Muay Thai~Powerful Fighting Technique

How can we train a group of outstanding Muay Thai masters with the top ten training techniques?

Although Muay Thai may give people a "barbaric" image to some extent, in reality, it is an extremely scientific martial arts system, and this "barbarism" is only a misunderstanding of Muay Thai. For many years, the reason why Muay Thai has always been unbeaten is that its skills are reasonable and meet the practical requirements of combat, and secondly, it has a strict and comprehensive training system. Their training methods are all designed for real struggles, so they are highly targeted. It is this systematic, useful, and effective training technique that has created a group of outstanding Muay Thai masters.

The following training methods cover multiple aspects such as martial arts, skills, physical fitness, flexibility, speed, accuracy, etc. (also known as the top ten training techniques in Muay Thai). It is a detailed component of a Thai boxer's full gymnastics training plan, which is worth learning from.

Long distance running

The most obvious impression a Muay Thai boxer gives is that they have abundant physical strength and tenacious fighting spirit. They are able to fight more and more bravely, as if they have endless strength. Any strong hand will be dragged down by them, because they have put in satisfying efforts in developing endurance. Long distance running is one of the outstanding methods used to enhance endurance, and after long distance running, leg muscles and cardiovascular system can be directly trained. Some work boxers also practice long-distance running in the scorching sun to strengthen endurance and exercise willpower. No matter how you run, you must run for about an hour every day.

skipping rope

Muay Thai fighters often practice endurance and improve their flexibility by jumping rope. Beginners need to jump for at least 3 rounds, while working boxers need to jump for at least 5 rounds. Jumping rope can also be used to enhance hand foot coordination and enhance the function of the respiratory system. Skipping rope is an outstanding way to lose weight, but when it comes to weight loss, it is generally necessary to practice wearing leather weight loss clothing.

Kicking and striking trees

In modern Thai boxing practice, this almost barbaric method is now less commonly used, but in rural Thailand, this strong welding method is still useful. Boxers often use their feet to push and hit tree trunks, in order to exercise their foot hardness and lethality. Meanwhile, some rural boxers still use horizontal kicking of banana trees or other tree trunks to exercise their kicking power and enhance their leg damage.

Kicking sandbags

This is the most important practice technique in modern Thai boxing. Through hitting or kicking sandbags, it can not only strengthen the hardness of the fist, feet, elbows, and knees, but also be used to practice tactics. As you can treat sandbags as a real "opponent" to strike, you can use heavy fists or legs to strike under the guidance of lighter feints, or combine fists and feet for continuous impact, or combine boxing and elbow techniques, and so on. In addition to using feints to attract the opponent's attention, your heavy fists or legs need to penetrate the sandbag to strengthen your determination to attack. Beginners need to fight for at least 3 rounds, while working boxers need to fight for at least 5 rounds.

In Muay Thai, accuracy and speed of movements are often practiced through hitting targets, and significant improvements are made in impact strength and adaptability. In addition, the role of improving distance and capturing accurate impact timing cannot be ignored. When practicing in detail, one can still perform boxing combination impact exercises, leg combination impact exercises, and even boxing leg combination impact exercises, etc. Beginners need to fight for at least 3 consecutive rounds, while working boxers need to fight for at least 5 rounds, with a 1-minute break between each round.

shadow boxing

If gravity is constantly used to hit heavy sandbags or sturdy trees, it will inevitably affect the flexibility and speed of the movement,

So many Muay Thai boxers use "shadow boxing" (also known as striking shadows) to practice the coherence and circulation of attacks. Of course, once the opportunity arises, it is necessary to use a series of fierce attacks like sweeping leaves with strong winds to completely defeat the opponent. This kind of fierce attack, like a flood of broken embankments, can be trained through "Shadow Fist" until all movements are trained to an "instinctive" state. There are many detailed impact methods for Shadow Fist, such as boxing combinations, boxing leg combinations, boxing knee combinations, or elbow knee combinations, and so on.

Angular force

Also known as "tangdou" practice, it is mainly used to practice close combat skills, such as locking the opponent's head and neck with both hands and performing knee strikes, or suddenly using fist techniques to severely injure the opponent after dislocating the opponent's neck band movement, and so on. Many foreign boxers fear the "difficult" close combat techniques of Thai boxers, or rather, they are not accustomed to this physically demanding fighting method, which is exactly what Thai boxers excel at. This kind of close up hugging, throwing, necking, dislocating, hugging, and pulling technique not only exercises the strength of the waist and horse, but also plays a crucial role in enhancing the stability of the horse. The most famous move in Thai boxing is the "neck and knee collision" in close combat.

The foreign Muay Thai king demonstrated a fighting process in which he first controls the opponent's head and neck with both hands, and then applies a knee strike.

When a Muay Thai boxer wants to practice a new skill or move, they usually need a partner to cooperate, also known as a "feeding move". For example, when practicing a straight punch counterattack, they need to wear a helmet and have their partner use a right lateral kick to attack. I quickly approach the opponent, causing the heavy kick to fall or fail, and at the same time, I decide to use the right straight punch to accurately lightly hit the opponent's head

Alternatively, one can first avoid the opponent's punching impact, then press the head and unleash the power of the knee technique to attack, which is a classic Thai boxing fighting move demonstrated by internationally renowned women's free combat and Muay Thai champion Kim Messer. At the beginning, you can lightly tap and gradually increase your speed to prevent hurting the opponent and gradually improve your skills.

Muay Thai places great emphasis on the practice of combat, which can be divided into two types: one is conditional practical combat. For example, when a boxer's boxing skills are weak, they can use their boxing techniques to steadily improve their skills. The other type is real combat, where both sides wear full protective gear and engage in free combat to verify and improve their skills. Fancy movements will be improved or removed through practice. Furthermore, regular combat practice is also one of the useful measures to accumulate experience. As kung fu is achieved through physical exertion, it is only through frequent "fighting" that one can become proficient and even instinctive in their movements.

It is precisely because of wearing protective gear at the beginning of the practice that boxers dare to shake their hands and fight, without shrinking their hands and feet during the struggle. This ensures that the boxer will not be injured, and it also helps to practice the boxer's decisiveness and determination in attacking. As he does not have to worry about hurting his partner, his movements will naturally be maximized. Afterwards, it is time to practice without wearing protective gear (as shown in the picture, but the intensity should still be gradually increased from light to heavy.).

Body strengthening exercises

After doing push ups and sit ups to strengthen the muscles and strength, this type of sit up can be divided into various types, such as allowing partners to use foot targets to hit the abdomen downwards, synchronously improving muscles and resistance to impact.

In addition, it is possible to enhance the body's hardness and impact resistance by directly hitting the body with a fist or foot. For example, one side can move forward and charge, while the other side can quickly lift their legs forward and push forward. Of course, the force of the push can be from light to heavy, allowing the person being kicked to have a transitional process, thereby enhancing their fighting spirit and resistance to the impact

During the detailed training process, the boxer does not practice the above content once a day, but instead conducts decomposition exercises. As the boxer does not have time, he may not be able to ensure the quality of his movements by practicing everything every day. For example, practicing skills on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and practicing skills on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th points, etc., all of which need to be categorized according to the detailed training stages. Before the competition, one class needs to add some practical training content.

Until now, Muay Thai has become quite popular in other parts of the world except for China. Countries such as Japan, the United States, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Australia, Russia, etc. hold large-scale national level Muay Thai competitions every year. As these countries all consider Muay Thai to be a true sport of the brave in contemporary times, it is extremely useful in cultivating the courage and agility of practitioners to improve their ability to struggle. Starting from 4 years ago, China has also begun to introduce Muay Thai and has taken the lead in conducting Muay Thai training in the Jiancha system. Throughout today's Sanda competition, it is not difficult to see the shadow of Muay Thai. It can be said that the prospect of Muay Thai's development in China is quite promising. As Kung Fu enthusiasts have increasingly recognized the powerful power of Muay Thai.

The author has been studying and studying Muay Thai in Thailand since 1994, and it has not been continuous for more than 10 years. It can be said that he has benefited a lot, greatly enriching his original skills in Jeet Kune Do and free combat, and using this to guide my students and team members. Many of my students have won championships in provincial, Hong Kong, and Macau Muay Thai or free combat competitions. Because I came to Thailand to study Thai boxing in person before writing about it, and have had countless experiences of communicating with Thai boxers on the same stage, I have a certain level of experience and a deeper understanding of teaching Thai boxing. I would like to contribute this to the reference and learning of Thai boxing enthusiasts and Sanda enthusiasts. I also hope that through the publication of this book, it can have a correcting and guiding effect on people's incorrect understanding of Muay Thai in the past, or on Muay Thai enthusiasts who have now been misled.

Muay Thai Elbow Strike: Prohibited Techniques on the Competition Field

Muay Thai elbow strike, this offensive method, has the reputation of sweeping the boxing ring on the arena. Its strong killing power and terrifying damage make Thai boxing elbow strikes the primary prohibited move.

How scary is Muay Thai elbow strike? You must have heard of these sayings: "It's better to get ten punches than one elbow", "elbow over like a knife", "kill thirteen elbows", "one elbow determines the universe"

Elbow strike is a commonly used "killing move" that Thai boxing players are proud of, which can be said to make all wrestlers who fight against it pale when talking about "elbow". So why is this so-called "strongest standing combat technique" most mesmerizing with elbow strikes? What is its charm?

Elbow strike power

Elbow technique is called "Suo" in Thailand. In Thai, the Suo Gong elbow is a gathering point for the strength of the waist, elbow, and leg. It has a strong explosive force and a strong impact force. Once severely hit by the elbow, it can cause bone and blood damage, and in severe cases, it can result in soul and death. Therefore, the martial arts community calls it "deadly elbow".

Elbow strike, literally meaning it, is an impact made by using the elbow as an offensive weapon. In Muay Thai, the movements of elbow strikes mainly include lifting the elbow, sweeping the elbow, smashing the elbow, and so on. The primary method of exerting force for these movements is to rotate the body together with the rolling force of the waist. The elbow strike of Thai boxing can be used not only at close intervals, but also at medium to long intervals for offense. Muay Thai's elbow strike has its unique characteristics. Firstly, elbow strikes have great strength. Due to the fact that the elbow is one of the strongest parts of the human body, the impact force of elbow strikes is very strong. Secondly, the range of elbow attacks is also very wide. Whether it is close range close combat or mid to long range fist and foot attacks, elbow strikes can play a significant role.

The elbow strike technique of Muay Thai is not like the conventional offensive movements such as straight fist and whip leg in combat competitions. It is more often used as a close range kill technique, often causing the opponent to suffer a painful result of being KO or terminating the competition. Its power is far greater than the damage caused by fists and kicks.

Before understanding the true power of elbow strikes, we need to know which part of the elbow joint is responsible for such great destructive force, and it is the key to making elbow strikes so strong and sharp!

Elbow joint skeleton

Elbow joint structure: The elbow joint is composed of the lower end of the humerus, olecranon fossa of the ulna, radial head, joint capsule, and ligaments. When the elbow joint is flexed at a right angle, the epicondyle of the humerus and the olecranon of the ulna form an isosceles triangle, known as the posterior elbow triangle. The joint capsule of the elbow joint is relatively loose, with radial and ulnar collateral ligaments on both sides of the capsule. The posterior side of the capsule has the olecranon fossa, and below the capsule there are the coronal process fossa and radial collateral fossa.

Try to touch your elbow joints and you will find that with just a thin layer of skin arranged around them, the rest is simply solid bones. Its unique structure is also the result of ancient hunting and killing evolution.

A sturdy eagle beak bone

As an ancient Thai boxing technique, elbow strike is widely used in practical combat, and is famous for its power in close combat. In competitions, players usually use the inner circle tactic, using footsteps and body rolling to keep their opponents within their own elbow range. Elbow strikes can play an important role in offensive and defensive transitions, as they can be used to break the opponent's defense or counterattack during defense.

In close combat, the killing power of elbow strikes primarily comes from the strength of the arm bones, which form a sharp blade like attack at the elbow and can easily break the opponent's skull and brain. This is also a sturdy risk weapon in the human body structure. Its sharpness is evident, and it is also known as "elbow over like a knife" in the martial arts world.

Elbow over like a knife

The reason why elbow strikes are considered the most deadly in combat competitions is still because the elbow is simply full of bones. Skeletons are primarily composed of a combination of organic and inorganic substances, which can maintain the hardness of bones. If steel is compared to the hardness of nine, then the hardness of human bones is roughly between 4-5. The pressure that human bones bear is 40 times that of concrete, and they can crush sturdy skulls. This terrifying killing power is no wonder there is a saying that "ten fists are better than one elbow"

The most powerful weapons are often those that are stopped, and Thai boxing elbow strikes are not an exception. In some competitive sports, hitting the head and back of the head, and using elbow strikes are prohibited. In some pure Thai boxing (ancient Thai boxing) competitions in Thailand, the original fighting methods are still preserved. Elbow strikes often make the opponent's flesh and blood blur, and the field is bloody, making the situation too violent and cruel to stop using.

The power of human elbow strikes far exceeds your imagination. The use of elbow strikes also has its weaknesses, which is the ability to play to advantages with short intervals. For Muay Thai players, regardless of the distance between opponents, elbow strikes can always find the right time to quickly counterattack and kill with one strike!

The Practical Application of Muay Thai Elbow Strike

Close range combat

In close range combat, elbow strikes have significant advantages. It can quickly hit the target and inflict heavy damage on the opponent. The commonly used moves include "lifting the elbow", "smashing the elbow", etc.

Real combat in the middle

In intermediate combat, the killing power of elbow strikes is equally astonishing. With agile steps and correct moves, one can effectively break through the opponent's defense. The commonly used moves include "horizontal elbow", "lifting elbow", etc.

Long distance combat

Although the power of elbow strikes may be weakened in long-range combat, they can still play an important role in specific situations. For example, when the opponent jumps up and attacks, they can use their elbow agility to counterattack and disrupt their attack.

The Application Techniques of Muay Thai Elbow Strike

Muay Thai elbow strike uses full body strength, which is concentrated at the elbow through the rolling of the waist and legs, producing strong strength.

The timing of using Thai boxing elbow strikes is crucial, often attacking when the opponent loses balance or at precise intervals, in order to maximize the power of the elbow strikes.

The strike strategy of Thai boxing elbow strikes is often the weakest part of the human body, such as the head, abdomen, armpits, ribs, etc. Once these parts are severely hit, it can easily constitute serious damage.

The elbow strike technique in Thai boxing requires a high level of skill and accuracy, as the perspective, strength, and body position of the elbow strike can affect the effectiveness of the attack. In competitions, elbow strikes are often used as a last resort, as the value of using elbow strikes is often very high. If caught by the opponent, the competition will be lost.

The basic skills of elbow strike include offensive methods and defensive counterattack techniques. The methods of offense include frontal elbow strike, counter elbow strike, and turn around elbow strike, among which frontal elbow strike is the most commonly used skill. Defensive counterattack techniques include dodging, blocking, and luring, requiring players to have outstanding reaction speed and agile footsteps. The use of Muay Thai elbow strike combines elements such as full body strength, precise timing, superb skills, and attacking the weakest parts# Muay Thai#

As one of the important skills in Muay Thai, Thai elbow strike is a very risky technique that requires a high level of skill and experience to be applied. Having unique charm and practical value Ten fists are no match for one elbow! One hit KO?