Right now I am pretty busy working and studying in Belgium, and there isnt a whole lot of free time for MA, but I do get to a monday Taichi class followed by a Sanshou/Sanda class. The Sanshou really takes a lot out of me, but It provides good basic ring craft and technique; covering timing, distance, striking with chin tucked in/closing guard on face, knees and kicks on heavy bag. The other night I managed a reasonable salvo of pivot and hip initiated roundhouse kicks for about an hour (with breaks.) In other Taichi classes there is sometimes Sanshou and I have done the odd spot of kickboxing, but I have long been meaning to do more standup ring-craft oriented kickboxing. However, I wont be in Belgium terribly much longer and Sanshou/Sanda is not too common to find elsewhere. So my question is this, primarily for Mauy Thai folk:- Can I develop similar technique and craft with Muay Thai - and to what degree - and what differences? Bear in mind I am 53 on saturday, so Im not aiming to become world champ or whatever, just kick-ass conditioned and build on stamina. Any tips welcomed.
Hi Embra, I would say yes. Though that's based on san shou rather than MT experience. The amount of crossover is fairly high particularly with striking, you might even find that there's more training in MT, where striking is concerned. San shou/ sanda might not cover knees and elbows as well as MT for example, but will generally cover more takedown and throwing techniques. In regards to differences, ringcraft will to a degree follow with the rulesets being trained for. But again I would say cross over is high particularly if you're concerning yourself with the striking side. It's definitely one of the closest you''ll find to what you've been doing and I know of a fair few others in cma/ san shou who have crossed trained MT for similar reasons.
