Muay Thai kickboxing is one of the most popular contact sport today. Like other spectator contact sports, such as boxing and MMA, Muay Thai kickboxing is getting very popular with the professional athletes getting a lot of attention as well as prize money.
Although you dont plan on becoming a professional Muay Thai fighter, you will find that the training involved in this contact sport can serve as a way for you to really have a great workout and keep your body healthy and lean.
Also, it will teach you some moves that will let you defend yourself.
So, here are some of the basic techniques that you need to learn when you are training in Muay Thai kickboxing.
First of all, the offensive techniques in Muay Thai make use of the fighters hands, feet, elbows and knees. They are basically used to hit the opponent and the clinch is often used for offense.
The clinch basically occurs when you get in your opponents circle of clinching range and inside their comfort zone. You can use the clinch to carry out knee strikes and short kicks from the inside of your opponents range. This is a very useful offensive technique as it can really outbalance your opponent and also hit them hard with your knees and short kicks.
You can use this technique to pound your opponents knees, ribs, stomach, as well as his or her legs. You need to keep in mind that the knees is a very popular technique in Muay Thai as it will provide maximum impact and pain even when you are close to your opponent. This is why Muay Thai fighters spend a lot of time training their strikes, especially the knee strike and elbows as they are quite deadly when it is executed perfectly.
Although the high kicks to the head seems great to watch, you will often hear Muay Thai fighters say that the knees and elbows provide a lot more impact and do more damage to the opponent. If you practice your knee and elbow strikes, you will be able to easily end the fight with a TKO or KO.
The roundhouse kick is another handy technique that you should learn as a Muay Thai fighter. It can be used for offense or defense and it can prove to be a very efficient technique when used and executed properly.
The low kick is another technique that Muay Thai fighters use frequently. This is used to kick the opponents thigh and upper shin area in order to soften your opponents stand. By executing this technique properly, you will be able to gradually weaken your opponents feet and eventually score a KO.
You need to keep in mind unlike other martial arts style, such as Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai emphasizes to follow through with the kicks in order to give more power and cause more damage. Also, you will be using your shin instead of the foot as this will damage the opponent more.
Although the techniques executed in Muay Thai are a lot slower than any other form of martial arts, you will find that if executed properly and you hit your opponent solidly, it can potentially end the fight early.