moriniuk

There's a Goju school in Heaton Mersey but they only teach kids. Then around the Bolton and Wigan areas there are a few long established schools under Sensei Tony Christian.

My preferences are: Close range - thumb facing you Medium range - thumb up Long range - thumb down (old Muay Thai name - buffalo swing - wiang kwai)

Even with the re-worded question, I'm still not really sure what you're asking. This scenario could relate to any one of several martial arts sparring situations, not only Muay Thai. In my gym the general training area is not matted. In that area we practice light. technical sparring. Any heavier sparring is practiced in the boxing ring which is matted.

You shouldn't need any skills in any other martial arts to start Thai Boxing. It may, in fact, hinder your progress. Thai Boxing is quite different from other traditional martial arts.

I've never heard about this school before but I have heard of a Chinese Kung Fu live in camp in the north of Thailand. As for asking someone who lives in Thailand about this camp. There's a good chance that people living less than 100m away from it will not even know it's there. Not because it's a clandestine ninja camp, but because that's what it's like in Thailand. I've looked for Thai Boxing camps there before and asked locals where they are in Thai language and unless you're virtually on top of the place, nobody knows.

I think that the durationof the session has a bearing on this too. In a 1 hour session there sometimes isn't time for much conditioning. A ring based combat sport type martial art definately requires more conditioning than a traditional self defence type martial art.

I'm not sure how critical your exact heart rate is to your medical condition but I'd recommend not using a heart rate monitor I think it would be very annoying to train with one on. Instead, save your money and use use the 'Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scales. Use the Borg scale (6-20) as this is easier to relate to actual heart rates. For example 13 (130 bpm) is somewhat hard, can talk in short sentences and could continue exercising at that rate for 30 - 45 mins. I'm sure if you google it something will come up.

I don't really know what it's translation into English is. Sensei Harada of the KDS (Shotokai) who is the last surviving practicing student of Gichin Funakoshi says that it is rude and only used by low class Japanese. He's lived in the UK for about 50 years so may be out of touch. I did ask a younger Japanese girl who speaks fluent Japanese and English what it meant. She hesitated for a while and then said, "Yoh". Regarding using foreign language greetings in the martial arts, in Thai Boxing gyms it is quite normal to greet each other with a 'wai' bow and a "sawatdee", but we don't use much Thai language for the names of the techniques.

Welcome to the world of Muay Thai. That sounds like a pretty standard Thai style low round kick. In Thai it's called 'teh tad' which literally translates as kick cut or cutting kick.

In full Muay Thai rules bouts any kicks are allowed to the knee joints. Side kicks aren't used very often, but short, sharp front kicks to, usually, just above the knee are common.

Mae mai techniques are the basics of Muay Thai. I'm presuming that by mae mai techniques you are refering to movements with names such as: salab fan pla, pak luke dtoy and jorakay fad hang. Be aware that not every teacher will teach the movements exactly the same. Think of them as the kata of Muay Thai and consider the movements to be concepts rather than fixed movements. One of my teachers in Thailand only teaches three mae mai techniques which are really only stances and guards. The rest of the techniques which have the same names and look similar to other teachers' styles are all refered to as look mai techniques. There are lots of films on You Tube or you could have a look at my website for my thoughts on this and some links. But unfortunately I can't give you my web address on here. Just look in my profile for it.

Did you have to exit through the gift shop by any chance? What always amazes me is that these type of schools always seem to be full and the more genuine schools only have a handful of students.

I practice and teach Chen style Tai Chi. I think it's really sad that Tai Chi in general has been relegated to a health system. The forms have just the same fighting applications as other styles, and yes it is more of a close range, grappling, throwing art. My students are mostly older people and practice for health reasons more than self defence reasons. I always demonstrate the fighting applications to help people understand the movements within the forms, but we never practice them as partner drills.

There's no need to worry about the quality of the instruction at most gyms. There aren't any exclusively foreigner gyms. It's just that so many people go to train in Thailand now, particularly in Phuket and Koh Samui, there are more foreigners than Thais training. When there are world championships in Bangkok every gym appears to have a national team training there. I first trained and fought in Thailand in 1988 and it wasn't so easy to find gyms that would accept foreigners but now it's quite easy. You can still train like a Thai. You're in a Thai gym in Thailand with Thai trainers. Does it really matter if the person training next to you is not from Thailand? What's it like to train in Thailand with Thai instructors. It's great, get yourself out there you won't regret it. Get yourself in top physical condition before you go to get the most out of the training.

I've trained at a few gyms in Bangkok but never in Phuket, and I'm also going on another trip to Thailand in April/May. There are lots of gyms now that are very welcoming to foreigners. Particularly in Phuket there are lots of almost exclusively foreigner gyms. Bangkok is a big city and it can take some time to travel around it. Do you know what part of the city you'll be staying in? Ubon is a long way from Bangkok and even further from Phuket A good site to look at is https://www.muaythailand.com. It has a good active forum with lots of contributors who have a lot of training experience in Thailand.

I personally think that things like push ups etc have no place in a martial arts grading, but I was recently talking to a lady who was a 2nd dan in Tang Soo Do in the UK. She told me that one of the requirements for 1st dan was to perform a number of push ups with a mouth full of curry powder. Has anyone ever heard of this before, or any other bizarre requirements? H.

In my opinion what makes a martial art traditional is partly it's content and partly the way it is practiced. Practices that have been handed down over the generations as a tradition. But I would also consider the relatively new martial arts and styles to be traditional if they involve traditional techniques practiced in a traditional way. I don't think it matters where in the world the art originated. It's more of a time thing. But just how much time is required, I don't know. If we compare martial arts to music. A piece of "classical" music can be written and performed in the present day and still be considered to be "classical" alongside the old classics. This is because it is written and performed in a certain way that conforms to a tradition. Rock, pop and reggae etc. wouldn't be considered traditional at the moment, but in the future I'm sure that people will be refering to traditional forms of these musical genres.

All very true. As Tai Chi master Cheng Man Ching said, "there are no secrets". The difficult thing is to apply all this physics. To the untrained eye, and even the trained eye, two different people's techniques will look almost identical. It's that last 1% that will make one of these techniques "feel" very different.

fujau. I've been practicing Chen Tai Chi for about 3 years now. Yes, it does seem to place more emphasis on the martial side than other Tai Chi styles. I've practiced other martial arts for many years and Tai Chi has unlocked many doors for my which has helped with my karate. Bushido man. What fujau said really. It has nothing to do with arm strength. The secret is not to try to use any strength. The simplest thing I can liken it to is hitting a golf ball. If you try your best to hit it as hard and as far as possible then the chances are you'll fluff it. If you do a perfect relaxed swing and everything come together just right the ball will go far and you won't even realise that you've hit the ball at all. It was effortless but the ball went far. The timing, breathing, body condition, body structure, mind all need to be correct. Not easy, but definately achievable. I mention Wing Chun because it is probably the most combative of the Chinese arts, but it's the same in Xing Yi and Tai Chi. It's funny that these arts all seem to be practiced in a more smooth and relaxed state than the external systems.

I've been on the recieving end of strikes with similar effects, but they have usually been from a stepping type punch (oi zuki, lunge punch). The point of true effectiveness of a stepping punch is from anytime after the feet have come into line though, and this has little to do with forward momentum. So I don't see any reason why the punch in the link shouldn't have the effect which is shown. Any good practitioner of Wing Chun should be able to do this without any hip twisting, sine wave, dropping, stepping or whatever other power generating technigue one cares to mention.

By mystical powers I presume that it is qi, chi, ki, prana, universal life force etc that is being refered to. Whilst I do believe in the existence of this energy, I do not beleive that it is this energy that is being transfered or shot out like a bolt of lightning during these strikes. I believe that to perform these kind of strikes, which do not push the recipient away but drops them on the spot is all to do with timing, body structure and body condition. If you've never experienced the difference in the force then it's difficult to explain the feeling. But there is a considerable difference. Fa jing can perhaps be likened to something called "kime" in Karate. This could be described as focusing all your energy at one instant. The only karate style that I have experienced the fa jing type of strikes is KDS Shotokai, but they do not use kime and Sensei Harada completely dismisses the concept of kime. Fa jing is very evident in the Chen Tai Chi Cannon Fist form. I would think that it is "kime" that the guy you were speaking to was refereing to.

I'm presuming that you have done a little research and already know something about the two styles. Wado will not be too different from the Shotokan that you have already done. A little less rigid perhaps. The katas and basic sparring will be similar. Ashihara uses one fighting stance similar to kickboxing. More street orientated fighting techniques, some of which are similar to Muay Thai. The katas are unique to Ashihara and nothing like those from traditional styles. The sparring is generally heavier contact. Which style you chose depends on what you want from karate. In my opinion neither style is better than the other, they are just different, and both have much to offer. I personally train in both Ashihara and traditional karate styles as well as Muay Thai and Tai Chi and get something from each. Why not try both styles and see which you prefer?

Nai Khanom Tom Nai Khanom Tom is known as the "father of Muay Thai" and is considered to be the first Thai Boxer to have fought using the art outside of Thailand. He defeated 10 Burmese boxers in succession to earn his freedom from captivity in Burma on March 17th, 1774.

The Savate system starts at blue gloves and continues with green, red, white, yellow and silver. Muay Thai in general use coloured armbands called "prajiat" in Thai. Some schools use coloured sashes. I must stress that I have only seen these in the UK, however there is an organisation based in Thailand (AITMA) that is promoting a ranking system, but it is mainly aimed at foreigners. I have never seen anyone in Thailand wear these armbands to denote rank.

I wonder if the coloured belt ranking system introduced by Jigoro Kano and now almost universally accepted was fully accepted by all when it was introduced? The vast majority of people who train in the ring orientated martial arts such as kickboxing and Muay Thai never compete in the ring. There are many other reasons why they train. I see a grading system as offering these people achievable goals, motivation etc. Surely, nowadays, in the not so hardcore boxing gyms there are people training for other reasons than competition. Therefore I don't see this as anything different to grading in kickboxing or Muay Thai, it's just new. Personally though, I think the expense of new gloves and shorts would be off putting and something like a silk sash as worn in kung fu would be better.