So with the increasing far right movements and their violent thugs getting more confident, I figured it might be the time to get some self defence training going.
From a young age I have been doing judo and boxing though it has been some years since I got lessons. I occasionally spar or shadow box but I need to do more I feel.
My eye fell on Muay Thai but I have no experience in it. It seems like it is a respected self defence art by many but I wanted some opinions before I went.
Hey, mod of [email protected] here.
Short answer: muay Thai is good.
Longer answer: when choosing a martial art, you’re not choosing in an ideal world, you’re choosing in your city. You need to find a place that has a good gym, with good sparring partners that works with your schedule. You’d be better off joining a good taekwondo gym than a bad Muay Thai gym.
So I’d say spend an hour searching what’s available in your area, checking their timetable to make sure you can fit it in, and then get back to us. Then you need to go to the gym and make sure you like the vibes there.
There are some bad Muay Thai gyms in the world. It’s easy to tell the difference: do the students compete? If they compete, then they’re actually battle-tested, not doing something for fun/fitness. Competition is unforgiving.
To justify the short answer: if you’re good at Muay Thai, you can deluver a lot of destructive force in short order, you can knock out boys. They do clinch-work so you get good on the inside. (I’ve heard some shitty gyms don’t even do clinch-work, though I’ve never witnessed such.) Using the ‘8 limbs’ is a great skill to have.
I like that Muay Thai guys train hardstyle; they’re not there doing kata or going light all the time. They spend a lot of time sparring, which trains their reactions, their reads, and acclimatises you to getting hit. Civilians are afraid of getting in a fight because they’ll get hit, but if you get hit all the time you stop being afraid.
You’ll need some wrestling too because if all you know is striking, then what do you do the first time someone bear-hugs you? It’s what happened in UFC1.
Did you get up to a good belt-level in judo?
Yeah the gym in my city thing is how I ended up on Muay Thai. Seems like a decent gym with a good mentality.
I managed to reach brown belt in judo before I stopped due to scheduling issues. So I’d say better than most people lol but in the judo world for someone my age rn it’s definitely not uncommon.
If they compete in Thailand that’s a really good sign.
Honestly you sound like you’re doing everything right. If you have brown kyu grade in judo and can box and you join a good Muay Thai gym then you can handle yourself.
Muay Thai is a practical system, and will build on your existing boxing experience. That said though, I find that the quality of the instruction tends to be more important than the system itself. It’s also worth noting that training for sport and self defense will have different focus as well, so you want to find a club that’s more oriented on the practical side of things. Regular sparring is particularly important in my opinion, because that’s how you start developing intuition for timing and distance, as well as getting used to being hit.
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I’m trying to get [email protected] going for this reason.
Muay Thai would be an excellent choice.
To parrot what others have said: Quality of the gym is important.
Another thing I’d add is make sure whatever you choose has live sparring. This rule of thumb alone will eliminate 90% of bullshido gyms. Muay Thai would meet that standard.
Only counter argument I’d have against Muay Thai is the high injury rates. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5315252/
Not directly related but I found this talk really interesting and informative. Its about “liberation martial arts.” They mention Muay Thai occasionally. At 19:25 the interviewee talks about the origins of martial arts and how they were mostly just “off balancing” games and the “striking/submission” martial arts are creations of colonial/hegemonic cultures.
Just an interesting talk all round.
Thailand was never colonised.
Colonial cultures means the colonizers not the colonized. and as I said that part of the discussion was about the origins of martial arts and how they have changed and been regimented. So even though Thailand was never colonized it interacted with Colonial powers and the interaction caused changes in Muay Thai.
