To learn the basics of muay thai does not take a very long time at all and is directly proportionate to the amount of time you put into learning and training.
The fastest way I have found to learn muay thai is through focussed solo training outside of the gym and in between your regular group sessions.
And if you are interested in learning the most important and fundamental muay thai aspects at home with zero equipment – please check out this resource I put together – “How to Start Muay Thai at Home”5 Week Video course.
But overall, muay thai is a relatively simple martial art and the basics can be learned in 3-6 months depending on the students dedication.
To be proficient at the basics and have a good foundation that you can use effectively in sparring would take maybe 8-12 months for a complete beginner.
Going from a complete beginner to having your first fight could be between 6 and 12 months or longer.
Again this is depending on how much time a person has to put into learning and training.
In this post we look at how to reduce your learning time through implementing a few of the simple muay thai learning tips below.
These tips have helped me progress in muay thai training mostly solo from home and I am sure they will help you or any beginner in muay thai to progress faster than normal.
How Much to Train Muay Thai to Learn the Fastest?
If you can train twice per day 6 days per week as in Professional camps in Thailand do you will learn much faster.
But your body will also be beat down if you are working a normal 9 to 5 or even studying and working night shifts.
The timelines mentioned above for learning muay thai can be achieved through training 3 days a week at your local gym minimum.
Then you could also including your own solo heavy bag training at home outside the gym for 2-3 sessions per week.
In order to keep progressing a minimum of 3 sessions per week is required and the more time you can put in beyond that will help you learn muay thai even faster.
How Can I Reduce the Learning Time in Muay Thai?
The main factor that can reduce your learning time is to really focus in your training sessions at the gym.
Ask the instructors for help where you think your technique may be struggling and don’t be afraid to ask those who are more experienced for help.
But what are some other things that could help to reduce the time to learn muay thai?
1.Solo Training Outside the Gym
Putting in extra work on your own will go a long way to shortening the learning curve in muay thai.
Having a heavy bag set up in a convenient place for you to train at home and putting in focused rounds to improve your technique, work on power and build endurance will help a lot to reduce the time to learn muay thai.
Muay thai in comparison to other martial arts such as BJJ can be trained effectively on your own with the use of a heavy bag alone.
This is great to supplement your muay thai group sessions and will help you learn muay thai even faster.
My #1 recommendation for a heavy bag training program to boost your muay thai through solo training outside the gym is the Heavy Bag Blueprint 2.0 designed by Pro muay thai fighter Sean Fagan.
You can read my review of the HBB 2.0 program and access a 50% discount HERE.
2. Work on Hip Mobility
Good hip mobility will help a lot with the most important muay thai techniques such as roundhouse kicks, teeps and knees.
Good hip mobility is also needed for blocking and checking body kicks and head kicks.
Trust me, working on your hip mobility I feel is the main thing a complete beginner to work on early on to make good progress in muay thai.
Keeping your hips as well as other important joints such as the shoulders and ankles will help you avoid injury lay offs as well as improving your technique through improved range of motion.
3.Take Privates or One to One Sessions with Good Trainers
In a group setting especially with a lot of students, the instructor may not have the time to individually correct your technique and help you with focused attentions.
In a private session you have the trainers complete focus and attention and your trainer can really work with you in depth to improve in certain areas or to learn new techniques or strategies.
4. Focus on Recovery, Rest and Nutrition
If you are putting in a lot of overtime at work or studying hard at school and missing out on sleep this could lead to you getting sick and missing training and affecting the time it take to learn muay thai even more.
Pay attention to your health and sleep, getting healthy meals and your overall mobility in addition to your hips.
Focusing on recovery and rest will help you reduce the time to learn muay thai by ensuring you are fresh and ready to learn every session and won’t miss session due to sickness or injury as much.
5. Watch Muay Thai Fights and Technique Vids
There are a lot of fights available to watch on YouTube in muay thai.
Spend some time watching these fights in your downtime but dont overthink too much and end up on missing sleep.
You could watch fights while you are stretching or working on mobility.
Seeing high level fighters in action and watching their technique a lot will also help you a lot in learning muay thai.
Also watch muay thai instructional videos and check out instructional books apart from watching actual fights.
See how professionals and high level practitioners perform techniques and their favorite combos and learn by watching them in your spare time.
6.Understand that Learning is Not Mastering
The question of how long does it take to learn muay thai should be distinguished from the question how long does it take to master muay thai.
Mastering muay thai or any other martial art can take a lifetime and ‘mastering an art’ goes even beyond earning a black belt in that art.
Be clear that muay thai and the martial arts is a long term commitment and a lifetime journey.
Your goal as a beginner is to first learn and then master the basics. For muay thai this can be achieved relatively faster than in other martial arts due to the simple nature of the techniques.
But they take a lifetime to master.
How Long Does it Take to Master Muay Thai?
True mastery of muay thai takes a lifetime to achieve.
But with at least a decade of training consistently and learning while testing your muay thai in competition and sparring, true mastery can begin.
I would argue that true mastery also includes mastery of self and as your body ages your muay thai adjusts accordingly from more fighting focused to perhaps more teaching and instruction focus.
This begins even new levels of muay thai mastery through developing fight strategy and training camps to develop top level fighters.
Or even to just train anyone who wants to learn and training them with a passion for muay thai, to not only become a proficient nak muay but also to improve in all positive areas of life using muay thai as a vehicle to help achieve this.
How long to learn muay thai? Summary
In summary it does not take a significantly long time to learn muay thai but a lifetime to master it.
The basics can be learned in a relatively short time due to the simplicity of the muay thai techniques.
3-6 months is a good time frame to be proficient at the muay thai basics of stance, footwork, attacks and some defense.
Another 3-6 months to be able to spar safely and effectively would be a good timeline.
As a complete beginner to being ready for your first fight could take between 6 months to a year depending.
But overall using the 6 tips in this post you can shorten the amount of time it takes to learn muay thai drastically.
