help on muay thai

[moriniuk]

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.

[localman]

I am doing some research on Muay Thai. Can anyone help me with the following questions:

1. Is training always conducted on mats? If not always, when?

2. Do participants during training (rather than competition) wear protective gear such as gloves and helmets?

3. What level of contact should there be with punches and kicks?

4. In a sparing training session done on a wooden floor where no protective kit is worn, if one fighter attacks with a roundhouse kick when his opponent is off balance and as a result his opponent is knocked to the floor, what is preventing him from sustaining head injury (say hitting his head on the unprotected floor)? What is there to prevent this kind of thing from happening?

Many thanks

Thanks to everyone who posted a reply. They've been really helpful. I wonder whether I could pose the question slightly differently. Please note that this is not something that has happened, but something that interests me both as a martial artist and safety adviser.

Two Muay Thai fighters are training on an unmatted wooden floor with no head gear. One fighter is off balance and his opponent takes advantage of this by doing a roundhouse kick to his head which knocks him to the floor. His head hits the wooden floor with some force causing a significant injury. In Muay Thai, is this just the risk that one must accept or, given the incident provided, was something wrong, and if so, what?

Again, I would appreciate your views.

Thanks

[moriniuk]

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.

[Liver Punch]

I think I'm getting a general idea of what you're asking now. We'll assume that the phrase "take advantage of" doesn't mean "I'm better than you and I'm being an outright jerk by purposely causing pain" but rather does mean "we are sparring as equals and you have made a mistake that my technique will capitalize on"

With that out of the way, I can address this as I, or most of my instructors at the various schools I train at would view it, with the following scenario:

An individual accepted to spar normally with someone on an un-matted area. The risk in this is inherent and obvious due to the lack of protective floor covering. Person A made a mistake by putting themselves in a position where they were off balance. Person B executed a proper and legitimate technique which caused person A to fall to the ground. Person A failed to fall properly and was therefore injured.

Given that scenario, both individuals agreed to partake in a combat sport on a surface that did not provide the amount of protection. In my opinion (and for the purpose of this scenario), nothing is wrong with that because they are both consenting adults who understood the risk inherent in the activity taking place. Person B has committed no wrong because they only executed the technique that is found within the art. Person A has committed 3 wrongs by becoming off-balance, not protecting themselves from a head kick, and by falling incorrectly.

So, in Muay Thai specifically, this is not a risk one must accept. In general, performing any activity on a hard surface lends itself to resulting in an injury if someone falls down on it. Running on sand is much safer than running on concrete, jumping on trampolines is safer than jumping on jagged rocks, performing a balance beam exercise is safer on a wooden beam than on a razor blade, etc.

In this situation, many mistakes were made, non of which happened solely because the two individuals were training in Muay Thai or martial arts in general. While bumps, bruises, and other superficial damage is something that one must accept when striking and being struck by another human being, experiencing serious injury by bouncing one's head off of a wooden floor is not something that an overwhelming majority of Muay Thai practitioners have experienced.