Muay Thai
 

A friend and I have decided to take Muay Thai classes. I've taken a bit of judo, kenpo, and tae kwan do... but never something like Muay Thai. Has anybody else tried this? What can I expect? I have a bad knee which I'm looking to strengthen (slightly torn acl which I refuse to get surgery for) while learning better striking but I'm not sure how intense the Muary Thai starts off.

I dont know how the classes are man but it sounds kick ass.I'm a big fan of the art so I hope it goes well for you.

Maybe ask the instructor what he thinks.

I've been in contact with the instructors through e-mail (they're out of town right now) and they seem great. I guess I'll just have to jump in and see what happens, the only people I know who took any Muay Thai are those who learned just the basics to add it to their MMA repertoire. That's good and all but learning how to throw an elbow and knee here and there isn't really studying the art. Like Freak I'm a big fan of the art itself so I hope it goes well, unlike the VERY short period in which I tried to learn Capoeira. Wow was that a disaster...

I'm more of a "Moo Goo Gai Pan" fan myself.

http://www.wingsnmorejoplin.com/imag...Gai-Pan400.jpg

Nice, I wish there was a place around here where I could learn Muay Thai. Unfortuantely the closest place is an hour away. You lucky bastard.

what's the difference between this and all the other martial arts. Each has something unique, what's this got going for it?

i'm looking at knee surgery again myself ..

already have a MRI scheduled.

after that i'm going to take tae kwan do.

My son's been doing it (should be grading for his first belt - orange - very soon) and i've liked what i've seen - he has a great teacher that i'll hopefully get as well.

I'm drawn to the stretching exercises which is something i really need at my age.

I agree.... I'd be curious to know as well?

Buddy of mine was National Champion for his weight class a couple years back...the things those people can do with their feet is just wrong.

Judo helped me with wrestling and taught me some good grappling techniques. Tae Kwan Do taught me self control and got me in pretty good shape, some good kicking techniques too (and some basic weapons training). The little Kenpo I learned helped with hand speed and rushing. Muay Thai focuses a lot on elbow and knee strikes and of course great conditioning, it should be a blast. As you said each martial art has something unique and I've never gotten REALLY deep into one art. Like you said Urge, I may have to have knee surgery, my knee pops out and back in once in a while but hopefully Muay Thai will help with that. The instructor said to try it for a while and if it gets too painful have the surgery, heal up, and try again.

I've done some Muai Thai as the stand up aspect of Mixed Martials Arts.

MT is considered by most the most effective stand up art. Its very similar to European/Dutch style Kickboxing with the added weapons of the elbow/knee and clinch. Its touch but a great art.

I've done quite a bit of styles (12 years of Tae Kwon Do - 4 years japanese Ju Jitsu - some Kyokushin karate and the last few year BJJ).

At the end of the day ask you self what you want to get out of the training and that will help you decide what syle to do.

These days many people give Traditional martial arts a hard time partically since the increased popularity of MMA but at the end of the day people get different things from their training - not eevry one wants to fight in a cage with 4oz gloves.

Sounds quite good. I've never looked into the martial arts but I may do that.

I've not trained since I moved back from wales as my Gym had moved and was impossible to get to. But they now have a new place closer to me so it looks like I'll be back again when i come back from my Holidays.

Prolly going to do 2 classes of BJJ and one Mixed Martial Arts aweek..touch wood.

BJJ is fun and the basics alone can help you with your grappling and submissions. Even though I'm a huge MMA fan I don't like it when people consider MMA an art in itself. Where do you live/train? We have a great MMA gym in Brighton, MI.

http://www.gladmma.com/

I live in Dublin and I'm very lucky to be able to train with a SBG Black Belt.

Most who do MMA consider it a sport really rather than a Martial Art in the tradition sense. But even as a sport I'd consider it more effective than most traditional martial arts that focus on 'street defence'.

UNfortuanally today alot of Traditional Martial Arts don't really train against fully resisting partners so often their skills fall flat when put in a real situation.

MMA is a sport and when training, you probably know as well as I do, you train in a "fighting system" which is a combination of different martial arts and fighting styles. I'd say basic MMA skills are better as far as self defense goes but if you're fully dedicated to the studying of one martial art it can do you just as much good. With MMA training you don't have to learn much before you become more competent at defending yourself. I want a few years in Muay Thai and then I'd like to get a solid base in some kung fu. Eventually, my dream is to learn drunken kung fu, not for self defense but simply for the art itself.

Hmm...maybe I'm picking up wrong here - so maybe I'm wrong.

Personally I think how you train is mostly more important than the art itself - i'm talking about learning to 'fight' (not other benefits which can be just as important to some people).

A lot of traditional martial arts evote a lot of time to doing katas/forms/patterns - personally i can see very little practical applications to these - bear in mind I've done 12 years of TKD and taught it for 3+ years.

Lost of TMAs don't fight/train full contact to it or close to it. It makes a lot of difference when you do. There are some exceptions to this which i do rate highly - particualy Judo and knock down karate.

In a fight/self defense situation, I'd pick any over with 2 years of typical fight gym type training in MMA/Boxing/Muai Thai over a similar person with 5 years (Black Belt) in 'most' Traditional Martial Arts.

so you'll be learning from the incomperable Master Newb then ?

my hair looks nothing like that !

I already have the drunken part down. ;)


It all depends how you train and the art like you said, studying Judo was helpful in competitive fighting within the first few weeks for me. Tae Kwan Do taught me some flashy kicks but not much else. :)

Despite what the stick TKD gets i did get a lot from it when i went on to train in full contact. I definally had an improved sense of timing and distance with is obviously needed for striking and also i brought my kicking ability with me too. Even though most of my kicks look more like Muai Thai than TKD i did develop speed and power from the TMA.

Yep, for a little over 2 years some time back - There's not too many places that do MTB over here, and I don't want to do kickboxing (compare the two, you will understand), so I've let it go, but it was great, and I've never been fitter or more confident than I was then - It teaches you how to, well, end a fight pretty quickly in your favour, and is an excellent fitness regime. Should I find a place, I'll be doing it again for sure...'cept having been a few years, I'll probably hit the gym a few times first.

Ha, less flash, more bash.
Simple, easy to learn moves.
It's not really a thing of grace, it's a thing of power.
You learn, in a straight forward way how to do maximum damage to an opponent in a short amount of time.
This style worked for me, not the "dancing around" type guy.

To be worn out, and sore. The instructors work hard on your "conditioning" and "strengthening" which can initially take quite a toll if you've not done it before. They push you more than in any other martial art - their goal, to basically make you a pain resistant offensive machine - really not an easy process, if it's anything like where I studied, the first 3 months (at 3-4 2 hour sessions a week) will be difficult. But seriously, don't give it up, I thought about dropping it, I was aching...but you get used to it, and get over it.
You can expect to get fit, to become flexible, and to build a lot of muscle.
You can expect your overall wellbeing and confidence to soar.
You can expect that if you currently attend a gym, you won't need to anymore.
You can expect stress relief.
Oh, and you can expect to be disqualified from kickboxing tournys should you try to attend them - it's very hard to participate when you, well, can't use your regular repertoire.

I think it's a very trying process, one good thing is (this pisses me off in other MA's) no "form" or "kata" or any of that. You stretch and warm up, then you start learning practical, powerful, and fast ways to eliminate your opponent...and seriously, unless you're up against a proffessional, come a year, a year and a half, you'll pretty much be able to hold your own against the majority.

I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to any updates.

Where are you at? As the European style/Dutch kick boxing isn't million miles away from from Muai Thai. No Elbows/Knees but they do use low kicks. If I wantn't to do MT and all i could find is this , i'd do it..

Ah there is a few nice ones - spinning elbow, jumping knee and the (ouch) jumping elbow.

Yeah, but when all is said and done, it's just a lot (IMO) more straightforward and less intricate than a lot of MA I've tried, which is what drew me to it in the first place. The addition of knees and elbows in heavy useage is pretty cool though, yeah...haven't had many an occasion to knee someone really, but I never had any idea quite how effective a step-in elbow followthrough from a cross could be...felt pretty terrible, but yeah, it works.

I think the thing is with MT, is that it's something pretty much everyone can do, and while I think that it doesn't hurt to be relatively stocky, pretty much everyone of any body type can get whipped into shape, and learn with relative ease by comparison. Practicality, is what it's all about.

Sydney, Australia.
Yeah, I've seen what you're talking about and that's what all the tournys here are unless you go right up to the top and get into thai rules matches...never really got into it quite that much, but went in against a few kickboxers, and when you're not throwing out everything you can, well, to me, it just feels like too much of a disadvantage, and/or holding back...which, in a fight, competition or otherwise, just feels unnatural.
Couldn't get into kickboxing...just because MTB seemed to suit me so well, regardless of the KB being a pretty good fitness and defense routine, it seems like stepping down - elbows and knees, not only work your body out more, but they're damn near devastating.

Yup thats why I find it best to take the Muai Thai guys to the ground :-)

Yeah.... I know people mentioned the elbow/knee strikes, but what people don't mention is that they have some brutal kicks as well. I'm sure you've all seen the video of fight, and one guys does this low kick into the otherguys shin, and snaps it, and the guy falls, while his shin folds in on itself? I'm pretty sure that was a trunk whip, which is a low kick. My reasoning for this is the movement of the hips. ANyways that should show you just how powerful a MT kick can be. And its not really known for its kicks, thats more TKD.

I have never heard of it

Ever heard of the movies Ang Bak, and The Protector? Those are both Muay Thai movies.

Actually, it was the other way around. The guy throwing the kick had his leg snapp. The other guy checked it (lift the knee and turn the shin out) but in the end u are right the power of the guys kick snapped his own shin bone.

Both Muai Thai and Kyokushin Karate are infamous for their low kicks. They are devastating - in my opinion its these that make it a far different game from American Kick Boxing and no the use of Elbows/Clinch/knees. Its very hard to defend against them if you.ve never done so before.

Being knocked out by them is the most painful thing to watch too - they stiffed the leg making it harder to check future kicks - they slow your movement and abilty to twist your body to punch and kick.

What happens alot is that the person being leg kicked tends to drop the hands to protect the leg - at that stage the atatcker often switches levels and goes for the head. So low kicks are are a great way to set up head shots.

They can be pretty effective in MMA too - The Ruas/Varleans fight is always the one that springs to mind and most recently Forrest fucked up Ramages lead leg with low kicks..