With the world we live in today, more and more people are looking for ways to stay safe.
A number of factors, including rising crime rates or bullying, have made it so people feel less comfortable even walking the street.
One way for people to feel safer and more comfortable is to learn self-defense.
Self-defense is a great way for people to feel empowered. The great thing is there are many different ways to learn self-defense.
A popular way to learn self-defense is by learning martial arts. Some of the most popular martial arts are Karate and Taekwondo.
However, another popular martial art people tend to consider is Muay Thai.
Muay Thai is often questioned as to whether it is a good martial art to learn for self-defense.
Well, we have the answer for you. In this guide, we are going to walk you through whether Muay Thai is good for self-defense.
What Is Muay Thai?
Before we get into whether Muay Thai is good for self-defense, we need to make sure we have a clear understanding of what Muay Thai is.
Muay Thai is a combat sport that has its origins in Thailand.
The basic moves of Muay Thai involve kicking, punching, clinching, and strikes from both the elbows and knees. This gives the sport the nickname The Art of Eight Limbs’.
Muay Thai uses combinations of strikes with the aim to completely knock out or knock the opponent down.
When learning Muay Thai, people are taught to hit each body part with multiple strikes.
Due to the training received when learning Muay Thai, those who become experienced with Muay Thai learn how to fight if they are attacked.
This is why Muay Thai is considered to be a good sport to learn for self-defense as it provides you with the essential skills to know how to defend yourself.
Reasons Muay Thai Is Good For Self Defense
It Uses All Of Your Limbs As Weapons
As mentioned above, Muay Thai is known as The Art of Eight Limbs’.
This means that with Muay Thai, you will be using all of your body to fight your opponent.
Learning how to use your elbows, knees, and fists to strike at your attacker means you do not have to solely depend on your hands.
This becomes useful if your hands are restrained by your opponent.
Not only does Muay Thai encourage you to fight with all of your body, the combinations of strikes that you will make it hard for your opponent to defend against your strikes.
Learning how to strike quickly and smoothly using these combinations is great in terms of self-defense.
It means that attackers with no experience will struggle to fight off your strikes.
Conflict Does Not Last Long
When it comes to self-defense, it is not only important to learn how to defend yourself, but also how to end the conflict you have found yourself in.
It is better to learn how to end the conflict quickly in a situation where you have to defend yourself, as it reduces the chances of you becoming tired.
Muay Thai’s striking combinations are mainly rapid and powerful.
As mentioned before, the striking combinations from Muay Thai are meant to knock out your opponent.
This is why Muay Thai can be good for self-defense as its combinations help you to deliver powerful strikes, stopping the aggressor and the conflict quickly.
Also, it is effective as not many people are able to withstand a spinning elbow strike to their head.
Since the striking combinations are fast, you are more likely to hit your opponent before they can defend.
This is extremely useful in a situation where self-defense is required.
A key message that martial arts teach those who learn it is confidence.
This means in tough situations you will be more likely to stay collected and find a way to end the conflict.
Defend Yourself Against More Than One Assailant
In real life more attacks than you might think, happen with multiple opponents.
For example, when a brawl breaks out and you get caught in the middle or even a potential mugging.
In these scenarios, it is important to know how to defend yourself against multiple aggressive assailants.
Muay Thai helps you to know how to do this. One of the main things you are taught when learning Muay Thai is proper footwork.
This skill can help you fend off multiple attackers.
In a situation where you are against multiple opponents, you need to be able to know who to defend yourself.
Muay Thai not only teaches you how to deliver strikes but also how to avoid them.
Part of learning Muay Thai is being able to fight from a safe distance.
Learning where to place your feet, combined with being able to make powerful and quick strikes can help you to develop the skills needed to defend yourself against multiple people.
Cons Of Muay Thai For Self Defense
When it comes to the cons of learning Muay Thai for self-defense, there are not many.
The one weakness of Muay Thai, in terms of self-defense, is that the moves are not self-defense moves but are fighting moves.
This means you will have to take what you have learned and apply it to your scenario.
Also, Muay That does not teach you how to fight on the ground.
So, if the opponent was able to knock you to the ground, the specific strikes you know from Muay Thai might not be as effective.
Conclusion
Muay Thai is good for self-defense. Whilst it does not specialize in self-defense moves, it does teach you how to use your body to fight back against an opponent.
Muay Thai will provide you with the skills needed in order to defend yourself as it teaches you how to incapacitate your opponent.
We hope this guide has helped you understand whether or not Muay Thai is good for self-defense. Thank you for reading!
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