Muay Thai and Jeet kune Do

[kansascityshuffle]

My only view of Jeet Kune Do is "forget" about the founder and concentrate on the skills of the Instructor teaching you.

Too many people have Bruce Lee as some kind of "demi-god" who they believe was able to fight and have the same skills in real life as he did in his films!

Muay Thai in the Western World is just Kickboxing.but it just includes Thigh Kicks, Elbows, Knee Strikes, etc. Real Muay Thai/Boran will only be found in Thailand.

For Muay Thai also look at:

Bokator

Lethwei

Muay Lao

Pradal Serey

Sanda or Sanshou

For JKD also look at:

Doces Pares

Escrima

Penkat Silat

Daido Juku

Krav Maga

You honestly probably won't be able to find real Muay Boran in Thailand unless you know somebody to get you an audience. There are still Muay Thai camps like this in Thailand too where they are not too farlang (foreigner) friendly.

Most Muay Boran that is freely being taught is not authentic Muay Boran. You can find authentic Muay Thai in the western world these days, too.

I agree with you about Daido Juku being a good alternative to JKD. I prefer Daido Juku but I'm a brute that thinks only those that fight should gain any type of instructor rank, too LOL. Not putting down JKD, I've known some JKD folk or those affiliated with JKD that have fought quite a bit (Barnett, Cameron Quinn is friends with Erik paulson, etc.) I just think Daido Juku has a fairly high standard of "black belt" is all. I haven't met one paper dragon black belt in Daido Juku, yet.

[moriniuk]

Just to be clear, there is no such martial art as Muay Boran! It's just an older form of the modern art that most people are familiar with nowadays.

It's like comparing older styles of Okinawan karate with modern more sports based styles. They're both Karate.

To say that real Muay Thai is only available in Thailand is like saying that real Karate is only available in Japan, which obviously isn't the case.

I've practiced plenty of Muay Thai in Thailand and in the UK, and if you're in a good gym in the UK there's no difference between the two.

The old regional Muay Thai style of Muay Chaiya is openly taught in Bangkok at 3 different schools, all with direct lineage back to the style's founder. I regularly train at one of them.

There are no 'forms' in Muay Thai. What they have is a collection of attack and defense techniques that have been handed down over the centuries. These are known as Mae Mai and Luke Mai (mother and child). Think of these as major and minor principles and concepts. They are practiced with a partner in a similar way to kata applications.