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Kombat Arts will be offering an ALL-FEMALE Muay Thai class at 10 a.m. on Saturdays, starting on April 2, 2011.

This class is open to all women regardless of training level or experience, and will be taught by Andrea Nucci (pictured up top), one of our veteran students and athletes. Hope to see you there!

National Muay Thai Day – Nai KhanomtomMuay Thai Day lands on March 17th every year, which also happens to be known as St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s possible it’s not the first thing on your mind today. But let’s take a moment to reflect.

Thailand’s National Muay Thai Day

As you may have heard, Kombat Arts will adding a new class to its schedule, taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6. It will be a Muay Thai class strictly for teens and pre-teens; the classes will be split into groups, one for ages 10-12 and another for ages 13-16. (Launch date for this class is

Muay Thai is referred to as the “Art of Eight Limbs” and is Thailands national sport. It’s an extremely hard martial art that places emphasis on strikes that involve using the knees, elbows, and other tough parts of the body.

Muay Thai, which is widely practiced in Thailand and Southeast Asian countries, evolved in Thailand from muay boran (ancient boxing), an unarmed combat method.   Muay Boran (and therefore Muay Thai) was originally called dhoi muay or simply muay.

Like most competitive full contact fighting sports, Muay Thai has a heavy focus on body conditioning. Muay Thai is specifically designed to promote the level of fitness and toughness which are both essentials for ring competition. Training regimens include running, shadowboxing, rope jumping, body weight resistance exercises, medicine ball exercises, abdominal exercises, and in some cases weight training

Strikes are carried out using hands, feet, shins, elbows and knees both from a distance and in the clinch.  Thai is often a fighting art of attrition – where opponents exchange blows with one another. This is certainly the case with traditional stylists in Thailand, but is a less popular form of fighting in the contemporary world fighting circuit .  Almost all techniques in Muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, elbow and block.

The punching techniques in Muay Thai were originally quite simple being crosses and a long circular strike made with a straight (but not locked) arm and landing with the heel of the palm. Cross-breeding with Western boxing and western martial arts resulted in the use of a full range of western boxing punches including the jab, straight right/cross, hook, uppercut, shovel and corkscrew punches and overhands as well as hammer fists and back fists.

Body punching is seldomly used in comparison to other striking martial arts in order to avoid exposing the attacker’s head to counter strikes from knees or elbows.

Elbows are typically used when the distance between fighters becomes too small and they are no longer in puching range making it too hard to throw a jab, cross or hook.  They can also be utilised to block or defend against spring knees, side body knees, body kicks or punches.  Elbows can be used in different ways flowing in different directions; horizontal, diagonal-upwards, diagonal-downwards, uppercut, downward, backward-spinning and flying.

The two most common kicks in Muay Thai are the teep (literally “foot jab”) and the teh chiang (kicking upwards in the shape of a triangle cutting under the arm and ribs) or angle kick.  Side kicks and spinning back kicks are also used, but are not as common.

The Muay Thai angle kick draws its power entirely from the hips by using a rotational movement of the body.  If a Muay Thai kick is executed, the opponent will normally “check” the kick, meaning he will “block” the kick with his own shin.  Thai boxers are trained to always connect with the shin.  The reason for this is because the instep, or foot, contains many fine bones and is much weaker compared to the shin bone.

Due to the rigorous training regimen of professional Muay Thai fighters, their careers are relatively short in the ring.  Many retire from competition to begin instructing the next generation of Thai fighters.

Muay Thai has many other similarities to other martial arts styles such as pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and Muay Lao from Laos.

Some well known Modern Muay Thai fighters of today are  Anderson Silva, Kenny Florian, Brandon Vera, Mark Hominick and Sam Stout to name a few.

Muay Thai is one of the most popular types of martial arts today. In fact, it’s so popular that people from all over the world are starting to enroll in gyms to learn Muay Thai. And, most MMA or mixed martial arts fighters are now incorporating Muay Thai techniques in their training because of its efficiency in attacking and defending.

Also known as the art of eight limbs, Muay Thai will enable you to fight with your fists, elbows, knees, and feet. Muay Thai techniques are different from Japanese and Chinese martial arts because of the use of elbows and knees in order to destroy or pound the opponent in to submission.

In Muay Thai, the risk of injuries from such blows is quite high, which is why many martial arts tournaments ban elbow strikes. In fact, elbow and knee strikes are so efficient in destroying the opponent that elbow and knee combinations are rarely used even in Thailand.

The Muay Lak and Muay Kiew are the two main categories in the art of Pahuyut. The former category is in the verge of extinction and only few master boxers today know about it and you won’t be able to see it anymore inside the ring. This is because it emphasizes on lethal combinations of attack and counter attack where fighting happens at a very close range and in a straight line.

The Yang Saam Khum or three-step walk is perhaps the most important technique that every Muay Thai has to master before they start learning other techniques. This technique is learned as it is the basis of all footwork in Muay Thai. You will be able to see the graceful side of this technique when the Wai Kruu dance is being performed.

In Muay Thai, there are three basic kicking techniques that you need to learn. You have the low level kick which targets the thigh, calf, and the back of the knee. The medium level kick will target the ribs and torso and the high level kicks targets the temple, chin and neck. You also need to learn the basic kicks, which are the front kick, the pecking kick, the sweeping kick, the kick outside the knee joint, and the reverse back kick.

In Muay Thai, the kicks are delivered with a full range of motion. This means that they are delivered with a full swing of the hips and trunk in order to maximize the power of the kick, therefore, maximizing the damage. Also, the kicks in Muay Thai are delivered with the shin hitting the target instead of the foot. Because of this peculiarity in Muay Thai, you will be at high risk if the kick is not successful. In fact, broken shin is not uncommon in Muay Thai fights.

The elbows are also used in Muay Thai. The blows here are meant to cut the opponent and draw blood. When using the elbow, your aim here is to scratch the target and not to hit them bluntly. There are 8 elbow strikes that you need to learn in Muay Thai, which are the striking elbow, the cutting elbow, the levering elbow, the diagonal elbow, the chopping elbow, the pull down elbow, the double elbow, and the reverse elbow.

When used efficiently, you will be able to draw blood on your opponent and really do a lot of damage on their body. With a solid hit, elbow strikes can even knockdown your opponent and end the fight early.

These are just some of the techniques that you need to learn in Muay Thai. Here, you will also learn how to punch, which is not really that different from traditional boxing and also learn how to deliver knee strikes

Also known around the world as Thai boxing, Muay Thai is an ancient art of self defense that was created and tested in battle by the fearless warriors of ancient Thailand. Today, Muay Thai is used all around the world. The United States Navy SEALs, Thai military, and even the CIA takes full advantage of the devastating and bone crushing techniques this martial art offers.

Unlike other martial arts, students of Thai dont earn belts for their skills and their progression. Instead, their skills are tested in the ring. Since Thai fighting first began, the only things that the fighters themselves are interested in are the championship belts which showcase their dominance in Muay Thai fighting.

The skills that are taught with Muay Thai are far more dominant to other striking based martial arts. Muay Thai uses very little grappling, but focuses more on crushing kicks, punches, and bone shattering elbows. Students of Thai fighting can often take an opponent down with just one shot, often times breaking bones and sometimes even killing them with just one lethal kick or elbow.

The reason why Muay Thai didnt utilize ground grappling or submission holds is because it was developed in ancient battlegrounds where there were always multiple attackers. These attackers were knowledgeable in sword fighting skills, which made the need for a dependable martial art more or less a necessity.

Muay Thai used swords, spears, sticks, and hard strikes. In this type of environment, you didnt want the fight to go to the ground. The strikes and weapon movements needed be fast, hard, and very precise. With these types of conditions and the type of environment, Muay Thai needed be a very fast responsive martial art with an excellent weapons system.

Even though grappling and submissions were planned for Muay Thai, the martial art became more of a ring sport before grappling could be implemented. With Thai originally being a martial art for striking purposes, a lot of martial artists have started using the techniques that have been proven time and time again with time boxing.

Although there are other martial arts that put a lot of emphasis on striking, Muay Thai is quite different. The first area in which Muay Thai differs is the effective use of both elbows and knees. The elbows and knees that are used with most Thai techniques are feared all around the world by boxers and other stylists.

Kicking and kneeing is the main objects in Muay Thai. In order to become efficient with kicking, the shins need to be conditioned – which can be quite painful. Once the Thai stylist has conditioned the nerves in his shins for impact, the shins can be used just like a club or a baseball bat. This is something you should really see for yourself in action – as the sound of the impact alone can send chills down your back.

Through years of training and conditioning, Muay Thai fighters can become lethal and deadly weapons. A properly trained fighter can make deadly impact, meaning that his knees, shins, and elbows are quite possibly deadlier than a gun or other type of weapon. For this very reason – Muay Thai is one of the deadliest and most feared martial arts in the world.

All in all, Muay Thai is a great martial art for defense and competition. Thai is one of the best martial arts in the world, proving it time and time again – in both ancient times and anytime it is used today.

About The Author:
Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article

Once again Kru Mehdi Pouroskoui conducted an awesome Muay Thai seminar.  I will be posting some of piks of the seminar.  Thxs to everyone who supported this seminar.  Here are the last 2 rounds of Mehdi’s championship fight, enjoy!  Jd……