The evolution of the MT stance?

[jules]

Why is it that not many fighters use the "traditional stance"? With the palms out? Is it due to boxing gloves?

[hashpuppet]

maybe cause its not the best stance

[wildchild]

I think its because not that many peoply are taught Traditional Thai Style. It seems to me as a westerner that many use a boxing stance. At our club we have a high guard, palms facing outwards and personally i think it works well.

[Xavier]

Untill you get your ribs broken that is (j/k) I could never feel safe standing with my elbows pointing out. I've had a lot of kicks and punches to my body en boy, that kinda hurts

PS: pardon my bad English

[haumana2000]

The traditional Thai stance works well to keep an opponent at a distance to work the leg kicks and the teep, and if you look at the tradional thai mindset the hands are looked upon as an inferioir weapon compared to kicks, elboes and knees as they are less damaging. Westerners focus more on boxing skills, and so have adopted the game to meet their needs. The high guard would not be as effective in a boxing only match, but put a boxer in a ring with a muay thai, guy and youll see his stance adopt to the palms away real quick, if only to try to keep them damn kicks FAAR away.

[jules]

But if you look at the top guys from Thailand such as Samko(sp) and Namsumlui (sp) they don't use the "traditional" stance. Besides their guard is still high, it's just that their palms are not facing out.

[wildchild]

I generally block or move to get out of the way of shots. I think that the style i know has plams facing outwards to make it easier to get you glove in your opponants face, to then prepare for an elbow, or get into the clinch. Or just to push the opponant away. Your arms are also stronger with palms facing outwards. Try it, get someone to push your hands away, trying the two stances, see what one is harder to move your hands. The palms outwards is esp useful for Muay Boran.

Anyway i dont think how your palms face is to important, but it looks cool with the high stance, which IS GOOD for keeping distance.

[jules]

The traditional Thai stance works well to keep an opponent at a distance to work the leg kicks and the teep..

Hmmm I was told that the traditional stance was to prevent headbutts(as old war-time MT used head buts ala bano) and it makes it easier to clich...

[Vanilla Gorilla]

There are multiple reasons. On a competitive level, the boxing stance does a better job of protecting the head from punches. Especially uppercuts which are quick and lethal to an unguarded chin.
The Thai style is good for protection from kicks, but leave the attacker extremely vulnerable to counter strike. The risk vs reward for kicking an opponent in the head (or mid section depending on your style) is a gamble a lot of people don't like to bet on.
However, the reason I prefer a boxing stance is this. It's easily modified for the situation. Your hands can be positioned in many subtle ways, which in turn produce very vast and effective offensive and defensive toolbox.

On a side note, most westerners don't understand martial arts as they do boxing (though with MMA) this is SLOWLY changing. This is important because most fighters first get their start in the street. Using a "misunderstood" style might encourage the fight further, because it will not get you respect unless you've earned it already using your unorthodox (in the West) style on the street. Also, I find that the peek-a-boo is more affective when fighting multiple opponents. That is unless you've learned the Hanmi stance, which is the basic stance in Aikido, and Aiki-derived schools.