Anyone do muay thai here?

[voodoo_dude]

Sometime in the future I wouldnt mind giving it a go, having 2 extra weapons could come in quite useful...

What I just dont understand is how you can kick someone with your shins, or when you block with your shins

Call me a wuss but it looks so painful! Do you get used to the pain over time? how do you overcome it?

[Von Milash]

if you want to throw elbows and knees, MT is for you.
If you want to become a kicker/puncher, go wth kickboxing.
If you want to be a technically proficient puncher, go with boxing. MT and kb guys don't punch as well as boxers, but boxers don't kick. My honest opinion is that the most practical kick there is is the leg kick and you don't need to "study" a martial art to do one. you just do it. That's why I box but work my own "brand" of leg kick on my bag at home.


and to answer your question, you slowly but surely deaden the nerves in your shins by doing work on the bag. It starts out painful but gets easier as you go. I can attestto this just form having done bag work in my basement. you just get better at it and the pain goes away. In fact, thai boxers used to kick banana trees or something like that. So that scene in the Van Damme movie when he kicks the tree, not far from the truth.

[voodoo_dude]

well right now Im totally set on boxing (it appeals to me more than other combat sports) and I will stick to it for years to come.
My main goal is to become a well rounded fighter in the long run. boxing, judo and maybe muay thai.

After stumbling on to some MT fights recently it just got me curious.......

[Von Milash]

judo is great. with your boxing background I think you'd be better off expanding to judo. Or, (greco roman) wrestling is great too and like judo, overlooked as a great weapon, imo

[Heavy D]

Yeah, blocking and kicking with the shin definately hurts. But it just causes pain, not damage. When you have the option of getting your shin whacked in a fight (and not really feeling the pain because you're doped up on adrenaline) or getting kicked in the meat of your leg, causing your leg to physically sieze up, dropping you to the ground in the middle of a fight, you'll probably opt for the former. And if you dont, you will after you experience the latter :P

As far as kicking with the shin, its actually a very strong bone. The foot, not so much. You'll wind up breaking something by kicking with the top of your foot (skull > foot), or just twisting your ankle badly when the feet or toes his your target, and the leg tries to keep going without them. Also very painful, in the way that will make you appreciate the small amount of pain recieved when kicking with your shin.

And like Von said, MT is more about the knees and elbows. Kicks can be learned anywhere, and while MT practitioners DO throw one hell of a leg kick, so do karateka, kick boxers, tae kwan do practioners, etc etc.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

MT Knees rules. I was watching some science based programme where they measured psi and compression damage or something like that when different MA's hit a dummy. No surprises boxers hit the hardest. But a knee to the chest from a MT fighter caused about 2 inches of compression on the chest and over 2000lbs force, in effect it was like being in a car crash at over 30 mph. Next down was a spinning back kick from a TWD guy. You think about it it's fairly obvious you ma/sport is based on punching you will be good at punching etc.

[Von Milash]

there was some interesting stuff in that show, but an equal amount of garbage, too. like that drunken boxer BS. what a joke.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

agreed.
on one hand they were saying size mattered i.e as a matter of force when punching etc but the guys hitting the dummy were not of equal size, some wore gloves and some did not which again matters. If the boxer smashed the dummy without his protection he would likely break his hand, the kung fu guy was hitting with no gloves, think about it a second, most of these arts developed in a time when if you broke a bone it would have left you crippled it could also lead to infection, you would lose a limb and even die from it. Their punches are meant to fast so it rattles your brain in your skull so you get lots of little whiplashes rather than one big forward back forward you got with the boxer.

I would have liked to have seen some explanation as to why boxers are able to take those kind or shots and not get knocked out every time.


oh. Boards don't hit back.