Hi should I take Muay Thai or Krav Maga?

Question

Hi I want to go back & take fighting class. When I was a 8-10 yrs old, I use to take Karate. When I was 13-15, I use to take Cambodian kickboxing. Now I am 23 yrs old & I want to take self defense class & stick with it for 10 yrs. But, I am so interested Muay Thai & Krav Maga & I can't decide which is best for me.

Answer 1

Krav Maga I'd say :)***

Answer 2

I totally agree with Manda, i have been doing Martial Arts for 14 years and im only 23, and to be totally honest Krav Maga is amazing its also though kinda similar to bruce lee's arts, based on real life situations, but to be honest yes you will learn some amazing stuff, that if you used in a real life situation you would go to jail for, i got mugged like 2 years back and i finger jabbed the guy in the eye, and i was the one that got taken up to court and sued by him,

anyway back to the point lol

Mauy Thai is a sport, but its also one of the best striking arts on the plannet , its the science of 8 ways of attack, and would learn you to be a great all round fighter, where krav maga would teach you how to drop someone quick with a brutal illegal attack,

but if you came up against another person that knew what they were doing, you would find it VERY VERY difficult to get any of your techniques to work

your call sir !! !

Answer 3

Muay Thai focus is elbows and knees. It is an interesting art.

Krav Maga is a thriller and its focus is survial.

Knowing Krav Maga puts a hidden confindence in ya, that will allow you to walk around anytime, anywhere you want, and if you were a diligent student you will be safe.

You will have the ability to defend against a knife attack, a gun incident, or even just a phsyical altercation.

I'd choose Krav Maga

Answer 4

Nobody is saying you can't do both, but you probably do want to make one your focus.

As people have said, KM is the fighting system of the Israeli Defense Force.  It's based on real life situations.  You will learn how to fight off armed and unarmed attackers, as well as multiple attackers.  It's probably your better choice

Muay Thai, well you already have a base in Cambodian kick-boxing (Bokator am I right?) so it wouldn't be that hard for you to pick that up.

Manda -- I'm guessing you have some actual data to back up this McDojo charge?

ralph -- That's great, now the bad guy has your money and your life.  Oh wait, he already had them anyway.

Answer 5

As far as my knowledge goes these two martial arts are very simmilar. It depends what you want to learn it for. Back in the day Muay Thai was the fighting style used by the footguards to the war elephants, but these days its more of a sport, like boxing.

Krav Maga is an israli martial art and is taught to the special forces there. its origins are fairly recent and was designed around real-world situations, not a tradtional form or sport so if you wanted pure self defence i would tend to go with krav Maga ( although the both share some very similar moves )

Answer 6

Muay Thai definitely.

All 'good' MA is based on real life situation.

Krav Maga is a military MA, it means that it's not designed to be effective against another MA. KM was designed to be a short effective train for people whose main training regiment won't be in the MA itself.

Army don't spend months training MA, they spend most of their hours in shooting range and running course.

Moreover, lots of KM schools in US are McDojos. It's difficult to find a really good KM school.

Muay Thai has more solid training regiment for MA. Do look around for school that has real sparring as part of the training.

Do look for a judo or jujitsu schools too and spend at least 1-2 yrs of the training time to train in them, judo is especially good as in real life, one throw into a concrete floor could mean the end of a fight. It will also equip you at least in some submission and submission defense.

Good Luck

Answer 7

Cambodian kickboxing and Muay Thai are almost one and the same, so you should take Muay Thai.

Answer 8

To be honest it depends totally on the person doing it. Krav maga is situation based so beginners can pick it up quickly. That doesn't mean you can't spar or that you wont be successful fighting against other trained fighters when you become good at it. Muay Thai is great but lots of it is inapplicable, imo in real life situations. Again though if you work hard at it, it will still work against trained or untrained fighters. My advice go to a few classes of each and see which you prefer. You will be more likely to be successful doing something you enjoy.

Answer 9

no reason why you can not do both. Muay thai is a simply system,, with very few techniques. since you have done kickboxing before, you should be able to learn the whole system in 3 months. Once you have done that go and learn Krav Maga if you want. Once has lots of sparring and timing and power, the other has lots of street defence application. When you are in trouble on the street, the one that will get you out alive is the one you should train. The art is important but the master is the most important aspect of how good is the art.

Answer 10

Well if you want self defence then you want Krav Maga, Muay Thai focuses more on attack.

Answer 11

i would choose kav maga personally

Answer 12

I dont understand why anyone would want to train to take on an armed attacker with a knife or gun, surely the best policy would be to give them what they want and then run away.

Muay Thai on the other hand is a superb art which works on a realistic scale, it works well at closing range such as clinch and utilising elbows etc, you could even take an MMA class or BJJ to get some sub work done, in the main cardio is your best friend and should come hand in hand with any martial art training.