Are you new to Muay Thai? If so, you are at the right place. If you have decided to learn Muay Thai, the best place to start is with the basics of Muay Thai combos.
Just like any sports, more you practice the better you get at said sport. Understand that for you to learn any martial art and be good at it, you have to engage in as much drilling and repetition as possible. Muay Thai is no exception,for you to improve the most, you need to put in much practice.
Most new comers in this sport have a notion that progress is only when you kick ass like Jean-Claude Van Damme from the movie ‘kick-boxer’ . But reality is far from actual truth, as a beginner, the most basic combinations you first learn serve you best when you finally get a chance to fight or even in friendly sparring sessions. So, don’t be in a rush to learn complex stuff before you master the basics.
Quantity Versus Quality For Muay Thai Combinations
Would you rather be more skilled in a few combinations, or would you rather learn as many combinations as possible at the expense of mastering a few? That solely depends on your personal focus, expectation and determination. What is your focus? What is your expectation, and how determined are you to achieve it? Your answer to each of these questions will tell you how fast you will learn Muay Thai.
Most times, people focus more on quantity over quantity.By quantity, we are talking about the diversity of MuayThai fighting skills you wish to embrace and master. Nobody wants to do 100 pushups,150 crunches and 100 sit ups while you can go practice your new “combo” on the bags or in the sparring session. But at what cost? if your cardio and condition isn’t on point then you will gas out and your form gets sloppy and you’re practicing sloppy technique and getting tagged in your sparring sessions.
There are going to be days when you’re at your dojo and you have a gifted master that wont let you go past the new combo because you’re technique isn’t good and you’re stuck practicing that low kick for the thousandth time. It will get tiring and honestly frustrating after all the effort.
Push through that frustration and learn the right way, next thing you know you’ll be dominating the sparring sessions and eager to learn your next combo.
The Training And Conditioning
Once you commit to Must Thai, following a specific training pattern helps you achieve your goals faster.
It includes running or road work, shadow boxing, pad work, bag work, partner drills, clinching and sparring and body conditioning.
Partner drills, for example, help you to develop you timing, reflexes and reactions, while body conditioning toughens your body, so that you can withstand heavy attacks without giving In.
These trainings and conditioning drill will help you achieve the following,
- Your basic techniques.
- To achieve stability in movement.
- To have good rhythm and control.
- Learn about your stance and rhythm. This is very critical for a beginner. Changing bad habits much later is very difficult.
- To develop your guard.
Best Approach To Learn Combinations
The best approach is usually to start with offensive combos and then defensive combos.
Start working on a few simple combinations until they become second nature. This is only when you can move on to more advanced combos, from there you can begin to explore your own combinations.
Here below are some basic Muay Thai combinations. Such combinations are endless, given the versatility of striking. However, some are more effective than others.
As a beginner, your focus should be to master the basic skills:
Jab: This would be your stinger,this quick punch will keep your opponent at bay and judge the distance between for further setup.
Cross: This would be your power punch with you lead arm. We can go into more and more details here but it can only be perfected on the mat or a bag.
Hook: There are various types of hooks you can throw with both arms, but like cross we aren’t going to go too much into the details on here.
Teep: Muay thai has various types of kicks, one of the crucial one is a front kicks.
Body Kick: This is one of the body kicks that is almost similar to karate or taekwondo.
Leg Kick: This is the crux of the Muay Thai kicks that has won countless fights for various fighters.
Elbows: Using your elbow to strike instead of your fist.
Knees: Using Knees for strikes.
Clenching: Most newbies aren’t thought this because it requires a bit of practice. But this is a crucial part of practicing Muay Thai.
As you move on, you will also master uppercuts, head kicks, flying knees, low kicks, and spinning elbows, among others.
Talking of a jab, or a punch thrown during a fight, it may never do great damage to your opponent, but you can utilize it to achieve a few crucial things.
It helps to keep your opponent busy, as well as to distract him from delivering a deadly attack. With it, you can also open up your opponent’s guard, besides gauging your striking distance.
Actually, every combo starts with a quick jab,cross or hook because of these reasons. Always let them come naturally.
- Jab – Lead Teep
- Jab – Rear Elbow
- Jab – lead Elbow – Rear Elbow – Knee
- Jab – Cross – Liver Hook – Kick
- Cross – Switch Kick
- Cross – Hook – Low Kick
- Hook – Roundhouse – Knee
- Lead Uppercut – Cross – Inside Low Kick
- Inside Leg Kick – Cross
Conclusion
Having had a glimpse into Muay Thai basics, you should be able to make progress at your pace. Don’t get too focused on others getting it faster, just focus on you and most importantly have fun!