Thai Boxing Association of the USA
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Introduction to Thai boxing
Thai Boxing is the national sport of Thailand. It has proven itself to be a pugilistic sport with few equals in its power and effectiveness. Contests can include exchanges of punches, kicks, knees elbows, and head butts. Clever footwork and strong cover skills help protect the boxers when defending. Also, fighting in the clinch is stressed for close range fighting. Practitioners of this art develop strong physical skills and determination. Ajarn Surachai “Chai” Sirisute is the founder of the American Thai Boxing Assoc. and is responsible for first bringing Thai boxing to the US He provides training and certification for the instructors at the Minneapolis Kali Group, as well as providing several seminars there each year.
The reasons for training in a Thai Boxing regimen are many. The techniques begin with a complete but succinct number of basic techniques and foot work. For simplicity, most foot work is done from a left lead and deals with combat situations bilaterally from the left lead. (note: some training adopted recently, switches leads for a balanced exercise, but it is a departure from common and practical Muay Thai method) The basic techniques are chained together to perform static and active combinations. Static combinations are for strictly technical practice and conditioning. Active combinations, which are typically done in rounds, are combinations that respond to specific stimuli or attacks. These varying combinations provide a steady and rapid growth in physical conditioning and technically proper reactions. The trainee is working at almost full contact, having to maintain a proper defensive structure while utilizing their offensive techniques. And then of course you have different levels of sparring to round out a fighters experience.