You cannot learn Muay Thai yourself. The best is that you learn from a licensed teacher that that experience in fighting and defending yourself. Muay Thai requires lots of combination which one can't teach himself.

Many people believe Samart Payakaroon to be the best Muay Thai fighter of all time

muay thai origin is unclear but it is believed that the art of Krabi krabong had a strong influence on it and it was developed in the early 16th century.

Kickboxing has its roots in the Thai Martial Art of Muay Thai Boxing

Muay thai gloves palm is more open, which helps in grabbing the opponents neck in the clinch and catching kicks.

Better for what? Both are martial arts. Both of them require a lot of practice to build up the skills and abilities to do properly. Most people will agree that Muay Thai practitioners are more effective in their ability to destroy an opponent.

Muay thai is also known as Thai boxing. It is conducted in a ring similar to boxing matches. It is not the same as kickboxing. There are few restrictions on strikes, elbows, knees, kicks and punches are all allowed, as are some throws. Muay Thai boxers are in very good shape and able to withstand a great deal of abuse in the ring. The martial art traces its history back hundreds of years. A style of kickboxing...

Muay thai is a sport but no an olympic one

I have read on what few books there are on Muay Thai, and wikipedia (useful article by the way), that Muay Thai in fact originated in India. Now, it is true that Bodhidarma, also known as Daruma, invented Shaolin Kung Fu, even though the man was Indian, he invented Shaolin Kung Fu in Chinese soil. Moreover, the martial arts Daruma knew, where those of a southern, Tamil Indian prince, which involved mostly wrestling, swordplay, and staff work. Originally, Daruma taught the monks of Shaolin weapons routines, and indeed the weapons routines you see in the Shaolin temple, and modern Indian martial arts look almost identical. However, the unarmed combat styles look totally different. The reason that is because Daruma invented the unarmed styles from scratch; no influence from the unarmed Indian styles there.

Muay Thai's story is completely different; the martial art was transfered directly to them, by Indian traders from NORTHERN India. See, where in China, an Indian monk invented a new martial art from scratch, in the south east Asian kingdoms, the art was transmited to them directly. Official history dates Muay Thai back to the early 1800's, but tradition holds it to be much older, it also holds that it in fact comes from northern India, leading to speculation, that the Shatriya caste of India practiced an unarmed combat style similar to Muay Thai. Word is they still practice it; which is why Sikhs are often sought out as bodyguards, as Sikhs are members of the Shatriya caste, or were before they changed their religion.

I hold the Sikhs in high respect; even though their founding members had power, wealth, etc, they looked at the corrupt version of Hinduism they practiced, its inhumanity and said to themselves "there is something horribly wrong with this" so they changed their ways. That is like a bunch of rich white guys here in the U.S., from Los Angeles, deciding to pay child support for all the physically attractive Mexican maids they impregnated, not just child support, all the way to college, and then abandoning their racist thinking. In California, plenty of men throughout the upper classes have affairs with Mexican women; a lot of the women who cross the border are stunning, far more attractive than even Hollywood actresses or the gold diggers that infest Hollywood. Okay bad analogy; the point I'm trying to make is that the Shatriya had it made okay? There was no reason for them to change their way of thinking, however one of them did, founding the Sikh religion. Call it guilt, a crisis of conscience whatever you wish to call it; the point I am trying to make is that their position in the caste system, in the largely north Indian social ladder, made it so they had absolutely everything. Again when a man has everything, there is very little reason for them to change but see, the founding members of the Sikh religion, the early Sikhs who broke off from mainstream Shatriya society, had a conscience.

As to how, exactly, Muay Thai made its way to Thailand, and who exactly taught them the martial art, is not known now what is known for sure, is that Muay Thai was taught to the ancient Kingdom of Siam (then called Siam) by "Indian warriors." The only "warriors" in Indian society, geographically speaking, that had ready contact with southeast Asia were the Shatriya, so it stands to reason that Muay Thai in fact descends, from unarmed Shatriya martial arts. If you wish to learn the original "Muay Thai," you will have to travel to India, but, the Sikhs do not teach that martial art outside their religion, and the Shatriya, do not teach it to non-Shatriya. Also, good luck marrying into that caste; the Shatriya of India are fiercely proud, they do not marry from the lower castes, men or women, nor will they marry with any other peoples, they don't care if you are Chinese, European, black, hispanic from Latin America whatever they don't care, if you are not Indian, and not Shatriya, they won't accept you marrying one of their daughters if you're a guy, their sons if you're a girl. Good luck trying to convince them to think otherwise too; members of the Shatriya caste are known throughout India for being bull headed and stuborn.

Highly likely, the Shatriya who taught their unarmed combat style to the people of the Kingdoms of South East Asia, were Buddhist; do not forget that Buddhism originated in India. In this day and age, China, because it is more widely practiced there, has become the defacto authority on Buddhism, but in ancient times, it was India. When they practiced Buddhism, likely they relaxed the rules a little regarding what knowledge could be exchanged, and that is how, highly probable, not making this as a statement of fact, "Muay Thai" found its way to India. The first "Muay Thai" fighter, therefore, is likely whatever member of the Shatriya caste of India came up with the martial art. If you ever get in a fight with a Sikh, what he will likely use on you, is something similar to Muay Thai.

The outcome of a fight is determined by 5 factors, in order of importance;

1) Motivation

2) biological age, determined by whether or not a person is well nourished, and does things such as yoga or tai chi and keeps as much of the strength of their youth as possible.

3) conditioning

4) timing

5) finally coordination/dexterity; the aim of Chinese Kung Fu for example, is to acquire monstrous levels of physical dexterity, that way the previous four can be negated despite a given Kung Fu practitioner's age. In the world of Kung Fu, very old men can defend themselves not because Kung Fu magically keeps them strong like 20 year olds, but because they have attained such levels of dexterity and timing, that they can compensate for the weakness of their body even if physically assaulted. Of course, a good Kung Fu practitioner does what they can to not allow their body to weaken, even in old age. Most Shaolin monks for example, remain very strong throughout their lives.

In the end though it boils down to those 5 factors, if one of the persons fighting is lacking in any of them, most crucially the first, then they are going to lose. How important is motivation? Look at Rocky Marciano's boxing reccord; THAT is how important motivation is. Even judging by the standards of the opponents he fought, Marciano fought a lot of guys who were faster and stronger than him. Muscle density can compensate for differences in physical size and weight where strength is concerned but, come on now, while a wrench has greater density than, oh, a large tractor tire, while the tractor tire is made of rubber that is not as dense as metal, it is STILL way more overall mass. Follow me?

When two guys are the same weight, build, and body fat percentage, what determines strength differences between two guys who are otherwise the same, is whether or not the other guy has a denser muscle structure and better integrated muscles. When muscles work as a unit, that is, the person is coordinated, the body can generate more explosive power, you pair this with motivation and that may give them an edge. Some of the reasons Marciano was able t compensate for his size, were genetic. According to an older Rocky Marciano documentary that has an interview with his mother Pasqualina, Marciano senior, while not a particularly strongly built man, Pasqualina said he was very very strong. Incidentally Marciano's father was only 5'7 weighing at 150 lbs. Marciano inherited his disproportionate strength from his father; Marciano was very much his father's son, only bigger, because he got better nutrition growing up here in America.

Assuming a fictional scenario where you have an ultra high tech computer simulation, where you have 10 guys who are identical in every way, and the hyper advanced computer is programmed to tell each of those algorithms to fight to the death, if you look at technique effectiveness based on how it works with the laws of physics, the top 10 styles most likely to keep someone alive in a fight to the death are;

1) The Sun style of Tai Chi Chuan, believe it or not. Like I said, Kung Fu's goal is monstrous dexterity, above all else, if after doing Kung Fu you can juggle knives, good job. With that kind of dexterity it won't matter if your assailant is grappler, striker or MMA. Think about it; sometimes it boils down to who is more coordinated and agile. Tai Chi Chuan develops dexterity like no other martial art does, and the more a Tai Chi style emphasizes chi, the greater the levels of coordination that can be acquired, and no style is more powerful, than the Sun style it is a style that makes the chi flow so potently, it is not a style I would personally recommend for amateurs. I practice the Yang Long form myself, been doing so for roughly 4 years to varying degrees of intensity, and even I don't feel ready for the Sun style. Perhaps when I'm 50, and gain genuine expertise.

2) Baijiquan; absolutely no "compassion" moves, all the techniques in Baijiquan are designed to maim or kill. It is the only martial arts style I am aware of, designed solely for killing.

3) Shaolin Kung Fu

4) San Shou Kuia Jiao; this Chinese wrestling style pretty much has the entire library of grappling moves from all other grappling styles. It has more throws than Judo, more ground techniques than BJJ, more leverage based trips than most Tai Chi styles even, in fact, the book sold on Amazon.com, having done further research on it I discovered that barely scratches not even half the basics. Kuia Jiao is a Chinese wrestling style to end all grappling styles let me put it that way. If you are serious about grappling, this is the style to study.

5) Shotokan Karate, if practiced exactly the way Funakoshi Sensei prescribed. Sparring is important, but you have to build up dexterity and coordination first so you don't get injured. If you spar too soon, that is if you make students spar before they're ready, techniques come out sloppy. At least, that is what Funakoshi said.

6) Judo

7) Boxing

8) Muay Thai

9) Krav Maga and finally

10) Russian Sambo/Pankration. Many of the Slavic peoples who would go on to found Russia at first spent their days within the borders of the Byzantine empire, that reason Russian writting looks so different from other forms of European writting, is because the Russian alphabet is based on the Greek one. Compare Russian with Greek writting; you will see similarities. Among other things inherited from the Greeks, was the harsh Russian school system, the Russian University system which employs the Socratic method for any humanities courses basically, the reason many Russians are so intelligent, is because they follow an educational system originally founded by Socrates, later perfected by the Romans, then further perfected by the Byzantines, and perfected and improved upon still, by the Russians. Russian education developed separately from other western traditions, the end result has been that Russia has historically produced better scientists, not just Russia but other countries from that whole Slavic cultural sphere, Nikola Tesla being among them. Tesla was the genius he was, and he gave us the modern world, because he was a product of the ancient Greek system, as opposed to the Germanic one used in American schools today which has zero ressemblance to the Greek system. The American educational system is designed to make soldiers, people good at conforming, it is not designed to develop the mind. Another thing Russia inherited from the Byzantines, most of which were in fact Greek ethnically, were kettle bell exercises, in addition to wrestling. Most of what Russia is, comes directly from the Greeks. Western Europe is not truly Greek, and neither is the United States; Germanic peoples only took from the mediterranean sphere what they felt would work best for butchering people. How to organize governments, militaries, etc. Hence, Russian Sambo is in fact a modern variant of Greek Pankration, indeed many of the moves are similar even.

If you must know, if you wish to compensate for lack of kicking if you take up Boxing, the punches to practice are the haymakers. The haymaker uppercut is in fact even more powerful than Muay Thai's roundhouse, when perfected. If you want to get even fancier, you may try Kalari's hook-uppercut. Yes its exactly what it sounds; Kalari, an Indian martial art, has a punch where, the motion is somewhere in between a hook, and an uppercut think of it as an angled hook. The elbow is parallel to the floor when you throw an uppercut, and its parallel to the wall when you throw a hook right? In Kalari, their version of the hook, the elbow is held at a 45 degree angle, that way both the body's weight is put into the punch, in addition to an angle that allows said punch more centrifugal force hence, greater hitting power. Because both feet are on the ground when the punch is thrown, between the arch, the planting of the feet, and the angle of the arm, it is possibly the most powerful of all punches. The haymaker uppercut, or any similar punch is not something you should take lightly; Irish boxers were expert haymaker throwers, their specialty being the haymaker uppercut and they were known for taking men off their feet with it.

armband called Prajioud

and the one that you wear over your head called Mongkol

"Kru" means teacher in Thai. So you call your trainer Kru.

- Anonomous

There isn't really an official age. In Thalland there are elementary kids competing.

It just depends on your skill and what your coach thinks. Generally the ages are between 18-25.

All martial arts are better or worse based on the amount of interest and dedication the practitioner puts into training them. There is no finite better or worse in martial arts, only the tests of time and fighting.

If you enjoy training Kung Fu, Karate, or Ninjutsu, then it is best to train what holds your interest and your efforts best, so you can achieve your goals to the fullest!

Interesting combinations though:

Muay Thai can be enhanced with certain Kung Fu's iron body training.

Karate can enhance throws and ranged attacks for Muay Thai.

Ninjutsu is generally illegal in sport fighting, but great to add to Muay Thai for dirty fighting and clinch work since it often implies Judo-esque throws and elbows/knees.

Good luck in your training!