What are some of the biggest differences between boxing and muay thai?
I think for most people it’s obvious: one has kicks (thai) and the other doesn’t right?
But I think most people are asking how the training is different in boxing than it is in Muay Thai, so i’ll go ahead and explain the major differences between the two.
First off, I think that if you started boxing and want to transition over to Muay Thai, you’ll find some great advantages. For one, boxers in general have better hands, simply because that art requires more focus on it. On top of that, you move much more typically in boxing where as Muay thai people have the habit of being stationary (Unless you have a karate or taekwondo background, then movement will be more familiar to you).
However, one the key differences between training in boxing and Muay thai is the sparring. Most gyms I have trained at (not all gyms are like this, I think more and more coaches are starting to see the effects of CTE) have this mindset that you fight how you train. And to a certain extent I believe that is true. However, that doesn’t justify going 100% to the head in sparring.
Unfortunately this is very common in boxing gyms, especially those that focus more on catering to fighters rather than the average joe. They want to “weed out” people who aren’t there to fight. I get it, you don’t want to turn your gym into a fitness gym and want to mainatain a high quality of training. Yet, that doesn’t mean you have to punish guys who want to learn how to spar, because they are there to LEARN. Not get beat up by guys with so much more experience.
There’s a story of when Mike Tyson used to prepare for fights, he used to pay guys somewhere around 1k just to step in the ring with him so he can beat them up without getting injured by someone who could actually fight him back. Unless you are getting paid to do that (who would want to do that anyways??) why would you do that to yourself?
Again, I’m not saying all Boxing gyms are like this (A gym I reccomend for boxing would be Cloud Nine MMA, I’ve personally been in the coaches boxing class and I can tell you he focuses way more on being technical rather than just throwing guys in to have a simulated fight that turns into throwing bombs), but here are a few key signs of a healthy boxing gym if you choose to go to one.
– Kids and families train
– Women train
– People over 40 years old train
– Coaches check on everyone’s form
– Coaches take care of beginners by reminding people to tone down the power if it gets out of control
– New trainers get to spend some time with the coach before jumping into sparring
This isn’t an exaustive list, but it is a place to start.
For muay thai, I can’t promise you that all gyms will not be like how I described a boxing gym would be, but I would say most of the time the sparring is more technique based and the pace is slowed down unless you’re someone training to compete. Even so, at our gym we have fighters that 80% of the time do technical sparring while the remaining 20% of the time do hard sparring. And when I say hard sparring, nobody is trying to knock each other out, we do hard body and leg shots with strong clinching and sweeps but we keep our noggins healthy by keeping the head contact 50% power and speed at all times.
If you’re looking for a gym that caters towards beginners for Muay Thai, then give us a call at 214-907-4907. Or if you’re looking for a good boxing program, check out our friends over at Cloud NINE MMA in arlington.
God Bless!
– Coach Kelley
Grand Prairie Muay Thai.