Self teaching/Self Learning Muay Thai any tips?

[Talkinghalls]

My friend and I are trying to learn Muay Thai by ourselves (lack of funding), and we were wondering if anyone has any tips for starching to increase flexibility, workouts to increase speed and power with kicks, and well shin endurance. Any tips would help us greatly.

-thanks

[47MartialMan]

Not a good idea from my opinion

[Chapel]

Have you trained in a different art? If not, it would be very difficult to grasp many of the techniques. If funding is a problem, consider broadening the spectrum of styles you want to learn and start looking into a local YMCA or something similar. Simply put, MT is not a very easy to come by style.

Edit: also, shin conditioning is really pretty pointless for anyone who doesn't plan on going the pro-MTer route. (I don't think many MMAs do anything special for their shins other than bag work.)

[Them's Fighting Words]

Lack of funding can be b**ch so I sympathise with you. I'd like to help you out mate but I'd need to know more about your experience and your friend's experience (has he done Muay Thai?). Wouldn't want you to try something I suggested then end up hurting yourself. If nothing else, try and figure out whether you are doing it for fun, fitness, self-defence or contest. Also, beware of all the hype, I've done, seen and heard of some wacky Muay Thai training techniques that are great if you want to a broken old man.

[kungfu088]

Originally Posted by Talkinghalls

My friend and I are trying to learn Muay Thai by ourselves (lack of funding), and we were wondering if anyone has any tips for starching to increase flexibility, workouts to increase speed and power with kicks, and well shin endurance. Any tips would help us greatly.

-thanks

ALthough ive never trained in it myself i can tell you. Trying to learn a martial art by yourself isnt the wisest thing to do especially with something like muay thai you could injure yourself or your friend trying. like with any martial arts supervision is a key point

[Ying&Yang]

Originally Posted by Talkinghalls

My friend and I are trying to learn Muay Thai by ourselves (lack of funding), and we were wondering if anyone has any tips for starching to increase flexibility, workouts to increase speed and power with kicks, and well shin endurance. Any tips would help us greatly.

-thanks

MT is a great style and im glad you want to learn it , but i must say that you need to learn from som1 who is a professional. Giving you advice could lead to you hurting youself sorry

[Them's Fighting Words]

Just had a thought. There's two of you. Maybe you could pool your resources and "take turns" training until you had some fundamental basics down.

[Ying&Yang]

^^ Thats a good strategy , but i still think they need some professional guidence dont you?

[knuckleheader]

Originally Posted by Talkinghalls

My friend and I are trying to learn Muay Thai by ourselves (lack of funding), and we were wondering if anyone has any tips for starching to increase flexibility, workouts to increase speed and power with kicks, and well shin endurance. Any tips would help us greatly.

-thanks

Have you tried to aquire or rent old videos or recent DVD's.

Watch them and try some things slowly at first. Do weight lifting, bag work etc. Maybe visit a school and let the instructor know your situation. Offer to clean the dojo and other maintainence.

Maybe you'll get a lucky break.


Oh yea, can you get a part time job? Start earning some money.


Good luck

[nascarmike71]

Training on your own is tough even more so if you have never trained in that style. Some of the above advice is solid. Be carefull and use common sense.

[Ying&Yang]

Originally Posted by knuckleheader

Have you tried to aquire or rent old videos or recent DVD's.

Watch them and try some things slowly at first. Do weight lifting, bag work etc. Maybe visit a school and let the instructor know your situation. Offer to clean the dojo and other maintainence.

Maybe you'll get a lucky break.


Oh yea, can you get a part time job? Start earning some money.


Good luck

Good advice, but a DVD will never give you experience.

[Them's Fighting Words]

Originally Posted by Ying&Yang

^^ Thats a good strategy , but i still think they need some professional guidence dont you?

Very true. After taking a few lessons each however, it should become clear to them that Muay Thai, like any true martial arts should be trained under continued, professional guidence until they are skilled enough to use it effectively and without self-harm.

[Ying&Yang]

Exactly

[Draven]

Originally Posted by Talkinghalls

My friend and I are trying to learn Muay Thai by ourselves (lack of funding), and we were wondering if anyone has any tips for starching to increase flexibility, workouts to increase speed and power with kicks, and well shin endurance. Any tips would help us greatly.

-thanks

OK here is the thing; martial arts had to begin somewhere and that somewhere was personal experience. So allot of training is going to based on personal experience, so you won't actually end up with Muay Thai but a muay thai based hybred.

1- Now allot of you techniques should be keyed to be simple and straight forward (easy with Muay Thai) but you need to remember crawl, walk, run. So here is my personal stand point disect any material you can get on Muay Thai.

2- Pay special attention to little things like stance and footwork. Pay more attention to this and your guard (hand positions) then you normally would for 1 to 3 months.

3- Get books on Muay Thai that discuss principles and compare to similar arts like boxing, kick boxing, free style karate and as I noticed you have some experience with savate.

[Little Dragon 117]

I agree with Draven, but i also agree that they might hurt themselves without a teacher, not just physically, but also they might not be able to teach themselves the right Form in a technique so it wont be up to its full potential. If they have past exp in martial arts though, and things come clear to them when they learn from books or other sources, then i think its a good idea. OR hey you guys can do it like me and learn and practice on your own until you can pay for the right type of classes you want. If you guys cant get a job or anything, make a deal with your parents and bargain, I.E "hey mom, dad, if i get good grades in school then can i get into martial arts classes?" thats what i say basically on a daily basis
but id say its better to have two people learning together than one, because the other person can watch and help you with your mistakes. You guys can even do it like "DRagon Tiger Gate" and one of you researches Muay Thai Lower body techniques, and the other upper body, and when you guys meet you can teach each other what you learned.

Simply said though, i believe that it is the person, not the people. In other words, many people lack the comprehension, physical and mental ability to learn fast, and/or will power to put their all into learning on their own, so they end up harming themselves. On the other hand one person who has all that and more can teach themselves sometimes better than a dojo or teacher. My evidence for this is that if you think about all the mcdojos out there teaching things to their students that is complete crap, they are harming them more than training alone. Also, if you know what you are doing, and you have good experience, then depending on how much you train and/or if you are going to get back into classes, you actually help yourself more because you know your own body and you know what techniques benefit you and which dont.