How dangerous is muai Thai for beginners?

shantolog

Hi all,

I was recently thinking of taking up Muai Thai, but one concern I have is the leg kicks. I'm sure everyone has seen that montage of the leg kicks gone wrong and I thought it would be quite rare, but having gone to an amature show a while back someone actually had their leg broke when two went for a kick at the same time. So how often does this actually happen fighting or is their a training technique to stop it?

Thanks for the replies

yomchi

shantolog wrote: »

Hi all,

I was recently thinking of taking up Muai Thai, but one concern I have is the leg kicks. I'm sure everyone has seen that montage of the leg kicks gone wrong and I thought it would be quite rare, but having gone to an amature show a while back someone actually had their leg broke when two went for a kick at the same time. So how often does this actually happen fighting or is their a training technique to stop it?

Thanks for the replies

Chances are you're more likely to break your leg playing football. I'll let the Thai lads correct me if I'm wrong but as a beginner you do not do leg kicks without leg protectors on.

Peetrik

As Yomchi said, you have more chance breaking your leg in football. Doing Thai is very tough and you can expect a fair few bruises and sore muscles but as a beginner the 'danger' is practically non existent.
You'll be wearing thick, comfortable leather shin guards in sparring for years and would only ever have to take them off if you really want to.

chocolatechips

I'm currently doing beginners muay Thai and there is no real danger of hurting yourself at this level. Worst that can happen is a few bruises on your arms and legs.

gimmick

The only way you will get hurt is if you are too cocky or horrifically unfit. Accidents happen, but are rare if you have a decent trainer.

Colm.Mahon

never heard of broken legs at an ameteur level would say ur pretty safe...... even at pro level iv only seen a few bad cases of leg kicks were the leg was actually broke. Any one see liam h destroy the italian fellas leg saturday ???

Tweedle Dumb

Started Muay Thai few months ago, Doing a beginners course and having trained in normal classes also.

I have more chance of breaking my leg from the stairs to the gym that from kicks.

In our beginners class you only kick pads or lightly to the body or legs, as in light taps, not enough power to do any damage.

In the normal class you wear shin guards for kicking full power. Nice sturdy pads that limit any chance of injuring your leg. The rare occasions when you kick and Check leg kicks unpadded (blocking the kick with your shin) you go lightly so as not to hurt yourself.

That said, a groin guard is always a good thing to have, and a gum shield. Even as a beginner chances of injuries are rare, but better safe than sorry.

Tweedle Dumb

Colm.Mahon wrote: »

Any one see liam h destroy the italian fellas leg saturday ???

Awesome leg kicks. First kick and had the Italian cringing in pain straight away. shame it ended so quickly. Would have loved to see five rounds of them kicks

LD 50

As a beginner you'll be kicking pads, or kick bags to start. Your trainer will show you the correct way to kick. And you wouldn't have developed the necessary power to break a shin bone or hyperextend the knee joint.
Mauy Thai is a vicious martial art, and you CAN do serious damage with it. Which is why gyms take every care to minimize the risk. You won't actually be sparring with someone without pads or guards for quite sometime. Long enough that you are in control of your body using your punches kicks, elbows and knees properly and safely. When I started Muay Thai in Australia, it was with a Thai trainer who trained us the hard thai way. So we didn't use shin guards during training. We'd punch and kick pads, and pull our kicks if the oppo was checking(blocking). I was more a danger to myself than the others back then.

So don't worry about breaking something. Go out, enjoy it. And get ripped in the process.

Colm.Mahon

Never heard of anyone sparring without shin pads to tell you the truth seems a bit stupid.

chprt

we often spar with no shin pads, as do quite a few of the gyms in the UK

once you not caring about the winner or loser as so many fu*ktards seem to care about the its possible to spar many rounds with no shin pads on.

I will just say its only the fighters that do this.

paddy

Peetrik

We never spar with no shinpads... while I can see it would be possible to do so I don't see how the benefits outweigh the risks.
Regardless of intention there are knee clashes in sparring and bumped heads in clinch every night where I train, surely its just inviting injuries no matter how softly you go?

chprt

there are no risks once this is adhered to

once you not caring about the winner or loser as so many fu*ktards seem to care about the its possible to spar many rounds with no shin pads on

Colm.Mahon

Us lads on the northside arn't as hard as you southsiders Paddy

ramblingroy

all martial arts comes with a degree of risk it is up to the instructor to put as safe training program together it is up to you to say no if ur not comfortable with a practice .. most instructors will not allow students to contact until a reasonable level is achieved and then it should be a very experienced fighter with a novice in this practice the experienced fighter allows the novice to use tech which the experienced fighter can easily defend with out hurting the novice in this the the experienced fighter works on his defence and the novice builds his / her confidence

martial arts are unlike any other sport in that obediance is required from students and if this wasnt the case it would not be possible to teach large classed (even the most experienced coach can only watch so much at a time) however when it comes to a practice that may cause an injury if ur not 100% sure say no (pushups and situps dont count u dont have a choice with those)

in my experience good coaches will not force a beginner to spar the reality is often the opposite with the student looking to spar and the coach holding you back until he thinks you are ready

Peetrik

ramblingroy wrote: »

it should be a very experienced fighter with a novice in this practice the experienced fighter allows the novice to use tech which the experienced fighter can easily defend with out hurting the novice in this the the experienced fighter works on his defence and the novice builds his / her confidence

Which club exactly do you train Roy that the fighters spar with the beginners?

Fighters avoid sparring beginners like the plague as thats exactly how you pick up injuries.
I know it sounds selfish but its of absolutely no benefit to the experienced fighter to put themselves at risk for the sake of a beginner who might do a few months and then you never see them again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy to hold pads for beginners, correct obvious errors etc but I'm not standing in front of a beginner while they learn how to knee without just kneeing you directly in the nuts by accident of launch into punches with their head leveled at your nose.

Just being honest.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Not selfish at all Pee.. Late 2009 I was training with a beginner, he put me on crutches and in a cast for eight weeks and out of competition for almost two years, I couldn't even train for 18 months.

I still train with beginners, and they laugh when sometimes they'd say "take it easy, I'm pretty new/nervous" and I reply "don't worry buddy I'm more nervous of you" :pac:

zalona

Hi, I have been going to public muay thai trainings at my uni for 2 months now, and today my shin hurts like **** so I just thought I would make sure this is safe:

We train in a larger group, and at around half time (after proper warm up and stretching) the group splits into two, there are the guys who have gear (gloves, etc.) and us, the beginners. While they are sparring we do clinch exercises, etc. but at the end there is usually like 15 minutes where actually we are told to spar as well, but without any punches/kicks to the head, and no elbows. So its all good we punch to the belly, but since we are allowed to kick and ofc we are told to block the kicks, there is a lot of shin-shin / shin-knee / shin-elbow (bad reflex block) contacts. And we dont have any protection on our shins, so they are usually rather bumpy after a training. It hurts as well, but that I dont mind so much. What I was wondering if this is actually bad for my shins or not? Is it just going to make it though, or can it cause periostitis or something? And I dont mean the chance that someone kicks me so hard that my bone breaks, that's OK I dont think its very likely.

I really like the sport, Im happy that finally I picked up a martial art and I dont really have money to go to private trainings with gear and all atm. Ofc I am planning to buy gear but in the meantime do you think this training is bad for my shins?

Thanks a lot

Peetrik

zalona wrote: »

we are told to block the kicks, there is a lot of shin-shin / shin-knee / shin-elbow (bad reflex block) contacts. And we dont have any protection on our shins

If I'm reading this right and its beginners sparring with no shin guards at all then its utter lunacy IMO.
If you are planning on staying at that club Zalona, I would buy a decent set of shin guards and insist on wearing them when sparring as they are cheaper than a trip to the doctor.

Colm.Mahon

Peetrik wrote: »

If I'm reading this right and its beginners sparring with no shin guards at all then its utter lunacy IMO.
If you are planning on staying at that club Zalona, I would buy a decent set of shin guards and insist on wearing them when sparring as they are cheaper than a trip to the doctor.

+1 on this

Khannie

Another +1.

zalona

Hmm, OK I thought it might be dangerous but the trainer is a very nice guy with like 10 years of experience and lots of awards, etc... He seems rather trustworthy, so I thought he would never have us do anything dangerous. Not sure what to think now

But anyways thanks for your replies guys, I appreciate your help! I will try to get some shin guards ASAP.

gimmick

Shin/Shin contact is dangerous and no way should any trainer have beginners training without shinpads.

May as well not wear gloves either FFS!

LD 50

zalona wrote: »

Hi, I have been going to public muay thai trainings at my uni for 2 months now, and today my shin hurts like **** so I just thought I would make sure this is safe:

We train in a larger group, and at around half time (after proper warm up and stretching) the group splits into two, there are the guys who have gear (gloves, etc.) and us, the beginners. While they are sparring we do clinch exercises, etc. but at the end there is usually like 15 minutes where actually we are told to spar as well, but without any punches/kicks to the head, and no elbows. So its all good we punch to the belly, but since we are allowed to kick and ofc we are told to block the kicks, there is a lot of shin-shin / shin-knee / shin-elbow (bad reflex block) contacts. And we dont have any protection on our shins, so they are usually rather bumpy after a training. It hurts as well, but that I dont mind so much. What I was wondering if this is actually bad for my shins or not? Is it just going to make it though, or can it cause periostitis or something? And I dont mean the chance that someone kicks me so hard that my bone breaks, that's OK I dont think its very likely.

I really like the sport, Im happy that finally I picked up a martial art and I dont really have money to go to private trainings with gear and all atm. Ofc I am planning to buy gear but in the meantime do you think this training is bad for my shins?

Thanks a lot

During the sparring, how much power are you putting into your kicks? Or how hard are the kicks that you're having to block? Full power, or soft?

zalona

LD 50 wrote: »

During the sparring, how much power are you putting into your kicks? Or how hard are the kicks that you're having to block? Full power, or soft?

Well definitely not full power. But since most people are twice my size some kicks I'm getting are still pretty hard. I try to keep my kicks hard as well but make sure I never kick with full power.

LD 50

That could be dangerous. At the least its painful. Are there any other newbies you could spar against, that you could make an agreement with pull your kicks?

Peetrik

In fairness, one of the things that makes a beginner a beginner is that they haven't yet learned how to control their strikes.

Invest in a decent set of leather shin guards Zalona and you'll have way more fun sparring without having to worry about clashes, sparring is brilliant craic once you're kitted out properly with a groin guard, gumshield and shinnies/gloves

LD 50

Peetrik wrote: »

In fairness, one of the things that makes a beginner a beginner is that they haven't yet learned how to control their strikes.

Invest in a decent set of leather shin guards Zalona and you'll have way more fun sparring without having to worry about clashes, sparring is brilliant craic once you're kitted out properly with a groin guard, gumshield and shinnies/gloves

You're right. And I though of that after I posted

zalona

Just ordered gloves, shin guards, suspensor and a mouth guard.

Thanks again for the help guys!