The Nigerian Mvies

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Wednesday 4 June 2014

The Tradition Of Thai Fights

By Wanda Rosner


The sport of Thai fights is practiced mainly in Thailand and requires great stand up striking at the same time applying various grappling methods. There is a professional league in Thailand run by the World Thai Council for this sport. It is a traditional combat fighting technique that is widely known for the use of all limbs; knees, fists, elbows, and feet.

Before being a sport, the combat was originally used as a fighting technique in real warfare, before being incorporated into a sport in which the opponents engaged each other in front of a crowd of spectators who gathered for entertainment. Eventually, these muay fights grew into an important part of the traditional celebrations, even at times being organized in temples. With time, a type of match called the muay khat chueak was introduced, in which the fighters were given hemp rope to tie around their hands and forearms for protection.

Muay grew widely in the 19th century with the advance of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), during which the country became at peace, such that the technique was only used for leisure, self-defense, recreation, physical exercise and personal advancement. A boxing ring was introduced; the first one in Thailand, in 1921, and referees were brought in. Modern gloves and hard groin protectors were introduced in the sport and given to the fighters.

The strikes became a lot more damaging to the opponent with the introduction of knots in the rope on the knuckles. This was stopped after a death occurred in the ring, so gloves and cotton coverlets were later preferred. The term muay Thai became widespread while the previous version was known as muay boran.

The latter is now practiced mainly as a presentation art form. There are two groups of muay Thai fighting combats: major techniques (mae mai ) and luk mai ( minor techniques). In any case, most of the techniques involve the movement of the whole body, circling the hip when taking every kick, punch, elbow or block.

Various techniques are used for protection against attack. There is blocking in which the defender resists a strike when fighting such that he stops it before reaching him. There is also redirection where the defender wards off the direction of a strike, thereby making it to miss him. In avoidance, the defender moves his body part away from the attacker to avoid getting hit, but in a short range so that he finds space to counter hit the attacker back.

The use of the evasion technique can also be used, whereby the defender moves the whole body away from an attack, but then moves it back to counter. Disruption technique, used by bridging an attack, could be used with anticipation technique. This involves countering an attack such as a roundhouse kick before it lands.

Traditionally, Muay Thai is specifically made to increase body fitness and toughness that is required in the ring when competing. The training exercises include running, body weight resistance exercises, jumping, medicine ball exercises, shadowboxing, abdominal exercises and weight training. These all rounded practices help the individual fighter a lot.




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