How to Do Muay Thai
Efficient attacks from a strong body form the core of Muay Thai. Also known as Thai kickboxing, Muay Thai is used by many people as a sport, as a form of self-defense, or as part of exercise. If you want to learn and practice this ancient martial art from Southeast Asia, here are some ways to help you out.
What Is Muay Thai?
Known as the “art of eight limbs,” Muay Thai is an ancient form of kickboxing developed by the Thai culture. Unlike boxing and some forms of martial arts that focus on striking, Muay Thai incorporates the elbows and knees into its striking techniques. Muay Thai is a martial art that focuses on momentum, direct force, and strikes known to have the highest degree of impact in all forms of hand-to-hand combat. Muay Thai emphasizes physical strength and excellent conditioning to knock out opponents and to endure the rigors of hard competition.
Muay Thai Techniques
As a hard martial art, Muay Thai relies on the direct use of straight-line force to inflict damage on an opponent. To maximize the range and impact of the human body’s striking parts, Muay Thai employs an effective style that blends direct striking with blocking and grappling.
Offensive Techniques
The “eight limbs” in Muay Thai refer to the body having eight points of contact used for combat. Boxing relies on the fists, while taekwondo and karate rely on many kicks to inflict damage. Muay Thai takes things one step further by using the elbows and knees to attack an opponent.
muay thai
Punches. Muay Thai traditionally uses long punches and cross punches, although techniques introduced from Western boxing are now employed in the martial art.
Kicks. Most Muay Thai practitioners rely on angled kicks to damage opponents. Some competitors prefer to kick low, although many kicks in Muay Thai hit the midsection or even the head.
Elbows. Elbows have a smaller point of contact than the fist, and is often considered more powerful than a punch despite its limited range of motion. An elbow strike is usually employed to finish off a match.
Knees. Knee strikes in Muay Thai are useful because of their power and the difficulty to counter the swift strike. A straight knee strike performed from the clinch is considered the most powerful striking move in all of martial arts.
Defensive Techniques
Traditional Muay Thai is a competition of attrition, which means that competitors trade strikes to see who will be the last person standing during a fight. Muay Thai in mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions rely on defensive techniques from Muay Thai itself, or from other forms of martial arts incorporated into Thai kickboxing:
Block. A strong body is needed to withstand the stiff strikes and absorb the strong blows in Muay Thai. Competitors train intensively to develop their abdominal muscles, thicken the skin to absorb blows, and to improve the strength of their strikes.
Parry. The arms and legs are not only used to strike opponents, but also to intercept their strikes and parry them before they can deal significant damage on the body.
Counter. Most attacks in Muay Thai are fast and flowing. Strikes are developed not only to deal damage, but also to go under and evade attacks to inflict counter-attacks.
Clinch. The clinch is similar to ones used in boxing, but instead of breaking up the clinch, it can be used to set up strikes, particularly low kicks and knee strikes.
Muay Thai for exercise is taught in many gyms, but combat kickboxing is learned from dojos and martial arts schools. With enough dedication, skill, and perseverance, you can learn to master Muay Thai and have a very effective martial art at your disposal. If you enjoyed reading this article, might as well read 7 Simple self-defense tricks