Guest post by Martin Hald Mathiasen
Muay Thai is a combat sport originating from Thailand. The art includes both strikes and clinching techniques focused toward being practical for real life situations and not just ring sports.
Muay Thai is also known as “The Art of Eight Limbs” as it uses 8 strike points, 2 fists, 2 elbows, 2 knees and 2 feet that differentiates it from various traditional ring sports like boxing and taekwondo. In the past, traditional fighters didn’t have any set rules and wore anything that they could find locally. However these days they have to use gloves, mouth guard, groin protection and wear shorts without belts during fights.
Photo source: wikimedia.org
Muay Thai training
Muay Thai is a tough and practical combat style. A Muay Thai practitioner not only learns how to hit the opponent, but also how to get it and bear the strike.
A true martial arts always prepares its practitioners and teaches them:
- How to avoid pain and injury
- How to accept pain and keep moving forward
- How to cause pain and injury
Skipping any of the above mentioned points means failure in real life. There is no referee in a real life situation that will stop the fight when you’re hit. Therefore Muay Thai training includes conditioning, learning techniques and practicing them.
Conditioning
Conditioning, or the bearing of pain during training so that the body and mind is immune to pain in the fight, is a very strong concept in practical combat sports and martial arts. No matter how technical the fighter is, conditioning is a necessary part of training. It ensures that all your training and techniques don’t evaporate when you get hit once in the ring.
Strength and Power training
Martial arts are all about technique, however imagine two people with similar technical levels but different strength; the stronger one has more chances of winning. Strength and power training for Muay Thai and similar martial arts isn’t the boring gym and resistance-style training only. The main purpose is to develop not only the outer bulk of the fighter but also the inner core of his body, making him strong and solid.
Strength training also helps in bearing pain during the fight as well as causing it with more power to the opponent.
Mobility and Stretching
Martial arts skills need the body to be very mobile and easy to be manipulated. Therefore the practitioners do stretching and mobility training.
Mobility is important in Muay Thai as much as strikes are. Stepping and moving towards, away and around the opponent is very important in any combat sport. It not only helps you move get the opponent, but also lets you move fluidly when they strike. It also helps you balance and remain on feet when you get hit with a strong blow. Not to mention, strong footwork and mobility will let you strike the opponent in more efficient ways.
Fighting techniques
Practitioners of Muay Thai learn strikes step by step. They learn how to punch in one way, then the other, and so on. Similarly, kicks are taught gradually alongside elbow and knee strike techniques. Counter attack is taught too as it is an important part of any practical martial art. Muay Thai is also very popular in Mixed Martial Arts fighting, where ground fighting is also allowed. In Mixed Martial Arts they wear MMA Shorts instead for Muay Thai Shorts.
Fight practice
No one can be perfect by just learning a set of techniques until they’ve practiced it in real situation. At junior levels they have easy fights and the level goes up gradually as their training progresses. This is the ultimate step of all the training as it’s here where you show and see yourself what you’ve learnt so far and what you’re made of.
Motivation and focus on aim
Being one of the more practical combat sports, Muai Thai is one of the toughest too. It’s hard if you’re not motivated and focused on your aim. But it’s this toughness of the art that makes its practitioners different from others.
Staying focused and motivated is important for any combat sports, because that’s the force that pushes you to punch harder, kick harder, stay on your feet when got hurt and keep moving forward.
So, stay focused and push yourself to the limits in anything you do. Ultimately, it’s not just the art that matters but the martial artist and the amount of effort he puts in training.
