DESPITE being home to several Muay Thai organizations, the Cordillera Administrative Region failed to produce a representative for the Philippine team for the Asian Beach Games in Danang, Vietnam, from September 26 to October 3, 2016.
"Unfortunately, we don't have a Cordilleran representative for the muay event," said Brendaley Tarnate, president of the Benguet Muay Thai Federation.
The biennial meet was last held in Phuket, Thailand, where the country landed 13th in the overall rank after bagging three gold, two silver and seven bronze from jujitsu, muay, wrestling and beach athletics among others.
Recently, Tarnate led the conduct of a crash course for six Muay Thai coaches of the Philippine team including the president of Muay Thai Association of the Philippines plus ten local coaches from Baguio and Benguet.
The crash course introduced a Muay Thai curriculum drafted by Tarnate of Muay Thai Boran gymnasium in La Trinidad per request of MAP President Pearl Anne Managuelod.
In a message, Tarnate said the participants of the crash course will need to undergo more trainings after the 5th Asian Beach Games.
"The participants of the crash course will have intensive training on modules not yet finished which will be followed by the launching of the instructor's training course," Tarnate said.
She added that the goal of building core rank of professional muay instructors in the country is to improve the training of athletes in the grassroots.
"Isang target natin ay maibalik sa Cordillera ang powerhouse ng muaythai," Tarnate added.
The curricula was adopted from her Muay Thai grandmaster Ajarn Sane Thub Thim Tong, which she worked with in Thailand.
The curriculum adopted the 16 levels of Muay Thai mastery where the first to tenth level are for student ranks, while the 11th to 14th are instructor or the master level. The 15th rank is for senior master while the 16th is the senior grandmaster such as Sane.
The curriculum includes the history and values of Muay Thai, as well as the skills.
"Our goal is to produce a complete set of Mauy Thai practitioners from rank 1 to 16 in 30 years after the implementation of the curriculum," Tarnate said. (Jessa Mardy Polonio)