The Tale of the Peacock and the Fox

Report by Usman, posted 28 September 2002

One of the most notable moments of life is if you are lucky enough to meet one of your heroes, This moment came for me when I went down to one of the many Thai Boxing promotions held by Dan Green.

At the time I was coming down with a Flu and was drugged up on paracetamol

And about four different types of cough medicine, so I was feeling very drowsy,

Anyway I was sitting there enjoying the buzz of my cold medicine cocktail when I looked to my left and noticed Ivan Hippolyte sitting one empty seat away.

For all you people who don’t know who Ivan Hippolyte is, Ivan Hippolyte is a living legend among the Muay-Thai and K1 community, having been the first foreign fighter to win a Lumpini fight and recognised as the only Undisputed World Champion, He has also gone on to win two K3 Grandprix eight man tournaments in which he annihilated his opposition out classing them in skill and power.

His stable mate Ernesto Hoost is widely regarded as the best fighter within the K1 having won the K1 Grandprix twice, both having been trained by Johan Vos.

So I was sitting there looking at this guy, whos fights I have grown up watching and still watch in order to inspire me before my own fights, and whos style I have tried to clone.

So I took that empty seat and proceeded to introduce myself to Ivan Hippolyte.

We had a long conversation covering fighting, training and coaching, at the end of which he invited Me to come down to the Vos Gym with some members of Peacock team and train with the fighters squad.

The Vos Gym is considered one of the best and toughest Gyms in the world.

After discussing this excellent opportunity with the Peacocks Crew, It was decided that Alex Reid, James Zikic and Colin Burton and myself would go to the Vos.

We arrived in Amsterdam and successfully booked in to a cheap and seedy hotel, which happened to have the campest stone head Australian in Holland working on the reception, who took a liking to Alex and a complete dislike towards me, I wonder if it was something I said about unwholesome acts?

The Hotel was also placed to my shock and horror within the smaller red light district,

Which led to some of the comic relief of the trip and also some sleepless nights due to johns propositioning the two loud stoner girls who had the room next to ours and who would talk for hours out of the window to the perverts roaming those streets in the middle of the night.

The good thing about the positioning of the hotel was the fact that we were ten minutes away from the Gym, everyone settled in for the week, I found the local Mosque and Alex found the local women.

The training was by invitation only and as such we knew it would be a test, the strange thing though was that the Fighters sessions only seemed to last for an hour judging by the timetable I had been sent by Sensai Hippolyte, this seemed strange because we stupidly thought that one hour was much too short a time period to get exhausted within.

James, Alex and myself arrived at the fighters session and proceeded to follow the example of the other fighters by padding up fully for sparring, after our formal introduction to the class, the session started with a warm up and then went into technical sparring and then to full fighting, sorry full sparring, or was I right the first time?

The fact that we war at Peacocks probably saved us from the beat down that is sparring within the fighters session, as we held our own in sparring.

The high skill level of the fighters was what we expected, unlike other Muay Thai clubs, The Vos Gym uses a mix of western boxing with thai kicking and clinch, very similar to the Peacock style, so we found the training and techniques easy to assimulate.

Sensai Hippolyte was very helpful watching us carefully and taking a lot of time to coach, explaining each technique and variation. We were made extremely welcome so when the fists and shins and knees did come towards your head you knew it was not personal, just business.

Another interesting point about The Vos Gym was the Japanese tradition that was followed within the Gym, showing the Karate roots, note when I say Karate roots , none of the techniques were remotely Karate orientated, only the formality such as addressing the coach as Sensai and greeting each other by holding your fist and saying Ush! Showed these roots a tradition that is in action within a lot of gyms in Holland such as Chakuriki and Mejiro. This traditional Japanese form of respect was good to follow within the class as it added discipline to an already hard session.

We were also lucky enough to be trained by Ernesto Hoost who also imparted some new training methods to us.

The training sessions allowed us to build good friendships with our fellow fighters and by the end of the week, I knew I would miss the place for its intensity, characters and the inspiring coaching and presence of Sensai Hippolyte.

The intensity of the Sessions themselves was unbelievable, the training would continue for a solid hour no breaks to fluid up and chat, it was hard and tiring but also very satisfying.

Colin trained with the intermediates where he excelled in the art of hurting people with low kicks, the intermediate class only use body shots, a principle used to promote low kicking and clinch.

The Vos Gym, unlike the majority of British gyms, don’t use orthodox thai boxing methods, with variations not just on the Boxing but on every facet of the stand up fighting discipline varying the kicks aswell as the clinch, these variations make the style a lot stronger and allow scope for evolution, a principle that has been in practise at the Peacock ever since we set it up.

Before leaving I had a session with Sensai Hippolyte in which he advised me on fighting and coaching principles and also how to better structure the Peacock Sessions

For maximum benefit. The Peacock Gym Fighters will regularly be visiting The Vos Gym and a network between the two Gyms has been solidified.

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Usman interviewed