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Thread: BJJ vs Muay thai

  1. #1

    BJJ vs Muay thai

    So I believe combatives play an important role in preparing for a defensive encounter. Speaking to various people both Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muaythai come up. I would like to join a formal class, any advice on these two disciplines, which should I look at etc.

  2. #2
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    Assuming you have access to both, that's a tough question to answer. I'd give the cop out answer of "try both and see what you like better" with the disclaimer that you may require a lot longer to start enjoying BJJ because of how much and how long it can suck to be a beginner.

  3. #3
    If looking for real world defensive applications instead of sporting applications, I recommend finding someone good at wrestling and getting lessons from them.

  4. #4
    Site Supporter Totem Polar's Avatar
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    I think both are useful. That said, I’d start with BJJ all the way to gain base-line defensive proficiency. This is coming from a guy with several years of boxing as well as a black belt in a traditional Okinawan kicking/striking art, btw.

    (On the other, hand, maybe that’s why I find BJJ so alluring: I understand how to hit like a guy twice my size, but I still get wadded up into a ball by even remotely good grapplers, so grain of salt).


    Quote Originally Posted by Warped Mindless View Post
    If looking for real world defensive applications instead of sporting applications, I recommend finding someone good at wrestling and getting lessons from them.

    IF you can find an instructor who understands how to 1, work with broken-ass old adults, and 2, how to integrate wrestling into real-world defensive applications, then I might tend to agree. Those guys don’t grow on trees, but they’re out there—including several of our mods here.
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Warped Mindless View Post
    If looking for real world defensive applications instead of sporting applications, I recommend finding someone good at wrestling and getting lessons from them.
    That’s tough to find as an adult.

    Go with whichever gym you get the best vibe from or whichever sport you enjoy more. Both will be more than fine if your primary concern is self defense and not mma or anything like that.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by flux View Post
    which should I look at
    Learning both would be best, I agree. 3 years BJJ, 2 year Muay Thai, plus 1 year Krav Maga. Then for unarmed fights, you're well prepared. But as soon as somebody pulls a knife and knows a bit how to use it, even these martial arts will be only of little use. I'm quite an old fart. I trained Taekwon-Do, Ninjutsu, Wing Tsun and Krav Maga (but that was some time ago). I learned: Bruce Lee was right:

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    I'm quite sure this still applies. Also do fitness training. And don't believe much in the guys who say, "we don't do competition fights because our techniques are too dangerous". At least they should do some realistic sparring.

    Now, I'm considering to start BJJ. I learned lots of punching and kicking but not enough wrestling. And maybe some good old boxing, if I find a good club where they are nice to me old guy.
    Last edited by P30; 12-28-2021 at 03:10 PM.

  7. #7
    As someone who has studied all the sub disciplines of MMA and teaches self defense I would prioritize BJJ over Muay Thai.

    The first reason is that learning the movement mechanics to minimize and impose friction in the horizontal plane of fighting is the most counterintuitive thing one can learn to do. 6 months of BJJ can literally make you the one-eyed man in the land of the blind in a real world event.

    Secondly as far as self defense goes, any pugilistic exchange is literally a puncher's chance. Notice the emphasis on exchange.....not striking or kneeing entangled (dirty boxing), not striking out to escape or a weapon, nor striking into a clinch.

    Holding a traditional range of pugilism/boxing/kickboxing and exchanging like one learns in Muay Thai is extremely limited as a cross-over modality to self defense in my opinion.

    Kicking and punching hard, fast, and accurately is vital to self defense. The modality of orthodox kick-boxing though compared to the modality of orthodox BJJ just doesn't have the crossover and efficacy IMO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Warped Mindless View Post
    If looking for real world defensive applications instead of sporting applications, I recommend finding someone good at wrestling and getting lessons from them.
    The best place to find those people who are good at wrestling tends to be in BJJ or MMA gyms, as adult wrestling programs tend to be nestled in those school's curriculum (like maybe tuesday is wrestling practice, wednesday is no-gi BJJ, and thursday is yes-gi BJJ)

    I think that wrestling is perhaps one of my favorite self defense forms, because it gives you the ability to put someone down and hold them down. You won't always need to strangle someone and breaking their limbs might be illegal given the context, but pulling some dude to the floor and smothering him until the cops arrive is a pretty solid option for almost every situation that would need to be solved by non lethal force.

    But most of the state champ level wrestlers I know, I met in BJJ classes.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by 45dotACP View Post
    The best place to find those people who are good at wrestling tends to be in BJJ or MMA gyms, as adult wrestling programs tend to be nestled in those school's curriculum (like maybe tuesday is wrestling practice, wednesday is no-gi BJJ, and thursday is yes-gi BJJ)

    I think that wrestling is perhaps one of my favorite self defense forms, because it gives you the ability to put someone down and hold them down. You won't always need to strangle someone and breaking their limbs might be illegal given the context, but pulling some dude to the floor and smothering him until the cops arrive is a pretty solid option for almost every situation that would need to be solved by non lethal force.

    But most of the state champ level wrestlers I know, I met in BJJ classes.
    Agreed. And the best way to stay on your feet is to gain the posture learned from wrestling.

    Wrestling should be the base in my opinion that everything else branches from.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Totem Polar View Post
    IF you can find an instructor who understands how to 1, work with broken-ass old adults, and 2, how to integrate wrestling into real-world defensive applications, then I might tend to agree. Those guys don’t grow on trees, but they’re out there—including several of our mods here.
    Along these lines, what is your age and physical condition ?

    While a skilled striker can be dangerous at any age, IME the training process to become skilled in the striking arts is harder on the body than BJJ or wrestling. And of course as we age we generally require more recovery time between training sessions.

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