It is often very evident that people forget that the meaning of the word “martial” is military or combative. This Means that many martial arts were taught for the purpose of allowing practitioners to excel and succeed in combative endeavors (though not all “martial arts” that exist today were in fact historically “martial” in nature). It is understood that some people, in joining a martial arts school/gym, are just looking for something to do; a potential belt to gain; or a club; gym or group to belong to; or they have some other non-combative purpose for enrolling in and participating in martial arts programs.
However, the vast majority of the people, looking to enroll, in any true Muay Thai class are more likely to be interested in acquiring true combative skills for self-protection, and competition/fighting, and it would be a disservice to them to merely learn traditional techniques, that have no modern-day efficacy (especially in today’s landscape of MMA gym’s and in some cases “traditional” martial arts school’s now cross-training in other complimentary styles), that won’t lead them to being successful in competition, or especially on the street.
The other thing to remember, especially when talking about Muay Thai is that it’s not an art based on showy techniques, or belt promotion. Muay Thai is, historically, primarily a combative art; where your progress, skills, and success are solely measured by your ability to fight. Success in Muay Thai is based on learning to have an aggressive, dominant, destructive, fighting mentality; and the willingness to damage and dominate/“destroy” another living being.
In Thailand, traditional Muay Thai stylists began training anywhere from ages 7-10, and spend years banging and beating on each other for no other purpose than conditioning their bodies to withstand the pain and punishment that can potentially be dished out by another human being. That’s the mentality of Muay Thai, not just sport, but combat; destructive painful combat.
I have therefore set about to create a Muay Thai system non-traditional in nature but still able to impart all the necessary skills and mentality to be combat successful. In America, it would be nearly impossible to teach “traditional” Muay Thai, because we all know that Americans don’t want to learn (or voluntarily agree to subject their children to the kind of long-term abuse described above) this way, and don’t have the mentality to allow this much punishment to be inflicted upon them.
They’d never again show up to train if this was the manner in which they were being instructed. And, because the vast majority of the beginning Muay Thai students I’ve encountered don’t have much, if any combat or martial arts experience at all, they’re really not ready to have their bodies “conditioned” in this manner. So how do you get around this “traditional” Muay Thai teaching mentality, without cheating my students out of body conditioning, and technique training? And how do we bring our students to proficiency in the techniques we teach, and get the light to go on for our students so that they will understand when and where to apply these techniques. That’s where good curriculum modification comes in. Here are some key areas where Combat Muay Thai differs from traditional Muay Thai.
1. STANCE – Blended Stance which is mostly traditional Muay Thai, but the body is more bladed than squared – head, hands, and shoulders squared/semi-squared to opponent, and standing on the balls of the feet, lead hand a little further away from the body, than the rear hand – this stance has a lower/more squat center of gravity (which will help in takedown defense…i.e. the Muay Boran Stance), and footwork borrowed from western boxing to allow for more mobility. The toes are turned 45 degrees, instead of facing the opponent (compared to traditional Muay Thai). The turned in toes allows for easier and faster defense of leg (inner and outer) kicks, and for better takedown defense.
2. FOOTWORK – A) “Step and Glide” (front and back, side to side, and diagonal). B) Circular stepping; both types of footwork are borrowed from Western boxing. C) Pivot stepping. D) “V” stepping. E) Pendulum Stepping. F) “Switch” stepping. Constant, consistent footwork drilling is an absolute necessity. Consider that in “traditional Muay Thai there is not a lot of footwork or movement. Fighters, due to their supreme body conditioning and hardening, often stand directly in front of one another, and strike (mostly the more devastating techniques of roundhouse kicks, knees and elbows) until one fighter is unconscious or otherwise unable to continue fighting.
Thai fighters train for this type of conditioning for decades, but the downside is that they are forced to retire, nearly crippled and have a very poor quality of life (often by around age 35), due to this extreme body conditioning. In recent years, some of the more progressive Muay Thai schools in Thailand have been brining in western boxing coaches to teach their fighters better footwork, to improve movement in the ring, to cut down the beatings their fighters take over the course of their training and fighting careers, and thereby hopefully improve their quality of life after fighting.
3. PUNCHING – Jab (quick, and lead straight/power jab), Cross, Lead Hook, Rear Hook, uppercut, overhand, and shovel punch. Students learn strikes in singles, and in combinations (traditional and random/non-traditional combinations). This sounds more like western boxing techniques, but not only have many traditional karate schools started incorporating these techniques(and been doing so for many years), but also the most highly rated Muay Thai school in Thailand and most highly regarded around the world has been bringing western boxing coaches for past few years.
This is the Fairtex Academy, and they as well as most good Thai schools realized years ago, that Thai Boxers would lose to western boxers, because the other primary weakness of “traditional” Thai boxing has always been the arts hand skills, or lack thereof. Despite Muay Thai being the art of the eight limbs/appendages, the hands are weak in the traditional art. Therefore most good schools have brought in the hands of western boxing, and modified the skill-set as necessary for their combative sport. This is also what I’ve done in Combat Muay Thai. Punching with precision, speed, and power will be emphasized as well as fighting “in the pocket”, and throwing multi-punch, multi-level combinations.
Continued with part II
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Grant Bacon is Head Instructor and Co-Founder of The Truth in Combat Method and Delaware Combat University. He is a Certified Level II PFS Jeet Kune Do Concepts and Filipino Kali Instructor.
Grant has many years of grappling, weapons & amature MMA fighting experience.
