Muay Thai (มวยไทย)

Fighters perform the Wai Khru Ram Muay before an amateur Muay Thai match.
Also known as	Thai Boxing, Thai Kickboxing
Focus	Striking
Country of origin	Thailand
Parenthood	Muay Boran, Krabi Krabong
Famous practitioners	Tony Jaa, Buakaw Por.Pramuk, Diesel Noi, Apidej Sit Hrun, Ramon Dekkers
Olympic sport	No

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Muay Thai (Thai: มวยไทย, RTGS: Muai Thai, IPA: [muɛ̄j tʰɑ̄j]) is a hard martial art from Thailand. It is similar to other Indochinese styles of kickboxing, namely pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and Muay Lao from Laos. The art has a long history in Thailand and is the country's national sport. Muay Thai as it is practiced today varies significantly from its ancestor muay boran, such as in its use of gloves similar to those worn in Western boxing.
The word muay derives from the Sanskrit mavya and Thai comes from the word Tai. Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in Western boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in sport-oriented martial arts. A practitioner of Muay Thai is known as a nak muay. Western practitioners are sometimes called nak muay farang meaning foreign boxer.

History

Origins

Various forms of kickboxing have long been practiced throughout mainland Southeast Asia. Based on Chinese and khmer martial arts,^[1] practitioners claim they date back two thousand years. Cambodia, one of the most influential countries in Indochina, may have been instrumental in spreading the art across the region. In Thailand, Muay Thai evolved from muay boran (ancient boxing), an unarmed combat method which would probably have been used by Siamese soldiers after losing their weapons in battle. Some believe that the ancient Siamese military created Muay Thai from the weapon-based art of krabi krabong but others contend that the two were merely developed alongside each other. Krabi Krabong nevertheless was an important influence on Muay Thai as can be seen in several kicks, holds and the movements in the wai khru which have their origins in armed combat.
Muay Boran, and therefore Muay Thai, was originally called dhoi muay or simply muay. As well as being a practical fighting technique for use in actual warfare, muay became a sport in which the opponents fought in front of spectators who went to watch for entertainment. These muay contests gradually became an integral part of local festivals and celebrations, especially those held at temples. It was even used as entertainment for kings. Eventually, the previously bare-fisted fighters started wearing lengths of hemp rope around their hands and forearms. This type of match was called muay kaad cheuk (มวยคาดเชือก).
Muay gradually became a possible means of personal advancement as the nobility increasingly esteemed skillful practitioners of the art and invited selected fighters to come to live in the royal palace to teach muay to the staff of the royal household, soldiers, princes or the king's personal guards.^{[citation needed]} This "royal muay" was called muay luang (มวยหลวง). Some time during the Ayutthaya period, a platoon of royal guards was established, whose duty was to protect king and the country. They were known as Grom Nak Muay (Muay Fighters' Regiment). This royal patronage of muay continued through the reigns of Rama V and VII.

Modernization

The ascension of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) to the throne in 1868 ushered in a golden age not only for muay but for the whole country of Thailand. Muay progressed greatly during the reign of Rama V as a direct result of the king's personal interest in the art. The country was at peace and muay functioned as a means of physical exercise, self-defense, recreation, and personal advancement.^{[citation needed]} Masters of the art began teaching muay in training camps where students were provided with food and shelter. Trainees would be treated as one family and it was customary for students to adopt the camp's name as their own surname. Scouts would be sent by the royal family to organise matches between different camps.
King Rama the VII pushed for codified rules for Muay Thai, and they were put into place. Thailand's first boxing ring was built in 1921 at Suan Kularp. Referees were introduced and rounds were now timed by clock. Fighters at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium began wearing modern gloves during training and in boxing matches against foreigners. Rope-binding was still used in fights between Thais but after the occurence of a death in the ring, it was decided that fighters should wear gloves and cotton coverlets over the feet and ankles. It was also around this time that the term Muay Thai became commonly used while the older form of the style was referred to as muay boran. With the success of Muay Thai in mixed martial arts, it has become the de facto martial art of choice for competitive stand-up fighters. As a result, western practitioners have incorporated much more powerful hand striking techniques from boxing although some Thai purists accuse them of diluting the art.

Techniques

Formal Muay Thai techniques are divided into two groups: Mae Mai or major techniques and Luk Mai or minor techniques. Almost all techniques in Muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, elbow and block.

Punching (Chok)

English	Thai	Transliteration	IPA
Jab	หมัดตรง	Mud Trong	mɑd troŋ
Hook	หมัดเหวี่ยงสั้น	Mud Wiang San	mɑd wɪɑŋ sɑn
Swing	หมัดเหวี่ยงยาว	Mud Wiang Yao	mɑd wɪɑŋ jɑːo
Spinning Backfist	หมัดเหวี่ยงกลับ	Mud Wiang Glub	mɑd wɪɑŋ ɡlɑb
Uppercut	หมัดเสย ( หมัดสอยดาว )	Mud Seuy	mɑd sɣɪ
Cobra	กระโดดชก	Kra-dod Chok	ɡrɑ doːd tʃoɡ

The punch techniques in Muay Thai were originally quite simple being crosses and a long (or lazy) circular strike made with a straight (but not locked) arm and landing with the heel of the palm. Cross-fertilization with Western boxing ideology mean the full range of western boxing ideology punches are now used: jab, straight right/cross, hook, uppercut, shovel and corkscrew punches and overhands as well as hammer fists and back fists.

Elbow (Tee sok)

The elbow can be used in several ways as a striking weapon: horizontal, diagonal-upwards, diagonal-downwards, uppercut, downward, backward-spinning and flying. From the side it can be used as either a finishing move or as a way to cut the opponent's eyebrow so that blood might block his vision. The blood also raises the opponent's awareness of being hurt which could affect his performance. This is the most common way of using the elbow.

English	Thai	Transliteration	IPA
Elbow Slash	ศอกตี	Sok Tee	sɔ̀ːk tīː
Horizontal Elbow	ศอกตัด	Sok Tud	sɔ̀ːk tàd̥
Uppercut Elbow	ศอกงัด	Sok Ngud	sɔ̀ːk ŋád̥
Forward Elbow Thrust	ศอกพุ่ง	Sok Poong	sɔ̀ːk pʰûŋ
Reverse Horizontal Elbow	ศอกเหวี่ยงกลับ	Sok Wiang Glub	sɔ̀ːk wìːaŋ klàb̥
Spinning Elbow	ศอกกลับ	Sok Glub	sɔ̀ːk klàb̥
Elbow Chop	ศอกสับ	Sok Sub	sɔ̀ːk sàb̥
Double Elbow Chop	ศอกกลับคู่	Sok Glub Koo
Mid-Air Elbow Strike	กระโดดศอก	Gra-dode Sok

There is also a distinct difference between a single elbow and a follow-up elbow. The single elbow is an elbow move independent from any other move, whereas a follow-up elbow is the second strike from the same arm, being a hook or straight punch first with an elbow follow-up. Such elbows, and most other elbow strikes, are used when the distance between fighters becomes too small and there is too little space to throw a hook at the opponent's head. ===Kicking (Tae)===

English	Thai	Transliteration
Straight Kick	เตะตรง	Tae Trong
Roundhouse Kick	เตะตัด	Tae Tud
Diagonal Kick	เตะเฉียง	Tae Chiang
Half-Shin, Half-Knee Kick	เตะครึ่งแข้งครึ่งเข่า	Tae Krueng Kheng Krueng Kao
Spinning Heel Kick	เตะกลับหลัง	Tae Glub Lang
Down Roundhouse Kick	เตะกด	Tae Kod
Axe Heel Kick	เตะเข่า	Tae Khao
Jump Kick	กระโดดเตะ	Gra-dode Tae
Step-Up Kick	เขยิบเตะ	KhaYiep Tae

The two most common kicks in Muay Thai are known as the teep (literally "foot jab") and the teh (kick) chiang (kicking upwards in the shape of a triangle cutting under the arm and ribs) or angle kick. The Muay Thai angle kick uses a rotational movement of the entire body and has been widely adopted by practitioners of other martial arts. It is superficially similar to a karate roundhouse kick, but omits the rotation of the lower leg from the knee used in other striking martial arts like karate or taekwondo. The angle kick draws its power entirely from the rotational movement of the body. Many fighters use a counter rotation of the arms to intensify the power of this kick.
If a roundhouse kick is attempted by the opponent, the Thai boxer will normally check the kick, that is he will block the kick with his own shin. Thai boxers are trained to always connect with the shin. A fighter may end up hurting himself if he tries to strike with his foot or instep. However, there have been cases of fighters injuring their shins while hitting with their shins such as shin on shin or checking side kicks and injuring or breaking the shin.
Muay Thai also includes other varieties of kicking such as the side kick and spinning back kick. These kicks are only used in bouts by some fighters. Like Tae Kwon Do and Karate, the Muay Thai side kick is often executed by first raising the knee of the leg that is going to kick in order to convince the opponent that the executor is going to perform a teep or front kick. The hips are then shifted to the side to the more traditional side kick position for the kick itself. ===Knee (Tee kao)^[2]===

English	Thai	Transliteration
Straight Knee Strike	เข่าตรง	Kao Trong
Diagonal Knee Strike	เข่าเฉียง	Kao Chiang
Curving Knee Strike	เข่าโค้ง	Kao Kong
Horizontal Knee Strike	เข่าตัด	Kao Tud
Knee Slap	เข่าตบ	Kao Tob
Knee Bomb	เข่ายาว	Kao Youwn
Jumping Knee	เข่าลอย	Kao Loi
Step-Up Knee Strike	เข่าเหยียบ	Kao Yiep

• Kao Dode (Jumping knee strike) – the boxer jumps up on one leg and strikes with that leg's knee.
• Kao Loi (Flying knee strike) – the boxer takes a step(s), jumps forward and off one leg and strikes with that leg's knee.
• Kao Tone (Straight knee strike) – the boxer simply thrusts it forward but not upwards, unless he is holding an opponents head down in a clinch and intend to knee upwards into the face. According to one written source, this technique is somewhat more recent than Kao Dode or Kao Loi.^{[citation needed]} Supposedly, when the Thai boxers fought with rope-bound hands rather than the modern boxing gloves, this particular technique was subject to potentially vicious cutting, slicing and sawing by an alert opponent who would block it or deflect it with the sharp "rope-glove" edges which are sometimes dipped in water to make the rope much stronger. This explanation also holds true for some of the following knee strikes below as well.

Foot-thrust (teep)

The foot-thrust or literally "foot jab" is one of the most commonly-used techniques in Muay Thai. It is mainly used as a defensive technique to control distance or block attacks. Foot-thrusts should be thrown quickly but yet with enough force to knock an opponent off balance.

English	Thai	Transliteration	IPA
Straight Foot-Thrust	ถีบตรง	Teep Trong	tʰìːb̥ tròŋ
Sideways Foot-Thrust	ถีบข้าง	Teep Kang	tʰìːb̥ kʰâːŋ
Reverse Foot-Thrust	ถีบกลับหลัง	Teep Glub Lang	tʰìːb̥ klàb̥ làŋ
Slapping Foot-Thrust	ถีบตบ	Teep Tob
Jumping Foot-Thrust	กระโดดถีบ	Gra-dode Teep	kràʔ dòːd̥ tʰìːb̥

Clinch & Neck Wrestling (Djab-ko)

In Western boxing the two fighters are separated when they clinch; in Muay Thai, however, they are not. It is often in the clinch where knee and elbow techniques are used.
Muay Thai has several other variants of the clinch, including:

• arm clinch: One or both hands controls the inside of the defender's arm(s) and where the second hand if free is in the front clinch position. This clinch is used to briefly control the opponent before applying a knee strike or throw
• side clinch: One arm passes around the front of the defender with the attacker's shoulder pressed into the defender's arm pit and the other arm passing round the back which allows the attacker to apply knee strikes to the defender's back or to throw the defender readily.
• low clinch: Both controlling arms pass under the defender's arms, which is generally used by the shorter of two opponents.
• swan-neck: One hand around the rear of the neck is used to briefly clinch an opponent before a strike.^{[citation needed]}

 

Defense against attacks

Defenses in Muay Thai are categorised in 6 groups:

• Blocking – defender's hard blocks to stop a strike in its path so preventing it reaching its target (eg the shin block described in more detail below)

• Redirection – defender's soft parries to change the direction of a strike (eg a downwards tap to a jab) so that it misses the target

• Avoidance – moving a body part out of the way or range of a strike so the defender remains in range for a counter-strike. For example, the defender moves their front leg backwards to avoid the attacker's low kick, then immediately counters with an angle kick. Or the defender might lay their head back from the attacker's high angle kick then counter-attacks with a side kick.

• Evasion – moving the body out of the way or range of a strike so the defender has to move close again to counter-attack, eg defender jumping back from attacker's kicks

• Disruption – Pre-empting an attack eg with defender using disruptive techniques like jab, foot-thrust or low angle kick (to the inside of the attacker's front leg) as the attacker attempts to close distance

• Anticipation – Defender catching a strike (eg catching an angle kick to the body) or countering it before it lands (eg defender's low kick to the supporting leg below as the attacker initiates a high angle kick).

Punches and kicks

Defensively, the concept of "wall of defence" is used, in which shoulders, arms and legs are used to hinder the attacker from successfully executing techniques. Blocking is a critical element in Muay Thai and compounds the level of conditioning a successful practitioner must possess. Low and mid body roundhouse kicks are normally blocked with the upper portion of a raised shin. High body strikes are blocked with the forearm, glove, elbow or shin. Mid section roundhouse kicks can also be caught/trapped, allowing for a sweep or counter attack to the remaining leg of the opponent. Punches are blocked with an ordinary boxing guard and techniques similar, if not identical, to basic boxing technique.

Conditioning

Like most competitive full contact fighting sports, Muay Thai has a heavy focus on body conditioning. Muay Thai is specifically designed to promote the level of fitness and toughness required for ring competition. Training regimens include many staples of combat sport conditioning such as running, shadowboxing, rope jumping, body weight resistance exercises, medicine ball exercises, abdominal exercises, and in some cases weight training. Muay Thai practitioners typically apply Namman Muay liberally before and after their intense training sessions.
Training that is specific to a Muay Thai fighter includes training with coaches on Thai pads, focus mitts, heavy bag, and sparring. The daily training includes many rounds (3-5 minute periods broken up by a short rest, often 1–2 minutes) of these various methods of practice. Thai pad training is a cornerstone of Muay Thai conditioning which involves practicing punches, kicks, knees, and elbow strikes with a trainer wearing thick pads which cover the forearms and hands. These special pads are used to absorb the impact of the fighter’s strikes and allow the fighter to react to the attacks of the pad holder. The trainer will often also wear a belly pad around the abdominal area so that the fighter can attack with straight kicks or knees to the body at anytime during the round.
Focus mitts are specific to training a fighter’s hand speed, punch combinations, timing, punching power, defense, and counter-punching and may also be used to practice elbow strikes. Heavy bag training is a conditioning and power exercise that reinforces the techniques practiced on the pads. Sparring is a means to test technique, skills, range, strategy, and timing against a partner. Sparring is often a light to medium contact exercise because competitive fighters on a full schedule are not advised to risk injury by sparring hard. Specific tactics and strategies can be trained with sparring including in close fighting, clinching and kneeing only, cutting off the ring, or using reach and distance to keep an aggressive fighter away.
Due to the rigorous training regimen (some Thai boxers fight almost every other week) professional Muay Thai fighters have relatively short careers in the ring. Many retire from competition to begin instructing the next generation of Thai fighters. Most professional Thai boxers come from the lower economic backgrounds, and the fight money (after the other parties get their cut) is sought as means of support for the fighters and their families. Very few higher economic strata Thais join the professional Muay Thai ranks; they usually either don't practice the sport or practice it only as amateur Muay Thai boxers.

Rules

Muay Thai is practiced in many different countries and there are different rules depending on what country the fight is in and under what organization the fight is arranged. The following is a link to the rules section of the Sports Authority of Thailand.

Use in other martial arts

Kickboxing

Muay Thai along with savate, karate, and taekwondo heavily influenced the development of kickboxing in Japan, Europe, and North America. American kickboxing does not allow kicks below the waist.

Mixed martial arts

Starting in the 1990s, Muay Thai has enjoyed a boost in popularity worldwide as it has been very effective in mixed martial arts training and competition. Mixed martial artists such as Mauricio Rua, Wanderlei Silva, and Anderson Silva have combined many striking elements of Muay Thai with Grappling, Wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu into a hybrid that has been highly effective in their fights. Anderson Silva has been noted as using a higher center of gravity than most Mauy Thai practitioners, which he has said came from his Tae Kwon Do training.
Along with Karate, Muay Thai is slowly gaining popularity in the UFC as well. In the early days of the UFC, many titleholders relied on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling to subdue their opponents but over the past several years a few fighters who claim Muay Thai as their main fighting style such as Anderson Silva have been the titleholders.