Muay Thai the Easiest Martial Art to Learn at home?

I truly believe that muay thai is the easiest martial art to learn at home – if learned from good instructors.

In saying that, learning at home or online can only take you so far.

You can definitely become proficient at muay thai learning at home. But do not expect to be a high level competitor or champion without training partners.

But if you are interested to learn muay thai at home out of interest to become fitter, stronger mentally and physically through muay thai then this is definitely achievable.

Below are 7 reasons why I believe muay thai is the easiest martial art to learn at home using credible video instruction that is very easy access.

1. Solo Training is a Major Part of Muay Thai Training

Running, shadow boxing, skipping rope and heavy bag training are important parts of any muay thai gyms training sessions and are performed by all the fighters twice per day 6 days per week.

Anyone can take advantage of solo training to get in better shape as well as improve in muay thai through

• conditioning the calves, ankles and legs through running, skipping and tire jumping
• improving technique and drilling combinations through shadow boxing
• developing power, accuracy and timing with heavy bag rounds

The above elements of muay thai alone done regularly will help any nak muay improve consistently.

2. The Heavy Bag is an Important Training Partner in Muay Thai

The heavy bag is often bowed to before training with the traditional whai to pay respect to the bag.

With the heavy bag alone and good video instruction there are an endless amount of training drills and combinations a person can come up with to keep motivated.

Training the clinch, kicks, knees elbows and punches to develop power, speed timing and accuracy can all be done effectively with just a heavy bag/punching bag.

The heavy bag will always be there when you need to ‘bang’ and or sharpen up your technique and never takes a day off.

The crucial part of the heavy bag in muay thai makes it another reason why muay thai is my pick for the easiest martial art to learn at home.

3. There are a LOT of Online Muay Thai Learning Resources Available

Free and paid resources are accessible with a mobile device or PC to provide credible instruction in muay thai from the beginner to more advanced levels.

A lot of the free resources such as that on YouTube may lack a structured program to go from beginner to advanced and you may often have to pay to access these resources.

My recommendations for top paid online muay thai resources can be read here.

However an excellent structured kickboxing program I have found very useful is that of Bazooka Jo Valtelini who was a Glory Kickboxing Champion who relied heavily on solo training in his fighting career.

4. Muay Thai is still fairly ‘new’

Compared to other excellent martial arts such as Boxing, Judo, Tae Kwondo and Karate – muay thai is often less accessible to many places in the world.

Muay thai gyms are rare in many parts of the world today.

This makes it even more suitable for learning at home as it is often the only choice for many of us.

While muay thai has been popular in Thailand and Asia for a long time it has only recently become more popular in the larger North American and European markets in the last couple of decades.

Olympic martial arts such as Judo, Boxing and TKD have a long history of being spread to many corners of the world for a long time.

And even isolated countries such as those in the Pacific Islands and all across Africa have access to Boxing, Judo and TKD schools – one if not all.

Again this lack of access for muay thai makes it even more desirable for those who want to learn as it can learned at home and sometimes HAS to be learned at home.

5. There are no forms or kata

No disrespect to traditional martial arts that utilize forms and kata.

But by not having this aspect a part of muay thai training, muay thai has a further benefit for learning at home.

Often martial arts teachers and instructors will pay a lot of attention to performing to perfection each of the numerous kata and forms, and this is difficult to learn without a qualified instructor.

Though it can be done – with determination and this should not discourage you if this is what you are interested.

There are many excellent instructional that include forms and kata that I personally enjoy using such as that of David Peterson from the Wing chin style.

6. A Training Partner is Not Absolutely Crucial ALL the Time

In grappling arts such as Judo, BJJ and Wrestling, a training partner is absolutely necessary almost every training session in order to make progress and improve.

In muay thai the heavy bag and solo training as outline above make up a big part of normal muay thai training in a a gym.

The same applies for outside if you want to learn at home.

A training partner is not a ‘make or break’ part of muay thai training – unless you want to compete.

And while the muay thai clinch is a huge part of muay thai that requires a great deal of sparring and partner work – you can develop your muay thai in many other ways and using the heavy bag for clinch work.

Yet another reason why muay thai is the easiest martial art to learn at home.

7. Staying Motivated for the Long Term While Training Solo

There are many, many branches to the Muay Thai tree to learn that will keep you motivated in the long term.

All of these ‘branches’ off from the muay thai tree that you may discover will help you grow as a martial artist and can be learned about from home and online.

In my opinion for someone learning at home, having access to try techniques and strategies from similar arts and to develop your style will keep one motivated to learn for a lifetime.

A lot of these areas can also be accessed and learned from home such as:

• Muay Boran – the Ancient boxing of Thailand that muay thai came from
• Different Muay Thai styles such as Muay Khao, Muay Tae, Muay Femur and Muay Mat
• Krabi Krabong – the weapons art of Ancient Thai fighting arts
• Lethwei – a sister art to muay thai. the national sport of Myanmar includes headbutts and uses no gloves.
• Khun Khmer – another sister art to muay thai/muay boran from Cambodia. Professional fights are extremely popular in Cambodia with similar rules to muay thai.
• Japanese Kickboxing – originating from the old muay thai vs karate contests of he 30s and 40s kickboxing arose
• Dutch Kickboxing/Muay Thai – Ramon Dekkers success in muay thai came from this style

The above are just some aspects that can branch off from muay thai if you want to learn.

This will keep you motivated especially if you train solo at home and will keep you r learning fun for many years to come.

For me this is another reason why muay thai is the easiest martial art to learn at home.

Final thoughts

The 7 reasons above are just my opinion on why I think muay thai is the easiest martial art to learn at thome.

Being a martial art that is not as acessible as say Boxing or Judo – and there being no muay thai gyms in my own country led me to try my best to learn as muay thai at home as much as possible.

This is also one of the reasons I put together this website – Fiji Muay Thai to help those in a similar situation to be able to learn and experience this great Thai martial art.