southpaw447

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

Judoka

Muay Thai is better, i mean i respect all martial arts but TKD has got to be the worst it had its advantages but i have seen cases of "these people" you are talking about...weird that its always TKD

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Onganju

It depends on how the training is done. In the TKD place I used to go to (over a decade ago), we practiced full contact with punches to the face. So in that scenario, the lack of face cover wasn't quite an issue. If it was an Olympic or WTF style TKD place, then that would have been a no-no and it wouldn't exist. To risk sounding cliche', it really comes down to the practitioner.

Generally speaking, it's not the "style" or the techniques between the two that makes a difference. Rather, it's the way that training is done. Once you introduce live sparring situations, where techniques are continued past the initial set within a kata/poom, and all the chaos that comes along with that a person will learn how to fight and defend themselves to some level of confidence one way or the other. That would happen with TKD or any given style. Given that the majority of MT practitioners train with that in mind, and the majority of TKD practitioners don't. I would give the edge to the MT practitioner more often than not.

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BJJ Boy

What?!? I.M.O Mua Thai is alot better then Tkwd. Im not sayin tkwd is bad, im mearly saying muay thai is better.

markus enjoys

I don't have the most knowledge on it but I can tell you muay thai is much more fun to practice, and as for which is better, the least I can say is, the very best in muay thai is not to be trifelled with.

swpthleg

i take tkd and i'm constantly being told to protect my face. i have seen karatekas protect their face w/ only one hand, with the other one at right angles to it, however. she was a 5th degree black belt so i don't think it was an accident.

we are only now starting full-contact sparring at green stripe level and up.
we have incorporated muay thai here and there because nearly everybody in the class is an mma fan and is bugging the sabunim to school us on knees, elbows, low leg kicks etc. it is a hell of a lot of fun.

i don't know if you can even compare a self-defense art to one that is more aggression-based; refer to onganju's post which is very insightful on that point.

southpaw447

I WANTED TO CLEAR THIS UP AND SAY I WAS TALKING ABOUT OLYMPIC TAE KWON DO

Shiranui

Honestly, TKD is more for younger guys.
It's the basics that will start you up for any other MMA.

Don't get me wrong I took TKD for 4~5 year and I know the masters and veterans are extremely phenomenal. Muay Thai is more of the shoot fighting while TKD focuses on kicks. Muay Thai usually only use Roundhouse/push kicks. Taekwondo use backick/hook-kick/spinkicks and such.



Edit: Oh yeah, lol I joined months ago and my first post is now, !

Merforga

i took TKD for about 4 years and earned a high red belt.
I got into a street fight and was getting my ass kicked till i reverted to just sloppy punches and push kicks to keep the guy away from me long enough so i could land another hazy punch. Round house kicks and back kicks were for the most part useless and actually laughable from a bystander's POV.

Long story short i take Muay Thai now and in my opinion this is the best combat sport to practice.

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" Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great." ~ Mark Twain

markus enjoys

do it right and they will have a dead leg and will be hobbling around for days