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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
 
#104 ·
hell yeah there's a lot more to it. There's no point making umbrella statements like "it's horrendous" or "it's crap" b/c every school is different.

keep in mind, that emphasis on legs and kicking increases core strength and cardio which would definitely be an advantage in a street fight for example.
 
#105 ·
swpthleg said:
hell yeah there's a lot more to it. There's no point making umbrella statements like "it's horrendous" or "it's crap" b/c every school is different.

keep in mind, that emphasis on legs and kicking increases core strength and cardio which would definitely be an advantage in a street fight for example.
I agree with some but I'm going to respectfully disagree about "cardio in a street fight".

By no means am I saying having no wind is goiod, but street fights don't last long at all.

Most damage > Least time > with least risk to self
 
#106 ·
Cardio in a street fight is good. Running is always a viable option in self defense.
 
#107 ·
Onganju said:
Cardio in a street fight is good. Running is always a viable option in self defense.
Oohhh right. I wasn't thinking of that. :confused05:


I think most people can sprint a bit + adrenaline though
 
#108 ·
The fighter i spar with that generally causes me most problems is a guy that went to blackbelt in TKD and then moved over to Thai Boxing. He just has a way of firing his shots at you from any and every direction with absolute ease and definately takes a lot of getting used to if you've only ever sparred with thai boxers or kick boxers.
 
#109 ·
Cant rly say one martial is better than the other. However TKD does kinda have the old problem of it will impress your mum but not your opponent.
A gd TKD instructor can help a MT or MMA fighter with his kicks tho.
When sparring MT i like to occasionaly throw in a spinning back kick that a TKD instructor showed me in the gym.

Shouldnt try and say which is better can draw from the advantages of other arts to improve your area, and in mma should try and draw a little from everything.
 
#110 ·
ntelliott said:
Cant rly say one martial is better than the other. However TKD does kinda have the old problem of it will impress your mum but not your opponent.
A gd TKD instructor can help a MT or MMA fighter with his kicks tho.
When sparring MT i like to occasionaly throw in a spinning back kick that a TKD instructor showed me in the gym.

Shouldnt try and say which is better can draw from the advantages of other arts to improve your area, and in mma should try and draw a little from everything.
The thing is it is hard to find a good instructor.
 
#112 ·
Its funny, TKD practitioners always pride themselves on their kicks... and you'd assume they would have good kicks cause thats basically what the style revolves around.
But in reality muay thai kicks are so much more powerful, TKD'ers always cock their leg and flick their feet at people, MT you gotta swing your leg with your body likes its a 30 pound baseball bat.
MT vs. TKD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEGE7tvgd3o

and these two are just ******* legendary:
this is how u kick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gx2QPcJT4
and this is how u punch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvKJbLeAHFY
is anyone has links to TKD guys with this much power id like to see it
 
#113 ·
I respect all martial arts. But bullshit aside, muay thai is a way better technique for fighting. If you want to look pretty and brag to your friends about belts and wanna look tough, then TKD is what you want.
 
#116 ·
We don't cock the leg and flip our feet. For example with a roundhouse kick it is crucial that you pivot on your supporting foot and turn your hip b/c that's where the power in the kick comes from. Any tkd practitioners that you see doing fancy kicks that aren't very effective has been competing in too many tournaments against sport karate types. in my classes there is an insane amount of conditioning so that we have powerful kicks, and I condition (cardio)on my own as well so I don't gas after throwing a; kick like I mean it.
 
#126 ·
You really just said that Rickson Gracie isn't a good martial artist. I mean, I understand the "it's about the fighter, not the fighting style" mentality, but to say that the quality of a martial artist hinges on his humility is ridiculous.

I think TKD guys suck and here's why:

1) I've found them to be arrogant and cowardly, a combination that makes me want to just put a can opener on them.

2) As someone who's spent his entire life training for full contact competition, I find that anyone who thinks that point sparring is an adequate representation of a real fight (and that training for it has any impact on real combat skills) is seriously dilluted.

3) I've never met a TKD fighter that could take a knee to the face. That includes the handful of TKD blackbelts (of various degrees) that I've faced.

4) There's no clinch game, which makes it inadequate as a striking style. Perhaps even more so than boxing, where fighters are generally smart enough to figure out how to do damage with body punches.

5) As I've mentioned, I've fought a few serious TKD guys, and I have yet to meet one of them that could hurt me, despite the 30 seconds I usually spend standing with them. (this is probably as a result of #2)

Hopefully that wraps up my stance nicely.

Needless to say, I like Muay Thai. (San Shou is the best, though, WAR CUNG LE)
 
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#119 ·
My friend is a 2nd degree black belt in TKD and my other friends believe he is like the second coming of Jesus or something. They think my wrestling/shotokan karate/slight Muay Thai skills couldn't even touch him.

I publicly challenged him to a sparring match and never got an answer. If it were to ever happen though, I'm pretty sure I could win since I see TKD as only useful in TKD competition. The different variety of kicks look cool, but what effectiveness does that have on actual fights?
 
#123 ·
Whatever happened to the technique, strength, and effectiveness of the kick? I guess, by the way you're putting it, you can throw that out the window if you take TKD. I see it as more for fitness and flexibility, rather than for good ol' ass kicking.

I would really love to spar with a TKD practicioner in a MMA match. I'd like to see someone prove me wrong about my views on it.
 
#124 ·
If you sparred with someone from a competition school you'd have yr. work cut out for you because they wouldn't know how to use their hands and they'd revert to their decorative ineffective kicks. However some forward-thinking tkd instructors, including mine, teach boxing, takedown defense,and detailed joint manipulation along with tkd, so I feel there are two distinctly different breeds of tkd practitioners evolving.
 
#127 ·
You must never have seen taekwondo sparring then, totally different from point and similar to a "very technical street fight."

There's a reason I keep attempting to make a distinction between competition TKD and the way I learn it; the former would support all IronMan's claims. The latter does not. Idk if it's due to my teacher's military and boxing background in addition to being a 3rd dan black belt, but the way I have learned TKD has nothing to do with any of the stereotypes I've heard before on here.

I have said before that I have no illusions that Im going to beat the crap out of a BJJ or MT practitioner. It's pointless to debate the superiority of one art over another anyway; as an earlier post stated.
 
#128 ·
Perhaps you have a different instructor, but I've visited these guys gyms. They wear light pads and they snap kicks.

I would credit the military background more than I'd credit the TKD level, since two of the TKD blackbelts I have faced came out of a fourth Dan school. Still, that's beside the point.

You may not think that you can debate the superiority of one martial art to another, that's fine. I will say this, though, of all the Muay Thai guys I've worked with and both fought and coached against, alongside all of the TKD guys I've fought and coached against, I've come to the understanding that Muay Thai is a more comprehensive, more full-contact (and, thusly, street fight) practical striking style.

Again, I'm just drawing this out of my experience.

You may have a great instructor who teaches a very good, practical branch of TKD, but I have a hard time believing that he, or any of the other top TKD guys in the world, would last more than a minute in a streetfight with Melchor Menor, much less Rickson Gracie.

If you disagree with that, show me a TKD guy that you think can.
 
#129 ·
I do have a great instructor and i think I already said that I had no illusions about going head-to-head with a BJJ or MT practitioner. I should expand on that statement by saying that I don't know anyone who would revert to competition-type TKD moves in a street fight. I can assure you that the self-defense and tkd sparring that we do would serve us well in a street fight. I'm also pretty sure that there's nobody around here who has Rickson Gracie skills.
 
#130 ·
Oh. I wasn't just talking about around here. I was speaking about generally, the entire world of TKD.

Glad to see that you're not nuts and I'm sorry if I offended you. Like I said, you're instructor is probably a great fighter and a great instructor, but I don't find Muay Thai particularly combat-valuable.
 
#132 ·
Really If you become a legitimate tkd fighter you will be pretty good however you have to find the right school alot of tkd schools arnt that good and won't serve you well in a fight.

MT schools are almost always legit and you learn more punches.

they are just good for different things tkd is good with kicks and forms and mussle memory

while MT will teach you better boxing skills and clinch work.

they both serve as great base styles just look at prices location and the experience you cant go wrong with either.
 
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