Перевод выполнен Сосинским А.Б./ A.Sossinsky

Text of the interview with the Head of the Martial Arts School "CHOY -- the Style of the Master U Thaung Din" written down by the Leading Instructor of the School, Ivan I. Nikishov.

What is meant by the title "Martial Arts School CHOY -- the Style of the Master U Thaung Din"? What are the origins of the School?

The technique that we study is based on the style of the Myanmar (Burmese) Master U Thaung Din. The Master himself had a simple title for his style: Self-Defense. After the Master passed away, paying tribute to his memory and expressing their deep respect, his pupils named his style after him. In Myanmar, incidentally, the Master taught his style only to a limited number of pupils.

Historically, it turned out that the School became known in Russia under the name "CHOY". However, CHOY is not the style of U Thaung Din, it was the transformed and systematized style that H.V.Popov developed after his studies with U Thaung Din. Thus the style "Basic-Combined Method -- CHOY" was born. I had the honor of studying with the Master H.V.Popov for 12 years after 8 years of study with his pupil V.P.Tolstikov.

After that, with the recommendation H.V.Popov, I studied (together with O.V.Sagoyan) under the Master U Thaung Din himself and his senior pupils, 25 years after H.V.Popov had returned to Russia after his studies with the Master. During that period, U Thaung Din had continued to improve his style. And so, naturally, the methods and technical moves had been modified. The result is a creative amalgamation of techniques from Burma (Myanmar), India, China, and Japan, and even of British boxing. But what is most important, these numerous techniques are worked out in a unified, universal system, consisting of a small number of basic moves.

At the present time, the 40 year long path has closed on a new loop of its development.

Naturally, the Style of the Master U Thaung Din is in harmony with the Basic-Combined Method (BCM), which is not surprising, after all they have common roots. Much has been told and shown about the BCM, I will not dwell on the details, I will only say that the backbone of BCM are 12 moves of the body, 12 moves of the hands, and 6 moves of the legs. Without any doubt, the Method is very convenient, since it corresponds more closely to the psycho-physical and mental characteristics of contemporary Europeans, and this facilitates the teaching process.

Summarizing the above, the School is the combination of:

What is the School today?

As was already mentioned, the style is universal, because the same base is also used in our health-improving and sports sections. However, together with the academic educational component, the School was always characterized by applications to the martial arts, be it self defense against any form of weapons, or the use of any means at hand and all kinds of everyday objects for defense or attack when necessary. ("Everything that surrounds us can be used as a weapon", says U Thaung Din.)

In order to make all the moves significantly faster, there is a special specific approach, which is incorporated in the whole culture of fighting moves. The present-day term used for this workout technique is "rhythm-impulse". In the future we hope that an easily understandable and scientifically founded terminology will be developed.

To put it briefly, the question is in maximally pushing aside our consciousness from participating in processing input information in a fight (during which the situation changes every instant), thus multiply increasing speed, reaction, and force. Here we "think", so to speak, with our muscles and tendons, which naturally decreases reaction time, increases the speed of attack, etc. The topic is not new, but we have a concrete, practical and effective teaching methodology which does not involve any esoteric and mystical ideas.

What are, in your opinion, the goals and prospects of the development of the style that you practice?

Thanks to the fact that the School is not a codified rigid mass of knowledge, but a continuous lively transfer of expertise from master to master, our goal is to preserve the knowledge, knowhow, traditions, and spirit of the school. Besides that, we try to preserve the style of the School, its unique techniques, without detriment to its efficiency. I would also like to note that ours is a family school, and this means that the practice of martial arts must improve one's health, make one younger, and have a positive influence on all spheres of life: home, family, the work one does, etc.