Martial arts

Personally, I have trained in Lerdrit (Lerd-lit, for those who don't know Thai Engrish pronunciations); combining that with some sparring practice with SEALs, being trained in some of their lethal and crippling takedowns. The combination can be rather nasty because Muay Thai can slip into someone's defenses and block counterattacks while setting up for something that the poor victim will feel for every cold winter for the rest of their life, if they live. Muay Thai tends to be a bit slow but powerful, which can be used for an unpredictable change-up into a crippling strike and clinching moves that turn into grapples. Cut kicks are also pretty nasty. Which is probably why they like to teach Lerdrit to the SEALs and some ranger units.

As a result of sparring, though, I have some seriously scarred up shins. :D
 
Nothing beats a Muay thai practicioner's kicks, however. That's REALLY where it's at. A good 'ol roundhouse will put anyone down, if not for good, at least for a long long while.
 
The Overseer said:
Nothing beats a Muay thai practicioner's kicks, however. That's REALLY where it's at. A good 'ol roundhouse will put anyone down, if not for good, at least for a long long while.
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That is what is known as a cut kick, where you aim to put your shin to the inside of someone's leg, usually in a low sweep or alongside the knee. The full body movement in the kick and precise timing of locking one's leg can result in taking practice bags clean off their chains with a cut or roundhouse kick. When a cut kick hits a person's leg right, it can jar a hip completely out of socket, and then there's no way they are continuing in the fight unless they have a weapon.

It also helps when you have a 38-40 inch inseam at 6'4", though even smaller Thai fighters can move and kick damn effectively without using snap kicks like in karate, and heavy boots only helps many of Lerdrit's kicks. Many Thai and US soldiers trained in this will reinforce the front shin areas of their boots, using the weight of the boot to take people out with their guarded shin. It also makes some of the knee moves, like the Khao Tone, particularly deadly as if a knee to a chin when your arms are clinched and pulled down wasn't bad already.
 
Yeah, but the common name is roundhouse. This is also the name known amongst other martial artists. In fact, many martial arts have adopted the roundhouse. It is VERY powerful. During sparring even. It doesn't take much power to hurt. A lot.
 
The Overseer said:
Yeah, but the common name is roundhouse. This is also the name known amongst other martial artists. In fact, many martial arts have adopted the roundhouse. It is VERY powerful. During sparring even. It doesn't take much power to hurt. A lot.
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I know what it is, I'm just saying the one Muay Thai is known for is the one with the cut kick (Teh Tad), the kick that downed Don "The Dragon" Wilson like a little girl sapling by a Thai Lerdrit fighter. You can't legally fight, or fight at all, if you don't have your legs to stand on. :D

The general roundhouse kick (very specific, called Faad) in Muay Thai is generally used to batter an exhaused opponent or catch them off guard for a follow-up of a Khao weapon with the opposite knee. It isn't really meant to be a particularly devastating attack, the Khao or Sok (elbow weapon) are, to put it bluntly, very deadly in the right hands (Kratuk, Tong, Klab, Chieng). In fact, anything dealing with the elbow is designed to take someone out, usually with a hit to their throat, nose, or sternum, (all of which would still be potentially fatal) especially when they have an arm already clinched to brace that attack with.

Back to roundhouse kicks, extremely agile fighters can go from a roundhouse contact straight into a Khao Dod to jump and put a knee into the face, or right after hitting one side with a roundhouse, follow up with a Khao Le to bury their knee into the opponent's opposite side of the ribcage as it is brought wide open.

It is, indeed, quite a savage sport and discipline, to the point that many moves are outright illegal - often meaning Muay Thai matches that disallow knee and elbow use, which favors more Western teaching styles.
 
Knees, with the exception of knees to the head, are still allowed in the Western world. In Thailand, bothe knees to the head and elbows are allowed, with cool KOs following such an attack.

Few striking martial arts have a fighting chance against Muay Thai, which is why I like it. I'd like to try out Muay Boran, but good luck finding it.
 
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