What beats muay Thai?

Answer 1

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.