Why Thai Boxing?

[Leonidas]

Hey guys. I've just signed up for this forum and after reading through some of your messages i just wanted to ask why you chose the martial art you have. In this case This Boxing. For myself i've trained in karate and boxing, and am now 4 months into my Thai boxing career and have to admit it's great fun above al else. I love the brutality of the whole thing. But maybe that's just me.
I got into this as i have a friend who's an ex SAS and Royal Marine officer who's been thai boxing for 18 years, with 37 class A fights and 37 wins. If it wasn't for him i might have gone and got into something else. Even TKD which i've noticed alot of you bitch about so far. And I was just wondering how others fell into Thai boxing.

[Khun Kao]

Why Muay Thai?

Good question. A little background first...

I started training in Karate at 19 (Tang Soo Do). Up until that point, I felt like the worlds biggest wimp. I often allowed myself to be "chumped up" by people who were much smaller than me, simply because I had NO IDEA how to fight! I was afraid to do it!

After studying Karate for about 18 months and earning a Green Belt, I happened across a private instructor of Ninjitsu, and was invited to join his class. I jumped at the opportunity, and WOW! What an eye-opener THAT was!!! The instructor was a truly amazing fighter. Unfortunately, he was not a good teacher, which is why I eventually left that martial art.

Now, while training in these other martial arts, I kept hearing little bits and pieces about this art called Muay Thai. Everything I heard about it made it out to be a totally BAD-ASS system! I was determined to find out more! I would find any bit of written material on the subject, and my friends and I would then attempt to imitate what we saw and read. (rather poorly, too, I might add, LOL)

One day, I entered myself into a Karate tournament. At the tournament, a local TKD school had set up a booth selling MA equipment, and they were advertising that they had a Muay Thai instructor. I was rather skeptical because I had run into a couple of people already who "claimed" to know Muay Thai, but turned out to not know any more about it than I already did.

On a lark, my friends and I decided to go to this school and check it out for ourselves. And then in walks this little old Thai man who could REALLY move around! He had such rhythm and grace, and POWER, that my friends and I could not sign up fast enough!

The reason that I bring all of this up is that you can see how I was beginning to move from martial art to martial art. First Karate, then Ninjitsu. In between all of that, I would attend other MA classes in an effort to learn more. I dabbled in Shotokan, JKD, Tai Chi, TKD, etc. But, once I found Muay Thai, I had found my home.

I will also tell you that I have studied other martial arts since taking up Muay Thai: Boxing, BJJ, Judo, Sambo, but my only REAL interest continues to be Muay Thai. I appreciate and enjoy almost all martial arts that I encounter, and some I enjoy practicing too, but nothing even comes close to Muay Thai for me.

Why is that? Not sure I can explain. There are a lot of elements to Muay Thai that appeal to me...

For instance, I prefer the sport-fighting elements of the Martial Arts over training for self defense. I look at it like this, in all my life, I can count the number of street fights that I have had on one hand with fingers to spare. I don't get myself into these types of situations in the first place, so training to handle them seems like such a waste of effort.

Second, the Thai culture is WONDERFUL! I simply love the Thai people and their customs! Its such a rich tapestry! (catchy, huh?) My study of Muay Thai has helped plug me into a another corner of the globe.

Further, the Thai people are incredibly humble and respectful. One of the major turn-offs of other martial arts study has been the whole "Tough Guy" attitude adopted by many. People study a martial art and suddenly think that they are superman. I went through that phase myself while studying Karate, only to have it (literally!) beaten out of me by my Ninjitsu instructor.

The Thai's don't play that way. They do ALL their talking in the ring with their 8 weapons! How many times have you been in another martial arts class and been sparring or doing drills, and hear someone say, "If this had been for real, I woulda...."?

I used to hear that type of statement ALL THE TIME! "If this had been for real, I would BREAK you!" That kind of thing. You wanna know something? I stopped hearing that after my first Muay Thai lesson. You NEVER hear that in Muay Thai training. Why? Because you wanna know something? It WAS for real! If you could have done something, you would have done it! Talk is cheap, either put up or shut up!

Sorry for the rant, but I never get tired of discussing my love of the sport. You can see that there are many reasons why Muay Thai has become the "right" martial art for me. There are still other reasons, but I think I've put everyone to sleep now, so I'm signing off....

LOL

Khun Kao

[Guest]

An ex SAS and Royal Marine Officer?

That is a rarity indeed. Especially considering that any Royal Marine joining special forces almost always joins the SBS.

But there we go.

[retired]

anul bri does it again LOL.

i got into thaiboxing after getting a black belt in kungfu then getting bored & going to a class of thaiboxing & wondering what the fuss was about, guess what - belts only hold up trousers.
I DIDN'T LAST 5 MINS
i couldn't believe the fitness & power of these chaps & from that day i was hooked.

[Leonidas]

Of course Bri Thai. Sorry, i should've known. You read Bravo Two Zero a while back and know better about the British Forces and it's special forces. I better get back to the guy and just tell him how silly and wrong he was because you think you know some statistics. Dear me.

[Kingston]

does this thread apply to people who dont take MT?

[Leonidas]

Sure. I'm just kinda interested in how people got into whatever they did. I only asked specifically about MT because that's what i do.

[Kingston]

Im currently learning Systema (Russian martial art)

well heres the story.

I was taking Kendo at the time, it was going well, i was starting to learn more about martial arts in general, and was looking to take a H2H martial art. I was already aware of some of the short comings that some schools could have (even kendo and iaido has its mcdojo's). I also had my fill of eticate, and tradition and wanted an art that would teach me how to fight and defend myself without all the BS. I was originaly thinking of taking JKD untill i stumbled on the website of this Russian martial art. Im thinking "the russians have a martia art to? Cool"

i check the site out, the head instructor is an ex- Spetnaz operative teaching a system of self defence/comabt used exclusivly by the Spetnaz units. No belts, no kata, no rules.

i go to watch a class, i see large meen looking people, some with that camo pattern on there pants, Vladimir was standing there with a whip, every now and then he would stop a group of two who where sparring, take one guy aside and hit him with the whip!

he would do a demonstration of what they where going to cover in the next "drill". He completely dominated the student (who traveled all the way from england just to train with vlad for a couple weeks) not only dominated but he was rough to! i wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of vlads punches!

these tough guys, obviously going hard couldn't land a fist on This guy. not only was his skill impresive, but he was funny while doing it, he would pretend to scratch his head just as the guy was about to attack, and still defend perfectly! he would sit down every now and then.

the way they went about things seemed very real, not those lines of students punching air yelling in japanese at each punch.

i went to my first class, WOW. my partner was incredibly knowledgeble himself, and very helpfull, i couldn't even smell hint of macho bullshit such as Khun Kao was talking about in his post.

when it came time for knife defence i was once more amazed at the students skill, (we had switch partners bye this time) I was realy trying to stab this guy, didn't even get close.

From what i watched i thought it could be a embarasing or awkward first class, everyone was kind and helpfull. I was hooked i still feel that if i could master all the things i was exposed to just in the first class i would know everything i needed to defend myself.

the final nail in the coffin was the impecable philosophy behind it, as well as the numerous black belts with "15 years experience" basicaly droping everything just to train with Vlad. Everything was airtight you can get something out of every drill.

it covers things from groundfighting to fighting with your hands tight, to fighting with your eyes closed to gun defence to health methods, and If im not mistaken it even has some attack dog stuff in it.

there wasn't much thought in knowing this was the art for me.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Leonidas
Of course Bri Thai. Sorry, i should've known. You read Bravo Two Zero a while back and know better about the British Forces and it's special forces. I better get back to the guy and just tell him how silly and wrong he was because you think you know some statistics. Dear me.

Of course. I stand corrected. What is he now? James fookin Bond? And you are his Miss Moneypenny........ Oh yes!

[platinum_angel]

Originally posted by Kingston
Im currently learning Systema (Russian martial art)

well heres the story.

i think i've heard of that before. never really thought it was worth looking up. kind of like different kinds of kung fu. i'll have to check it out sometime.

could you tell me what kind of martial art it is closest to.?

[kh_s]

Mine is a whole lot different story :P

Is it okay if you got into Muay Thai or other Martial Arts by watching movies and from the internet? :P Or is that kind of, wanna-be ? But really when I found this forum I got even more information on the martial arts stuff. It kinda got me brainwashed actually I`m more into it now. But I can`t really say that because I quit my gym and there is no Thai Gyms around my area.

[Leonidas]

Of course Bri Thai. You'd like that wouldn' you. you've got that image in your head now and are whacking off furiously!!! I started a thread and you have to try and turn it into a bitch fight. Now i see why so many people laugh at your posts on this site. Cock!

[Kingston]

Originally posted by platinum_angel


i think i've heard of that before. never really thought it was worth looking up. kind of like different kinds of kung fu. i'll have to check it out sometime.

could you tell me what kind of martial art it is closest to.?

Systema is closest to other russian systems i suppose.

use the search option and look for "systema" there is a thread started by Chris Davis 200 that has alot of video clips of Systema. But like all things (perhaps more-so in Systema) its better to feel it then see it.

[seekeroftruth]

Systema is unlike anything I have ever seen. It has the softness of Tai Chi, with the short power of many Gung-Fu styles, yet it also offers things that seem to be exclusive to itself. I didn't see a whole lot of techniques that were necessarily new to me, however, the way they apply them is much much different from anything I have seen. Don't get me wrong, I have only been studying Martial Arts for 16 years so I know I haven't seen all and done all necessarily. My main point is, I would definitely recommend checking into systema. Just my two cents.

[Guest]

It is no co-incidence that the word "cock" rhymes with the word "jock".

"Scot" rhymes with "bot" and, if you take the word Leonidas, mix the letters up, and then add a few, and take some away.......

You get the word "jumped up jock".

Oh yes!