How Is Muay thai And kickboxing differant?
Heya 
. I am very interested in martial arts and would love to take up a couple very soon, but just wanna know about Kickboxing and muay Thai as I would like to take up one of these 2, what are there differances? They look the exact same to me, anyone know more about them? I am not the most knowlegable person on martial arts. Many thanks
Muay thai IS kickboxing by definition.
Competition wise, muay thai and kickboxing have different rules, for instance:
Muay thai allows the clinch, knee and elbow strikes, and kicks to the legs , whereas kickboxing tipically does not.
Muay Thai allows elbow strikes where as your standard kickboxing does not. Muat Thai is also a lot more ritualized in the pre-fight.
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Well for starters the stance is slightly different. Kickboxing is similar to boxing in stance whereas thai boxing has its hands closer to the eyebrows and sometimes keeps their hands open. Thai boxing allows kicks to the legs as well and elbow and knee strikes. Last but not least, there are no back handed strikes but their are clinches (grabbing the neck with the forearms to attack opponent, very dangerous to get caught in) which is almost a definite win if you get someone in one.
References :
Muay thai IS kickboxing by definition.
Competition wise, muay thai and kickboxing have different rules, for instance:
Muay thai allows the clinch, knee and elbow strikes, and kicks to the legs , whereas kickboxing tipically does not.
References :
my brain
The stance of Muay Thai is very distinct.
The cat stance.
The way you block.
The way you throw punches and kicks.
Best way is to watch some Traditional Muay Thai fights on youtube, then watch some Straight Kickboxing fights on youtube.
I wouldn’t watch K-1 because alot of fighters are hybrids of both styles, so it is hard to see the clear difference.
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muay thai, the training (traditionally) is different, they kick with their shin, so they kick trees to deaden the nerves and make the shin bone more dense ( I have seen many videos of legs breaking after being checked by a muay thai student’s shin). also some of the kicks are different and/or started differently.. like would start as a straight kick then move to a side kick.. also, muay thai does allow knees and elbow strikes and that is probably the biggest difference, but both if taught right are a devastating martial art, as long as you stay away from cardio kickboxing which just goes through the motions with no real technique/strategies taught.
References :
a good source believe it or not is Fight Girls.. it’s actually training footage of women learning from Muay Thai legend Master Toddy… also, MTV made had an epsiode where dude wanted to be a muay thai fighter and it showed him train in traditional thai boxing.
This question was already answered in the forum elsewhere. Do a search for it.
Muay Thai is a sport fighting style based on the ancient battlefield techniques of the Siamese warriors. It combines the use of 8 limbs: fists, elbows, feet and knees and includes fighting in the stand-up clinch range and throwing. It predates the sport of kickboxing.
Essentially, when you say "kickboxing" you are referring to two different definitions. The first is a literal definition and it means the combination of "kicking" and "boxing". By that definition, nearly any stand up striking style can fall under that – including Muay Thai, Savate, Pradal Serey, Sanda, Lethwei etc.
The actual definition of "Kickboxing" refers to the sport fighting style and competition founded by Osamu Noguchi in the 1950s that was a blend of Boxing, Southeast Asian arts like Muay Thai and Kyokushinkai Karate. It’s rules are different than that of Muay Thai and it gave rise to other variants of the sport including American and European kickboxing.
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muay thai allows elbows, and knees
kickboxing doesn’t
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