has costs, and sometimes those costs aren't covered. So as Single Sport it's like competing for money in the same group. But if we pool events, we spend once and can hold several events. When we hold several events we save costs, the event gets bigger, and more people participate. I understand. From my view, combat sports include sports that are easy to watch — you don't need to know the rules. Boxing, you know a knockout wins. Judo, a throw wins. Some are hard to watch, like platform boxing or jiu-jitsu. I play too, but from the view of people who don't know the rules, it's hard to follow unless someone famous with character comes up, like in jiu-jitsu most people know Mikey Musumeci or Craig Jones, because they're characters who go on social and promote. The sport is hard to watch, but MMA is a sport where even the rules are fairly easy to follow. That leads to another program we'll hold, called MMA 101, for people who want to learn how MMA is played and how to train. Watch the association page for when registration opens. It's open for anyone who wants to play MMA, come learn the basics first, then build from there. If it suits you, you can go to a higher level. Anyone with no background or experience can come learn. That will let us spread it more widely. We're lucky we have various partners who are well known, like ONE Championship. They have their athletes in Thailand, everyone knows them. Lately they've been helping us. When we go out, athletes come, and that helps more people know the sport. The kindness we've received from ONE, people like Stamp Fairtex, who is a good example for youth. Stamp used to be a Muay Thai fighter, then crossed over to MMA, is a kickboxing champion too, almost every sport — truly top of the game. Stamp coming into MMA inspired many women to come back to training, including Roma. Roma is a top Muay Thai fighter who crossed over to MMA and got a signal from UFC, right? After that Roma also came and helped train athletes for the association for a while. I want to say, from my view as a former athlete, when I think about how I want people to see our association, as an athlete I want people to see that whatever they need they can come to us, talk to us. The example I mentioned, Nong Roma — when she didn't want to fight, we invited her to be a national-team coach, to be with the athletes, in a situation she likes. Many of the old MMA people in our country are considered legends here. We stand ready to help, whether as coaches or referees. That's my feeling. I want people in the community to feel the association is here to help them. Ajarn, how do you want people to see the association? The association is really a supporter of the community, a supporter mandated by the government to promote and oversee Mixed Martial Arts. Everything about our association is open. Come find us — Development, Soi Song Phon, you can always come, and talk. If you want to do something and the association can help, we're happy to help fully. Make it have standards, make it correct, to develop the sport. We don't want anything else. We've never divided into factions or camps. Why would we? If you want to divide, you can draw the line yourself. We're also an example. Recently Ajarn Ryu of Superkick came to ask permission to hold a competition, Pathum Thani Fight, for the first time. He talked with our association and we helped him as much as we could. One problem is the Field of Play — sometimes people use kickboxing mats that are too thin. We have judo mats that can take the force of throws. Safety is better. We lend them, you can take them and use them. And we provide referees. Our referees are standard, trained, highly experienced, Certified by international organizations, whether AMMA or GAMMA. They read the fight and will save the athletes first. So if you come talk to the association, your event will definitely have higher standards. We've talked about a lot today. There's still more, because we recorded a lot for TAMMA Talk, right? We used to have it every week, but later we moved to a new office, a bigger new home, so it disappeared for a while. Now it's back. Next we'll have various FMA and grappling athletes sit and talk, so we'll get more diverse views. We have to release information gradually because there's a lot. We work every day. This time we talked about competing abroad, domestic activities — TAMA T1 Grappling League and the national championships, which should be in about 2 months, right? Yes. And we talked a bit about association management. If people like this, next time we can talk more. For this round, we'll take our leave. Thank you very much, Ajarn, for being here today. Thank you everyone.