Muay Thai Technique

Muay Thai or Thai Boxing (Thai: มวยไทย, IPA: [muɛ̄j tʰɑ̄j]) is a hard martial art from the Thai Kingdom. Muay Thai is similar to other martial arts styles from Indochina, such as pradal serey from Cambodia, Tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and Muay Lao from Laos. Muay Thai is a national sport of the Royal Thai and a derivative of the ancient Muay Boran martial arts. Overview Muay Thai and Kickboxing have similar battle techniques.

The word Muay comes from Sanskrit "mavya" ("martial arts") and Thai comes from the word "Tai" ("Thai tribe"). Muay Thai is referred to as the "Eight Limb Art" or "Eight Limb Science" because the technique is so full of punches, kicks, elbows and knee attacks, so the use of eight "contact points", which is different from the "two-point" (boxing) technique in boxing Western style and "four points" (hands and feet) used in sports-oriented martial arts. A Muay Thai practitioner is known as the Muay boy, while Western, white or non-Southeast Asian practitioners are sometimes called Muay farang naked, meaning "foreign boxers".

Muay Thai formal techniques are divided into two groups: "Mae Mai" or "main technique" and "Luk Mai" or "minor technique". Muay Thai is often a full-fledged combat art, where the opponents exchange blows with one another. This is certainly based on traditional style arrangement in the Thai Kingdom, but it is a less popular form of martial arts in the contemporary martial arts circuits where the style of exchanging blows with Thai blows is deemed no longer profitable. Almost all the techniques in Muay Thai use full body movements, rotating the hips with every kick, punch, elbow and trim.