Muay Thai vs Taekwondo #2

[Kenpo_man]

I wanted to make this a separate thread because I want to hear specific answers. Taekwondo being regarded as a less than effective art is obviously an area of contention. I personally believe that every art has something to teach but I also believe that some arts are superior in their overall approach to fighting, their techniques, and most of all their method of training. The following question is designed only to see which art people percieve as better. I hope nobody is offended by the answers given.


If you wanted to become a good fighter and were going to step into the ring to prove yourself, which art would you train in, Muay Thai or Taekwondo?

Please stick to simply naming the art you would choose. If you absolutely must add something, keep it short and sweet.

 

[arnisador]

I personally believe that every art has something to teach but I also believe that some arts are superior in their overall approach to fighting, their techniques, and most of all their method of training.

I agree. The person and how he or she trains makes the biggest difference, but some arts are better for certain people or for certain circumstances. If I had to prepare for a samurai sword battle, I'd pick kenjutsu and iaijutsu over boxing and wrestling. In addition, there's a paper-scissors-rock quality to the startegies employed by different arts, where Art A might beat Art B more often than not, and Art B might beat Art C more often than not, but then Art C might beat Art A more often than not. Even if I thought a striking art was best, if I knew I had to fight another striker, I might look to grappling for a strategic advantage.

If you wanted to become a good fighter and were going to step into the ring to prove yourself, which art would you train in, Muay Thai or Taekwondo?

Muay Thai. But in saying "the ring" you've already biased the question. Muay Thai fighters train for that. You might get very different answers if the question were instead, If you had to face a knifer empty-handed, which art would you train in: Muay Thai or TKD? If you were going to try for an Olympic point-sparraing slow, in which art would you train?

 

[FearlessFreep]

Well for me obviously Taekwondo because I'm already pretty familiar with it : )

That being said, what little I know of Muy Thai is that it doesn't have anything that is not present in Taekwondo, or at least I'm thinking moslty in terms of elbows and knees. It's not shown much in sparring, but it is born out in forms, and if you pracice the moves present in the forms as if you are going to fight with those individual techniques, then there is a *lot* in there within the art that doesn't get noticed much. Good eample is in my form for my last belt, it had an elbow strike to the face and then later grabbing the back of the head and slamming it into the elbow. The form for my next belt includes grabbing the back of the head and slamming the face into a knee. Those are part of the art. Now find someone who takes the whole art seriously as a way of combat who is going to take those moves and drill them to be effective, there's is a *lot* in there

The perception problems seems to be that in this country at least that what most people see of TKD is *only* the olympic sparring, or worse yet the point sparring, and forms done as abstract artistry with little connection to the combat moves they represent.

In what little I have seen there is a big difference in TKD schools in how they approaching teaching the art or a subset of he art. My last instructor was big on using body mechanics to generate power and using power to make life difficult on your sparring opponent, not just a tap to score the point but an authoritative whack to make our opponent not want to engage you.

No disrespect to Muy Thai, but if you took too people who trained in there respective arts for a ring fight, I would choose Taekwondo myself, but I'm biased in having a lot of respect for what it can do

 

[barriecusvein]

Muay Thai

 

[IcemanSK]

If it has not been brought up yet....Who's rules are we fighting in this TKD vs. Muay Thai bout? If it TKD, the Thai fighter has little advantage. The reverse would also be true.

The "average" fighter from X vs. the "average fighter from Y. Its a silly arguement.

 

[FearlessFreep]

I guess that's why it was phrased as 'which would *you* choose to train in if you were going into the ring', by which I took to mean you would have chance to know the rules ahead of time and train for them in advance, given some ruleset that would be at least sensible to both arts

 

[Kenpo_man]

. . .there's a paper-scissors-rock quality to the startegies employed by different arts, where Art A might beat Art B more often than not, and Art B might beat Art C more often than not, but then Art C might beat Art A more often than not.

This is an interesting concept. It makes me wonder what different arts would look like up against eachother.

To clear up any confusion, lets leave the ring out of it. What art would you use to prepare yourself for any violent confrontation; street or otherwise?

 

[Kenpo_man]

The "average" fighter from X vs. the "average fighter from Y. Its a silly arguement.

I don't think so. If an art is superior or inferior, wouldn't you want to know?

 

[Marginal]

To clear up any confusion, lets leave the ring out of it. What art would you use to prepare yourself for any violent confrontation; street or otherwise?

Avoiding-bars-and-bad-areas-Do.

 

[Marginal]

I don't think so. If an art is superior or inferior, wouldn't you want to know?

The problem is that the training can differ from one school to the next in any broadly dispersed art. Comparing one to the next is also highly subjective since the art you happen to be involved with tends to have the greatest luster.

As far as the continum goes, it's pretty straightforward. Live training and active conditioning etc, the stuff that goes into MT, Boxing etc is largely what contrubutes to the sport's effectiveness. The further you diverge from heavy conditioning, heavy contact, minimal target restrictions etc, the less effective the art can become if the students don't take the time to actively train in the areas that the sport or if you prefer, art begins to neglect.

In TKD's case, the art does contain plenty of hand techniques, elbows, knees etc. (I haven't met anyone who would willingly offer their ribs vs a Korean style side kick.) The techniques offered in any art only count if they're actively trained however. Someone that knows how to throw a punch vs someone who throws a few thousand a week, is going to have comparatively weak hands. Someone who has incentive to use their hands in sparring's more likely to bring them to bear effectively than someone who's been given little to no reason to use them.

You get out what you put in. So if you really want to tier things into neat little groupings, full contact sports/arts will always come out on top. TMA's tend to be roughly equal. I'm not going to fret over another TKD guy any more than I would someone who does some ninja art, kenpo, tai chi, etc. At the core, most arts have the same principles of power generation etc, so why bounce around or waste a ton of time trying to prove or disprove an art's effectiveness. All one can really do is work on their own shortfalls etc.

 

[Maltair]

To clear up any confusion, lets leave the ring out of it. What art would you use to prepare yourself for any violent confrontation; street or otherwise?

Muay Thai

 

[Maltair]

No wait, Taekwondo

 

[SAVAGE]

Muay Thai

 

[Zepp]

As someone who's trained mostly in Tae Kwon Do, but had some exposure to Muay Thai, here's my take:

A Tae Kwon Do instructor will generally teach you a wider variety of techniques than a Muay Thai instructor. A Muay Thai instructor will have you focus on fewer techniques, but will also help you improve your physical conditioning. Neither art really works on making the things you learn directly applicable in self-defense, unless the instructor makes a special point of it.

 

[Kenpo_man]

A lot more TKD answers than I expected! The conditioning factor seems to be the main difference.

 

[arnisador]

A lot more TKD answers than I expected! The conditioning factor seems to be the main difference.

Yup. I'd have to go with Muay Thai between the two, because of how it's trained. But for those who train their TKD similarly, they have more options vs. weapons and multiple opponents, for example, which is a definite advantage.

But you can practice TKD for 20 years at many places and never take (or give) a real hit. That leads to a big surprise when something happens on the street, where an aggressive person is trying to hit you hard.

 

[CMS]

If you wanted to become a good ball player and were going to step onto the field to prove yourself, which sport would you train in, baseball or football?

 

[SAVAGE]

But you can practice TKD for 20 years at many places and never take (or give) a real hit. That leads to a big surprise when something happens on the street, where an aggressive person is trying to hit you hard.

I think this is true of most modern training in MA!

 

[FearlessFreep]

If you wanted to become a good ball player and were going to step onto the field to prove yourself, which sport would you train in, baseball or football?

I think a better analogy would be "If you wanted to be a good pitcher would you train to be a fastball pitcher or a breaking ball pitcher" Not a great analogy either, but a bit closer to the mark

 

[tradrockrat]

Why can't I use both? I mean I trained in both, so why not?