muaythaifreak

I believe that a lot of what is in that article is simply propaganda. A lot of karateka's will obviously disagree with me, however I am entitled to my opinion. I have a lot of respect for him as a martial artist, and for his art. I will also add that there are a lot of "legends" about muay thai that I don't buy either so it's not simply because he reportedly beat a lumpini champ that I doubt the validity of all the facts therein. As it says in the article, there is no documentation of the win in Thailand, nor have I ever found a Thai who knows of such a victory, regardless of the fact that whenever a foreigner does win at Lumpini, (and that's not often.), the thai's tend to talk about it alot.

we use a stance similar to that of a boxer but with the weight being held mainly by the rear leg. Feet apart a bit more than shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, not quite square to the opponent, hands and shoulders up, chin down, elbows in. Best way I can describe it.

Hello, and welcome!

Welcome and have fun!

Yes, I did mean MT round kicks. I don't know how or if they differ from TKD round kicks as I don't study TKD. Don't be afraid of going to a full contact gym because your going to get beaten up. A reputable MT instructor is not going to allow you to be injured by more advanced students. After all, the gym and the instructor are there to make money, not much money is made if all the students quit because they are being beaten up. I recieved one bloody nose and one bruised rib in my nine years of training in MT. Excluding of course injuries from competition. Basically it boils down to this, if you want to fight like a thai fighter, take thai boxing. If you stick with TKD, you will not have much need for these skills.

Welcome!

Welcome to the forums!

Sorry, I thought that was what you were looking for. Anyway, as far as conditioning I'm assuming you mean your shins. The best way to condition your shins in my opinion is just repeatedly kicking a heavy bag. There are other ways of course, i.e. rolling a broomhandle or other similar object up and down your shin with increased pressure, you can find an old tire, stabilize it somehow, and kick it with your shin. I have done all of the above. The best way in my opinion is to kick the bag as I've said. I'm talking about a HEAVY bag. like an 80 pounder. You'll have bruising at first, but after a while not so much. Some people say to whack yourself on the shins with hard objects, but I think that's a little extreme and you risk hairline fractures and bone chipping.

Depends who is doing the kicking. This technique could result in some serious muscle damage and bruising. Not to mention the fact that you could concievably get a major "charlie horse" which could impair your ability to stand on and kick with that leg. I might try this against someone who couldn't kick very hard, but as far as in the ring, no way.

It also is going to depend upon who your opponent is. If your talking about the average person, you're going to be able to descimate joe blow the rag man after only a few months, assuming you have the drive to fight to begin with. If your talking about being good enough to compete with other Thai Boxers.... that may be a different story. I had my first fight after two years of training. Probably could have done it in less, but I had seen MT fights and was in no hurry to jump the gun and get my *** handed to me. Good and good enough are also very different things. If you simply have a decent grasp on how to clinch and knee, that's probably gonna end most of your fights in the street. Someone who knows how to block and counter knees and also knows how to work the clinch, well, you may find you need to work on some elbows, throws, etc... Basically, it all depends upon what you mean by good.

Low kicks are seldom easily absorbed. The best way to deal with them is to not have your leg there when the kick comes. Slide back a little, if you can't do that, you need to raise your leg and catch it with your shin. Preferably the upper portion of the shin just below the knee. This requires a good bit of practice to commit it to muscle memory and make it automatic. Try this; even for round kicks to the body, block with your shin. It's gonna hurt until your shin gets conditioned, but if you catch it correctly, it should hurt them more than you. You just have to get used to raising your leg to block the kick rather than using your arm. A good hard round kick will break an arm meant to block it. I've seen this happen a number of times. Find a MT gym and ask for a demonstration, or watch a video. Better off having a first hand demo though as there are some little things involved that are hard to put into words and almost impossible to discern through watching a video. Hope that helps!

Spread you hand out on the table, palm down. Take a knife and try to stab the table between your fingers as rapidly as possible over and over again going between each finger and back again. Just kidding, don't really do this!!!

Tenchu rocks!

I had one, I didn't like it. I knocked it over all the time. Not with punches, but with kicks, if I wasn't knocking it over, it would "walk" around the room and it was just too much hassle. I ended up buying a hanging bag and selling the wave.

Anyone ever heard of the rear clinch in MT? My Kru showed it to us the other day and it's pretty brutal. You clinch from behind just like you do from the front, with your hands under the chin and your elbows on the shoulder blades forcing the head back. From this position you can unload knees on your opponents spine and kidneys like crazy, and if you hold it right there's not much your opponent can do to defend from it. Just thought I'd share a cool technique. It's from Muay Boran and it works much better without gloves than it does with it. Of course it is a battlefield technique and not one you'd want to try to use in the ring as you could mess someone up pretty bad. Any thoughts?

So go full on. There's nothing saying a kickboxing match can't be full contact. Hell, go without headgear and shin guards if he wants to. I'd stick with gloves, but that's about all you really need to insist on. No sense breaking your hand on his face ya know.

I don't know of any guaranteed one hit kill strikes. Some would disagree as in dim mak, but I've never seen that take place either. Your best bet is to forget about killing someone with one blow. The odds are stacked against you pulling one off. Of course any strike to the head, throat, or chest cavity, with enough force can kill someone. But you are talking about a tremendous amount of force. I know a guy that got hit in the back of the head full force with a baseball bat and although it did do a lot of damage, he is fine today. Think about it, the impact of a car striking a body at thirty or forty miles per hour does not always kill the person being struck. The human body is very resiliant and can take a lot of damage. Stick with the combo's.

I'm not a karateka, but welcome to the forum!

welcome to the forum!

It also depends very much upon what the attacker is doing. If someone is charging me, my favorite thing to do is a foot jab or a long knee to the solar plexus. I don't care how big you are, it's going to take your wind. If he's just standing in front of me, I like a nice hard leg kick to the inside of the thigh followed with a nice elbow to the face. If that doesn't take the fight out of them I'll clinch and wear his ribs out with some knees. Most people don't expect that and it is very hard to fight with a flailed rib. I generally don't ascribe to the one hit one kill theory. I'll keep striking until the guy is down or I'm too tired to lift my knee.

Welcome! Have fun.

welcome to the forums!

hit him first and hit him hard. Don't stop with one strike, combo's are the way to go. Attack and keep attacking. Most bullies rely upon intimidation and aren't really very good fighters in general once the melee begins. If you overwelm him, you'll win. Even if he's bigger and stronger. At the very least, you'll gain his respect and he'll likely leave you alone afterwards. Of course it's always best to walk away and let him think he's superior. He'll run into someone without as much self control eventually and get knocked down a notch or two.

How about breaking a baseball bat with your shin?

I study Muay Thai and temper it with BJJ. I have found through experience that the two are quite difficult to beat when combined. However Muay Thai is my true passion and BJJ is more or less just an aside to compliment my stand up if I do end up on the ground. ( I do tend to avoid this at all costs.)