Muay Thai is a rare martial art as it is also a combat sport. Some people want to learn self-defense but don’t actually want to fight. Is this possible in Muay Thai? I decided to find out.

So can you train Muay Thai without fighting? You can train Muay Thai without Sparring as it is usually optional and you still improve your self-defense in case you ever need to use your Muay Thai in a real situation.

However, I still recommend Sparring, as Sparring should always be light and playful. Although you can always sit out the Sparring if you don’t want to but don’t worry I will answer all your questions about sparring in Muay Thai.

Why You Don’t Need To Spar To Train Muay Thai

The average Muay Thai session starts with a light warmup usually skipping for 5-10 with rounds of calisthenics (bodyweight training) mixed in.

Then your instructor will demonstrate a technique and you will take turns with your partner practicing each technique until it becomes a sequence with all the techniques combining.

Now, this will change in the gym but generally, every gym will be similar and everything you do will involve hitting the bag, drilling, or doing pad work.

I’ve known people at my gym who didn’t like Sparring and they sat out whenever we started Sparring. No one ridiculed them or called them names as they are free to do what they want.

If you have a good trainer then you will still understand basic concepts and principles of fighting for self-defense such as: basic offense, defense,range, distance fighting, etc. You don’t need to Spar to learn these things.

A lot of people in my gym only do Muay Thai for the workout benefits and you will see fantastic improvements in your cardio and your muscle mass and bone density with kicking the heavy bag and doing pads, two things you constantly will be doing in any Muay Thai class.

Also, Muay Thai burns around 888 calories in one hour so it’s superb for losing weight! If you’re unfit and not physically active I can guarantee after several months of 2-3 Muay Thai classes a week you will look and feel like a completely different person!

Why You Should Fight In Muay Thai

However, whilst you can definitely train Muay Thai without Sparring I would still recommend Sparring to test your skills. Let me make a basketball analogy.

Doing Muay Thai just hitting the pads and bag can only get you so far, as the bag/pads don’t hit back.

Even if you have the perfect form it’s like taking a Basketball shot without having anyone trying to block your shot. This is the same as training Muay Thai without Sparring and no one is actively trying to hit you.

You might say, but Dillon I don’t want to get brain damage during Sparring? In reality, Sparring should be light and playful, in Thailand the Thai’s spar at around 10% since they fight so often, it is common for an 18-year-old fighter to have 100 fights in his/her career.

When your sparring light which you should be, both fighters are focussing on speed and technique not trying to hurt each other. Even if you get hit clean by a punch it might shock you but you shouldn’t be hurt and you will be fine afterwards.

After sparring properly you shouldn’t feel battered and bruised if you are, then you have trained too hard,Sparring should be a dance between two people but this dance involves hitting each other.

You could also train with headgear so there’s less chance of getting burns from your opponent’s gloves. Headgear such as this one on Amazon is perfect for sparring.

Sparring at 10%-20% will take you a very long way in your Muay Thai journey, as you’ve practiced defending and attacking a real-life opponent who actually hits back.

Sure, there is a time for Sparring harder closer to 50%-70% but that’s for serious fighters not for your average Muay Thai gym goer.

When Should You Start Sparring In Muay Thai?

I know sparring can seem intimidating as you won’t know what to expect, I still get nervous before I spar but this goes away as soon as we start. Now, if you feel uncomfortable no one is forcing you to Spar but when as a beginner should you start?

I think for a complete beginner around a few weeks to a month is when you should start light touch sparring. This is enough time to pick up most of the basic Muay Thai techniques like blocking, catching your opponent’s leg, and learning the basic Muay Thai roundhouse and leg kicks.

However, you can still get hurt quite easily in Sparring if you pick the wrong partner so pick your partner carefully.

How To Pick The Best Sparring Partner

Now depending on the class your instructor could pick your Sparring partner but if not make sure you communicate with your partner that you are new to sparring. Stick to 10%-20% power and speed and just focus on your distance,defense and technique.

Always respect your partner and treat sparring as a learning experience for both of you, to make both your techniques more effective in a real-life fight situation.

The gym should always be a safe environment without egos. If you notice someone at your gym has an ego, then avoid sparring with them as a beginner because you could get hurt or hurt them in anger

How To Be A Good Sparring Partner

• Keep the same power and pace as your sparring, if they are fighting at 15% do the same. If they’re fighting harder you can match their pace when you’re both experienced but if you’re a beginner tell them to reduce their power as they might not know they’re going too hard.
• Don’t try to defeat or hurt your opponent, remember you’re there to learn and grow with each other.
• Fight people who are better than you as they will force you to grow and look at your weaknesses and correct them
• Don’t destroy worse opponents, whilst it’s good to put the pressure on someone worse than you, you can always use this as an opportunity to work on your defense.

Is Muay Thai Good For Street Fighting

Muay Thai is known as the art of 8 limbs as you can strike with both knees, fists, elbows, and legs with Muay Thai having strong grappling elements with the clinch(standing wrestling) and numerous, throws, trips and sweeps making it fantastic for the street.

Muay Thai is the best striking discipline around and is highly effective in a street fight. You only have to see most UFC(ultimate fighting championship) stars going to Thailand to work on their Muay Thai.

Click here for an article from Evolve MMA on why Muay Thai is the perfect martial art as it is both simple and highly effective in a street fight situation. Even if you train for a couple of months you will be in a far better situation for defending yourself.

This is because Muay Thai is effective in every situation as you can use it against one or several opponents. You can fight up close with boxing and keep the distance with round houses and front kicks.

However, I still recommend using a grappling art such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu as most street fighters will end up on the ground, so it’s important to have some ground game for self defence purposes.

What separates Muay Thai from Kickboxing and Boxing is the heavy use of the Muay Thai clinch. This allows you to easily control an untrained opponent and prevent them from punching whilst you can either sweep or hit them with knees.

Check out the fantastic YouTuber FightTips video on basic clinch technique to get a better understanding of the clinch. You will see for yourself how effective it is!

Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations

Looking For Gear To Use When You Train?
If you are interested in training Muay Thai, here is some of the gear I recommend: Best Mouth Guard Best Gloves Best Shorts Best Shin Guards
Want To Learn To Fight, But Don’t Want To Go In Person?
CoachTube has online training videos for Boxing, Karate, MMA and more. And best part is you can do it all from your home allowing you to go at your own pace. Check them out here.
Interested In Training Other MMA Fighters?
Click here to check out the MMA Conditioning Association and see what you need to become an MMA conditioning coach and begin training fighters.

Muay Thai is a very intense combat sport full of explosive movements, but can you do it when you’re pregnant? I decided to find out.

 You can train Muay Thai whilst pregnant but your training must be modified for safety and be approved by a qualified physician. Bag work and non-freestyle pad work and shadowboxing should be fine but avoid sparring or clinching to protect the midsection.

Anything that involves getting hit to the midsection needs to be removed completely, which includes sparring and clinch work. l explain in detail how you can train safely whilst pregnant in Muay Thai and any other pregnant training questions you might have.

Training Muay Thai Whilst Pregaunt First Things To Do

The first thing you should do is talk to your doctors, as they are the medical experts and can give you expert recommendations on what is safe and not safe.

Secondly, talk with your instructors at the gym who will have their own experience with pregnant students and they know your martial arts experience and what you can and cannot do during this time.

Lastly, it might be expensive but seeing a fitness professional who has a good understanding of pre-natal training is a good idea, as this hidden insight is very useful for you to create the most effective and safest training program you can make for you and the baby.

Although, doing some research on what martial artists say about the topic is useful. Sander Nagtegaal a Kung Fu teacher who does MMA mentions what you can and cannot do as a pregnant woman doing martial arts which you see in his article here.

He doesn’t recommend full-contact sparring or anything that requires your body to absorb a lot of shocks, like jumping or hitting the heavy bag or high-intensity training that pushes your heart rate up.

Wearing a heart rate monitor is a good idea to make sure you keep it below the danger zone when doing exercise whilst pregnant.

Get a Fitbit that not only tracks your heart rate but also important things for pregnancy like your quality of sleep whilst also tracking your workouts. Get it for a fantastic price from Amazon right here.

While pregnant your body releases a hormone called Relaxin which loosens your ligaments(read more on your hormones here) so Nagtegaal urges caution on passive stretching as this increased range of motion could lead to injury if you’re not careful!

Nagtegaal suggests non-contact sparring, cross-training, and reflex training but you can add shadow boxing and pad work with a qualified instructor to that list.

Of course, being pregnant isn’t the best time to work on your sparring skills and perform in competition but you can still work on your techniques and improve your form.

It’s a good opportunity to work on your cardio, as running cycling and swimming are all fine to do according to this article about pregnancy exercises.

Why You Can Train Muay Thai While Pregnant

What better way to learn how to practice martial arts whilst pregnant than to do what others have done before you? Laure Baudot a Karate black belt detailed her own experience as a martial artist on how she trained through pregnancy, which you can read in full here.

She first details if your pregnant don’t train Muay Thai if you’ve never done it before. This makes sense as Muay Thai is a very explosive sport and you need to understand your body if you train whilst pregnant to protect the baby.

She stresses the importance of reaching out to other women who have trained Muay Thai whilst pregnant. She asked other people in her dojo and they gave varying answers, but you must decide for yourself if you feel right to train.

If you don’t know anyone who does Muay Thai whilst pregnant let me introduce you to Caley Reece a 4-time Muay Thai world champion who still did high-intensity Muay Thai training session at 39 weeks pregnant! You can see her training pads in the video below.

She said the following when referring to critics on the harm she could give her unborn baby. Notably, she mentions there is no freestyle pad holding to remove any risk of her baby being hit or something unforeseen happening.

I don’t have to give up. It simply means I make do with what I have. There is no freestyle pad holding, Daz is calling every single thing so we both know exactly what is happening at all times.

Caley Reece

Now back to Laure Baudot she says don’t worry about breathing loudly when practicing drills, as remember you’re carrying a little person inside of you so of course, you will breathe harder! Don’t worry about this it’s normal.

Like Nagtegaa, Baudot recommends not to spar or do any interactive drills, as it isn’t fair for your baby or even someone who accidentally hits you and deals with the guilt and added responsibility of hitting a pregnant woman!

If you’re suddenly losing balance when you normally would not whenever you teep or check a kick then it’s because you have a little person growing inside of you! Again this is normal.

The added flexibility from your Relaxin hormone will make your kicks snap and head kicks much easier, but Baudot recommends not to overdo it as you can risk dislocating your joints and be injured whilst pregnant!

If you can’t decide to do Muay Thai is too risky then simply do another sport like swimming, which isn’t hard on your joints or body but is still a fantastic workout.

Lastly, she recommends training your mind which you can do via mediation(check out the main benefits here), and not to worry too much about training as after your beautiful baby is born you will be roundhousing people in the face in no time!

General Things You Should Know About Exercise & Pregnancy

Now a lot of this information is from Evolve MMAs blog about the topic and has been mentioned earlier in this post but read the post here for more details.

Everyone agrees not to start training anything new and if you’ve never exercised before: swimming, walking, and special prenatal Yoga are your best choices.

Remember to train smart and not hard and stay hydrated and pay very close attention to your body, whenever you feel weird and your body is telling you to stop exercise please listen to your body!

You should exercise only up to the point where you can carry a conversation as if you can’t because your out of breath you’re pushing yourself too hard and this is the same even if you’re not pregnant.

This is why a Fitbit is such a good investment for keeping yourself in that ideal zone between pushing yourself and pushing yourself too hard.

The best advice is always to talk to the professionals in your life, whether that’s your training partners or anyone who’s done or is going through training Muay Thai or another martial art whilst pregnant.

Doing Muay Thai whilst pregnant is a very personal thing and every woman is going to have different experiences and answers to these questions. Whichever. you choose, make sure you listen to the advice in this article and I wish you all the best in your pregnant martial art journey!

How Do Women Return To Martial Arts/Sports After Pregnancy?

After pregnancy, many women put on baby weight and find it hard to lose this weight after they gave birth. How do athletes in general cope after they have a baby?

A good example is Michelle Waterson a UFC fighter who got gestational diabetes and hypothyroid due to pregnancy and went on to get a fantastic win less than a year later!

Also Cindy Dandois a professional MMA fighter who won a fight against Gina Carona(see here)whilst 2 months pregnant and she didn’t even know about her baby until after the fight!

This post-pregnancy success doesn’t just apply to fighters as Lauren Fleshman a track a field runner started training seriously just 3 weeks after giving birth! Take a look at her amazing transformation baby photos in her blog here.

Yes, all these women are athletes but I urge you to use their post-baby success as confidence that you TOO can quickly return to training after having a baby.

Now you don’t have to come quickly as Fleshman but if you take it slow you should be back Sparring within 4 months after having a baby. But really, it’s up to you as everyone’s bodies are different. Just return to Muay Thai when you feel comfortable and in no time it will be like you never left!

Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations

Looking For Gear To Use When You Train?
If you are interested in training Muay Thai, here is some of the gear I recommend: Best Mouth Guard Best Gloves Best Shorts Best Shin Guards
Want To Learn To Fight, But Don’t Want To Go In Person?
CoachTube has online training videos for Boxing, Karate, MMA and more. And best part is you can do it all from your home allowing you to go at your own pace. Check them out here.
Interested In Training Other MMA Fighters?
Click here to check out the MMA Conditioning Association and see what you need to become an MMA conditioning coach and begin training fighters.

Muay Thai is a fantastic martial art but it is known to be quite difficult to learn. But just how hard is it to learn Muay Thai? I decided to research the internet and find out.

It takes about 6 months to learn all the basic Muay Thai techniques, and to have a good level of Muay Thai fitness. It takes about 2 years to become “good” at Muay Thai with around 7-10 years before you become an expert.

However, learning techniques are only one part of Muay Thai. Dealing with the painful shin conditioning, the intense conditioning workouts and sparring all make it a hard martial art to learn. These will all be discussed in detail.

What Makes Muay Thai So Hard To Learn?

Muay Thai is the perfect example of a sport being easy to learn but very hard to master. Do not get discouraged as within a short period of around 6 months you will have most of the fundamentals down and be fairly competent in a street fight.

Nevertheless Muay Thai is so hard to master because it is known as the art of 8 limbs as you strike with your fists, knees, elbows, and legs! You also have a lot of sweeps, throws, and clinching (standing wrestling) to think about.

If you compare boxing to Muay Thai (see my comparison here) you only have two ways to strike (both hands) and variations of the four basic punches: jab, straight, hook and uppercut.

But if you look at Muay Thai the potential combinations of strikes are infinite as you have so many options available to you.

Having elbows and knees adds so much to the sport. Even fighters who have trained their entire lives are always discovering new things, which is why Muay Thai is such an amazing martial art.

However knowing all the techniques is just the start. You need to know HOW to use those techniques against other people who are fighting back. It will take many years of training before you can perform all of your techniques quickly, precisely and under pressure.

Acquiring high fight IQ will take years and years as you create strategies and tactics of how to use every one of your 8 limbs to their maximum effectiveness, while also reacting to all of your opponent’s potential moves. Remember, your opponent can use all of their 8 limbs against you too!

You may be able to learn the basic punches, kicks, elbow, and knee strikes quite quickly. There are roughly 8 elbow strikes, 4 main punches, a couple of kicks and 2 knee strikes.

But, there are effectively infinite variations of each strike that change depending on where you’re striking, and if you start the strike while spinning.

Add to the roughly 22 strikes to learn, footwork, evasion blocking/sparring, catching your opponents kicks, grappling work (clinching, sweeps & throws, maintaining control of your opponent, etc.) and you can see how it quickly gets complicated!

Learning the moves well enough to be able to perform them is not too difficult. You could probably be taught within a week if you have good muscle memory and spend a lot of time performing the moves.

This is assuming you have adequate flexibility to perform them (see my post on should you do Muay Thai if you’re inflexible here).

However, just like with chess, knowing the moves you can do is very, very different from actually using them effectively against an opponent.

How Long Does It Take To Become Good At Muay Thai?

Now “good” at Muay Thai is subjective, as your self-defense could be way better than an average guy/girl on the street in only a couple of months. However, I will outline the average Muay Thai progression from beginner to master.

You can learn all the fundamentals like basic fight strategy, tactics techniques, and proper Muay Thai fitness in 6 months. This is enough time to be competent with training gear, work with a partner, and be able to spar and learn some basic beginner stuff.

After 12 months of solid training perhaps you would have had some fighting experience at Inter Club or amateur level, making you a notice fighter which has some basic Muay Thai ability.

To become competent at Muay Thai you need to regularly train for around 3 years and have some fight experience. To say you are competent you should have around 5-6 fights, as you can claim some experience.

You can use the experience to fight far more tactically as your Muay Thai fight IQ has improved a lot.

To call yourself an expert in anything whether a physical skill such as fixing cars or Muay Thai you need to train for 7 years. You should have had many fights during this time. It is common in Thailand to have 100’s of fights even at an early age as they begin fighting so young.

It takes 7-10 years to become an expert, as in any skill that requires a combination of knowledge and physical ability, such as playing the harp, being a doctor, or fighting skillfully.

By this time you will have had at least 15 fights and will be an expert fighter in Muay Thai. It makes sense to have trained in the other martial arts as well.

This 7-10 years’ time to become an expert in any field was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers and it is known as the 10,000-hour rule. It applies to Muay Thai as well as other martial arts like BJJ and pretty much every field.

You can get Outliers on Amazon here.

After 15 years you can be considered a master at Muay Thai. You will know you’re a master when other experts come to you for new knowledge about the sport. Fighters like Liam Harrison are at this level as is anyone who actively does Muay Thai seminars.

However “master” does not mean they know everything about Muay Thai as this is impossible. They are still learning new things every day, but they’ve achieved a level where other people want to learn from them.

Since Muay Thai doesn’t have titles or belts like other martial arts, after 30 years of training you can teach masters. So you’re like a grandmaster in Karate.

Former fighters like Samart Payakaroon (pictured below) who is considered by many to be the greatest Muay Thai fighter of all time, fall in this category.

Don’t let any of this discourage you! You don’t have to dedicate your life to training Muay Thai to become good at it! Honestly, I think around 2 years is enough to be good at Muay Thai and even a few months is enough to be a lot more competent in a self-defense situation.

Can You Teach Yourself Muay Thai?

Whilst you can teach yourself some basic techniques, the reality is to learn a combat sport properly you need two people. However, you could teach yourself the basic Muay Thai rhyme and other fundamentals like proper footwork and hand placement.

Check out these two videos both from the fantastic martial arts YouTuber FightTips for the traditional Muay Thai stance and strategies together with a full free 30 minute Muay Thai beginner class!

YouTube, in general, is a fantastic resource for combat sports and we are very, very lucky to have it! Imagine back in the day we only had VHS tapes!

However, I still recommend learning in a gym as you will also likely learn bad form without a coach correcting you and if this goes unchecked it’s hard to unlearn bad habits.

Even if you filmed yourself and made sure your form was good, there are some things you will never learn without training in a gym.

You need to see if your techniques are effective against someone trying to hit you. It’s very easy shadow boxing or hitting the bag against someone who doesn’t hit back!

There are many things you will be missing out on without training at a gym. The bond you get with your fellow martial artists is beautiful, so is the desire to impress your coach along with all the locker room banter.

The feeling of stepping into the ring for your first Interclub cannot be matched, and training in a virtual class can never match compare to the real thing.

Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations

Looking For Gear To Use When You Train?
If you are interested in training Muay Thai, here is some of the gear I recommend: Best Mouth Guard Best Gloves Best Shorts Best Shin Guards
Want To Learn To Fight, But Don’t Want To Go In Person?
CoachTube has online training videos for Boxing, Karate, MMA and more. And best part is you can do it all from your home allowing you to go at your own pace. Check them out here.
Interested In Training Other MMA Fighters?
Click here to check out the MMA Conditioning Association and see what you need to become an MMA conditioning coach and begin training fighters.

Muay Thai is an excellent martial art but can you do it if you need glasses? I decided to find out.

So can you do Muay Thai with glasses? Unless your vision is extremely bad needing glasses will not stop you from doing Muay Thai. You can wear glasses when your instructor is demonstrating the techniques then take them off for pad work or sparring.

I know you have more questions, like how will I be able to see my opponent with my bad vision, or should I wear contacts when training. Do not worry as I will answer everything as I had glasses so I know how you feel.

Why You Should Train Muay Thai With Glasses

Your eyes have two main functions, to pick up motion and to see details and color. Whenever you’re sparring or doing pad work you will be very close to your opponent. So if you’re nearsighted, like I was before I had LASIK surgery, you will see your opponent/partner just fine.

All that matters is that you can see the motions your opponents/partners are making so you can react and adjust accordingly. You don’t have to see the punches crystal clear with 20/20 vision to avoid them when doing any combat sport including Muay Thai.

You might ask, but Dillon what if I can’t see when my instructor drills techniques? The solution is simple. Wear your glasses when you see the techniques being drilled and take them off whenever you spar or do the techniques.

This allows you to see the techniques in all their glory whilst being able to perform them.

You need to get used to training without visual aids, as contacts will pop out whenever you punch, and your glasses will fog up and fall off in the heat of battle or training.

Also, if you are ever in a self-defense situation it is unlikely your glasses wouldn’t get knocked off anyway so learn to develop your striking range without having to rely on your vision.

If you need further convincing check out the YouTube video of professional 8x Muay Thai champion Chike Lindsay where he says the same things. He is legally blind in one eye and it didn’t stop him from doing Muay Thai!

Muay Thai Training Visual Aid Options

Train Without Any Visual Aids

As Muay Thai is a combat sport no matter what sort of training you’re doing with shadow boxing, hitting pads, or hitting the heavy bag you don’t need perfect 20/20 vision.

With Sparring or fighting? I would never spar or fight with glasses on as there is a risk of your expensive glasses breaking, or even worse breaking and cutting into your delicate eyes or face.

Unless you’re super-short sighted and can’t even see your hands right in front of your face, training without glasses is the best option for any combat sport, especially with Muay Thai.

Glasses Strap

If you want to wear your glasses when doing Muay Thai training, a good cheap option is glasses straps. If you don’t use straps your glasses will fly across your gym because Muay Thai movements are so explosive.

The issue is Muay Thai is a very demanding martial art so your lenses might be fogged up or get wet with sweat which will be worse than not using them. Also, you cannot spar with them as your glasses could break so you’re better off not using them at all.

If you want to use a strap an excellent choice is the Chums Eyewear retainer made in the USA which you can get for a fantastic price from Amazon right here.

Prescription Sports Goggles

Goggles are tougher and more secure than glasses and are quite common in basketball, volleyball, and hockey. They will not break like glasses and are probably the best option if your eyesight is really bad and come second only to not wearing anything.

Your expensive goggles can easily be knocked off by a left hook and I still wouldn’t wear them while you spar. They can also be quite expensive but not as expensive as normal glasses.

If you want an excellent pair of sports goggles where you can still use your prescription lenses, look no further than the Bertoni Prescription Sports Sunglasses which you can buy for a superb price on Amazon here.

Exercise Headbands

The problem with using any kind of visual aid is you WILL sweat in Muay Thai, so sweat dripping down will cause your glasses to come off your nose and make your lenses wet.

Using a sweatband is a cheap solution to this problem. It is definitely worth it to get one because you can use it in all sports and it helps improve your vision even if you don’t have glasses. However, it will not stop any eyewear flying from your face.

If you want a headband that you can use for every sport and is even Bike helmet friendly, look no further than the unisex Temple Tape headband. You can get the with various colors from Amazon right here.

Contacts

Now contacts may appear to be the best option as they are not as imposing as other eyewear protection, especially when doing general training they are less likely to pop out.

However, for sparring, I would never fight with contacts, as you cannot believe how often contacts go flying out of someone’s eye when they get hit.

I used to wear contacts and didn’t like to fight in them. Honestly, I recommend everyone who has the money to get LASIK (laser eye surgery) as I got a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back since.

Why You Should Consider Corrective Eye Surgery

Okay, this isn’t to do with Muay Thai but hear me out. Having corrective eye surgery was the best choice I ever made. I personally had it done in Prague for around $1300/£1000.

Yes, it is more expensive than glasses or contact lenses, but think in the long term you will never fall asleep with your contact lenses in or have to buy a pair of glasses ever again! I love never needing to find my contacts or potentially losing them. You forget you ever needed glasses! As SOON as you get the surgery it is crazy how quickly you adjust.

You will save money in the long term as single vision lenses cost between $100-$300 apiece, so my surgery was less than 4 expensive single vision glasses

LASIK is ideal for all types of training as all the aforementioned problems cease to exist.

In 2016 a study (read more here) found that LASIK has a 96% patient satisfaction rate, with the latest research saying that LASIK has a 99% success rate in achieving 20/40 vision or better, and a 90% success rate in achieving 20/20 vision or better! These statistics are incredible!

Imagine never worrying about forgetting your glasses or contacts for training or in life ever again! I know you might be scared but don’t be as these fears are unfounded. Don’t you think not wearing glasses ever again just sounds amazing?

Are There MMA/Muay Thai Fighters With Bad Vision?

Just like normal people, professional fighters are known to perform with bad vision. Anderson Silva arguably the best MMA fighter of all time is known to be short-sighted as he wears glasses during press conferences. Also Ben Henderson the former UFC lightweight champion is nearsighted.

Arguably the biggest reason why having glasses is not an issue in Muay Thai is the former UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping. He won his title against Luke Rockhold with one glass eye that he kept out of the public eye and no one knew of his sight disadvantage.

If you don’t believe me, you can hear him speak down below on the Joe Rogan Experience about losing his eye.

The fact that he performed at the highest level with such a sight handicap, showcases anything is possible as you can perform at the highest levels of Muay Thai despite your eye problems.

Either that or get LASIK, it’s up to you 🙂

Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations

Looking For Gear To Use When You Train?
If you are interested in training Muay Thai, here is some of the gear I recommend: Best Mouth Guard Best Gloves Best Shorts Best Shin Guards
Want To Learn To Fight, But Don’t Want To Go In Person?
CoachTube has online training videos for Boxing, Karate, MMA and more. And best part is you can do it all from your home allowing you to go at your own pace. Check them out here.
Interested In Training Other MMA Fighters?
Click here to check out the MMA Conditioning Association and see what you need to become an MMA conditioning coach and begin training fighters.

To kick high you need to be flexible, but do you need to be flexible for Muay Thai? I decided to find out.

So do you need to be flexible for Muay Thai? Muay Thai is a sport learned over years, and like everything, flexibility takes a long time to develop. Just like a gymnast doesn’t need to be flexible before they study gymnastics you don’t need to be flexible to do Muay Thai, but it would help you.

Not being flexible is not an excuse to not do Muay Thai. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on your flexibility before you start training as it is quite easy to do and just needs daily work.

Why You Don’t Need To Be Flexible To Start Muay Thai

Muay Thai is the most complete striking martial art. It’s called the art of 8 limbs as you can strike with your fists, feet, elbows, and knees. This makes it a lot more difficult to learn than Boxing (see my comparison of both here) as you have a much larger toolbox to use.

How does this relate to flexibility you might ask? Well, when you begin Muay Thai, there is so much to learn from having the correct stance, clinching and learning how to punch and kick that flexibility will be the least of your worries!

It takes a long time to achieve a decent Muay Thai roundhouse. I have been training for 6 months and my kick is just starting to get there, my leg flexibility hasn’t even come into consideration! Worry about your kicking technique before your leg flexibility.

I do Yoga now and did Yoga before Muay Thai, so I had an advantage in flexibility over other people. Although I know people with way worse flexibility than me when they started and they didn’t use it as an excuse not to do it!

Just remember we all start Muay Thai at different levels, whether that’s fitness, fighting experience or flexibility, we all come from different backgrounds.

Luckily, Muay Thai is a very humble and welcoming sport that stems from Thai culture, so in a good Muay Thai gym, you will be welcomed no matter what your experience level is.

This doesn’t mean I don’t recommend starting a stretching routine before you do Muay Thai or any martial art.

Stretching is very important for maintaining health. Especially in todays world with our rounded shoulders, head forward-leaning digital life with smartphones, laptops and desk jobs.

Check out this short YouTube video from the Mayo Clinic, explaining how important stretching is for health and reducing sports injury risk in general.

How Do You Get Flexible For Muay Thai?

Whilst you can start Muay Thai with very poor flexibility I would recommend implementing a daily/5 times a week stretching routine to put you in a better spot to hit those high kicks.

Although doing the kicks themselves will give you a stretch, it’s better to have an actual routine in place. I like the fighting YouTuber “Fight Tips” where you can see his daily routine down below.

For stretching it’s better to do it every day or at least 5 times a week to get the proper benefits. Initially, it will hurt, especially if you’re stiff and not very flexible! Each time you practice it will become easier, and before too long you will love the sensation (trust me).

However, before you train Muay Thai or any martial arts, many people have a pre-workout stretch and post-workout stretch routine that they do.

How To Stretch Before & After Muay Thai Training

Pre Training Stretching

Before you do any stretching its important to warm up the muscles to reduce the risk of injury. You don’t just start going crazy and start punching and kicking with full power!

A warm up can be achieved via cycling to the gym, walking, or skipping before your work out which is very common in every Muay Thai gym in the world.

Sean Fagan the Muay Thai Guy who is a professional Muay Thai fighter and Muay Thai Youtuber has a fantastic dynamic warmup specifically for Muay Thai. You can access in the video below. However, I have quickly summarized the video for you

1. Foam roll the Muay Thai problem areas (the hips, quads, hamstrings and calves) to get the blood circulating. If you don’t have a foam roller you can get the one I use- the TriggerPoint foam roller. Get it for a fantastic price right from Amazon here.
2. Start skipping for about 5-10 minutes. If you don’t have a skipping rope you can get one on Amazon right here.
3. Loosen the shoulders and neck by rolling them around both directions for roughly 30 seconds each side
4. Stretch your chest by opening it up via stretching your hands wide and then close together
5. Twist the torso for around 30 seconds to stretch your lower back
6. Rotate your hips in a circular motion
7. Rotate your knees and ankles by bending down and moving them in a circular motion
8. Stretch your legs and work on your balance
9. Finish by doing some light shadow boxing for 5 minutes before you start your proper workout!

Muay Thai Cool Down

Cooling down after a heavy workout session, especially after doing Muay Thai, is very important to prevent muscle injury and to help loosen the muscles after everything they have done.

Sean Fagan has made a specific Muay Thai cool down routine where you need to hold every pose for 10-30 seconds for best results.  Remember whilst discomfort is okay you never want to feel pain during the stretches. If you feel pain, you are likely pushing yourself too hard.

I’ve linked the video below. Remember your flexibility will suck at first but just like everything daily practice will transform how your body feels over time.

How To Get Flexible Enough To Head Kick In Muay Thai

You might think head kick flexibility is all to do with the legs but you would be wrong. It is more to do with the hips and equally distributing your weight to a specific part of your foot, right underneath the big toe.

If you want more information about how to develop a head kick without being naturally flexible please check mastermindmuaythai blog post out. However, if you want a general leg kicking stretch routine please check out Fight Tips leg flexibility routine down below.

I’ve done this routine myself. Not only have I found it to be a great stretch, but my kicking dexterity has greatly improved. Check it out.

Why You Should Stretch In Muay Thai

I’ve already explained why you should stretch but it’s important to understand specifically why.

The most important thing is reducing the risk of potential injury, as Muay Thai is so explosive. If you don’t prepare your muscles, you could potentially cause a muscle strain, pull or snap and you don’t want that!

If you go straight into hitting the bag or pads with full power and cold muscles, this will be a ticket to snapped muscle city. Your entire body needs to be warm and limber from the neck to the calves before you do any serious Muay Thai workout.

This is why skipping is so common in martial arts as it’s a quick effective whole body workout that will stretch your calves whilst warming up your wrists and shoulders.

If you fail to warm up and stretch properly then the likelihood of getting a calf cramp or a pulled hamstring is sharply increased. These types of hamstring injuries are very painful and could potentially stop your training for weeks!

Improving the flexibility of all your muscles but especially your lower back, legs, and hips is very important for you to kick harder and higher in any martial arts. Regular daily or 5 times a week stretching will go a long way to making concrete improvements to your kicking ability in any martial art.

How To Open Your Hips In Muay Thai

In our virtual dominated culture having tight hips causes a lot of modern day health problems. You will notice you have tight hips in Muay Thai if you cannot

• Turn your hips properly when kicking
• Push your hips when you punch, knee or clinch
• Generate any power with your strikes
• Maintain your balance

To rectify these mistakes you need to improve the following (check out this video by the Muay Thai guy for a more detailed post looking into fixing these problems)

• Pay attention to your posture both inside and outside of the gym
• Make sure to stretch out the problem areas (your hips, lower back and legs)
• Strengthen your hip muscles. Most of this can be done in Pilates and many yoga poses
• Just be consistent!

Check out this handy Muay Thai mobility routine that has some specific stretches for the problem areas, and will help you turn that hip in!

If you have a partner then they can assist you manually with turning your hip. Muay Thai Pros has a fantastic video in doing exactly this!

Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations

Looking For Gear To Use When You Train?
If you are interested in training Muay Thai, here is some of the gear I recommend: Best Mouth Guard Best Gloves Best Shorts Best Shin Guards
Want To Learn To Fight, But Don’t Want To Go In Person?
CoachTube has online training videos for Boxing, Karate, MMA and more. And best part is you can do it all from your home allowing you to go at your own pace. Check them out here.
Interested In Training Other MMA Fighters?
Click here to check out the MMA Conditioning Association and see what you need to become an MMA conditioning coach and begin training fighters.

Muay Thai fighters are known for their powerful kicks, but just how powerful is a Muay Thai kick? I decided to find out.

How powerful is a Muay Thai kick? The strength of the kick will depend on the size of the kicker themselves and their technique. An average Muay Thai roundhouse kick transfers energy similar to the swing of a baseball bat at 480 pounds of force per strike.

The Muay Thai roundhouse is known as the strongest kick in martial arts, but can it kill or break ribs? There are many factors to consider why Muay Thai kicks are so strong.

How Powerful Is A Muay Thai Kick Exactly?

It is difficult to answer as this will largely vary in the size of the kicker and his/her kicking technique. If you’re interested in why this is and the physics of a roundhouse kick please read more on this blog post.

The American TV show Sports Science, tried to find the hardest Martial Arts kick. The Muay Thai fighter actually broke a maple baseball bat with over 1000 pounds of force registered! 

You can see the video of the experiment down below, although these shows are not known to be the most scientifically accurate.

The problem with identifying power with pounds of force, is it is difficult to understand. For example, I don’t think you can imagine the difference between 600 pounds and 800 pounds of force. So let’s try to think of it differently.

A Muay Thai leg kick can give a strong shock to the leg and cause a lot of damage and numbness. Muay Thai leg kicks are a very important part of the sport and I can tell you how badly they hurt. They have become very popular in MMA recently and every fighter knows how to use them.

You can see the leg kick “power” easier by watching this knockout video. Just imagine the pain of getting your leg kicked by a professional fighter! Ouch!

A roundhouse kick to the body can cause serious damage to the ribs and even break them. Just look at Buakaw, one of the best Muay Thai fighters ever, hitting the heavy bag, below. You can truly feel the power!

Although the only real way to “feel” how strong a Muay Thai kick is, is to hold a pad and feel the kinetic power of the kick first hand. This is miles better than hearing some statistic, as you can actually feel the power yourself!

Why Do Muay Thai Fighters Kick So Hard?

You might ask yourself how on earth can Muay Thai fighters kicks be so powerful? A large part of it has to do with shin conditioning.

This occurs by bone calcification, which is when the body deposits calcium to increase bone density and strengthen bones. You can read more about it here.

I’ve noticed bone calcification myself as my shins get stronger. But it is a long and tedious process and takes years of hard work to get shin bones strong enough to kick shin to shin full power in a professional fight.

This is done by hours and hours of kicking dense, heavy bags and pads and by sparring. The body will come to recognize it needs to strengthen the shin bones with calcium. It is common to break down Banana trees in Thailand to achieve the same effect.

If you need help conditioning your shins as I did, then please check out the fantastic YouTube channel of Sean Fagan a professional fighter who lives in Thailand. He offers 5 tips to condition your shins for Muay Thai down below.

Can A Muay Thai Kick Break A Rib?

Your ribs are comprised of relatively weak bone and can easily break if kicked in the wrong location. Just look at how easily pork ribs are to break when pulled at a certain angle. On the website, mayoclinic.org ribs can be damaged by:

• Direct impacts from motor vehicle accidents, falls, or contacts sports
• Repetitive trauma from sports like golf or rowing
• Even from severe and prolonged coughing!

Muay Thai is a brutal sport even amongst brutal sports, so clearly a Muay Thai kick can break a rib. I’ve fractured my rib myself from BJJ. A kick breaking a rib will depend on what part of the rib was hit and which specific rib was hit.

Just take a look at this Muay Thai fight where a body kick breaks the opponent’s ribs. These injuries are very common in combat sports and can happen in Muay Thai if you’re having a real fight or even just sparring too hard.

Can A Muay Thai Kick Kill?

We’ve decided a Muay Thai kick can break ribs but can it kill?

Every year a couple of MMA and Muay Thai fighters die in the ring, but it usually involves body complications due to excessive weight cutting which can be super dangerous even if you don’t fight.

Watch this documentary on the dangers of weight cutting for fighters by Thomas Hughes, who is a 2 time North American kickboxer for team USA.

On November 10th, 2018 a 13-year-old Muay Thai fighter died after taking a strike that sends him headfirst in the ground during a charity fight. This unfortunate event showcases the potential dangers of martial arts and Muay Thai in general.

The reason punches and kicks kill is due to the trauma of the strike causing the brain to hit the skull. Think of the brain as a large bouncy ball in a short space, and every time it bounces it twists the brain.

Professor Andrew Kaye, Head of Neurosurgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, says to think of the brain like jelly on a plate: When you shake the plate hard enough, the jelly will shake and begin to tear.

Just like when you get hit the brain rattles against the skull causing the neurons and cells that make up the brain to be damaged and tear apart.

Many, many conditions can occur if someone is struck by a Muay Thai kick, falls and hits an object or concrete.

Concussion

If you ever get hit or kicked you could experience a concussion. You may or may not lose consciousness, but you may experience brain fog or slow thinking and will most likely have a headache or suffer memory loss, nausea, dizziness and ringing in the ears.

The more concussions you receive the easier is it to get one and you could end up with Post-concussive syndrome (NY times).

Damage To The Brain Stem

If someone gets Muay Thai kicked and their brain shifts, the brain stem can be damaged or torn. A small section of the brain roughly the size of a thumb connects the brain stem to the spinal cord.

This cord has many functions like sorting out your breathing, heartbeat and digestion. Any damage to the brain stem could affect you for life.

Skull Fracture

Probably the most common brain injury due to martial arts, is if a person loses consciousness, falls and hits their head on the ground or an object. This may result in a fractured skull.

A depressed skull fracture will cause broken parts of the skull to press into their brain. This causes the brain to bounce around the skull causing further trauma.

I know this is grim reading but it’s important to know the very real-life applications a Muay Thai kick or punch can have in the street. Check out this visual explanation of how the brain can be damaged in such an attack.

Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations

Looking For Gear To Use When You Train?
If you are interested in training Muay Thai, here is some of the gear I recommend: Best Mouth Guard Best Gloves Best Shorts Best Shin Guards
Want To Learn To Fight, But Don’t Want To Go In Person?
CoachTube has online training videos for Boxing, Karate, MMA and more. And best part is you can do it all from your home allowing you to go at your own pace. Check them out here.
Interested In Training Other MMA Fighters?
Click here to check out the MMA Conditioning Association and see what you need to become an MMA conditioning coach and begin training fighters.