Saturday, November 29, 2008

Muay thai round kick redux

One of the first web videos I did was a demo of the old style muay thai round kick. Since then I've had a couple of people tell me that my technique looks nothing like the muay thai that they're learning." Well, that's because the widely popular modern form of muay thai has become bastardized by martial arts franchises like Master Toddy, Fairtex, and to an extent, the UFC. What's being taught is static-stand up ring style kickboxing. Like modern boxing, muay thai has been watered down over th years for the sake of the fighter's safety. It's the sport version of a nearly forgotten combat system. Yes, there's more than one branch in the muay thai family. Thanks to people like Tony Jaa, old style muay thai is gaining recognition.

I've been lucky enough to train the old combat forms of muay thai: the muay baron, the muay chao churd, the ledrit and boar bando systems for over 13 years. The differences between modern sport muay thai and old (military/combat) style muay thai are numerous. Take the round kick for instance. The video below shows a side by side comparison of the two kicks - modern and old style muay thai.


2 comments:

  1. I have a question that wish to be answer ^^.

    First of all, I love your video. Especially your video about kicking stuff, very unique and incredible. Oddly enough, I have a same mind set at you in using my kick (and I don't even do Muay Thai). So my question is: which part of the thigh (leg) that you aim for with this kick? How did you train to do a kick like that? Thanks you a lot

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  2. The old style muay thai round kick can be thrown on the same leg targets as the standard muay thai leg kick (the side of the thigh). You can also throw it on the front of the thigh just above the knee and the side of the knee (but be careful with that strike as it is meant to incapacitate).

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