This is going to be a huge guide to starting your fresh Muay Thai—aka Thai Boxing—journey without any experience whatsoever. If you’re interested in becoming a good fighter capable of inflicting and causing a lot of damage, this is the guide for you. Let’s first examine whether you can even learn Thai Boxing without any previous experience.
Starting to do Muay Thai without any previous experience in fighting or martial arts is more than possible. In fact, many people who start their fighting journey begin in Muay Thai. What’s beautiful about Muay Thai is that it adapts to you, and not the other way around, making it suitable for everyone.
I know how difficult it can be to take that long first step and start your training. You’ll come up with every excuse in the book, either by blaming your body, mentality, or any other reason your mind will come up with. You must resist that voice to begin your training and start noticing positive changes in your life.
I’ll also review what you can expect to happen in your first few Muay Thai sessions; more on that soon. So now, without further introduction, I welcome you to to your new journey. Perhaps the most difficult journey you’ll face, but also the most rewarding one.
Table of Contents:
- How to Start Doing Muay Thai Without Prior Experience
- Is Muay Thai Suitable for Beginners?
- Is It Possible to Start Muay Thai Training Without Any Experience?
- What to Expect Doing Muay Thai as a Beginner
- Final Words
How to Start Doing Muay Thai Without Prior Experience
The first topic we’ll review is how to start doing Muay Thai without any prior experience. For this section, I’ll assume you know absolutely nothing about fighting. So let’s talk about the basics.
You have two options. The first is to train at home and the second is to attend a fighting gym and train there. By far, the better choice is attending a fighting gym and keeping up with your training. If you can manage that, you’ll learn to fight quicker than if you were to follow the first option.
However, Muay Thai classes can get costly really quickly. If you want to learn about the average price of Muay Thai training, including all the expenses you’ll face, follow this link.
So if you’re unwilling to spend money on training or commuting to the fighting gym, that’s absolutely fine. I don’t want you to give up just yet. I wrote a complete guide to training in Muay Thai at home and have condensed it into nine simple steps, which you can follow along and learn to fight by yourself.
Nevertheless, assuming you chose the first option, you can keep reading this section. If you chose the second option, I encourage you to read the complete guide I wrote on learning this fighting style at home.
Step #1 – Find a Reputable Gym
The first step is to find a reputable local Muay Thai. Because it’s one of the more popular martial arts worldwide, you’ll find it relatively easy to uncover a local gym that checks all the boxes. And if you can’t, then you might need to commute a bit longer than usual. However, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I have around 25 Muay Thai gyms in a 5-mile radius from my home.
Look for a local gym or training center that specializes in Muay Thai. Make sure the gym has experienced trainers and a welcoming atmosphere for beginners. Most fighting gyms will be qualified. But still, I want you to be hesitant about the place you’re training in, so make sure not to skip this step.
Read the ultimate guide to Muay Thai equipment, including everything you need to know about what to buy for what purpose.
Step #2 – Attend Beginner Classes
Most gyms offer beginner-friendly classes that focus on teaching basic techniques, footwork, and proper form. These classes are designed to introduce newcomers to the fundamental aspects of Muay Thai.
They’ll teach you everything you need to know to commence your journey. For instance, you’ll learn what a proper Muay Thai fighting stance looks like and how it serves you as a fighter.
You’ll also learn to move around the ring effectively, so you won’t give your opponent an advantage. These are stuff that you aren’t likely to learn in a more advanced class, where the fighters already know how to move around and are more likely to spar than to shadowbox, which you want to avoid in the beginning.
Step #3 – Learn the Basics
Step number three is to learn the basics. In your first few classes, you’ll learn everything you really need to know to start getting results in your journey. Now, however, you’ll learn to punch, kick, and defend yourself. This is the stuff you’ve been waiting to learn all this time.
Muay Thai involves a wide range of techniques, including punches, kicks, elbows, and knees. Beginners will learn the basics of these techniques and gradually progress to more advanced moves as they gain experience.
For instance, once you learn the six basic kicks Muay Thai has to offer, you can advance to more advanced techniques, such as the jumping kick, spinning kick, and whatever else you want to learn. Before that, however, you want to master the basics, which can potentially take a few months.
Step #4 – Focus on Yourself
What I want to discuss now is a step you must never forget to take. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced fighter, this applies to you. So make sure to remember it somehow.
You must focus on yourself throughout the entire learning process. The last thing you want to happen is you focusing on other people and comparing yourself (who has been training for less than a few months, I assume) to more advanced trainees, who have been training for more than a year or so.
It’s simply an impossible standard to live by.
When you focus on yourself, you focus on technique and not power or winning spars. That way, you progress quicker.
It’s important to focus on proper technique from the beginning. Developing good form will not only help you prevent injuries but also improve your overall performance in the long run.
Is Muay Thai Suitable for Beginners?
So you’re a beginner and you want to learn to fight. Alright. Well, in that case, you might be worried that you’ll face people who already know to fight, which is absolutely true. However, facing people who are better than you, bigger than you, and stronger than you, is the best blessing you can get.
Muay Thai is suitable for beginners because the training adapts to your skill level, and not the other way around. For instance, if you attend a math class with a lot of people who have already been learning math for the past year, you’ll have to learn what they learn, which won’t allow you to understand anything.
The case is different when we look at Thai Boxing, which is known for its dynamic training. If you don’t know to punch, you’ll learn to punch. If you can’t kick, you’ll get your kicking right before doing anything else. This is why it’s suitable for beginners.
Read about the required equipment you must bring to your Muay Thai class by following this link!
Is It Possible to Start Muay Thai Training Without Any Experience?
Starting your Muay Thai training without any prior experience is possible because the first few classes won’t require you to know anything. You’ll learn the very basics, which include learning to stand properly all the way to throwing a powerful punch or kick to defensive moves, such as the slip and parry.
To start training at home with no previous experience, you want to buy a punching bag, so you can progress quicker. Here are the best punching bags for your money (for Muay Thai.) Follow the link to see which are the best ones.
What to Expect When Doing Muay Thai as a Beginner
Most people who begin their Muay Thai journey can expect the same things to happen. These things are either considered “positive” or “negative.” If it’s not the first article of mine you’re currently reading, you know that I’m a big fan of suffering.
I think that suffering is the best way people can improve their lives. If you think about it, achieving all your greatest goals requires you to suffer, and suffer a lot. For instance, one of my current goals in life is to become a professional Muay Thai fighter. Do I think it’s going to be easy? Heck no. It’s going to be extremely difficult.
So here are the things you can expect to happen when you first start your Thai Boxing journey.
The Point of No Return
The point of no return is a phenomenon I see repeatedly happening in all realms of life. For instance, if you’re trying to get rid of an addiction, you’ll have points of no return all the time. So what do I mean when I say points of no return?
A point of no return is when you’re starting something, usually difficult, and your motivation is starting to wear off. Now, all you can rely on is good ol’ discipline. That said, this is where most people quit their endeavor; in our case, Muay Thai.
When you first begin doing Thai Boxing, you’ll notice that you’re more motivated than ever. However, each training session will wear you off. So make sure to identify the points of no return where you want to quit the most and push through the pain.
Read about the reasons people like Muay Thai so much by following this link (7 reasons.)
Pain, Fear, Hardships
The next thing you can expect is to experience pain, fear, and many hardships on your way. I can’t explain how much fear you’ll experience just before you’re about to fight someone who’s bigger, stronger, or taller than you.
Again, it’s all about suffering. You have to look straight into the hardships and continue although they’re highly intimidating. When you look away, they’ll come for you and they’ll be bigger this time.
This is something that you’ll learn inside your Muay Thai gym. I learned a ton of things about life as a whole by fighting people, which is actually incredible if you truly think about it. I learned to seek suffering instead of running away from it.
So be ready to experience physical pain, fear, and tons of obstacles. However, each time you face one of these obstacles successfully, you’ll be much stronger for the next one.
Results
Now that we’ve covered all the “negative” and difficult aspects of what you can expect in your Muay Thai training, let’s review one of the most fulfilling experiences you’ll have as a fighter. This experience is noticing a new batch of results.
Once you overcome enough obstacles, you’ll start to notice many benefits naturally flowing into your life. For instance, you can expect your confidence and self-esteem to rise, which is one of the most desirable results in today’s world.
Likewise, you can expect to become physically fit, lose body fat, and improve your well-being. Can you imagine how different your life can look with all these benefits being in your life?
Read about Muay Thai’s most prominent benefits that will keep you motivated for a long time by following this link.
Final Words
If you don’t have any fighting experience, this is everything you need to know regarding Muay Thai. Honestly, it’s not that overwhelming.
To recap, what you need to know is to expect obstacles to fly at you along your journey. Once you’re prepared for these obstacles, you’ll be able to face them more diligently, which is going to boost your discipline and willingness to stay consistent in your fighting journey.
To learn whether Muay Thai is suitable for skinny people, follow this link.
Likewise, here are more articles you’ll benefit from reading:
Muay Thai – Why and How It Reduces Stress and Anger (List)
Do You Need to Be Strong to Do Muay Thai? The Hard Truth
Here’s How Long Learning Muay Thai REALLY Takes (Timeline)