thinking of crossing over

[maximus_tkd]

i am a 1st dan itf black belt
i was wondering if any1 on here has any opinions on itf-tkd training in muay thai, ive been reading about it constantly and came to the conclusion that this is what i want to train in...for many different reasons.

do you ppl think it would be beneficial?,
hard to addapt?

not that i want to completely drop my itf training or ever will, but to me it just seems to have everything that we lack.

not to mention, if im not mistaken....**full contact**

[eXcessiveForce]

Ask Damian Mavis

[Damian Mavis]

Hey Maximus, I got your message. I'm an ITF 4th degree that has trained in Muay Thai the past 3 years and fought here in Thailand last year (winning in the second round with spinning back side kick) and just moved to Thailand permanently to open ITF schools in Bangkok and persue other goals. I still train ITF style TKD and Muay Thai along with several other arts but those first 2 being my main arts.

Muay Thai is great and TKD can give you an edge if you are good at it and really learn the Muay Thai game.

My advice is to continue both and get really good at both and you will see how you have an advantage. Quit one over the other and you will lose any advantages in either. If you have an open mind and are eager to learn there is no problem with adapting. However it took me 6 months to learn how to do the Thai roundkick properly since I was so used to the TKD way, but now I can do both perfectly at will.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD

[alexjxaver]

Personally i think muay thai is so brutal and direct right to the point, that it is pointless to fight with anything else. I dont think all other martial arts are useless or anything like that. I just think if you are going to step into a ring, muay thai has all of the answers you need, in the sipelist (sp?) way possible. When i started muay thai i droped everything else because i saw how much more effective muay thai was, and it was what i was looking for all along but did not know it. I think it realy depends on what game you want to play, if you want to do the whole black belt thing, and do the fancy good looking ma, then tkd it your thing. But if you want to fight, and you want to knock people out, muay thai is where it is at.

[Damian Mavis]

You are wrong. If you train boxing extensively you are going to have an advantage in the Muay Thai ring, if you train kicks extensively from angles not trained by Muay Thai fighters then you are going to have an advantage. You better know what you are doing when it comes to the Muay Thai game but having excellent hands (unlike most muay thai fighters) or a few knockout kicks that most people don't know the defense for will certainly help. It will not compensate for really bad muay thai skills (although you can get lucky) but it is a bonus to your arsenal that can help you win. It helped me win.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD

[Thai Bri]

One fight.

And you had your secret weapon in its holster.

[alexjxaver]

I think the reason muay thai fighters are the best in the world, is because they train only a few techinques, and they get the few techinques down to a level that other martial artists can only dream of. So we can use them in almost every situation. So if you train muay thai and other martial arts i takes muay thai's best atribute away.

[shadowkiller]

MT's best attribute is its conditioning. The simplicity works well for it but remember its a ring sport which teaches you rules. Other arts don't have rules, so they will most likely do something you are not expecting.

MT is probably the best striking art but its not the end all to be all.

[alexjxaver]

I agree with that, you take a thai to the ground and grapel, chances are it is over for the thai. Muay thai is far from the perfect street art, but it works preaty well in the ring.

[Damian Mavis]

Ya it works perfectly in its own format! Stop saying ring, there are many forms of combat in the ring and they don't all have the same rules. What you are implying is that muay thai works in all ring formats and it doesnt, like you stated by saying on the ground it has weaknesses. It is also weak in a boxing format where the majority of it's strengths are not allowed. You can't say Muay thai would beat a boxer at a boxing match. Understand what I mean?

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD

[alexjxaver]

I am saying that in a fight with no rules, muay thai would probaly beat everything except mma.

[maximus_tkd]

what about bjj

[alexjxaver]

by mma i mean mixed martial arts, bjj, sambo, shotto, all that stuff is mma

[maximus_tkd]

great,...thats what "you" mean, except that MMA is MMA, and bjj is bjj, and so on,...

[alexjxaver]

There is no art called mma, if you fight in mma you study some grapeling art (bjj, sambo, shotto), and some stand up art (muay thai, boxing, kickboxing) and compine both of them.