Thai Boxing
the Art of the Eight Limbs
Muay Thai: means “the Science of Eight Limbs”
as hands, shine, elbows and knees are used extensively in this Art.
Muay Thai is
also known as “Thai Boxing”. It is actually form of Kickboxing that has existed
for hundreds of years in Thailand and its primary techniques uses full body
contact punches and kicks.
It is
regarded as the national sports of Thailand.
The
translation of Muay Thai means the art of eight limbs. It is said to have been
born out of the ancient martial arts of Muoy Boran, which used punch and kicks
in a boxing ring. These Martial arts uses the hands, elbows, knees and shin to
execute an attack.
A
practitioner of Muay Thai (riak muay) thus has the ability to execute strikes
using eight “points of contact,”as opposed to “two points” (fists) in Western
boxing and “four points”(fists, feet)used in the primarily sport-oriented from
of martial arts.
To strike
and blind the opponent for both offensive purposes, small amounts of stand-up
grappling are used: the Clinch. Muay Thai
consisted of an arsenal of nine weapons – Head, fists, elbows, Knees and
feet-known collectively as na-wa arwud.
However in
modern Muay Thai both amateur and professional, head-butting an opponent is no
longer allowed.
Muay Thai is unique in the way it uses all parts of the body, including
the elbows and knees, for both training and competitions. Formal Muay Thai
techniques are divided into two groups:
1) Mae Mai or major techniques.
2) Luk Mai or minor techniques.
Muay Thai is often a fighting art of attrition, where
opponent exchange blow with one another. This is certainly the case with
traditional stylists in Thailand, but is a less popular form of fighting in the
contemporary world fighting circuit.
With the success of Muay Thai in mixed martial arts fighting, it has
become the de facto martial arts of choice for competitive stand-up fighters.
As a result, it has evolved and incorporated much more powerful hand striking
techniques used in Western style boxing and the Thai style of exchanging blow
for blow is no longer favourable.
Note: when Muay Thai fighters compete against fighters of
other styles (and if the rules permit it), they almost invariable emphasize
elbow (sok) and knee (kao) techniques to gain a distinct advantage in fighting.
Almost all techniques in Muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the
hip with each kick, punch and block.
The rotation of the hips in Muay Thai techniques and
intensive focus on “core muscles” (such as abdominal muscles and surrounding
muscles) is very distinctive and is what sets Muay Thai apart from other styles
of martial arts.
Coach Master Surje Gurung
"SuperFit Combat" Sports Gym - India
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