What Are the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Muay Thai?

Muay Thai is considered by many as the best martial art in the world because of the techniques you can learn in this martial art. You can practice punches, knees, sweeps, and many other things enough to make this technique worth learning. After learning Muay Thai, you will be able to depend on yourself against street fighting and other dangerous encounters. It should be mandatory for everyone to learn and train this martial art because of the self-defense skill it gives you. If you are the one who is just starting Muay Thai or planning to start Muay Thai in the future, then you definitely have some questions regarding this beautiful and effective martial art. This article is focused on the most frequently asked questions about Muay Thai. 

Following are the Muay Thai frequently asked questions;

• The first question people often have is where they should begin in Muay Thai. What should they train first?
• People need to understand what the muay Thai is. To understand Muay Thai, you can use the internet. You can use all sorts of research materials and social media accounts and try to find the information that way. You need to find out if that is going to be a good fit for you or not. The first place that most people try to look is they look locally, meaning within a one-mile radius, that's the first thing that you should do. Learn the basics. That is the first thing you should do. 

• The second question people often have in their mind is how can they know if the gym is good or bad ? What are some immediate red flags that you can see?
• Instead of focusing on the bad aspects, try to focus on the good aspects of the gym. If you have never been to a gym before, you have never been to one of these places, and you're trying to figure out how it looks? Is this the right fit for me? The first impressions are usually through the websites and then through their social media accounts. This will give you a quick snapshot. A window into what's going on at that particular school. That should be your first look.

If you are looking for muay thai, which you have never done before, it's not going to matter. The type of coach, the number of fighters, if you can get a window, a snapshot into how the gym looks, these types of information you need to pick the best gym for you. They are in the top five or that type of gym that is in the top ten, they have got these fires that are on this circuit and that bubble, that is not going to matter to you if you are doing this the first time. All you care about is the four basic things that you're looking for in a gym. Look for the following things in the gym;

• Look for an atmosphere . That is the first thing. You should have a comfortable atmosphere where you don't feel anxious or have a high sense of anxiety.

• The second thing is having a good sense of control and the respect that's shown to each of the students. Having a good sense of control means that you know the amount of technique that is being shown and that's going through in the class. You should be able to ascertain whether or not there is that level of control. The partners that are working with each other are working with each other. They are not working against each other. They're not trying to knock each other out. That kind of thing that goes hand in hand.

• The third thing you need to see is the respect . Partners are showing respect to each other. They are showing respect to the school and to the coaches and just being respectful and mindful of it that it is not just you that is training. There are a bunch of people around you who are also training as well.

• The fourth thing is improvement . Will you be able to improve? Does the school have a structured program that will give you the ability to improve?

The last one is the dedication of the instructors and of the school. How dedicated are they to the students? How dedicated are they to the school? Are the instructors trying to help you even though it's a group class? Are they trying to approach you or each person? Or are they off in a corner, and they are just kind of letting the class go as it goes? You have to pay attention to these little things.

• The next important question is whether you should join group classes or private classes. There is a difference between taking group classes and private lessons. Many people have different takes on how to approach this. If you like the group atmosphere and you like being around people, which most people do, you should definitely do a group class training session. Most gyms have a free trial class, and they offer that to anybody who's interested in giving it a try to see how that works.

• You should make sure that the free trial class is in the type of programming where all skill sets are allowed to work with one another. Obviously, you wouldn't want a new person to do a free trial class in a sparring scenario if you don't have the basic foundation skill set.

• Another thing is if you have the means and you feel more inclined , you also have a different timetable than most people because most classes are in the evening, somewhere in the morning, somewhere in the afternoon, and then if your timetables don't work there, then maybe private would actually work better for you.

No one is ever too old to start Muay Thai . The real question is, are you able to perform regular exercises within that structured programming? That is the real question. If you are not sure what you should do, you should always consult with your doctor first to make sure that you are able to perform regular exercises that won't hurt you. There are people as old as 65 years old who have been training in Muay Thai, and they are doing absolutely fine. Age is not a restriction to your Muay Thai training. Your health can be restricted. That is why you should consult your doctor.

On the other side of the spectrum, a lot of parents want their children to get into Muay Thai. What do you think is a good age for a youngster to get started? This also is a very good question. Most Muay Thai gyms start their children's program at five. From there, it goes up anything. They are not going to retain some of the basic knowledge that you would be showing them. Five years old is about the age when the kids should start training in Muay Thai.

Another Muay Thai frequently asked question is, what if someone is completely out of shape and hasn't worked out for the longest time? If you have been out of shape and you have been very sedentary, you have to understand that training in muay thai is highly intense cardio. There is a lot of cardio that is involved in it. Always consult with your physician first and make sure that you are able to do these exercise movements. When you feel that you are ready to join a gym, then start Muay Thai. Do as much as you can. As best as you can and stop whenever you need to. 

Muay Thai is a pretty aggressive, full-contact sport. People often ask if they are going to get hurt. Actually, a lot of people who are interested have inquiries, and they want to know if they are going to get hurt. Someone is going to punch them in the face or something like that. When you are starting out, you really shouldn't be doing any of the full contact, the advanced training. In the beginning, you should always start in a structured program. You should learn your foundations, stance, guard, basic punches, and basic defenses. That is all you need to focus on.

• A lot of people are self-conscious about this part and about being uncoordinated. Everybody is going to be a little bit uncoordinated, especially when you are trying something new. But that shouldn't stop you. You shouldn't feel embarrassed in the sense that you are going to make a fool out of yourself. When you are in that environment, and you are working out and, maybe, you are a little bit uncoordinated, your partner or whoever you are working with or even your coach or whoever the instructor is should be there to help you understand. Move this foot this way, keep your hands up here, do this, don't do that.

• They should be there to help and support you. They should guide you, especially in your first class, so that when you are there, you should never feel embarrassed. If your partner or other co-trainers are doing this to you, then it is the biggest red flag for the gym, you should not train there. Try to change your gym to have a supportive and collaborative environment.

• If you have done training for a different martial art, a different platform, or a different discipline, that's excellent because you understand, especially if you were there for some years or six months to a year. You know how time works. As far as investing time to get that knowledge to understand how to refine certain techniques, you also understand discipline. You know that you need to be there. You know that you need to be in training. You need to be focused. The other thing also is that sometimes some of the stances and some of the strikes do translate into the other platforms. A karate stance is not the same stance as a stance in Muay Thai. Boxing stance is not the same as in Muay Thai. Even though many different pieces or components of all that are relatable to Muay Thai, it is just understanding how to refine the techniques that you have already learned and to make it work.

• It is also bad in the other sense. It could be bad in the sense that you might be stuck in your ways. So, like a boxer, you might be stuck in your boxing stance, meaning having a side stance. So, in Muay Thai, you can't have that side stance because your lead leg is exposed how are you going to defend it? So it can work both ways.

What do you mean when you say defend yourself? Out on the street against somebody that's trying to talk to you weirdly. It can help defend. It can help you in your line of defense but always the main course of action is to never escalate a scenario or situation. If anything happens, you should remove yourself from that situation. Especially if you are in a scenario where it is not safe. That is usually any of those scenarios whether you know Muay Thai or not, it should not help empower you to fight back because you don't know what type of person that is on the other hand who is yelling at you. So, you always should be on the defensive side. You should not have any part of it.