Muay Thai Saves TMA

I have been part of the Martial Arts Journey Facebook Group, where the arguments leading up to the latest case of an Aikidoka getting slapped around by an MMA fighter largely transpired:

My "lessons learned" from this is that basically all Traditional Martial Arts (TMA) should cross train in Muay Thai. Muay Thai is the combat sport that focuses on staying on their feet (one of the main goals of TMA, especially Aikido,) while also allowing most of the actually-usable TMA techniques.

In that group someone recently asked "what two martial arts go together best?" After giving it a few days, I finally came up with "any TMA plus Muay Thai." TMA has so much to offer in terms of strategy, obscure forms of conditioning, dirty tricks, tradition, and philosophy. Muay Thai is the most applicable combat sport to TMA, and makes sure TMA has their blind spots covered for the range of fighting TMA practitioners think they are good at.

Looking at the TMA of Aikido specifically, one of the core ideas is being able to "enter and blend," to counter strikes by redirecting and throwing the opponent (without going to the ground with the opponent.) This is one of the many areas where Muay Thai excels:

It would be easy to think that was a highlight of the entire sport, and that not all Muay Thai fighters learn that skill. You would be wrong on that, here's the throw highlights from just one fighter:

And that which is in Muay Thai but outside of your TMA is important blind spots to cover. From Tae Kwon Do to Aikido, most TMA for example have a big blind spot for the most likely kick to come at you, the kick to your leg. Muay Thai covers that more so than any other martial art.

Though this is certainly most true for Tai Chi, I here and now state that all TMA should cross train in Muay Thai. I had the fortunate experience of learning kick boxing from the same instructors that also taught me the majority of the TMA (including most of the Tai Chi) I have learned. Even my Aikido instructor was a Muay Thai fan. But if you have not been as fortunate, seek out Muay Thai on your own!