quote :
"...MT is a subset of the traditional Thai arts, hence, a lot of the original grappling, weapons, etc. have been removed..."
Ok I tend to disagree to some point here, Muay Boran is literally Ancient Boxing, Boran meaning ancient. This style of Muay Thai (Muay Thai actually means free boxing, Thai meaning Free so Thailand literally means "the land of free")
The art which is practiced every day in the camps of Thailand is Muay Thai, each and every practitioner is taught Muay Thai to its fullest, unless of course they have bad teachers. Muay Thai is soaked in tradition, the weapons side of Muay Thai, almost all Thai masters will know some part of Krabi-Krabong, is still taught everywhere. The art that is used in the ring is still the ancient art of Muay Chao Chur with only the illegal techniques not being allowed. What you see in the boxing ring is that ancient art of Muay Thai with only the death risk being lowered considerably, in other words the really nasty techniques made illegal.
When I was training there I had one teacher, ex-champion, teach me the ring art, movement in the ring, and drilled me constantly with techniques.... another Thai was showing me leg breaking and joint dislocationg techniques, grabs that are done with a non-gloved hand etc, between the two styles there was not much of a difference, in fact the only diffference I experienced was the use of really damaging techniques on one side and then the use of damaging techniques on the other, even then there isnt much of a difference.
quote :
"...I did muay thai for 5 years and have done SanShou for 3 years and find the throws to be seriously disabling in a real encounter and also prefer a highly developed side kick rather than the thai round house, why?..."
Lemme just explain something here, if you drill the roundhouse every day for say 2 hours a day, nothing but kick kick kicking!!! 2 hours every day then eventually you are going to be able to kick like you punch. I was there, I still am but not as good as when I was being drilled in Thailand (will be back again so just a matter of time) you get to the point where you can easily raise your leg for a smashing roundhouse with the same speed and accuracy of a punch! no shit, what I am saying here is that you didnt fully develop your roundhouse, I am not saying you cant roundhouse but I am saying if you find it to be not so practical then obviously you havnt got something right....
...I was in a night club (true story) and a french guy who trained with us, big mouth etc and loved women, was chasing after a young thai lady but only this young thai lady had a boyfriend who happend to be some kind of street gangster, the french guy got knocked out in this night club with a roundhouse kick to the head! very quickly and with very limited space, my point is, if you can train your legs to react like your hands then there is no reason why you cant use your legs like you can use your hands, as for having the felixability to kick high cold thats basicly down to conditioning, its all possible so it all makes the thai roundhouse quite effective as a self-defence tool in a street encounter.
as for the which is better arguement, I dont know but I sure as hell love Muay Thai.
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