»Introduction
Now we are going to learn Muay Thai training. This section will give you only guidelines on how to start practice Muay Thai from basic. However, it is very neccessary to apply for a Muay Thai gym to get the real practice, looking for a good gym near by your home town. It is also possible to learn from multimedia resource, such as DVD, VDO to see the real movments and techniqus so you can follow the practice accurately but the real practice with Kru (teacher) and boxing partners will help you to learn quickly and effectively and this only happend in the camp.
»Morals and Disciplines
I belive that all of martial arts were created for only one purpose; to protect ones from harm and danger, if there is no harm or danger, there is no need to fight, except when the martial arts have become a kind of professional sports, then we have competitions. However, there are some morals and disciplines whether thay are only Muay Thai learners or professional boxers, they must keep these morals in mind and perform as long as they are Muay Thai boxer.
» Make yourself to be helpful to others.
» Always be polite to others.
» Not irritate others.
» Be honest to yourself and others.
» Be patient, never be discourage when facing problems.
» Be punctual and maintain the reputation of the one's training camp.
» Do not take advantage from opponent during the competition.
» Respect to the law
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»Muay Thai weapons
Originally, Muay Thai weapons consists of head, fists, elbow, knee and feet. Eventhough using head to attack (head butt) is not allowed in professional competition these days, but you can still learn how to attack by using head for self-defence.
Attacking methods--terms and vocabularie
There are basic key terms that we use calling part of the body and technique usage related to them as Muay Thai weapons.
Mud = Fists
Sork =
Elbow
Khao = Knee
Tao = Foot
Technique
Punch = Chok
Elbow Strike = Tee Sork / Fun Sork
Knee Kick = Tee Khao
Kick = Tae
Foot-Thrust = Theeb
There are also some more words, which will be used frequently in training programmes. There might be different words for differen masters or Kru, but only silghtly different in what they called, while the principles and meaning are the same.
Jod = Muay Thai stance, ready for the fight.
Wong Nai = To fight by keep closer to the opponent.
Wong Nok = To fight by keep stay away from the opponent.
Sueb Tao =
To move forward
Mae Mai = To attack opponent by using Muay Thai techniques
Look Mai = Techniques that adapted from Mae Mai technques
Mai Tai = To Use very deadly techniques and opponent has no chance to defend.
Thoy = To step backward, prepare to defend
Koo Tor Su = opponent
Chang Wa = Chance to attack
Na Kaeng = Shin
Kad = same meaning as "guard", to lift arms for position ready to fight.
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»Training Equipments
Equipments for training are very neccessary for Muay Thai. You can not practice alone without additional equipments. Using equipments are not only for improve your skill but most importantly is for your safety.
Here is the list of fundamental equipments to be used for training. Some equipments ar for training camp to provide to stdents and some are for individual responsible to have in personal.
» Heavy bags
The heavy bags used in training to practice most kind of Muay Thai wepons as well as practice movements. Bags can be varied in weight and size, depends on level, age of students. Most camps normally provide heavy bags for students. It is also possible to have heavy bags at home but it requires larger space install and practice.
» Hand wrapping stripe
They are used for the safety, your hands need to be firmly wrapped before you wear boxing gloves. This is to protect hands from sprain.
picture by www.muaythaistuff.com
» Boxing gloves for training
Boxing gloves for training can be varied from 12, 14, 16 ounce. However, there should be another set of gloves for only practice punching heavy bag.
picture by www.muaythaistuff.com
» Ankle supports
It is for protect ankles from sprain. Generally, Ankle supports are also allowed in the competition. You may also need shin guards to protect shins.
picture by www.muaythaistuff.com
» Boxing skipping rope
Although, all camps will provide this to students, but it is also a good idea that you should have your own to exercise at home. Other equipments that you may need is small barbell to get muscles exercise.
picture by www.muaythaistuff.com
» Groin protector
As all of boxers are aware that this must be used all of the time even it is just a training. It is also suggested to use a mouth-guard for training sessions.
picture by www.muaythaistuff.com
» Other equipments
However, there are
some other equipments, for example, head guard or hand pad, but these are not necessary to have your own, the camps will provide you all of these equipments.
picture by www.muaythaistuff.com
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»Clenching the Fist
» How to clench your fists
It is very necessary to learn how to clench your fists correctly in order to use them effectively and safely. Clench your fists improperly may cause injuries with hands and fingers. The power of the punch could will increase if you clench the fist correctly. Please follow these following steps.
1. Holding your 4 fingers first (except the thumb), then bend the nuckle and bring youe finger tips towards your palm.
2.
Move the thumb place firmly on the fore finger.
3. Hold fists firmly and tense your wrist when you punching.
» Hand-Wraps
It is essential that you first apply the hand-wraps to both fists before wearing gloves. As I mentioned above that clench your fists correctly is very important, but hand wrapping is much much more important. This is because ineffective hand wrapping will not only cause serious injury during the fight or training, but also effects to your arms and fists movements, which related to overall performance.
Hand wrapping method has to accomodate boxer to wear boxing gloves comfortably and allow boxer be able to use punch effectively. Boxer have to balance the weight of boxing gloves and weight of hand wrapping material and make sure it will fit their most comfortable the total weight of gloves and wraps must not too heavy or not too light.
The lenght, width and thickness of wrapping materials are also important. They need to fit to boxer's hand, too short stripe may not wrap the entire hand and too long may generate unnecessay weight to boxer's hands as well as uncomfortable. It is a responsibility for each of boxer to try and test which kind of wrapping material, how long and how thickness that will fit to them for the best performance.
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»Getting start
Prepare yourself Now we are about to start to learn basic principle of Muay Thai, like any other kind of sports, you need to prepare yorself fit to make sure you ready for trainings as well as start to learn to get to know your organs and use them as weapons. Here is the list of important organs that need excercise continuously, if you think you never give exercise to these organs, it's time to start. head, shoulder, elbow, arms, palms, fists, finger, knees, shins, feet, heels and hips. Apart from give exercise to these specific parts of your body, and the best way to excercise is running. You can start from jogging for about 1-2 km./day and continuously increase the distance when you fell you are ready to do so. Important : do not be too rush, you need time to prepare yourself ready for the training, when I first start training when I was 12, I did nothing but running and a bit of exercise of those mention above for about 1-2 months before I start to get the real practice. And here is the lesson for beginners about streching and conditioning before training.The video demonstration provide guidelines and instruction on how to exercise your body including basic warm up, muscle relax and flexible.
You may also interested in articles about training, read more about;
»Favorite drills
»More training drill
»Muay Thai Stacne (Jod Muay)
The Muay Thai stance is about the basic position represent you are ready to fight. The Muay Thai stance, in the past, have many of forms depens on it's origin varieties such as Muay Chaiya, Muay Korat etc. Today, the remaining Muay Thai stance of these kind can be seen in Muay Thai shows, not in the ring fight. However, the correct form of Muay Thai stance used in ring fight also vary despite the description on how to do Muay Thai stance are identfied but boxers are always adapt the form to fit to their style.
The basic form of Muay Thai stance
Head : Bend down your head a bit to protect your chin
Eyes : Always looking at you opponent and focus on which point you are going to attach as well as assess the opponent's movements.
Arms : Both lead arms and rear arms shift to protect upper part of your trunk
BE CAREFUL! : do not keep your arms too close to the face. I have personal experience that my Kru punch me straight to the arm guard then my arms bump to hit my face instead.
Body : Do not bend down too much, keep body straight a bit to keep eyes focus to the opponent.
Hand/Fists :Raised to the eyebrow level to protect your face. Extend lead fist to the front. Normally, lead arm will more extend than rear arm depends on whether you are right-handed boxer or left-handed boxer, and some boxers may extend his arm equally.
Feet: Same as positioning your fists, if you are right-handed boxer use left foot as a lead foot pointing towards opponent, if you are left-handed boxer use right foot as a lead foot pointing towards opponent.
To avoid to be a target, do not stay still when you are in Muay Thai stance. You should keep moving on footwork and be ready to protect yourself from attack and give the response.
