If you are a beginner and what to know what are the most important basic muay thai moves and techniques to learn, then read on and find out below.
If you want to make good progress in muay thai then beginning with muay thai fundamentals and making these solid will build you a good foundation for making further progress.
So what are the most important muay thai aspects to learn and learn early?
1.Stance & Footwork
In my opinion and from the instructors and teachers I have learned from, the most important moves to learn first are stance and footwork.
When I first began learning muay thai in Chiang Mai, stance was the most foundational muay thai aspect to learn but also the most important.
With a good stance, moving striking, defending and countering all become more fluid and easier to perform.
Having good footwork involves moving with balance and strength in your legs and staying connected with the ground.
Having great footwork is important for moving in to attack as well as moving out and away in a defensive manner to avoid strikes.
Read more about the muay thai footwork in this article.
One great thing about stance and footwork is it can be practiced anywhere and anytime. Regular practice will only help all other aspects of your boxing.
2. Punches
As an art that utilizes all 8 limbs, Thai boxing also includes the most common punches found in boxing and similar striking arts.
These include:
- Lead straight
- Rear Straight
- Lead hook
- Rear Hook
- Lead Uppercut
- Rear Uppercut
Muay thai fighters who specialize in hard punches and heavy low kicks are known as muay mat.
Many successful muay mat fighters have also had success in the Pro Boxing ring.
The most important thing to remember with each punch is that the hand opposite to the punching hand should be touching your chin.
See the picture below to get the fundamental position of the opposite hand when throwing any punch.
3. Kicks
Basic kicks in muay thai can either be round or straight kicks.
The foundation and most important kick is the roundhouse kick which is a signature technique of Thai boxing.
The roundhouse kick to the body is probably the most used technique in Thai boxing.
In addition to the round kicks is the straight kick or teep.
The teep is an effective technique for keeping distance through the long straight kick.
The roundhouse kick can be aimed at the opponents legs, body or head and can be thrown from either your lead or rear side.
Here is an article about 10 different types of muay thai kicks which shows the complexity in the development of muay thai techniques.
However the most fundamental kicks to learn are the roundhouse and teep kicks.
4.Knees
Powerful knees are another signature technique in Thai boxing.
Specialist knee fighters and clinchers in muay thai are known as muay khao.
Muay khao excel at clinching and damaging knees.
The initial knees a beginner should learn are thrown to the opponents body and chest area.
Learn the foundational 4 muay thai knees and how to execute them here.
5. Elbows
The elbow technique is a devastating technique in combat.
The horizontal elbow and the downward slashing elbow are the basic elbows for Thai boxing.
These two elbows should be learned first – after learning fundamental stance, footwork and punching is learned.
I have a comprehensive post on the 6 types of muay thai elbows and how to execute them you can read here.
But the horizontal and downward slashing elbows are useful and easy to learn techniques even for a beginner.
6. Defense
Probably the most overlooked but most important factor for a beginner to learn is defense.
However for a complete beginner learning techniques listed above form the foundation and should be learned first.
Defense however should be taught and learned as soon as possible.
With good stance and footwork a lot of the defense will become easier in.
Being able to block punches solidly as well as checking and blocking kicks with your shins all come from having a solid and strong stance.
Evading attacks such as leaning back to avoid kicks and slipping punches also have a foundation in strong stance and solid footwork.
The fundamental defensive techniques are:
- Blocking, parrying and evading straight punches
- Blocking and evading hooks (body hooks and head hooks)
- Blocking and evading uppercuts
- Blocking and evading low, body and head kicks
- Parrying and evading straight kicks
- Blocking and evading knees
- Defending elbows
These defensive techniques can be drilled safely with partner drills and are good for beginners.
7.Countering
Countering techniques are a little more advanced but still the fundamental counters can be trained by a relatively new beginner.
Being able to counter well comes from having a good stance, defensive posture and footwork.
With good stance and defensive posture you will be able to avoid or block a strike and counter back quickly and powerfully to catch your opponent.
While countering contains many many aspects, below are the most important counters a beginner should learn and train.
- Countering straight punches
- Countering round punches (body and head)
- Countering round kicks (leg, body, head)
- Countering straight kicks
- Countering knees
As with the defensive techniques, countering can be trained by beginners with partner drills in a controlled and slow manner to build up the required reflexes and timing.
Basic Muay Thai – Wrap Up
This post has looked at 7 of the most important aspects that a beginner should learn and practice often.
These important aspects would form the core curriculum for a beginner to learn and consist of:
- Stance & Footwork
- Punches
- Kicks
- Knees
- Elbows
- Defense
- Countering
Beginning with stance and footwork then moving to punches and kicks. Then including knees and elbows.
And finally within a structured curriculum, the fundamental defense and countering techniques of can be learned.
Most of these aspects can be trained on the heavy with solo training.
However defensive and countering techniques are better trained with a partner in a controlled manner using drills.
