If you have ever wanted to learn muay thai and thought ‘Can you teach yourself muay Thai?
The short answer is no, you cannot go from a complete beginner to being decent at muay thai without some form of instruction.
It’s impossible to teach yourself muay Thai without instruction.
This is especially so for complete beginners to muay thai.
The good thing is today solid instructional videos and text on muay thai for beginners are readily available online.
So then with a video or text to follow and guide you and self discipline you definitely can teach yourself muay thai.
Why Even Teach Yourself Muay Thai?
Why would you want to teach yourself muay thai in the first place.
Surely you could just go to a gym or academy and get to training.
For some people their geogrpahical location, work and time committments as well as expenses (i.e gym costs, transport to training) make it difficult to attend regular training to learn muay thai.
So this post is really for people who:
- want to learn and train but there are no gyms in their Country, State, Town etc. This is the case for me and I had to learn a lot from online resources as well as making trips overseas to learn from trainers in Thailand, Singapore, Korea and US.
- just want to learn muay thai techniques to practice on a heavy bag at home for personal fitness and solo training
- may not be able to afford the time or cash to put toward training and travelling to and attending a regular muay thai gym but want to learn
So if you are starting out as a beginner in muay thai and are keen to learn and train and you fit into the above categories, this post will set you up very well to teach yourself muay thai.
Find some Good Instruction to follow
If you are reading this post chances are high that you have internet access. Online resources for muay thai are readily available for complete beginners to learn from and establish their base through solo training.
Paid Resources
There are several books, apps and online courses that are very valuable for people wanting to learn and teach themselves muay thai.
All you got to do is search ‘muay thai’ on the App Store or Google play and several options will present themselves.
There are also great curriculum’s fully available online that you can subscribe to for weekly teaching.
Here is a post on the 5 Top Online Resources for muay thai.
Free Resources
Its also possible that at your local library you could access books and videos to borrow to teach yourself muay thai at home.
Also there are great free resources for muay thai and striking on YouTube. Some of the ones I would recommend to check out are:
- Sean ‘Muay Thai Guy’ Fagan’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/muaythaiguy13
- Ironboy Experience https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLcv92gYm8b2w8Ff3thQXYg
- Khambo Warrior (mostly Khun Khmer and its in Cambodian but very entertaining :)) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjn2Xb1MOrWeMHMAsfqISdg
- Sylvie von Douglas-ittu https://www.youtube.com/user/MasterKMuayThai
There are also great websites out there that offer free information, instruction and tips on muay thai.
This website you are on right now is one of them! But here are some of my favourites:
- Fiji Muay Thai (learning and training online and from home) https://fijimuaythai.com/
- Muay Thai Pros – founded by brothers Stephen and Bob in Thailand http://muaythaipros.com/
- Muay Thai Citizen has lots of great information, tips and reviews on training equipment. Great site! http://www.muaythaicitizen.com/
- In addition to her YouTube channel, Sylvie von Douglass-Ittu has been writing a blog for along time. You can access and read her blog for free at: https://8limbsus.com/
Set Up Your Training Space
Once you have some instruction that you can easily follow that can take you from the basics to a solid foundation, you need a place to train.
Your garage, spare bedroom or outside in the garden are all good options for your own personal muay thai training.
Bascially anywhere with a little room to move will do the job.
Ideally you also want to hang up a heavy bag and get some decent gloves.
Check out my posts on the best heavy bag for muay thai beginners and my guide for buying muay thai gloves
Having a heavy bag to use at home really is indispensable if you plan to teach yourself muay thai and keep learning for a long time. Especially if you cant get to a muay thai gym or school.
Devise Your Program & Schedule – Free VS Paid
With a curriculum you pay for and subscribe to, the hard work of designing the program with structure is already done by the instructor.
However if you are not willing to pay for such a program or cant afford it then you will need to design your own. This is difficult to do for a beginner. But there are foundational training resources for muay thai also available for free.
It would be up to you to put it all together in a structured format to build form the basics.
A good learning structure for a beginner would look like:
- Week 1 – Stance and Footwork
- Week 2 – Straight Punches and Round Punches
- Week 3 – Round kicks and Straight Kicks
- Week 4 – Knees and Elbows
- Week 5 – high percentage combos
The above is just an example and if you are not paying for a structured program then you would need to design your own in order to teach yourself muay thai.
If you have a heavy bag already or you have access to a heavy bag, then a recommended paid program for heavy bag training I would look into is the Heavy Bag Blueprint 2.0 by Sean Fagan.
The program is designed by Pro muay thai fighter Sean Fagan and is great for beginners and pros alike.
The advantage to having a structured program with lots of variety is that you will know exactly what workouts to follow as oart of separate phases of your training.
The Heavy Bag Blueprint 2.0 also has varying workouts that develop different aspects such as technical skill, endurance or power.
Make Time/Budget for Some Live Training
This may require some travel and planning and budgeting but adding in this valuable aspect of live training with great instructors at least once a year, your technique, skill and understanding will continue to improve for as long as you keep up your training.
At the end of the day while you can learn a lot and improve a lot from home based solo training – it is well worth the time, money and effort to meet up with and train with great teachers and training partners.
Visiting schools whether overseas or out of State, allows you to test your technique and get some first hand instruction from experienced trainers.
Even if most of your muay thai is teaching yourself at home, you can still learn a lot more and developed great friendships and relationships by visiting gyms a couple of times a year.
Video Yourself and Review Your Form
Taking video of yourself these days is pretty easy with your mobile phone.
The value of watching yourself and reviewing your own technique and form is absolutely critical when training mostly alone.
You have the video instruction to follow from a good trainer but as they wont be around to review your form or critique your technique, when teaching yourself muay thai – videoing yourself is really important.
You could also perform in front of a mirror but the video review process and self examination and adjusting based on instruciton is relaly an important part of muay thai training on your own.
Check out the video below with MMA Legend Bas Rutten teaching a technique. In the short video below he emphaisizes taking video of yourself and reviewing your technique regulalrly.
This is something Bas has done for a long time and still does today as he explains in the video below from 0:28 timestamp of the 4:19 video below.
