Muay Thai

[MaxiTKD]

I have been doing TaeKwonDo for a long time. I have friends who are family friends, The got me into to TaeKwonDo. They are from Thailand. Like maybe 2 weeks ago The mom said to me you should learn Muay Thai. I was wondering if that would affect my TaeKwonDo. Thanks

[thai_me]

Do you mean you want to do them both together or you want to quite TKD and start thai boxing? I think you will find it difficult to do both styles at the same time if this is the case.

If your going to just switch to MT all together, then you will have to get rid of all your TKD bad habits and you will slowly change your whole style. They are two completely different styles is what im trying to say. Things like your footwork, stance, how you punch and defend etc, is completely different. So id say you wil certainly lose a lot of your TKD skills, but it would make you a far more complete fighter in the end if you went to MT. You will never forget your TKD kicks, you just wont be using them all the time in training.

If i had my time again, i would have done TKD until i was old enough to spar properly and then switched to boxing for 6 months then MT. I think you will fit right in to MT. Your halfway there with your flexibility, discipline and kicking ability.

[Jiu-fu fighter]

Yeah, no offense to TKD , but definetly Muay Thai will make you a much better fighter. also as said you have the flexibility and kicking ability which you will never lose,

I say go for it!

[sportmuaythai]

I have friends who are family friends. They got me into to TaeKwonDo. They are from Thailand. Like maybe 2 weeks ago ,the mom said to me you should learn Muay Thai.

This is a surprise. Most taekwondo Thai kids wouldn't do MT. They are usually the kids who can afford higher fee, and go to school located at a shopping mall. I think it's the glass wall, air conditioned room and coloured belts that attract their interest. It's morale booster to walk the mall later in white uniform looking like a martial artist. No offense to TK practioners. Of course, MT students can't help making wise ass (dumb donkey) remarks at them.

[Jiu-fu fighter]

yeah, totally no offense to tkd people, but I have known some wiseass tkd guys who think they are the bomb because they can do high kicks and shit.

however, I don't say this is all tkd guys, some are really good fighters
IF....... they get a good school which allows contact and has some boxing components in it.
you can't learn to fight without having contact. besides that you just practice kicking and punching air

[Little Apple]

At the college here, we've gotten almost all our students from the Karate and Aikido clubs. After training Thai with us for a while they all came back and said they were wiping the floor with their other classmates in sparring. That's really all the input I have from experiance.

[WildWest.]

I have been doing TaeKwonDo for a long time. I have friends who are family friends, The got me into to TaeKwonDo. They are from Thailand. Like maybe 2 weeks ago The mom said to me you should learn Muay Thai. I was wondering if that would affect my TaeKwonDo. Thanks

After taking a beating when you first start sparring, you will then learn heaps and improve your abilities as well as learn practical sparring techniques.

And I can back this up with personal experience.

While I was training for my TKD BB grading I did MT for a year before hand. When it came to the sparring section of the grading I wiped the floor with the other BB's and other grades. After I attained my BB I left TKD and stuck with MT to this day (10 years later). I have met several MT practioners with backgrounds in TKD who have similar stories.

[Khun Kao]

I agree with what everyone else has said. TKD can be a great discipline if you are part of a competent training program. MuayThai is a great system as well, but the two arts are very different and training in both simultaneously could be problematic.

I, too, come from a Korean Martial Arts background. I initially trained in Tang Soo Do before eventually moving on to Shotokan, and then MuayThai. To this day I still occassionally participate in a TSD (or Shotokan) class workout because I think they are great martial arts and I have a lot of fun!

My sparring experiences are almost identical to what everyone else has said. My MuayThai training has given me an advantage over most, though I will readily admit that I have occassionally had my ass handed to me by a TKD'er....

...but I will add that when that happened, we were fighting/sparring under THEIR ruleset. When we spar under MuayThai rules, or even just low kick rules, I totally own.

[7r14ngL3Ch0k3]

This is a surprise. Most taekwondo Thai kids wouldn't do MT. They are usually the kids who can afford higher fee, and go to school located at a shopping mall. I think it's the glass wall, air conditioned room and coloured belts that attract their interest. It's morale booster to walk the mall later in white uniform looking like a martial artist. No offense to TK practioners. Of course, MT students can't help making wise ass (dumb donkey) remarks at them.

awesome....

[thai_me]

I know what you mean about TKD guys that are no where near at the fighting skill of Thai boxers. In my gym we had a TKD guy who was in his Dans come in who got cained in sparring by a guy who had only been doing MT for about 2 years. Just an example of how you need to spar on a regular basis to be able to put it all together. All the pretty belts dont mean shit when your getting whooped.

You cant learn to swim if you dont get in the water.

[Little Apple]

Yeah, it's important to understand what you are doing and what it's good for. TKD gives great tools: flexibility, speed, coordination, confidence, etc. It just isn't as good at putting them together for fighting.