WHAT IS MUAY THAI?

Question for you all:

You are in Thailand.

You are with a bunch of guys.

It’s a week night.

What is a must do?

Go to a strip club because it’s Thailand?

Fuck no!

What you should do is go to a Muay Thai Boxing Match!

We went through the hotel to book tickets at the Chiang Mai Boxing Stadium. For 1500THB each we got the VIP treatment, which is basically a kick ass seat for a kick ass view of the ring, AND all you can drink.

ALL YOU CAN DRINK? Works for me!

But what exactly is Muay Thai Choi?

Good question. Let’s do some learning today!

What is Muay Thai?

Muay Thai is a combat sport in Thailand that is also known as the “art of eight limbs”.

Why?

Because they used a combination of fists ,elbows, knees, shins which translates to 8 points of contact.

Muay Thai strategy often employs the art of attrition, i.e. trying to outlast your opponent.  Almost all techniques in Muay Thai uses the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick and punch.

Let me quickly go through each of the moves you can use in Muay Thai.

Art of Punching

Body punching is used less in Muay Thai because this exposes your head to counter strikes from your opponent.

True. Next time you get into a fight, only use kicks yo!

Side note – will be funny if I saw two muscular guys just using kicks on the streets.

Not funny?

Okay.

Fuck you.

Let’s move on to ELBOWS.

Elbows

The elbow is considered the most dangerous form of attack, because it can be used to cut an opponent’s eyebrow to draw block.

Why so violent?

It’s to block his or her vision.

Yes. It’s a combat sport. It’s supposed to be physical and dangerous.

The elbow can be used in many ways. To learn more about this, go to your local Muay Thai training centre =p

Shins

There are two common kicks used by fighters, a round house kick and a foot jab.

The roundhouse kick draws most of its power from rotating the hip (le father will be proud of this fact). However, most opponent will block this kick using it’s shin (ouch!).

The fighters do train by hitting their shins repeatedly against firm objects.

Just thinking about this makes me cringe. Shins hurt so much…

Knees

There are three main knee strikes:

• Jumping Knee Strike  where the boxer jumps UP and strikes opponent with the knee
• Flying Knee Strike where the boxer jump FORWARD and strikes the opponent
• Straight Knee strike is where the boxer just thrusts forward

Knees to the fact will definitely hurt like hell..these guys are damn though.

Rituals

Before the matches begin, the fighters usually perform a ritual called the Wai Khru Ram Muay.

This literally translates to “war-dance saluting to the teacher). When entering the ring, the fighters circle the ring in a counter clockwise direction and pray at eachc corner. Afterwards, they perform a personal ritual, where it looks like a dance to a foreigner (like me!)

Some of the rituals that were performed that night was quite interesting. I am a damn foreigner so I don’t know really get the movements, but was cool to watch it nonetheless.

Muay is an extremely violent sport, but if you are in Thailand this is a MUST SEE event.

It doesn’t hurt if you get the VIP package too, all you can drink!

Written from Chiang Mai, Anatara Apartment Suites on May 12, 2018