Singapore is maybe small country in size but one of the biggest muaythai countries if we go per capita.
Mr. Mervyn Tan, president of Amateur Muaythai Association of Singapore (AMAS), general secretary of Federation of Amateur Muaythai of Asia (FAMA) and head of IFMA legal commission stated that the coperation between the member gyms, the Singapore Sport Council, and the National Olympic Committee of Singapore is the key to the development of muaythai as a cultural art form and sport for all. Every memeber gym must take the yearly workshop and this year the general secretary of International Federation of Muaythai Amateur (IFMA) and vice-president of World Muaythai Council (WMC) honoured Singapore with his presence. The event saw a successful registration of over 60 trainers from 95% of gyms affiliated to AMAS as well as student representatives from tertiary institutions such as Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Management University (SMU), and National University of Singapore (NUS).
The event kicked off with Mr. Mervyn Tan conducting the AMAS annual general meeting with individual heads/representatives of each affiliated gym. In his speech, he emphasized the strict safety protocols and legal considerations that AMAS adheres to with regard to muaythai events in Singapore. These include the presence of a medical doctor and paramedics on scene, ambulance on standby, licensing for entertainment, etc. To date, muaythai events sanctioned by AMAS have seen no major injuries amongst participants – attributed to a collective effort of professional officials and strict adherence to safety protocols. Apart from safety, the president of AMAS stressed the importance for gym heads and owners to enforce discipline on gym-goers and muaythai practitioners.
Mr. Stephan Fox addressed the participants with a keynote speech charting the direction of muaythai towards Olympic recognition in which the five pillars: respect ,honor,tradition, execlennce and fairplay are the foundation we stand on.
He highlighted several important milestones attained by IFMA that projects muaythai toward the attainment of Olympic recognition – the recognition of muaythai by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), inclusion in the Asian Beach Games, World Games and World University Games, etc. Mr. Fox also shared IFMA’s upcoming events for 2016 and 2017 which include the IFMA World Championships in Sweden, Asian Beach Games in Vietnam, and The World Games in Poland, Youth world championships in Bangkok, Asian Indoor Martial Art Games in Turkinistan will all include athltes from Singapore.
Mister Fox encouraged the trainers to ensure that we put the youth and athltes in the centre of our development.
The iMAES (iGLA Muaythai Animation Education System), an educational extension of Project Muaythai iGLA (Intellectual property, Gamee, Library, Animation), was also introduced to the participants. The iMAES is intended to serve as a standard of learning muaythai to make sure that all muaythai establishments can adopt and use it with ease. It is designed to promote art of muaythai from a non-competitive angle that focuses on children, ladies and progression in learning. It consists of 9 Khans (levels) and over 180 techniques chosen by Muaythai Grandmasters (Ajarhn Yai).