martial arts, page-6

Why are some martial art syles not as effective as others?

In a nutshell it's because I beleive most are not "hands on" enough.

In Muay Thai you spar every other training session. It's like if you want to learn to swim, you can simulate swimming but no training will be as effective as actually swimming and getting in that water.

I did Thai Kwon Do for a little while and got bored of it very quickly. Some of those kicks were designed to kick someone off a horse for heaveans sake. A lot of TKD clubs only really spar when it comes to grading.

Sure I've had my fair share of injuries from Muay Thai training but not as many as you would expect. While sparring is certainly full contact, sparring does not mean trying to kill your oponent, it's about feeling comfortable punching and kicking someone in the head and obviously receiving same. Accidents certainly happen but this is the same with any sport.

When I did Muay Thai I was trained to spar aginst 3 or more opponents at the same time. After you've done this it makes one opponent seem very easy and even easier when it's someone on the street who has not done any form of hard sparring.

Conditioning is also a big factor. Being used to being punched and kicked is a big thing in a street fight with regard to being able to think straight.