Fighting Strategies of Muay Thai
Author: Mark Van Schuyver with Kru Pedro Solana Villalobos
Pages: ~130

Another skinny Muay Thai book. I bought mine cheap on Ebay but last I looked it was still available online at Chapters.ca and Amazon. There is no cover price on my copy but it runs low. You should be able to get it for around $20.

I have mixed thoughts on this book. It is well written and clearly explained. The production quality is good. Unfortunately the whole book reads more as a commercial for Villalobos' school than a book about Muay Thai. To me it comes off resoundingly tacky.

Although clearly presented there is nothing new in the history or technique sections of this book. Usually there is some insight to why a move is done or an explanation that tackles the art from a different perspective, that is not the case in this volume.

The book moves into a training section where more advertisement occurs: "Since Villalobos has 12 bags in his school..." Who cares, is this guy the only person to have bags hanging? Would have been better presented as 'with access to a heavybag you can do this...' The book is full of little appeals to the person Villalobos not the art of Muay Thai. It drove me nuts.

The weight training section of this book is thankfully short. Ignore it completely and get a better book on sports conditioning. What is printed in the book is once again credited as Villalobos' personal workout, like we should do it just because he does, no science or logic at all.

The sections on fighter types and battle strategy are almost as hokey. Questionaires help you determine which type you are so you can better adjust you training. Not bad in theory I guess but I sum my thoughts up this way: One of the photos in this section shows Villalobos looming over four kneeling fighters and the caption reads "Villalobos and all four types of fighters: aggressive, elusive, counter and tricky. As a universal fighter, Villalobos uses all four styles." How does this guy stand up with his head swollen up like that. Considering he is credited with 15 fights in the back of the book I question his right to the title Universal Soldier or whatever.

There are some good parts to the volume. The glimpse of Villalobos curriculum is interesting and the standard Muay Thai training regimen is worthy of a quick look. There is a short vocabulary included which may make a nice reference.

Overall the book is low on my list of recommendations. These two: Legacy and Distinguished are much better use of money. The section on Thailand which is noted in the subtitle "Secrets of Thailand's Fighting Camps" is a few pages long, the rest is a basic commercial.