Introduction to Traditional Muay Thai
Muaythai ( Thai Boxing) is the Thai name for a form of hard martial art practiced in several Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Cambodia (where it is known as Pradal Serey), and Malaysia (where it is known as Tomoi) and as a similar style in Myanmar (called Lethwei).

The different styles of fighting in mainland South East Asia are analogous to the different types of Kung Fu in China or Silat in the South East Asian islands or Malay World. It is the national sport of Thailand, and is also known as Thai Boxing or Art of the Eight Limbs.
Sports Muay Thai
Sports Muay Thai is ring based sport. With fighters developing their skills competitively.
Traditional Muay Thai
Traditional Muay Thai takes in all aspects of the martial art, both spiritually and physically. Learning and developing the ancient techniques and forms. Also studying the Thai weapons, arts and culture. This can be for all ages and abilities.
 
Terminology
  • Nak Muay Muay Thai fighter
  • Kru or Khru Khru Instructor or trainer
  • Khru Yai or Kru Yai More advanced trainer or teacher
  • Arjarn Master
  • Arjarn Yai Grand Master
Wai Kru
Ram Muay - The Ram Muay is the pre-fight ritual conducted after the Wai Kru. It is a dance that the fighter performs to traditional music. In ancient times, the Ram Muay was used as a warm-up before a fight, but it is now performed prior to the beginning of a Muay Thai match.
Pra Jiad - A type of armband worn by Muay Thai fighters. The Pra Jiad gives good luck and confidence to the athletes. Some Muay Thai fighters prefer to wear one Pra Jiad, while others wear two. In some Western Muay Thai gyms colored Pra Jiad are used to show rank, much like the colored belt system used in Karate, Taekwondo, etc., although other methods of showing rank may be used.

Mong Kon - Headgear worn by Muay Thai fighters to signify those whom their teachers feel have learned many of the skills and techniques of Muay Thai. They are presented at ceremonies honoring the fighters and are to be worn only in the ring during fights.

However, they must never fall on, be close to or held near the ground as doing so will cause the Mong Kon to lose its magic. The student is never allowed to touch or handle the Mong Kon. Only his Kru or Ajarn may handle it.

The trainer will take care of the headgear, will present the band to the fighter just before a competition and will recover it from him at the conclusion of the match. In the past, one could tell the school from which a fighter originated based on the color and style of his Mong Kon.

Krang Ruang - A Pra Jiad that has special meaning to the person wearing it. It could be anything from a piece of their father's hair to a swath from their mother's sarong.

Puang Malai - Floral wreaths that are given to a fighter before a fight by friends or fans. They look somewhat like the Hawaiian Lei.
Pre-fight rituals

Even before entering the ring many fighters perform rituals. Some may kneel before the ring; others might pray with their coach or by themselves or perform a series of repetitive movements, such as touching the ring ropes 3 times.

Thai boxers always climb over the top rope when entering the ring, because in Thai culture the head is considered to be more important than the feet, which are thought to be dirty. It is therefore important to always have the head above the feet while entering the ring. Once in the ring, a fighter might go to the center and bow to each side.

Now begins the Wai Kru ritual or (Wai khru ram muay). The Wai Kru usually starts with the fighter walking around the ring, counter-clockwise. This could be described as "sealing the ring", showing that the match is between only these two combatants.

The ritual is both practical and spiritual. In a practical sense, it prepares the body for combat. During the Wai Kru there are many different movements and steps that a fighter might perform before the match, along with stretches. Some motions imitate, for example, a swallow, a hunter, a soldier or an executioner.

Some fighters use this ritual to attempt to scare their opponents, commonly by stomping around them. But in a deeper sense, the fighter is expressing religious devotion, humility and gratitude. Transcending both physical and temporal limitations, he opens himself to the divine presence and allows it to infuse his heart and soul. In ancient times, the ritual was intended to show devotion to the King and the fighter's mentor.

Today, that devotion is given to the organizer of the match and the fighter's trainer. [1] The ritual also gives the fighter some time alone before the fight to collect his thoughts and concentrate on the task ahead.

After this dance, the fighter walks over to his coach who removes the Mongkon and the Pong Malai. The match begins after a review of the rules by the judge and a glove shake
Techniques
 
The basic offensive techniques in Muay Thai use fists, elbows, shins, feet, and knees to strike the opponent. To bind the opponent for both offensive and defensive purposes, small amounts of stand-up grappling are used: the clinch.

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. With the success of Muay Thai in mixed martial arts fighting, it has become the de facto martial art of choice for competitive stand-up fighters.

As a result, it has evolved in order and incorporated much more powerful hand striking techniques used in western style boxing, and the Thai style of exchanging blow for blow is no longer favorable. Note: when Muay Thai fighters compete against fighters of other styles (and if the rules permit it), they almost invariably emphasize elbow (sok) and knee (kao) techniques to gain a distinct advantage in fighting.

Almost all techniques in Muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, and block. The rotation of the hips in Muay Thai techniques, and intensive focus on "core muscles" (such as abdominal muscles) is very distinctive and is what sets Muay Thai apart from other styles of martial arts.
The Clinch

The clinch is applied by holding the opponent either around the neck and head or around the body, although clinching around the body is rare and is usually avoided.

The neck hold is usually called the Thai clinch. Clinching is extensively used in Muay Thai and sometimes the clinching goes on for a whole round, although it is very rare. In Western Boxing, the two fighters are separated when they clinch, in Muay Thai however, they are not separated. It is often in the clinch where knee techniques are used.

The clinch should be performed with the palm of one hand on the back of the other and not as shown in the picture 1. There are two reasons why the fingers mustn't be inter-twined. The first: in the ring you are wearing boxing gloves and wouldn't be able to inter-twine your fingers.

The Second is that the Thai clinch involves your forearms pressing together, almost like you were trying to cut off your opponents head, or press your elbows together. This is to get control of the opponents head/neck so you can move him around. If you intertwine your fingers it will be much harder (impossible unless you have superman like strength) to apply the amount of pressure on the neck needed to gain control.

A correct clinch also involves your forearms pressing against the other fighters' collar bone while your hands are around the opponents head rather than his neck
Defense against punches and kicks
Defensively, the concept of "wall of defense" is used, in which shoulders, arms and legs are used to hinder the attacker from successfully executing his techniques.

Blocking is a critical element in Muay Thai and compounds the level of conditioning a successful practitioner must possess. Low and mid body roundhouse kicks are normally blocked with the upper portion of a raised shin.

High body strikes are blocked with the forearm/glove, knee/shin. Mid section roundhouse kicks can also be caught/trapped, allowing for a sweep or counter attack to the remaining leg of the opponent. Punches are blocked with an ordinary boxing guard.
THE UPPERCUT
THE JAB AND THE CROSS
THE HOOKS
Elbow techniques
 

The elbow can be used in seven ways: horizontal, diagonal-upwards, diagonal-downwards, uppercut,downward, backward-spinning and flying.

From the side it can be used as either a finishing move or as a way to cut your opponent's eyebrow so that blood might block his vision.

The blood also raises the opponent's awareness of being hurt which could affect his performance. That's the most common way of using the elbow. The diagonal elbows are faster than the other forms, but are less powerful
The uppercut and flying elbows are the most powerful, but are slower and easier to avoid or block. The downward elbow is usually used as a finishing move.
There is also a distinct difference between a single elbow and a follow-up elbow. The single elbow is an elbow move independent from any other move, whereas a follow-up elbow is the second strike from the same arm, being a hook first with an elbow follow-up. Such elbows, and most other elbows, are used when the distance between fighters becomes too small and there is too little space to throw a hook at the opponents head
 
Kicking techniques
 

The teep (literally "foot jab," similar to a front kick) and the roundhouse kick are the two most common kicks in Muay Thai

 

The Muay Thai roundhouse kick has been widely adopted by fighters from other martial arts. The roundhouse kick uses a rotational movement of the entire body.

Thai boxers are trained to always connect with the shin. While sensitive in an unconditioned practitioner, the shin is the strongest part of the leg. The foot contains many fine bones and is much weaker. A fighter may end up hurting himself if he tries to attack with his foot.

Muay Thai also includes other varieties of kicking, such as the crescent kick, side kick or spinning back kick. But these are rarely used compared to the teep and the roundhouse kick

 
Knee techniques

Kao Dode (Jumping knee strike) - the Thai boxer jumps up on one leg and strikes with that leg's knee.

 

 

Kao Loi (Jumping or Flying knee strike) - the Thai boxer jumps up or takes step(s), springs up off one leg and in mid-air switches to the other knee to strike. A quite spectacular sight when it connects.

 

 

Kao Tone (Straight knee strike) - the Thai boxer simply thrusts it straight upwards. According to one written source, this technique is somewhat more recent than
Kao Dode or Kao Loi .Supposedly, when the Thai boxers fought with rope-bound hands rather than the modern boxing gloves, this particular technique was subject to potentially vicious cutting, slicing and sawing by an alert opponent who would block it or deflect it with the sharp "rope-glove" edges or sometimes by the glass glued onto the "rope-gloves". This explanation also holds true for some of the following knee strikes below as well.

 

Kao Noi (Small knee strike) - the Thai boxer hits the inside upper thigh (above the knee) of the opponent when clinching. This technique is used to wear down the opponent or to counter the opponent's knee strike or kick.

 
Conditioning
 
Like most competitive full contact fighting sports, Muay Thai has a heavy focus on body conditioning.

Muay Thai is specifically designed to promote the level of fitness and toughness required for ring competition. Training regimens include many staples of combat sport conditioning such as running, shadowboxing, rope jumping, body weight resistance exercises, medicine ball exercises, abdominal exercises and in some cases weight training.
Training that is specific to a Muay Thai fighter includes training with coaches on Thai pads, focus mitts, heavy bag, and sparring. The daily training includes many rounds (3-5 minute periods broken up by a short rest, often 1-2 minutes) of these various methods of practice. Thai pad training is a cornerstone of Muay Thai conditioning which involves practicing punches, kicks, knees, and elbow strikes with a trainer wearing thick pads which cover the forearms and hands. These special pads are used to absorb the impact of the fighter’s strikes, and allow the fighter to react to the attacks of the pad holder. The trainer will often also wear a belly pad around the abdominal area so that the fighter can attack with straight kicks to the body at anytime during the round.
Focus mitts are specific to training a fighter’s hand speed, punch combinations, timing, punching power, defense, counter-punching and are also used to practice elbow strikes.

Heavy bag training is a conditioning and power exercise that reinforces the techniques practiced on the pads.

Sparring is a means to test technique, skills, range, strategy, and timing against a partner. Sparring is often a light to medium contact exercise because competitive fighters on a full schedule are not advised to risk injury by sparring hard. Specific tactics and strategies can be trained with sparring including in close fighting, clinching and kneeing only, cutting off the ring, or using reach and distance to keep an aggressive fighter away.
Due to the rigorous fighting and training regimen (some Thai boxers fight almost every other week) professional Muay Thai fighters have relatively short careers in the ring.

Many retire from competition to begin instructing the next generation of Thai fighters. Most professional Thai boxers come from the lower economic backgrounds and the fight money (after the other parties get their cut) is sought as means of support for the fighters and their families.

Very few higher economic strata Thais join the professional Muay Thai ranks; they usually practice the sport as amateur Muay Thai boxers.
History
 
Muay Thai is considered by some to be a derivation of a general indigenous martial art style native to Southeast Asia. Muay Thai was the first of these styles to be popularized outside of Southeast Asia
Muay Thai began as Krabi Krabong, the Siamese weapon-based style. When disarmed, Krabi Krabong practitioners resort to unarmed fighting techniques centered on kicks and judo-like throws.

Developing through time and natural evolution of the art, it gave birth to Muay Boran, the ancient style Muay Thai. As the basis of battlefield warfare evolved technologically, hand-to-hand combat was no longer required within the military.

Muay Boran was divided to Muay ThaSao (North), Muay Thai Korat (Esarn or Northeast), Muay Thai Lobburee (Center region) and Muay Thai Chaiya (South).

Muay Korat emphasizes strength. There is one technique called "Throwing Buffalo Punch", called this because it can supposedly defeat a buffalo in one blow.

Muay Lobburee emphasizes clever movements. Its strong points are the straight and turned punches.

Muay Chaiya emphasizes posture and defense, as well as elbows and knees.

Muay Thasao emphasizes in speed, particularly in kicking. Because of their faster speed, this Muay Boran was called "Ling Lom" (windy monkey or Loris).

Muay Thai became a sporting martial art, kept alive in Thailand as a competitive sport, and for many, Muay Thai has become a way of life.

Traditionally in the past, Muay Thai was used as entertainment to kings.
It is thought by some sources that the gloves were made out of wrapped twine, tar, and broken pieces of glass to ensure a bloody event, however it is still a subject of debate . Some argue that the notion of incorporating broken glass into the gloves of a Muay Thai fighter could have been taken from a Jean Claude Van Damme movie.

Others suggest it was abrasives such as ground glass and sand that covered the gloves, rather than actual pieces of broken glass
Nai Khanomtom
 


Nai Khanomtom was a famous practitioner of Muay Thai who figures in a story common in Muay Thai circles. Around 1774, he was captured along with other Thai prisoners, either in a skirmish or at the fall of the ancient capital of Siam ( Thailand's name at that time) of Ayutthaya. He was brought to Rangoon in Burma, where the Burmese king Mangra was holding a religious festival in honor of Buddha's relics. The festivities included many forms of entertainment. King Mangra was reported to be curious to see how the various fighting styles of Burma and other countries would compare. At one point, he wanted to see how Muay Thai (or Muay Boran) would compare to the Burmese art (Bama Lethwei). Nai Khanomtom was selected to fight against the Burmese champion. Nai Khanomtom did a Wai Kru (wai khru ram muay) pre-fight dance which puzzled all of the Burmese. When the fight began, he charged out and using punches, kicks, elbows, and knees, quickly pummeled the Burmese.
The referee (Gamagan) was reported to have stated that the Burmese opponent was distracted by the Wai Kru, so the knockout was invalid. The King then asked if Nai Khanomtom would fight nine other Burmese champions to prove himself. He agreed and fought them all, one after the other. The last Burmese was reputed to be a great boxing teacher. Nai Khanomtom defeated them all in a superior fashion. King Mangra was so impressed that he remarked, "Every part of the Thai is blessed with venom. Even with his bare hands, he can fell nine or ten opponents. As his lord master was incompetent, the country was lost to the enemy. If his lord had been any good, there was no way the City of Ayutthaya would ever have fallen." He granted Nai Khanomtom freedom along with either riches or two beautiful Burmese wives. Nai Khanomtom chose the wives as he said that money was easier to find. He then departed with his wives for Siam ( Thailand). Other variations of this story had him also winning the release of his fellow Thai prisoners.
His feat is celebrated every March 17 as "Boxer's Day" or "National Muay Thai Day" in his honor and that of Muay Thai's.