What is Muay Thai – Thai Boxing
Muay Thai is a form of martial art originally from Thailand. It originated around the 13th century among the country’s military and has since then evolved as a versatile art form. People worldwide train themselves in this form of self-defense at reputed academic centers.
Muay Thai is often referred to as the ‘Art of eight limbs,’ primarily because it involves eight contact points of the body. These include kicks, punches, knees, and elbows. So, Muay Thai is different from karate, which includes four points — the feet and the fists. It is also different from boxing with two points — the fists.
What are the Muay Thai techniques?
Muay Thai has evolved over centuries and is now a combat sport that people all over the world practice and admire. It encompasses some elements of traditional boxing, as the players need to put on padded boxing gloves. Based on the time limit, they engage in 3 to 5 rounds. The players fight on a squared platform or a rink and need to adhere to well-defined norms.
In general, one can classify the techniques into three categories. These include defense, attack, and countering.
Gaining expertise in Muay Thai calls for consistent practice. It is through continual effort that you can embed the skills into your muscle memory.
- – The techniques of attacking include clinches, push kicks, kicks, knee strikes, elbow strikes, and punches.
- – Defense techniques include lean backs, blocks, dodges, leg catches, and deflections.
- – Countering or attacking will warrant the combination of elements from both these categories.
Benefits Of Muay Thai
- – Burns Calories: Muay Thai training will keep you active and agile. Each training session lasts between one to two hours. During this period, you need to warm up, work on the drilling techniques, practice shadow boxing, do heavy bag work, and complete your strength training exercises. Within a couple of hours, you will end up burning more than 1000 calories, which helps in weight reduction.
- – Learn Self-defense: When you train yourself in Muay Thai, you will master both defense and attacking techniques. Besides, Muay Thai originally came from military warfare, so its goal is to cause pain to the opponents while securing oneself from attacks. As a result, you will learn to use your knees, elbows, and legs to disarm the attacker, meaning Muay Thai will serve as a great weapon of self-defense.
- – Develop Body Strength: Muay Thai strengthens the body. The training involves strength training, pad work, bag work, shadow boxing, and other conditional exercises. Also, you will warm up by running for three to five kilometers. All these training sessions will give you a strong body.
Muay Thai in UAE
Fitness enthusiasts can attend any of the following reputed training institutions in the UAE for valuable lessons in Muay Thai.
