Muay Thai 101: The fundamentals

Muay Thai 101: Practicing the basics

Muay Thai is considered to be (and I believe it is) one of the most effective forms of stand-up/striking self defence on the planet.

Over the years we have had thousands of people come through our doors with an interest in training some form of kickboxing. These people come to us because they’re looking for something fun and exciting that will get them fit, build their confidence and learn some form of self defence.

The challenge that most people face when it comes to learning a martial art such as Muay Thai is it can be quite complex. Even though it looks simple (not easy, simple), there are a lot of details that determine how well you perform, how fit you get and how much you learn.

Muay Thai, like any other form of training is based around good movement principles, focus and the ability to endure discomfort in a range of ways.

What separates the beginners from the advanced apart from time on the mats, is a mastery of the basics.

Everyone wants to throw their first spinning back elbow or superman punch as soon as they get started. Those things are great and can be super effective. But you will never know how to use them properly without mastering a few elements first.

If you are currently training Muay Thai or it’s something that is on your mind, then you should learn and apply the following 6 fundamentals to your training.

When you take the time to master these 6 things, your fitness, strength, confidence and ability to defend yourself rise to levels that you never thought were possible.

The 6 Fundamentals of Muay Thai:

1 – Great Footwork

Your foundation is everything. It keeps you balanced, it’s where your power comes from, it creates and drives your speed. Without it, your entire arsenal of punches, kicks, knees, clinching and elbows will fall apart.

There is no right way to master your footwork because it is such a diverse series of movements.

Not only that, every coach you have will have their own variation.

The most important thing is that you stay balanced, on the balls of your feet and have a nice rhythm to your movements.

Find your home (the starting position of your feet) and every time you move, make an effort to get back home as quickly as possible so that you are ready for the next strike or defence.

2 – Keep your guard up

Your guard is what protects your head from being hit and also is where all of your strikes start from. Make sure that when your guard is up, your gloves are touching your forehead. A strong guard is simply creating a strong structure that a punch, kick, knee or elbow cannot penetrate. If you have a weak structure, you have a weak guard.

There are of course many ways to hold your guard. But seeing as you are a beginner, this is where we all start. Learn the basics and master them before moving on to the next step.

3 – Twist don’t lean

A punch is about more than just hitting the target or your opponent as hard as you can. It’s about balance, control, speed and defence.

Whenever you throw a punch you need your body to move in a certain way. Your goal is to twist from the ground up.

Twist your heel (pivot), turn your hip (drive), push your shoulder through and turn your chest.

Whenever you throw a kick, you want to be tall, on the ball of your foot, pivoting your heel, rolling your hip and driving your knee through the strike. Not leaning back or to the side.

If you focus on creating the right movement, rather than just making contact with the pad or bag really hard, you will find a much more effective style of striking.

The mistake that most people make is underestimating the length of their punches, so they lean forward to try and hit harder. This is a mistake.

So pull yourself up every time you notice your head moving past your knees. Remind yourself, “twist, don’t lean”.

Complete the movement & the power will come. Force the power and the movement will fail.

4 – Pack the box

Similar to making sure your feet find their home after every strike or movement, your guard needs to do the same.

The term “pack the box” refers to bringing your guard back to your head as soon and as efficiently as possible.

Whenever you throw a strike of any kind (Punch, kick, knee, elbow), you run the risk of getting hit yourself. Which means you have a very small window to complete your strike or combo and then return to a strong defensive position. As well as protecting the areas of your body/head that would be vulnerable if you guard was to drop.

By making sure that you “pack the box” you teach yourself that your hands need to come back to your guard in the best way possible. And that should be in a straight line. The shorter the line, the faster your combos become and the more effective your striking will be.

The better you pack the box, the more effective the next strike/combo will be.

5 – Aim

Hand eye coordination is a skill. It needs to be practiced and developed continuously for mastery to occur.

When hitting pads, hitting accurately is extremely important.

When sparring, hitting accurately can be the difference between an inside leg kick and a devastating blow to the groin.

See your target, aim for it, hit it and follow through on it.

A common mistake is to make contact with the target and then follow through to the left or right, because of the direction that you happen to be leaning (twist, don’t lean).

6 – Breathe

As simple as this one sounds, it is something that you need to be aware of and that you need to practice.

Your breath has an unbelievable amount of control and effect on your bodies physiology.

Meaning, it has an effect on your level of fatigue, your heart rate, your balance, your focus and so much more.

Learn to breathe on every strike. Not just OUT, but IN as well.

When you are in control of your breath, you are in control of your body, and when you are in control of your body you have the ability to choose how you move, in which direction, with a level of accuracy and finesse that you would not have had otherwise.

These 6 fundamentals when applied and practiced, can be the difference between you being great at kickboxing for fitness classes or you becoming a true martial artist.

67448316_2483488911710859_6904467795870744576_o

￩￫ x

Denee Lalouette2019-09-29T14:05:13+10:00

About the Author: Denee Lalouette

A UFT PLAYground is a place that people of all shapes, sizes and ages learn to develop their movement abilities through an infinite learning and development program. UFT PLAYgrounds have been created to re-inspire our natural ability to move, create, adapt, re-act, connect, have fun and of course PLAY. PLAYgrounds have been developed to allow people to feel and explore their own abilities by utilising a multidimensional, infinite, creative and PLAYful approach to training. We live in a world full of specialists and obsessions. At an ever increasing rate, people are specialising more and more, in their jobs, in their businesses, in their sport and in their training. The result, is a backward step in human evolution. By specialising, we limit ourselves to thinking that 1 particular way of doing things is the right way, or the only way. We promote creativity, not only in movement and training methodologies but in thinking in general. A UFT PLAYground is created to provide the general public with an opportunity to PLAY across multiple styles of training and moving, to be able to progress in the training methods that they become passionate about or that excites them and to be a part of a community that promotes more than just fitness. The “fitness” industry above all others has brought about a need to specialise in order to achieve anything, and majority of what we do for “fitness” is for an aesthetically pleasing reason. We understand that aesthetics are nice and we too love to look and feel good. However a UFT PLAYground is developed to allow people to move better than ever before across a broad range of training methodologies and ideas. Aesthetics, therefore are a result not a goal of that system. We know that “If you train to look good, you will not always enjoy what you do, but if you PLAY a lot, and do the things that you love, you will ending up looking good”. Aesthetics should be a result not a goal. For years now, we have recognised that the best movers on the planet are children. They are flexible, mobile & fit, they have better relative strength than a typical adult (and even most adolescents), they are the best creators and innovators, they learn faster, the adapt better, they interact better with other people, they are more connected to nature and most importantly, they PLAY more than anyone else. As adults, we tend to believe that because we are taller and more experienced in “life”, we are better, and then we get to an age that says we are “too old to PLAY”. As we grow taller (and in a lot of cases rounder), we experience things that inhibit our ability to move, think and not think. We allow our experiences to limit our abilities as humans, whether it be a physical injury, a story that we heard or a youtube video that we watched. We also allow our emotions to control our behaviour because of our past experiences. Maybe it was the feeling of humiliation when we tried something new, regret when we failed or heart break when it was taken away from us. Because of this, we allow our experiences to control our future instead of learning from them and creating our own . This is what UFT PLAYground’s are built on. The understanding that we as humans need to go back to the way things were before our negative experiences took over our subconscious mind and body. A UFT PLAYground gives people the ability to re-learn what they have lost, as well as develop new sets of skills that will allow them to follow any particular passion that they uncover in PLAYtime. When we PLAY, we are simply, exploring. Through exploring we become curious and through curiosity we become obsessed or passionate about a particular thing. This is why in a PLAYground we allow people to PLAY across a broad range of training systems (minimum of 3), Through this system they are able to identify 1, their current limitations and be educated on how to overcome them, and 2, identify their passions and learn to develop, grow and excel in them. UFT PLAYgrounds are also a development centre for up and coming entrepreneurs in the fitness industry. Each PLAYground founder will have been trained and will be continuously trained in UFT’s Trainer Success System. This system allows personal trainers, coaches, teachers, instructors, etc. to continue to develop in their fields of specialty (as they play they will find it) and in the philosophy of PLAYtime. They will also be trained in the business systems of UFT in order to have their own successful and profitable business. See UFT Trainer Success System for more details.