Muay Thai : Thai boxing

Muay Thai : Thai boxing

Muai Thai is a combat sport from Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. It is similar to other Indochinese kickboxing systems, namely pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and muay Lao from Laos. Descended from muay boran, muay Thai is Thailand's national sport.

The word muay derives from the Sanskrit mavya which means "to bind together". Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science 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 boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in other more regulated combat sports, such as kickboxing, boxing, and savate. A practitioner of muay Thai is known as a nak muay. Western practitioners are sometimes called nak muay farang, meaning "foreign boxer."

Techniques

Formal muay Thai techniques are divided into two groups: mae mai or major techniques and luk mai or minor techniques. Muay Thai is often a fighting art of attrition, where opponents exchange blows 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 where the Thai style of exchanging blow for blow is no longer favorable. Almost all techniques in muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, elbow and block.

Muay Thai Techniques - Punches

Muay Thai Punch Techniques tells you the way to effectively use fists, how to clench the fists, twisting the wrists techniques, and five categories of Muay Thai Kickboxing techniques in punches:

• Jab
• Straight Punch
• Swing
• Uppercut
• Hook

Muay Thai Techniques - Elbows

Muay Thai Elbow Techniques - It is about how can you properly use elbows to beat the opponent, Muay Thai elbow techniques mechanism, and eight types of elbow strikes in Muay Thai Boxing techniques:

• Sok Ti (Striking Elbow)
• Sok Tad (Perpendicular Elbow)
• Sok Hud (Levering Elbow)
• Sok Chieng (Diagonal Elbow)
• Sok Sab (Chopping Elbow)
• Sok Tong (Smash Downward Elbow)
• Sok Ku (Double Elbows)
• Sok Klab (Reverse Elbow)

Muay Thai Techniques - Knees

Muay Thai Knee Techniques - The way to efficiently use knees. Muay Thai knee techniques are divided into 7 categories:

• Kao Tone (Straight knee)
• Kao Dode (Jumping knee)
• Kao Nui (Small knee)
• Kao Kratai (Rabbit knee)
• Kao La (Farewell knee)
• Kao Lod (Lower knee)
• Kao Loi (Flying knee) 

Muay Thai Techniques - Kicks

Muay Thai Kick Techniques - There are 5 popular types of kick in Muay Thai Boxing techniques:

• Tae Tad (Side Kick or Round Kick)
• Tae Chiang (Diagonal Kick)
• Tae Kod (Hook kick or Down round kick)
• Tae Pub Nok (Kick to the outside of the knee joint)
• Tae Pub Nai (Kick to the inside of the knee joint)

Other than kicks in Muay Thai, we also use feet techniques to fight the opponent. We called foot-thrust, push kick, or Theep (in Thai). To describe the foot-thrust weapon, it is the method of bend at the knee, then quickly extending your leg to use foot or heel to attack the target.

Muay Thai Techniques - Mae Mai Muay Thai

Mae Mai Muay Thai (Master Tricks) - The main movement that you can use to defeat your opponent. These master tricks are consisted of 15 movements as follows:

• Salab Fan Pla (Cross-switch)
• Paksa Waeg Rang (Bird peeping through the nest)
• Chawa Sad Hok (Chawa throws spear)
• Inao Thang Grit (I Nao stabs his Grit)
• Yo Khao Prasumaru (Lifting the Sumer Mountain)
• Ta Then Kham Fak (Old man holding the melon)
• Mon Yan Lak (Mon supports the pillar)
• Pak Look Thoy (Impaling the stake)
• Dab Chawala (Extinguish the lamps)
• Jarakhe Fad Hang (Crocodile sweeps its tail)
• Hak Nguang Aiyara (Break the elephant’s tusks)
• Naka Bid Hang (Serpent twists its tail)
• Viroon Hok Glab (Bird somersaults)
• Khuanyak Jab Ling (The giant catches the monkey)
• Hak Kor Erawan (Break the elephant’s neck)

Muay Thai Techniques - Look Mai Muay Thai

Look Mai Muay Thai (Complimentary Tricks) - The supplement moves to use in the match. The old qualifications teachers had divided Look Mai Muay Thai to 15 Mai.

• Erawan Suey Nga (Elephant thrusting its tusks)
• Batha Loob Pak (Foot touches face)
• Khun Yak Pa Nang (Giant steals the girl)
• Prarama Nao Sorn (Rama pulls the arrow string)
• Graisorn Kham Huai (Tiger descends into the stream)
• Kwang Liew Lang (Deer looks back)
• Hiran Muan Pan Din (Mountain overturns earth)
• Nak Mood Badan (Serpent sneaks to the ocean kingdom)
• Hanuman Thawai Waen (Hanuman the monkey king presents the ring)
• Yuan Thod Hae (Vietnamese casts a fishing net)
• Thayae Kham Sao
• Hong Peek Hak (Swan with broken wings)
• Sak Phuang Malai (Threading the flower garland)
• Then Kwad Lan (Monk follower sweeps the floor)
• Fan Look Buab (Slicing the cucumber)

"Kon Muay" means the movements or the styles of using Muay Thai as the art of Fighting both of the attack and the defense, which are named by the characteristic of the usage. If using for example the attack called Knon Muay JuJom. If using for the defense or counter called Kon Muay-Kae. If using for the defense and counter by the fists called Kon Muay-Kae Mad, to defend and counter by the feet called Kon Muay-Kae Tao, to defend and counter by the knees called Kon Muay-Kae Kao, to defend and counter by the elbows called Kon Muay-Kae Sok. Mr.Yod Ruerngsa said about Kon Muay in the text book of Muay Thai -tamrab Parchao Suer the following:

In Popular Culture

Interest in Muay Thai has risen in the past ten years, due to the popularity of martial arts in film and television. The most notable practitioner of Muay Thai is martial arts sensation Tony Jaa. Yet one of the first popular films that included Muay Thai was Jean-Claude Van Damme's 1989 movie Kickboxer.

Muay Thai has been represented in quite a few fighting games as well. Sagat and Adon from Street Fighter, Joe Higashi and King and Hwa Jai from King of Fighters, Zack the DJ from Dead or Alive, Bruce Irvin fromTekken, Brad Burns from Virtua Fighter, and Jax Briggs from Mortal Kombat are all known to be practitioners of the martial arts. Muay Thai has also become popular in the movie industry with the release of The Ong Bak Trilogy, starring rising muay Thai star Tony Jaa. Chocolate, starring Yanin Vismistananda, is another martial arts movie demonstrating muay Thai's increasingly broad appeal.

Another reference to muay Thai is its use in the anime/manga, "Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple". Apachai Hopachai, one of the Masters of Ryozanpaku is called, in episode 48, "The Death God of the Muay Thai Underworld"; he is also shown to have difficulty controlling his power as well. This stems from his life-long exposure to ruthless opponents in death-match fights.

Muay Thai fighting contests not only include fighting bouts between 2 people. They also include Muay Thai competitions that are about a series of people competing and whoever displays (and posses) the best Muay Thai skills wins the competition and gets 1st place.