Muay Thai VS Karate

Muay Thai vs Karate – Which one is effective? For many centuries, there have been different ways of fighting. Though there are many inventions that have been done over the course of time, one thing remained unchanged that is hand-to-hand combat. When it comes to combat fighting, karate, boxing, and their types are yet very famous and popular in the martial arts world.

Historically, present-day karate comprises a ton of various martial arts techniques, and a majority of them are from the land of Okinawa. While karate comes from different martial arts styles, Muay Thai comes from an ancient Thai boxing style. It is also considered a “kickboxing style”, though it was based on self-defence now, it has become a category in sports. Due to its popularity in sports, Muay Thai is generally called “Kickboxing.”

In today’s world, combating styles like Muay Thai and karate are considered two of the best defensive techniques. They are inevitable if one wants to learn self-defence and increase the body’s reflexes than an ordinary person. However, both fighting styles are the toughest in stand-up fighting. The philosophies of both fighting styles are differently structured.

Both styles are centred upon different methods of training, such as technical sparring is a primary ingredient of Muay Thai. On the other hand, karate involves less sparring and more incapacitating techniques that are quite useful in hand-to-hand combat.

 

Let’s dive deep in comparing the major principles and techniques used in Muay Thai and Karate.

Muay Thai

Muay Thai, primarily, is a striking style that is regarded as a sport and art of self-defence. The basic technique in Muay Thai is focusing the use of elbows, knees, hands and limbs-shins as weapons. Muay Thai strikers are highly skilled at elbow strikes. For effective and efficient punching, pad-punching and heavy bag workouts are done. Technical sparring is trained as well, as being the most essential in Thai boxing. Later on, this technical sparring is upgraded to a “full-contact sparring”, which helps a striker effectively to stay on the top till the end of a fight.

One can easily notice the main feature while observing the difference between Muay Thai and Karate is that Thai combatants keep their hands higher than the karate strikers. Muay fighters target the opponent’s legs by delivering roundhouse kicks through their shin. As it is the lethal form of sport so only recommended clinches and sweeps are practised inside the ring. Also, there is an adaptation of the western style in Muay Thai in which techniques like bone stacking and elastic pull-through is trained to cause maximum damage.

Below is the list of the most successive Muay Thai fighters:

• Samart Payakaroon
• Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn
• Saenchai
• Tongchai Tor Silachai
• Somrak Kamsing

Karate

Although much damaging but the effectiveness of Karate is different from Muay Thai. To understand karate, let’s consider an example of the umbrella effect of karate. Karate is a large blanket that covers almost every type of stand-up fighting style.

Karate is originally Japanese martial art. Having a wider band than Muay Thai, it has essential and effective techniques. Karate is the mother of all stand-up fighting. “Throwing” and “Quick Submissions” to the opponents are trained to karate fighters. Hard-hitting, wrist grabs, and joint locks are the elementary components of karate. Karate provides one a complete package of hand combat, including straight punches, reverse punches, and a variety of kicks. As famous in the world, karate has many types that are:

• American Kenpo (A Modern Hybrid Style)
• Kyokushin (A Full-Contact Style)
• Shotokan (A Traditional Style)
• Seidokaikan (Kick-to-Head Style)
• Goju-Ryu (A Kung-Fu Influenced Style)