Muay Thai (Thai Kickboxing) - Adelaide

What is Muay Thai?

Muay Thai is a hard martial art from Thailand. It is similar to other Indochinese styles of kickboxing, namely pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and Muay Lao from Laos. Descended from muay boran, Muay Thai is Thailand's national sport.

Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science Of Eight Limbs" because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in Western boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in sport-oriented martial arts.

Technique and Conditioning

Formal Muay Thai techniques are divided into two groups: Mae Mai or major techniques and Luk Mai or minor techniques. Muay Thai is often a fighting art of attrition, where opponents exchange blows with one another.

When Muay Thai practitioners compete against fighters of other styles, they almost invariably emphasize elbow (sok) and knee (kao) techniques to gain a distinct advantage. Almost all techniques in Muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, elbow and block.

Like most competitive full contact fighting sports, Muay Thai has a heavy focus on body conditioning. Training regimens include running, shadowboxing, rope jumping, body weight resistance exercises, medicine ball exercises, abdominal exercises, and weight training.

Reality SDC and Muay Thai

Reality SDC is a member of the Oceania Muay Thai Federation (OMTF) in Australia and the World Muay Thai Council (WMC).

The Head Coach originally trained for years under Steve Pietsch, the former Swiss Kickboxing Champion who fought in the major stadiums of Thailand. Steve is the trainer of world champions such as Paul Slowinski, Ethan Shepp, Sam Harvey and other state, national and pan pacific champions.

Reality SDC members and coaches travel regularly to Thailand to train at top Muay Thai training camps. Most recently we have a great relationship with True Bee Gym in Pai, Northern Thailand.

The Head Coach is a Level 1 National Boxing coach under the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme (NCAS) and is also the Senior National Fitness presenter for Thump Training systems.

Where does Muay Thai come from?

Various forms of kickboxing have long been practiced throughout mainland Southeast Asia. Based on a combination of Chinese and Indian martial arts, practitioners claim they date back two thousand years.

In Thailand, Muay Thai evolved from muay boran (ancient boxing), an unarmed combat method which would probably have been used by Siamese soldiers after losing their weapons in battle. Muay Boran, and therefore Muay Thai, was originally called dhoi muay or simply muay.

Muay gradually became a possible means of personal advancement as the nobility increasingly esteemed skillful practitioners. This "royal muay" was called muay luang. The ascension of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) to the throne in 1868 ushered in a golden age for muay.

King Rama VII pushed for codified rules for Muay Thai. Thailand's first boxing ring was built in 1921 at Suan Kularp. Referees were introduced and rounds were now timed by clock. It was also around this time that the term Muay Thai became commonly used while the older form was referred to as muay boran.