Is there Freestyle-Poomsae of TKD from Muaythai!? What is ‘KITA MUAYTHAI’?

On the Saturday, 6th May, the 'WMC KITA Muaythai Thailand Championship 2023(here-in-after, referred to as KITA Championships)' was held at the Central World outdoor exhibition area in Bangkok, Thailand.

'Kita Muaythai(คีตะมวยไทย)' is a combination terminology of 'Kita(คีตะ)' which means 'song,' and 'Muaythai(มวยไทย),' and is a form of creative performance to competition that presents technical movements of Muaythai with the music. It is also commonly called 'Aerobics-Muaythai.'

Hosted and organized by the International Federation of Muaythai Associations(President Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan, IFMA), this KITA Championship was held together during the '2023 IFMA Senior World Championships.' This KITA Championship was supported by the IFMA, the Amateur Muaythai Association of Thailand(President Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan, AMAT), the Department of Physical Education, the Sport Authority of Thailand(SAT) and the National Sport Development Fund(NSDF).

This KITA Championship which began at 6:30 P.M., was attended by a large number of Muaythai officials from around the world, along with President Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan and Secretary-General Stephan Fox of IFMA, and also Managing Director Kwang-Yeol Kim of the Korea Muaythai Association(President Ju-Hyeon Kim, KMTA), attended.

In his opening speech, IFMA President Sakchye Tapsuwan, who also serves as Secretary-General of WMC, said, "I am happy that the 'WMC KITA Muaythai Championship 2023' is held and I welcome everyone who attended."

IFMA Secretary-General Stephan Fox, who serves as international vice president of WMC, said in his opening speech, "If the existing format of Muaythai games have been spotlighted as Combat Muaythai, the KITA Muaythai is an important future area of Muaythai to practice the spirit of 'sports for all'."

■ There's also the Freestyle-Poomsae of TKD in Muaythai!?

A total of five KITA Muaythai competition teams, which participated in this KITA championship and played at the finals, was selected after a fierce preliminary round of 48 teams from all over Thailand.

Watching the group performance teams performing their Muaythai techniques at this KITA Championship, I naturally recalled the Created-Poomsae and Freestyle-Poomsae of Taekwondo. 

Just as there are essential components presented by rules in the Created-Poomsae and Freestyle-Poomsae of Taekwondo, there is also a essential composition presented by rules in KITA Muaythai. The purpose of KITA Muaythai is to pioneer a new Muaythai area through the harmony of Muaythai tradition and modern performance elements.

Of course, the performance of KITA Muaythai is somewhat rough and has several parts to improve compared to the Taekwondo performance skills that the World Taekwondo(President Chungwon Choue, WT), Kukkiwon(President Dong-Sup Lee, Headquarters), and the Korea Taekwondo Association(President Jin-Bang Yang, KTA) has worked on for a long time, the composition and completeness of Created-Poomsae and Freestyle-Poomsae in the competition.

However, Muaythai has now started the performing competition section as the KITA Muaythai and is very likely to develop rapidly in the future. The Secretary-General Stephan Fox of IFMA also agreed with the opinion that all Martial Arts sports in the future need this new performing competition area such as Created-Poomsae, Freestyle-Poomsae of Taekwondo and KITA Muaythai performances.

■ The unexpected situation during the performances shows Intangible Culture of Humanity characteristics

At the performance of the last participating team on this KITA Championship, a speaker that played the music broke down. It was the worst situation in which no music came out in KITA Muaythai, which performed with the music.

However, this unexpected situation served as a golden opportunity to show the vitality of the 'Intangible Cultural of Humanity characteristics' of KITA Muaythai. Spectators and tourists from all over the world at the outdoor exhibition area of Central World, began to clap and keep the beat for the last participating team.

Although the last participating team could not finish the performance as it was prepared, I would like to evaluate this happened case showed that Muaythai has not only its characteristics as a sports but also its value as a cultural heritage for humanity.

■ The winner team will be invited to the world stage of the '2023 Riyadh World Combat Games'

The performance team of Thailand, which won at this KITA Championship, won a prize of 50,000 baht and will be invited to perform at the '2023 Riyadh World Combat Games' to be held in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from October 21st to 30th.

The Secretary-General Stephan Fox of IFMA, who also serves as president of Unitrd Through Sports(UTS) and vice-president of SportAccord(President Ivo Ferriani, Fomer GAISF) which organizes the event of 'World Combat Games,' showed his big attention to this KITA Championship.

KITA Muaythai is interpreted as part of the efforts to globalize Muaythai and expand its base, as well as to practice the 'Olympic Movement' of the International Olympic Committee(President Thomas Bach, IOC).

The meaning of the full-fledged start of KITA Muaythai as a sports agenda is expected to have a great influence to the Martial Arts sports community of the world in the near future. Some Martial arts sports that have excellent ability to creative performances such as Taekwondo, provide a golden opportunity, and Martial Arts sports that were still insufficient in this area, seem to need to be prepared quickly.

[Mookas Media = Bangkok, Thailand - Seok-Mu Mason Kwon ㅣ sukmooi@naver.com]
<ⓒMookas Media / http://www.mookas.com Unauthorized Reproduction and Redistribution prohibited>