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Muay Thai or TKD

51K views 274 replies 71 participants last post by  Spirion1 
#1 ·
I'm having an arguement with a guy on youtube who thinks Muay Thai sucks compared to tae kwon do. I think that the simple lack of protecting your face in TKD says it all. Tell me what you think is better
 
#133 ·
I have learned boxing along with tkd for about 3 years. We don't do much with fancy kicks etc. and whenever people from our school go to compete, we do very well especially in sparring b/c many more traditional tkd practitioners don't know much about using their hands. My school is definitely far more grounded in potential practical application of the art than any tkd school I've ever heard of.
 
#144 ·
sorry swpthleg. That is what I love about Muay Thai, everything is about power and torque, how to cause the most damage. but I have seen some TKD black belts and the speed they show is unbelievable even in their kicks, HOLY CRAP
 
#145 ·
It is very encouraging to see that there is some acknowledgement of tkd as a legitimate fighting art, usually most people have the attitude that if it's not BJJ, muay thai, kempo, jeet kune do, judo, san shou or whatever then it's wussy and weak.
 
#146 ·
muay thai is superior to tkd sorry tkd people but it's true. muay thai originated from thailands warriors, they used muay thai to fight battles hand to hand combat, when a warrior would lose his weapon they needed to know how to fight without them this is where the skill of muay thai developed. winning battles with their bare hands
 
#148 ·
Oh I don't know about that I fought a tkd fighter and was humbled by his front kick and spinning back kick, not to mention his axe kick. plus is snap kicks are very hard to defend against because if he has speed you don't know where there gonna end up. geoge st. pierre and jason macdonald use tkd in their fights.
 
#149 ·
Really, I've never been humbled by an axe kick or a spinning back kick. The first gives me a nice single-leg slam, the second a suplex.

The snap kicks don't do as much damage and are just as easy to catch as any sort of thai kick.

GSP is actually a karate guy (as is Loiseau, who you didn't mention, but very well could have). I'm not sure about MacDonald's background.

Then again, Danny Abbadi is a TKD guy, so what representation they do have in the sport in terms of purists is, well, bad.
 
#150 ·
It's all done in combos, when I fought the guy he move forward with a front kick I don't your background but I'm not tkd however kickboxing champs like chuck norris used both of those kicks. anyway to the story in lunged at me with a powerful front side, then followed through with the spinning wheel kick chuck norris style. if you don't the power that is generated by a front side I invite you to attend a tkd session to feel its power. plus speed is power sure the snap kick maybe as easy as any other kick, just depends on the speed of the one throwing it.
 
#151 ·
I thought ed herman might have had a tkd background? Anyway if he did there would be slightly better representation of TKD than Danny Abbadi in the MMA world.

My teacher has us do a kicking drill called "lightning" (it complements a stance exercise called earth and a punching/blocking drill called thunder) and the drill alternates speed and power, ie u go through the basic kicking drill where one sequence of kicks is for speed and one is for power, then it goes to turn kicks, then double kicks, then jump kicks. This type of drill is not taught in other tkd schools as far as I know, the ultimate purpose being to integrate speed and power. If any fighter has practiced an art that has made them strong, fast and explosive and can translate that into any other arts required for MMA or other training useful for the street, the usual counters to whatever move are pointless, because you won't know what's coming and possibly wouldn't see it anyway.

TKD is a relatively new art in the U.S. and still evolving. Although my school is small, I think it is the shape of things to come in TKD, putting more of an emphasis on power and effectiveness of the move and concurrently teaching boxing and (for higher ranks than me the lowly green belt) some grappling.
 
#152 ·
right! and another thing the tkd fighters are telling me is that the philosophy is to attack with out control this makes the attack much more vicious as well as harder to predict where blow will end at. for any doubts I encourage to go to your local tkd school where you'll be surprised.

by the way top boxers do not torque their hips when punching. that is known as telegraphing. the same way can be said when throwing a kick you had better have a fast kick when torquing the kick or you 'll be opened to the straight right punch. their is method to tkd madness.
 
#163 ·
right! and another thing the tkd fighters are telling me is that the philosophy is to attack with out control this makes the attack much more vicious as well as harder to predict where blow will end at. for any doubts I encourage to go to your local tkd school where you'll be surprised.
That may be true, but I've fought, like I said, a half dozen TKD guys. None of them has ever hurt me.

They might be aggressive, but from my personal experience they work more with speed than with power, and I'm not impressed by that. If you're a striker who can't hurt me, you're in serious trouble.

There might be TKD guys that hit hard, but I've never encountered ones, and I've had plenty of Muay Thai and boxing guys sting me pretty good. A few have even put me out in training.

I've watched the guys at TKD schools train, and they yell alot, but that's not what aggression is.

I'm not going to put down the art as far as its ability to teach disciple, but I will say that, as a fighting style, I've found it less than dangerous. Maybe that's because of the guys I've fought, maybe that's because of the quality of training in my area (though I doubt that, because I live in what of the best areas in the states to train).

Still, I'm not going to say that the guys aren't aggressive. I will say that they, thus far, have not impressed me with their power.

by the way top boxers do not torque their hips when punching. that is known as telegraphing. the same way can be said when throwing a kick you had better have a fast kick when torquing the kick or you 'll be opened to the straight right punch. their is method to tkd madness.
That statement is just wrong.

Watch Mayweather throw his check hook. Watch Tyson throw his hooks and his uppercuts.

Actually, just watch any punch Tyson or Ali or any other top tier boxer has thrown, ever. They use hip movements in their punches. They drop their hips into their jabs and turn their hips into their hooks and their upper cuts.

To say that, for some reason, they don't strike with their hips is absurd. They also strike from their legs.

Watch this Tyson highlight, and tell me again that he's not moving his hips.
 
#153 ·
by the way top boxers do not torque their hips when punching. that is known as telegraphing. the same way can be said when throwing a kick you had better have a fast kick when torquing the kick or you 'll be opened to the straight right punch. their is method to tkd madness.
Ever seen Tyson or Mayweather fight?
 
#154 · (Edited)
mike tyson was the man I had in mind when I penned this blog. under teddy atlas, kevin rooney and gus d'amato tyson was taught to fire from his triceps this made his punches faster and voluminous. tyson beat you with his speed. had torqued his hips he'd have been that much slower. I was taught not worry about power just to worry about getting hit.
 
#155 ·
Watch Tyson when he slips a punch and goes to the body, all he does is torque his hips into the punch.
 
#157 · (Edited)
I can tell you one thing, the TKD kicks and punches I learned and eventually taught depend on explosive hip rotation. There's a linkage of movement that begins in the stationary foot and ends at the delivering hand/foot. This chain of motion is also the most difficult aspect of TKD to get right, which is why there's no shortage of TKD practitiioners making the techniques look bad. Not to mention, most of those that would make the techniques look as good as they are have too much traditionalist pride to fight/train in MMA. That has changed a lot in the past few years, though, as more and more TKD schools are adding MMA programs.

A well-rounded MMArtist with TKD technique, speed, timing and fighting intelligence is hard to beat. A TKD practitioner who has little experience outside of WTF or ITF (especially :p) rules sparring will likely get destroyed when he leaves those rules behind.

A properly timed axe kick will easily break a collar or cheek bone or lead to a KO. A poorly timed one can lead to bad news for the guy throwing it. A turning back side/hook kick used to counter an opponent's attack can be devastating. Leading with it leaves you incredibly vulnerable. A lead side kick with proper hip rotation can break a rib and prevent a puncher from ever setting his feet. Without the hip rotation, the guy getting kicked can literally knock the kicker down just by standing his ground. Failure to properly chamber and retract any of these kicks properly is asking to be taken down.

With TKD, it's not the techniques that fail, it's the people trying to use them. Of course, that's true of any combat style that survives any length of time. The key is to find the style that fits your personality and body and make that your base. Mine is definitely TKD.
 
#158 ·
You maybe the only person I have ever heard say that Tyson didn't torque his hips. What you are saying is that all Tyson threw was arm punches.
 
#159 ·
why do you think that tkd is the world's most practised ma?

the answer is because the average person does not have the fast twitch muscle fiber needed for mt. this is why you'll see the kick coming a mile away before it even lands. obviously this wouldn't be so against a world champion but against the average person yes.
 
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