Like any other martial art or practically any skill you want to learn, the basics are usually the fundamental aspects.
And the foundation techniques where you want to spend the majority of time learning and practicing, especially when starting out muay thai as a beginner.
Muay thai is no different and the basics for muay thai beginners that will be discussed in this post will form the foundation for your development and learning.
As a beginner one is often in a major rush to learn as much as possible but this is not the best way.
Muay thai for beginners consists mostly of the basics which are the most important aspects for any beginner to grasp.
If you are looking to master the basics training solo at home (maybe before you join a gym or to supplement your gym training) then definitely check out my 5 Week Muay Thai Foundations FREE Video course.
So, then what are the basics?
What are the Basics of Muay Thai?
Muay thai is a complete martial art with many techniques and an almost endless number of combinations of those techniques.
The four areas that muay thai beginner should focus on in their approach to learning the basics are:
- Stance
- Footwork
- Attack
- Defense
Each of these four areas individually consists of basic and advanced techniques and concepts.
But for the purpose of this post, which is to look at muay thai for beginners, we will look at the most basic and core concepts.
1. Muay Thai Stance for Beginners
The most fundamental part of muay thai as a fighting art is the stance.
The muay thai stance is very unique and distinct from other martial arts. So much so that even as someone not too familiar with martial arts, when you see the stance you will recognize it as muay thai.
You can have a read of another post on muay thai stance here.
In discussing the muay thai stance in the post linked above, the key aspects of the stance which make it crucial to practice a lot include i) feet position ii) hand position iii) hip position.
These three aspects are crucial to having a solid stance, so lets take a closer look at the stance and where exactly to place your feet, hands and hips.
i) Feet positioning in the Muay Thai stance
You feet should be about shoulder width apart a little bit more or less than shoulder width is fine as long as you feel comfortable and balanced as well as being rooted in the ground but at the same time flexible enough that you can move in either direction.
On your toes with heels slightly off the ground. You should rarely ever be flat footed in muay thai. Staying on your toes keeps you mobile and in good position to attach and defend.
ii) Hand position
Both hands should be touching your face for a good defensive guard. Chin down, shoulders up.
In muay thai the elbows are slightly out and not “glued to your ribs” as in a typical boxing or even kickboxing stances. Having the elbows slightly flared out away from the body allows for better balance in blocking kicks with your shins as well as catching kicks and defending against clinchers.
iii) Hips
Unlike other striking martial arts such as Karate and Western boxing which adopt a more bladed or side on stance, the muay thai stance is more ‘hips square’ to your opponent. This allows to attack and defend with balance on both sides of the body.
2. Muay Thai Footwork for Beginners
Footwork in muay thai originates from the stance.
The same balance and structure in your stance should be seen in your footwork when you move forward, back, left and right.
Conceptually the most important things to remember and practice as a beginner when it comes to muay thai footwork are:
1.Whichever direction you move, that leg moves first and your other leg follows. i.e moving forward your lead leg moves first and rear leg follows. This applies to the back, left and right.
This is the basic step and shuffle motion that Bruce Lee practiced and made a core of his JKD system. It is also the same footwork in Western boxing and most striking arts.
2. Keep the distance between your feet the same when you finish you footwork movement. This is the distance established in your stance. So moving from your fighting stance in any direction using your footwork you should end up in the same stance with your feet the same distance apart.
3. Muay Thai Attacks – Basics for Beginners
There are many different attacks in muay thai and weapons that can be used to strike your opponent. But lets keep this simple for beginners and look at the most basic attacks and more importantly the concepts that should be practiced and implemented when striking.
As muay thai is the Art of 8 Limbs there are of course 4 weapons on either side (left or right) you can use to attack. Lets look at all of them briefly and what you should keep in mind as a beginner learning the basics.
i) Punches
Really there are only straight punches and round/curved punches in muay thai and in basically all other striking arts the punches are similar.
Jabs and Crosses are straight punches. Hooks and Uppercuts are round or curved.
The most important concepts for the punches as I was taught are:
- strike with the first two knuckles of the punching hand
- one hand punches the other touches your face as defense. As one hand extends to attack the other retracts to defend.
ii) Kicks
For kicks also there are round kicks which is the fundamental muay thai roundhouse kick and straight kicks, the teep or push kick.
For the kicks there are many, many variations but the important concepts to practice are:
- your standing leg provides the balance and power through rotation and being up on your toes to give that extra push and power using your hip
- the opposite hand to your kicking leg should be up against your face to protect against counters.
- same side hand as your kicking leg throws down to be able to get power into the kick. Both on teeps and roundhouse kicks.
iii) Knees
Again with knees there are many different variations but essentially they come down to round knees and straight knees.
Round knees are usually executed in the clinch and straight knees can be more from a longer distance.
The important concepts to consider for knees as the same as for kicks:
- your standing leg provides the balance and power through rotation and being up on your toes to give that extra push and power using your hip
- the opposite hand to your attacking knee should be up against your face to protect against counters or on your opponents hands, head or shoulders to pull them forward into the knee.
iv) Elbows
Once again as with all muay thai weapons there are different variations from the slashing horizontal elbow to the uppercut elbow.
There are three important concepts to remember for a beginner when practicing and executing elbows:
- opposite hand to the striking elbow must be protecting your face. If you are in range to throw an elbow, you are in range to get hit with an elbow.
- the hip rotation and very importantly shoulder and wrist rotation are very important in making a fluid and effective elbow strike
- strike with the tip of your elbow where the bone sticks out
4. Muay Thai Defense
Defense is arguably the most important part of muay thai and martial arts.
Most martial arts developed as forms of self defense and how to defend yourself.
This is a very deep aspect to cover and as this post is only looking at basics for beginners we will only cover the most important and basic concepts that you can apply to most defensive techniques and strategies.
The most important and basic defensive concepts in learning muay thai for beginners are:
i) Begin with a solid foundation in having a technical sound and strong stance. The muay thai defense begins with your stance.
Having your chin tucked and your lead shoulder up covering your chin is very important.
Your stance should be strong and rooted into the ground to withstand blows but also flexible and collapse-able so that you move with ease to evade and slip attacks and set up counters.
ii) Eyes always wide open and on your opponent at around about the chest area.
Even though your eyes are looking at your opponent chest area you see everything including his legs, feet, hips and of course hands. Drill your defensive guard a lot and especially practice not closing your eyes in a flinching type response when attacks come in . This will take time and partner drills and sparring a lot to develop.
iii) Learn to shift your weight.
Being able to drop your weight into the ground when you need to stand firm and block and also shifting your weight to the rear to evade punches and kicks and shifting your weight side to side to slip and block your opponents strikes all come from your good stance and being able to shift your weight. Being able to get off track and to the side of your opponent is an important aspect of muay thai also and comes from being able to shift your weight.
Unlike boxing and MMA where often the defensive option is to back up quickly and get out range of punches and kicks, in muay thai standing firm and blocking punches and kicks are part of the culture of muay thai and important to show you are not being affected by your opponents strikes to the judges. But its important to mix up your defense.
Not to say that being evasive and retreating quickly are not valid defensive strategies in muay thai but its important to vary your defense also.
iv) Be able to vary your defensive tactics and techniques, sometimes holding ground and blocking, sometimes slipping and evading and sometimes retreating.
This will keep your opponent off balance and unable to read you and lock in on you to get their strikes off comfortably.
One of the greatest muay thai fighters of all Somrak Khamsing shows a great defensive masterclass in the video below against Boonlai. Sometimes holding firm and blocking his opponents kicks and other times slipping and evading strikes and countering with beautiful movement.
Somrak was also Olympic boxing gold medalist in 1996 and his evasive head movement he displays shows why he had great success in the boxing ring also as well as in muay thai.
There is so much more to cover under defense that it deserves a 2000 word post of its own to cover specific defense against punches, knees, elbows etc. But having the four defensive concepts above firm in your mind will go a long way to helping the beginner develop their muay thai defense.
Final Words of Advice for Beginners
This post has tried to make things easier to grasp for the muay thai beginner by breaking down the basics into the four areas of Stance, Footwork, Attack and Defense.
Often in learning muay thai for beginners everyone wants to learn everything all at once and new technique after new technique from flying knees to spinning kicks and reverse elbows.
Rather than trying to do it all, its useful to break down muay thai into the four parts and spend time working on each area.
The easiest way to consume an elephant is piece by piece. Remember that muay thai and marital arts is a long journey. So why not take your time and enjoy every step. Starting off as beginners we are often in a rush to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible but this just doesn’t work.
I hope this post will help you with the most important concepts for beginners and help you on your muay thai learning journey.
