What do you guys think about Muay Thai? Is it a martial art or is it a sport?!! I go back and forth on the two...I mean I can cook so does that mean cooking is a martial art because I can use the knifes to defend myself?!! What is the definition of martial art?, What is the definition of a sport?

Simon

First of all as I have said before, the word Martial Arts is a totally misused word in America! 75% of the Styles and/or Systems out there are not Martial Arts!

Muay Thai is a sport derived from an art, however it is the best sport art because it will give you real fighting ability and self-defense do to the fact that the style uses punching, kicking, kneeing, elbowing and stand up grappling in the ring with full force, power and the least protective equipment.

Also real Muay Thai practioners train like mad men! They are some of the best conditioned fighters in the world, especially cardio and pain tolerance wise.

As to your comment about cooking and knife fighting. Think about it this way, The Ryu Kyu islands people invented Karate and used their farming tools as weapons! Did that mean they were doing Farming-Te, NO! It just meant they took what they did for a living and made use of those skills and tools when inventing a weapons fighting system.

Hope this has shed some light on the subject for you!

Muay Thai is an exciting sport to watch, but it had it's origins with the military training of the armed forces of ancient Siam.

According to legend, as the Mongols were conquering Asia, they attempted to extract a tribute from the Thai king without taking his country.

The story goes that when a high-ranking Mongol general met with the King of Thailand, he proposed a duel between the Mongol Shuai Jiaio (a no-holds-barred art emphasizing grappling) champion and the top Thai boxer.

If the boxer lost, the king would pay a yearly tribute to the Mongols. If the boxer won, the Mongols would agree not to seek a tribute of use military forces against Thailand.

When the duel took place, the king himself faced off against the Mongol wrestler. The king won, killing the wrestler with two Thai-round kicks to the head.

In my opinion, Thai boxing's success as a fighting art is due to its simplicity and the hard training of its fighters. There are relatively few techniques in the art, and no "kata" to speak of.

It just goes to prove that it isn't quantity of techniques, but quality.

One last thing about the use of Thai boxing in combat: I read an excerpt from a study about racial self-segregation among inmates in the Arizona State Prison System. The author of the study wrote about one prison, noting that the white inmates hung out together in their areas, the blacks had their territory, and the Hispanics had theirs. People rarely went into territory belonging to members of another race.

But there were only two Asians at this particular prison, and they had the run of the place. The author later found out that one of the Asians was a Thai immigrant and former professional Thai boxer. He did a number on several other prisoners in several fights, and no one wanted to mess with him.

I've taken Muay Thai before and I believe it's one of the strongest fighting arts. I believe one of the main reasons is because of their use of leg kicks (in sport they aim for the thigh, but street to the knee) and elbows and knees. Also they love conditioning the shin, I only trained for about 6 months in thai boxing but it really helped me condition my shin and I can kick almost anything without it hurting a bit. Compared to the sport karate, taekwondo, and the other modern martial arts/sports, thai boxing is the best.