new muay thai question

[cfr]

I have recently asked lots of questions regarding Muay Thai and Kenpo.
My very limited MA experience is this:
6 months in a guys garage. A combination of kickboxing, bjj, judo,
and Jap jui jutsu. He moved away.
5 months Hapkido. Cant say I really beleived in it.
3 months Kenpo. Left due to foot injury that Im still recovering from.
So my new question is:
Watching UFC's I have noticed that blocking in any traditional sense is non existant. Ive always doubted regular Karate blocks and that reemphasized it for me. However, parrying , redirecting, deflecting has always made sense to me. Does Muay Thai do any of this? My guess is that it is purely keeping the hands up trying to not get hit. If so, how does that do without gloves? I mean after all, it would easier to get a non gloved hand through a small opening that it would a gloved one. Ive often wondered watching UFC's if an attempt to parry a punch would have been benifial to the guy getting smacked in the head while just trying to keep his hands up? All insight would be appreciated.

[#42]

>I have recently asked lots of questions regarding
>Muay Thai and Kenpo.
>My very limited MA experience is this:
>6 months in a guys garage. A combination of
>kickboxing, bjj, judo,
>and Jap jui jutsu. He moved away.
>5 months Hapkido. Cant say I really beleived in it.
>3 months Kenpo. Left due to foot injury that Im still
>recovering from.
>So my new question is:
>Watching UFC's I have noticed that blocking in any
>traditional sense is non existant. Ive always doubted >regular Karate blocks and that reemphasized it for
>me. However, parrying , redirecting, deflecting has
>always made sense to me.

You are absolutely right with that...
Don't let some dork talk you out of it...

>Does Muay Thai do any of this?

It did to a degree, but since it has degenerated
strongly during this century (new sports-oriented rules, no bareknuckle anymore, western olympic boxing-style influences) it now depends on the teacher/trainer/gym.
You would have to find a school where the old thai martial arts(there where several of them, mostly stemming from an actual combat background since the thais used them for warfare and miltitary stuff back then) are still tought, but you will probably have a hard time finding one.

>My guess is that it is purely keeping the hands up
>trying to not get hit. If so, how does that do without
>gloves? I mean after all, it would easier to get a non
>gloved hand through a small opening that it would a
>gloved one. Ive often wondered watching UFC's if an >attempt to parry a punch would have been benifial to >the guy getting smacked in the head while just trying >to keep his hands up? All insight would be
>appreciated.

As in modern MuayThay, western olympic boxing-style
influences on the striking and strike-defense stuff.
And of course loss of control and technical capability in
the heat of the fight since many of these guys tend
to let fly instead of pacing themelves adequately.
That makes up for an entertaining fight but is a no no in
case your life is at stake in a survival situation.
Basicaly those mma/fullcontact-Jiu-jitsu styles are preferable to modern MuayThai styles since they cover
a far broader fight cenario (ground, submission, choke bareknuckle etc.) that is mostly closer to selfdefense.

On the other hand, there are still some rules, and suboptimal biomechanics, tactics etc. to all those styles, so a lot depends on you, having the right idea about what fighting is all about, how to utilize your body and
of course having the mental capability to deal with stress.

Basicaly the art is to know what to learn form others
and what to figure out yourself.
Especially the biomechnical understanding of the human body by almost any instructor I have ever met
was nothing short from horrible(at least concerning dynamics ). Also fight tactics, especially
with asian and western instructors seems not always
to be at it's best. Some of those brasilians seem to be
a litle more clever though.

some guidelines you should concider when deciding on
wether to adapt a technique or not:

1.A technique that hurts while executing is crap, be it a defensive or an offensive one .

2. A technique that wears on your stamina while excuting is crap too, especially if it tends to overload a single muscle or muscle group so that those muscles will go away early. Those overloaded muscles will be
the limiting factor in your technique(and maybe even in your fight). A well rounded techinque utilizes all muscles primarily involved to an equal amount. While executing such a technique you don't feel any local overload on any muscle. Actually you don't feel much at all. If a technique doesn't match that criteria it is biomechanically-whise suboptimal.

3.A technique that doesn't combine
seamlessly with natural movement's like walking ( ability to maintain perfect balance and distance to the oponent ) or with any other move that seems to be relaxed and natural to you is also crap.

4. And last but not least! a technique that doesn't fullfill it's purpose well, like static defensive techniques that are so popular in many modern and pseudo-traditional styles, is crap too. Static defense is only a legitimate option if you for what ever reason aren't capable of more adequate beahviour any more. It's a last resort at best and nothing one should strive towards ( and nothing you have to practice in particular if you're basicly more skilled anyway).

some logical and psycho stuff for your tactics:

1. Since an atacker need's fact's on your case to make
a decision on how to atack( there is no such thing as a single, always adequate, universal atack), you can thwart any atack by not delivering those fact's(just don't let him figure you out).

2. If his mind Isn't capable to iniate an atack, for sure his body by itself isn't anyway ( leveling physical advantages he might have over you ).

3. If you ask me how it feels not to be predictable, I'd
say it feels like feeling nothing, neither agression nor
fear. Just calm(but no sleep).
By all mean's don't try to plan ahead your actions.
As soon as you try to pattern your behaviour somehow
you might get predictable. Let _him_ be the one proividing _you_ with the more destinctive patterns in his actions for _your_ decision making.
If you are calm enough anlysis of his behavour will take place subconcious and translate into action before you even know it. It's no thought that comes to mind, it's just something that makes you move without you really having to initiate or being particularly active. It just happens, and you let go.
The analytical process doesn't even reach your consciousnes , and everything is done with absolute ease.

4. If you by those means catch him while he is unaware this will enormously boost the impact. You have to get at him while he sleeps. Don't wake him up by unneccessary agression or use of much emotional momentum to initialize some violent or probably awkward(biomechanicaly whise) technique.
Everything has to be completely relaxed.
By those means you can overcome physcal disadvantages in the offense.

Summing it up, as you may have guessed by now
being calm, neither agresseive nor fearsome(but of couse not asleep) is your main weapon. Without it
it'l be a roler-coaster and unpredictable. The more you
try to force things, the more difficult it'l be, the easyer
you will be figured out because you can not refrain from
taking first action and fighting(acting) in certain patterns there by providing him with info he want's from you.

[Fighter]

Good.

#42 was absolutly correct throughout his entire post. I have nothing else to add except to read #42 post as it explains it in great detail.

[#42]

Thanks, fighter...;-)
Since I don't speak english particularily well,
I'm sometimes afraid to sound stupid and not to
get my message across, so I'm happy you seem to understand my post. Thanks again!

[Fighter]

Cool.

English is not your 1st language. You speak very well. Im sure lots of people read your posts and get a lot of info from them.

Keep up the good work