To thai boxers

[Mart]

Have any of you thai boxers out there thought of doing a softer art to balance out your thai boxing, maybe you already do,. I find that because thai boxing is so tough on the mind and body that i feel a need to balance this with something like aikido. I dont quite understand why. Any idea?

[SevenStar]

I don't. I train other things, but solely because I want to. I also train in bjj and judo.

[Fat Donkey]

I know exactly what u mean man! I think that we MT guys are usually so focused on the practical aspect of training we get a hankering for some old style mr. miyagi training. U know, cool sounding and looking techniques with a nice outfit. Something with flash! If theres one thing about MT it doesn't look very cool, just painful. However it's hard to go back because u usually get fed up with practising forms and katas which usually have very little 'practical' purpose.

[Mart]

This is it, i would just liek to do a system that was interesting and softer, dont know if youve heard of it but im looking at pencak silat.

[Fat Donkey]

I know its from malaysia and is similar to kali\escrima. Also they have that cool kris knife. I would totally check it out. I'm going to sign up for bjj with kali on the weekends. Now that my master is moving I need a hardcore combat port but I want to take kali on the weekends. The stick and knife not only look cool but are probably the two weapons u can always find and will most likely encounter. Man, if i was rich all I'd do is study MA all day.

[Mart]

lol i know what you mean. My boxing instructor is a kali/escrima (same thing) insutructor as well trained under Cacoy Canete. Ive sone a bit but not enought yet, will focus on it one day.

 

Like the look of silat, might go to a show and check it out. Im always looking at other systems to see if they are worth studying.

[SevenStar]

the jun fan group I played with when I first started training in muay thai did alot of pentjak stuff. I have a group of friends who train shuai chiao that use kuntao silat as their striking/weapons system.

[Mart]

I have downloaded some training videos of silat. I think it looks interesting, the tak downs are different and look like they work well i realy like tthem, the ground fighting looks good and i like the way they move around their opponent making it disorientating, i think there is alot to learn from it. The stand up stuff however looks aweful. But hey, thai boxing is pretty useless on the ground!

[G Money Slick]

Kind of pointless if your a tournament fighter or a ring fighter on the Muay Thai scene (Like ISKA fighters). I mean, would a boxer who's trying to be the best boxer a boxer can possibly be pick up Aikido?

[SevenStar]

possibly. didn't sugar ray train in kenpo or something? I do see what you're saying, but the fact that I fight doesn't mean that everything I do must be geared towards thai boxing. I also enjoy competing in judo.