Muay Thai is taught all over the world as a popular form of self-defense. But why is Muay Thai so good for self-defense?
Muay Thai is good for self-defense because it offers real-life training and experience which prepares you to defend yourself from striking range and within the clinch with punches, kicks, elbows, and knees. Muay Thai also teaches you to stay standing and manage the distance to keep yourself safe.
The creation of Muay Thai can be traced all the way back to its ancient origins when it was developed as a form of hand-to-hand fighting used by Thai soldiers to defend their country.
Because of this, Muay Thai was developed into an effective form of fighting and self-defense martial art.
Muay Thai’s true effectiveness as a form of self-defense can be categorized into 7 key benefits as listed below.
Let’s break them down.
1. Muay Thai Uses All Eight Limbs
Because of Muay Thai’s origins on the battle fields of Thailand with it’s neighbouring countries – Muay Thai needed to be developed as an all-round form of fighting.
This meant that Muay Thai was designed to use all the limbs of the body as weapons.
Over time this gave Muay Thai its popular name of The Art of Eight Limbs – meaning:
- 2 Fists Muay Thai teaches the use of both fists with boxing techniques
- 2 Elbows Muay Thai uses both elbows with a variety of techniques
- 2 Knees The use of knees are common in Muay Thai from both in and out of the clinch
- 2 Shins Both shins are used in Muay Thai as a weapon for kicking
2. Muay Thai Uses Boxing & Elbow Techniques
In a self-defense situation, your attacker is most likely going to come at you with wild punches in an attempt to strike you in the face and head.
Muay Thai teaches all of its students how to both defend against this sort of attack, and to return fire with your own – with a wide array of Boxing techniques.
- Muay Thai Guard In Muay Thai, there is a lot of emphasis on keeping your hands up to cover your chin and protect yourself from strikes.
- Avoiding Punches When within striking range, Muay Thai teaches how to avoid your opponent’s punches using either a parry or a slip. These are Boxing techniques which are used for either knocking your opponent’s punch just off target with a parry – or moving your head just out of the way with a slip. These techniques are taught in Muay Thai for both the lead hand jab, and the back hand cross – or power shot.
- Counter Punches In Muay Thai, you’ll also learn how to counter your opponent’s punches with your own. This basically means you first learn to avoid their punches – before returning fire with your own. In Muay Thai, counter shots are taught both to your opponent’s head and body.
Attacking with Elbows Muay Thai has a big focus of its training on how to use elbows as an effective form of attack – both from striking distance, and from within the clinch. Elbow attacks are taught to be used from all angles – and even spinning elbows are taught.
Counter with Elbows As with counter punches, in Muay Thai you are taught to use elbows to counter the shots of your opponent. These can be as simple as closing the distance and stepping in with an elbow – or can be more technical and use spinning elbow counters.
Muay Thai teaches a wide array of both Boxing and elbow techniques – all of which are very good for preparing you for self-defense.
3. Muay Thai Uses Kicks & Kneeing Techniques
When most people think of Muay Thai, they think of kicks. This is because Muay Thai focuses a lot of training time on how to effectively use kicks to both attack and to defend yourself.
Attacking with Kicks In Muay Thai, you will learn how to attack your opponent with kicks to all areas of their body, including:
- Head kicks During a Muay Thai fight, head kicks have the potential to end a fight with a knockout if landed correctly on the opponent.
Head kicks can also be used in a self-defense situation too, and there are plenty of videos on YouTube of them being used effectively.
However, head kicks do have some limitations in a self-defense situation – for example, if you’re wearing tight jeans, throwing a head kick could cause your supporting leg to pull out from under you – meaning you fall to the ground and are exposed to your opponent’s attack.
- Kicks to the body Whether in a professional Muay Thai fight – or in a self-defense situation – a well placed kick to the body is enough to stop any attack.
In Muay Thai you will learn how to effectively use body kicks which will also prepare you to use them to defend yourself if you need to.
- Leg kicks The leg kick is probably the best technique that you can use to surprise your attacker in a self-defense situation.
This is because you can throw a kick to your opponent’s leg from a relatively safe distance and your attacker probably won’t expect it, and they hurt like hell which will slow them right down – meaning you can return fire, or run away to safety.
Defending with Kicks In Muay Thai you will also learn how to defend with kicks. Most commonly with a push kick (known as the teep).
This technique is used as your opponent is moving towards you – you lift your front leg up and kick straight out into the stomach or leg of your opponent, which should stop their attack or knock them over.
The teep kick is normally used in a pushing motion rather than as a strike.
Attacking with Knees Muay Thai also teaches you how to attack with knees as well as kicks – meaning you’re still able to engage your opponent even at a close distance.
For example, kicking range is generally within a leg’s length distance – meaning the taller you are the further away from your opponent you’re able to kick.
However, knees require you to be much closer to your opponent, which means even when you’re too close to be able to throw kicks, you’re still able to throw knees – meaning Muay Thai makes you able to defend yourself even at a close distance even without initiating a clinch.
Muay Thai teaches a variety of both kicks and kneeing techniques which can be effectively used to defend yourself in a real-life situation.
4. Muay Thai Uses Clinch & Throwing Techniques
Unlike some other forms of martial arts, in Muay Thai the fight doesn’t end when you clinch up with your opponent. In fact, some of Muay Thai’s most effective techniques come from the clinch.
The clinch is where you close the distance between you and your opponent and grab a hold of them, either around the body or with two hands behind their head.
Muay Thai teaches you to initiate a clinch once the distance between you and your opponent has been reduced either by you or by your opponent getting too close.
You can also initiate a clinch by catching your opponent’s kick and closing the distance on your opponent which is less likely to happen in a self-defense situation if your attacker doesn’t throw a kick, but is still a useful weapon for you to have.
Strikes from The Clinch Once in the clinch, Muay Thai teaches you how to use an array of striking techniques to both your opponent’s body and head, including:
- Knees from the clinch From the Muay Thai clinch, knees are taught to the body of your opponent which can also be effectively used in a real-life self-defense situation.
- Elbows from the clinch With your hands holding your opponent’s head in place during a clinch, in Muay Thai you’re taught how to throw effective elbow strikes.
Throws from The Clinch Muay Thai does not just teach striking. Although limited, Muay Thai does teach some grappling. Muay Thai teaches grappling techniques from within the clinch including sweeps, trips and throws but Muay Thai does not teach ground grappling techniques.
Muay Thai teaches you how to clinch up with an attacker in a self-defense situation and how to use different knees, elbows and throws from the clinch.
5. Muay Thai Is Effective At Any Range
Muay Thai prepares you for self-defense at any distance from your opponent because of its focus on techniques from both long and close range – meaning Muay Thai prepares you to defend yourself whether you’re at striking distance or clinching distance from your attacker.
The distance of your attacker will determine which techniques you’re able to use – but each distance will open up new opportunities for you to use new techniques.
Long Range At long range (which is generally about your leg’s kicking distance) – you’re able to land your leg kicks and straight jap, while staying out of range and avoiding your opponent’s strikes.
Mid-Range At mid-range you’re able to continue your leg kick attacks – but now you’re also able to land kicks to the body and head too – plus mid-range now opens up all of your Boxing and elbow techniques.
Close Range At close range you’re able to implement your kneeing techniques and initiate a clinch for more strikes with both knees and elbows – plus you’re able to use trips and throws to take your attacker to the ground – and escape to safety.
Muay Thai can be effectively used in a real-life situation to defend yourself at any distance or range from your attacker and each range opens up new techniques for you to use.
6. Muay Thai Provides Real-Life Training & Experience
For any martial art to be effective and truly prepare you for self-defense, it needs to offer real-life experience in training.
Muay Thai provides real-world training through pad work, bag work and sparring.
- Pad Work One of the ways Muay Thai prepares you for self-defense is through pad work. This is where your training partner holds Thai pads and stands just within striking range.
Training with pads is perfect for practicing the accuracy of your techniques and your distance management – ensuring your effectiveness at both landing your strikes on the intended target, and at throwing your strikes from the correct distance.
- Bag Work Once you’re able to effectively implement a range of Muay Thai techniques, training on the bag will improve your striking power.
Bag work enables you to throw your strikes at full force and practice putting power behind each shot which you can then implement in a real-life situation to defend yourself.
- Sparring Like in pad work, sparring enables you to practice your accuracy and distance management. But sparring also offers much more because now your training partner is also retuning shots of their own and working to avoid your shots – meaning sparring is where you’re able to put everything together and practice everything you’ve learned and replicate a real-life self-defense situation.
Can you do Muay Thai without sparring? You do not need to do sparring to learn Muay Thai. You can still learn Muay Thai without having to take part in sparring and still be effective. Some students choose not to spar because of the risk of injuries or head trauma. However, Muay Thai sparring is the best way to prepare yourself for self-defense.
It’s also worth noting that Muay Thai sparring can be very safe with the correct protective equipment – such as shin guards.
For more information on Muay Thai shin guards, check out our article: Muay Thai Shin Guards: Do You Need Them?
Muay Thai prepares you for self-defense through its various forms of full-contact training, whether its pad work, bag work, or sparring – Muay Thai training will give you the experience needed to defend yourself.
7. Muay Thai Teaches You To Stay Standing
Muay Thai is a standing striking martial art which teaches you to use all eight weapons of your body. Meaning, in a self-defense situation your Muay Thai training will keep you on your feet and landing shots on your attacker from striking range.
This is a key benefit of Muay Thai for self-defense because it puts you in a strong position to defend yourself even if you are faced with more than one attacker.
Staying on your feet enables you to:
- Manage the distance between you and your attacker
- Land a shot and move off on an angle
- Strike one attacker – reset – and strike a second attacker
Some martial arts however, teach you to close the distance and take your opponent to the ground in a grappling battle – for example, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
But this limits your potential effectiveness when faced with multiple attackers. For example, if you’re faced with two attackers and you take one to the ground in a grappling fight – you’re now left exposed to the second attacker who can now kick and punch you while you’re on the ground.
Muay Thai removes this problem by keeping you on your feet.
However, this does not mean that grappling isn’t also an effective form of self-defense. In fact, grappling martial arts can be extremely effective for defending yourself and especially when up against only one attacker. It’s just worth noting that their main limitation is when up against multiple attackers.
For more about learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for self-defense, check out our article: BJJ for Self-Defense: Good or Bad?
