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
Muay Thai or TKD
southpaw447
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Pretty much :laugh: flat on there back every time, they would gass out from the spin then having to keep getting off there ass. Thats if they even throw them....I see most just getting walked through from the start.
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It takes someone with exceptional talent/skill to use TKD and be effective with it. Muay Thai is much better all the way around.
At our dojo they teach a variety of stand up skills for street defense and mma.
They teach the dempsey crouch (boxing) stance and strikes, karate stance and strikes, judo stance clinch and strikes, muay thai stance clinch and strikes, wrestling takedowns whatever is effective but no TKD...
At our dojo they teach a variety of stand up skills for street defense and mma.
They teach the dempsey crouch (boxing) stance and strikes, karate stance and strikes, judo stance clinch and strikes, muay thai stance clinch and strikes, wrestling takedowns whatever is effective but no TKD...
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TKD can be effective. Imagine a 100% focused and much younger Cung Le in the UFC now. At the same time, it's only real purpose is to add to your style. Anderson Silva messed around with it and it will serve him with his front kicks or whatever. As a pure TKD fighter, you're probably not going to have as much luck against a pure Muay Thai fighter, but it definently has it's purposes.
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Hahah I posted on this thread 5 years ago on the 4th page. I was seventeen at the time and just beginning my journey into MMA and competitive fighting. Either way, my opinion on it has changed considerably, since gaining more experience with real fighters.
Training methods are more important than techniques. A guy who practices Aikido in a live, non-compliant environment has a better chance of successfully using those techniques than someone who solo-drills BJJ moves.
Similarly, someone who trains full contact TKD (even dumb WTF stuff) will likely beat a MT practitioner who's never sparred.
The only way to get better at fighting is to fight. Styles that allow for heavy or full contact sparring are better for fighting than styles that don't. What's just as important as the level of contact/resistance, however, is how realistic the ruleset is. If I were preparing for a fight, I'd rather do light-contact kickboxing to prepare than full contact point sparring.
Long story short: the training methods and the rulesets of Muay Thai are superior to TKD if you're trying to prepare someone for an actual fight. To top it off, Muay Thai fighters are much better conditioned to take punishment and to continue fighting. Pads, no leg kicks, and no head contact makes it pretty hard to get as tough as a nakmuay.
And on that note, before someone says "well that's just competition, sometimes people allow those things in sparring." Yeah, sure, that's true. There are TKD guys who do a few rounds of realistic sparring once in a while. But it's a side thing for them. It's not enough to make up for lost ground, when comparing them to someone who does that sh** all the time.
Training methods are more important than techniques. A guy who practices Aikido in a live, non-compliant environment has a better chance of successfully using those techniques than someone who solo-drills BJJ moves.
Similarly, someone who trains full contact TKD (even dumb WTF stuff) will likely beat a MT practitioner who's never sparred.
The only way to get better at fighting is to fight. Styles that allow for heavy or full contact sparring are better for fighting than styles that don't. What's just as important as the level of contact/resistance, however, is how realistic the ruleset is. If I were preparing for a fight, I'd rather do light-contact kickboxing to prepare than full contact point sparring.
Long story short: the training methods and the rulesets of Muay Thai are superior to TKD if you're trying to prepare someone for an actual fight. To top it off, Muay Thai fighters are much better conditioned to take punishment and to continue fighting. Pads, no leg kicks, and no head contact makes it pretty hard to get as tough as a nakmuay.
And on that note, before someone says "well that's just competition, sometimes people allow those things in sparring." Yeah, sure, that's true. There are TKD guys who do a few rounds of realistic sparring once in a while. But it's a side thing for them. It's not enough to make up for lost ground, when comparing them to someone who does that sh** all the time.
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Fully agree. I do two martial arts now. One I won't say because it's on the small side, but it boasts "no rules", while the other one is karate. In karate, we spar. It's not uncommon to get a black eye or a cut or something (especially when you're shit at karate and slug it out like me haha), but the other one does "X step sparring", where you take turns of using techniques with no contact. Karate isn't effective in a real fight situation, while this one teaches techniques that are, but I know for a fact that my experience in karate is the only thing that will accomodate me in a fight because it's the only one I'm able to put into practise through sparring. You have to get the ability to put your training to practise because without it you don't have the natrual instinct to use the moves when the time comes.
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PART 2:
The above-listed facts aside, Tae Kwon Do that is well-adapted to real fighting can be DANGEROUS!
There's a kid on my MMA team that has been cross training and he can be a handful. It's really hard to land any kicks on him because he's so mobile. He's put a lot of guys down with his spinning back kicks and front kicks. (Now, he's honestly not that hard to handle for any of the good strikers, but let's be real here... Most MMA guys suck at striking.)
Where he runs into real trouble is when he's paired up with someone that's got good hands. For all of TKD's strength in its unpredictable kicks, it's got absolutely nothing going for it in the hands department. He's absolutely ****ed when he goes against someone with solid boxing/decent kick defense.
That said, if the TKD guy crosstrains in boxing, he can be SERIOUSLY dangerous. I had sparred with this one guy who had a blackbelt in TKD and 80 Golden Glove boxing matches to his name. From the outside, he would pelt you with all sorts of kicks. On the inside, he would light you up with hands. One time he KO'd me with a spinning back kick to the neck.
TKD, like many traditional martial arts, can be very effective supplements if you've got the basic combat sports acumen to back it up.
The above-listed facts aside, Tae Kwon Do that is well-adapted to real fighting can be DANGEROUS!
There's a kid on my MMA team that has been cross training and he can be a handful. It's really hard to land any kicks on him because he's so mobile. He's put a lot of guys down with his spinning back kicks and front kicks. (Now, he's honestly not that hard to handle for any of the good strikers, but let's be real here... Most MMA guys suck at striking.)
Where he runs into real trouble is when he's paired up with someone that's got good hands. For all of TKD's strength in its unpredictable kicks, it's got absolutely nothing going for it in the hands department. He's absolutely ****ed when he goes against someone with solid boxing/decent kick defense.
That said, if the TKD guy crosstrains in boxing, he can be SERIOUSLY dangerous. I had sparred with this one guy who had a blackbelt in TKD and 80 Golden Glove boxing matches to his name. From the outside, he would pelt you with all sorts of kicks. On the inside, he would light you up with hands. One time he KO'd me with a spinning back kick to the neck.
TKD, like many traditional martial arts, can be very effective supplements if you've got the basic combat sports acumen to back it up.
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I landed my first head kick the other day so I feel like Cung Le anyways 
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I wouldn't say Karate is useless in a real fight situation. Keep in mind that there's a difference between competitive fighting and real street fights. Though street fights are far more dangerous, the level of skill you encounter is far lower. Just because you can't land a reverse punch on a good boxer doesn't mean you wouldn't catch some asshole at the bar right on the chin.
I get what you mean though, and I agree completely. What good is a gun to a blind man? How useful is the five finger death punch if you're not used to landing shots against a non-compliant person that's intent on beating you to a pulp?
But that's why you cross train. You learn some dangerous techniques in _______ and you learn how to land techniques in Karate.
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The techniques in karate arent suited to a street fight. I'm not going straight to the stomach outside the nightclub, but through sparring you gain a lot more fight knowledge. My mate actually got started on by a few travellers in a pub a few weeks ago. He said that they were insanley slow after we spar in karate. Out techniques are so much quicker, both through training and the actual techniques themselves, that he only took one punch to the back of the head when three guys were swinging at him.
And yeah I like the cross training because each martial art poses a new challenge. Karate is very different to my style. I get asked "Did you used to be a boxer?" every night in the class haha, but it's good to test yourself in the things you struggle with. In the other class, I have to use elbows and round techniques (punches, knees and kicks) which can be quite difficult to do in comparrison to the standard roundhouse kicks in karate which again can be a challenge.
TKD opened up and had my karate sensei not already sworn us off of it I'd head over there too. TKD is a very good style to have messed with when you are younger because it opens up a lot of striking possibilities when meshed with other styles. Muay Thai is a lot easier to impliment into MMA than TKD because TKD requies so much technique and ability where Muay Thai can be a lot easier to pick up through a standard MMA class.
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That said, the Muay Thai you pick up through a standard MMA class really isn't true Muay Thai. But it definitely is a testament to Muay Thai's effectiveness that even a watered down MMA crash-course can give you enough to be able to mess someone up.
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Yeah you won't be doing the stances or anything but you'll have the basic techniques which have proven effective with others. You can't really get a crash course in TKD in the same way you can with Muay Thai, but that's probably because Muay Thai is so effective as a style all round.
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As a TKD practioner it has the most beautiful kicks and it also happens to be the most useless in a street fight. Well actually that's not entirely true as I've kicked people before, but yah the knock out blows are 90% punches. Aint nobody going to be doing a tornado kick, roundhouse, jumping side kick, etc in a street fight when bar stools, beer bottles, glass, stanchions are being thrown around.
There's limited punching...all about hopping in and out in a linear line. It's very one dimensional, BUT...if you can master than + BJJ + Muay Thai then you got your self fighters like Makdessi, Bendo and of course Anderson Silva who can display a very cool array of unorthodox kicks.
You guys should check out Best Of The Best which was about an Olympic style Karate and TKD contest. A great sleeper film.
Muay Thai is pretty much the standard for striking in an MMA setting. What makes it stand out is the conditioning as you all know; core, abs, and constant kicking of the pads.
One of my favorites is Petrosyan. Dude has the most crisp technique.
There's limited punching...all about hopping in and out in a linear line. It's very one dimensional, BUT...if you can master than + BJJ + Muay Thai then you got your self fighters like Makdessi, Bendo and of course Anderson Silva who can display a very cool array of unorthodox kicks.
You guys should check out Best Of The Best which was about an Olympic style Karate and TKD contest. A great sleeper film.
Muay Thai is pretty much the standard for striking in an MMA setting. What makes it stand out is the conditioning as you all know; core, abs, and constant kicking of the pads.
One of my favorites is Petrosyan. Dude has the most crisp technique.
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