Muay Thai in Australia

Muay Thai or Thai Boxing is the national sport of Thailand. It has gained a popular following throughout the world and in Australia. There are now 135 national federations and nearly 400,000 registered fighters. Muaythai has been awarded provisional recognition as an Olympic sport. The space has been removed from the name and it shortened to Muaythai to satisfy the requirements of the sport not having a country in its name.

Muay Thai is is a stand-up style recognisable by the use of elbows, knees and clinches, as well as punches and kicks. Fighters commonly use their entire body and rotate through the hips with each kick. Fighters may wear a headband (Mongkhon) before the fight and armbands (Pra Jiad).

Training

Classes and training in Australia focus on modern day ring fighting techniques which incorporate boxing based punches and less of the traditional thai boxing punching. It is becoming increasingly more common for Gyms to offer other styles incorporated in MMA such as BJJ, and vice versa. Fitness and conditioning classes are also common and offer the general public the chance to get fit whilst learning basic technique.