by Jarrett Church

In my humble opinion, there is no striking sport more effective than the art of Muay Thai. Some would say that my conclusion is biased due to the 15 years I have dedicated to this art, both as a student and instructor. My belief in Muay Thai’s superiority is not based on my years of dedication, but is attributed to key observable factors.

First, Muay Thai, unlike other striking sports, utilizes more natural weapons. If you look at boxing, you are limited to two natural weapons: your fists. If we take arts like Karate or Tae Kwon Do we see four natural weapons: the fists and feet. Muay Thai, on the other hand, uses eight weapons: the fists, elbows, knees, and shins.

The second reason for Muay Thai’s dominance over other striking sports is the variation of attacks through combinations. Remember, this sport consists of eight natural tools. Looking again at other striking sports, the limit in natural weapons will ultimately limit the attacks. For example, in boxing you can combine punches to attack only the head and body.

In contrast, Muay Thai allows you to attack the head, body, or legs with a variety of weapons. In Muay Thai we could start an attack with a jab and cross to the head, continue with a hook to the body, and finish with a leg kick to the thigh. Another example combination could be jab and rear elbow to the head, continue to the clinch with knees to the body, then finish with spinning the opponent to set up a head kick.

Third, Muay Thai is one of the few striking sports that utilize the clinch, also know as the plum. The clinch is used to control the opponent by the collar and behind the head using your own arms. From this dominant position knees are thrown both to the head and body. In addition, from this control certain throws are legal and can send your opponent crashing to the mat. The clinch is a very devastating position that by it self has stopped hundreds of Muay Thai bouts.

Finally, Muay Thai fighters are by far the most conditioned of all the striking sport athletes. I’m not a physicist, but it is pretty obvious that no other striking sport requires the amount of energy that Muay Thai does. I believe this is true because of the number of natural weapons you have at your disposal. From personal experience, throwing combinations that go from hands, to elbows, to clinching and kneeing, to kicking can be exhausting. This is especially true when you are doing these sorts of combinations over and over again. The Muay Thai athlete must have superior conditioning to use all of these tools in combination in a bout.

Muay Thai, in my opinion, is superior to all other striking sports because of these reasons. If you’re interested in learning a striking sport, you should give it a try!