Just the other day I had a conversation with a student who had a friendly boxing match with a friend who had been training soley boxing. He was explaining to me that he had a hard time keeping up in a boxing round simply because he was seeing things he wasn’t used to seeing (he trains purely muay thai) and was getting hit with things he couldn’t even see coming.
Whenever you are studying a martial art, it’s important to always know the limitations of each style. For instance, it would be unrealistic to expect someone who trains, say in purely boxing to do well in a judo match. Same thing for if a judoka decided to step into a Muay Thai match. While there is some cross over between styles, not all styles are the same and each has their weaknesses and pros.
The more variables you add, (IE kicking, punching, grappling, clinching, elbows, headbutts, ect) the more opportunities you have to win and at the same time the learning curve will be steeper simply because there’s more elements to the striking or grappling art.
That being said, is Muay thai the hardest martial art to learn? I would say yes if you compare it to other combat sports. I would say MMA would be essentially the hardest style to learn because of the all the variables involved.
So if I had to give a category of “easiest” (I put “easiest” in air quotes because just because something has less things to focus on, remember that means there’s less weapons so to speak on your arsenal which still makes the style hard to learn) then this is what I would give for combative style sports. I won’t go into more traditional styles because that’s a whole other topic.
I’ll go from 1 being easiest to 10 being hardest in striking specific sports. There will be some crossover for example in Kudo (mma in a gi) but not grappling specific styles.
1. Boxing
2. WTF Taekwondo
3. ITF Taekwondo or Point Karate
4. Kyokushin Karate
5. Savate (French Kickboxing)
6. Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing)
7. Kickboxing (Dutch Style)
8. Muay Thai
9. MMA
10. Kudo (MMA in Gi)
11. Sambo (MMA in Gi, with headbutts)
I know I may have missed some styles, but this in my experience is what I would rate based on the amount of techniques you can use and the learning curve.
Hope you found this info helpful, and if you happen to be local to Grand Prairie, Arlington, Dallas, Irving or nearby looking for Muay Thai classes, check out our programs on our website to see which is a fit for you.
Until next time,
Coach Taylor Kelley
Grand Prairie Muay Thai