Wing Chun or Muay Thai? Which is Truly More Effective for Self Defense?

TS dont be that nitpick with the replies unless you wanna be bulshitted.

Trained MT, sparred with both.

WC is great, in fact i like al TMA

But if i had to pick one it d be MT and its not even close.

Footwork, power, tecnique, resistence, sparring, strikes, kicks, defense.

Have a good one
 
The problem with wing chun, even if its a place where they spar with aliveness, is that they specialize in an area that really is only a small part of a total fight, and more importantly, is an area that the other fighter can avoid if he wishes.

The way some of them imagine fighting seems like strait out of a martial arts movie, where both fighters stand in each others pocket trading flurries, neither moving away to create distance, or coming forward to clinch.

So many times when you see 'wise masters' in this or that art actually get into a fight, you see a few seconds of acrobatics before contact, then they quickly turn into bums stumbling ahead swinging haymakers, or school yard boys jerking each other around with headlocks.

They spend so much time training things that really only have a limited window of application, and once outside that window all bets are off.
 
I agree with everyone, but just a fun fact, I've been learning Wing Chun and my other friend has been learning Muay Thai, and during one friendly spar, I did "win". But yes, in my opinion, it is how good a person has been trained in the art.
 
The questions below are directed only to people who have learned both Muay Thai and Wing Chun completely, learned both of them for at least over a year, and at the least have learned either Wing Chun or Muay Thai for over a year and have sparred and/or fought with quite a few people of the other martial art who had about as much experience and skill as them or more. Before I ask my questions I quickly want to state I'm aware that (and if you personally think disagree please give your opinion on the matter) for the most part it's the individual and not the style that determines how good of a martial artist/fighter he/she will be.

My questions are:

1. Which martial art is truly more effective for self defense, Muay Thai or Wing Chun? And self defense in that one can effectively defend himself and others if need be from both unskilled and very skilled opponents. Which martial art has the edge over the other even if not by much? which is more effective and why is it?

2. If Wing Chun's training method was practiced with a lot more resistance and with more sparring like sport martial arts such a Muay Thai, Boxing, or MMA, do you you think this would make Wing Chun any more effective and if so by how much? Or do you think it's possible a few/quite a lot of Wing Chun techniques would be discarded or new techniques added thus making Wing Chun into a technically different martial art?

3. If Muay Thai's training method was practiced with it's only emphasis being self defense like Wing Chun or K'rav Maga (but Muay Thai still kept it's good resistance and sparring it already has), do you think this would make Muay Thai any more effective and if yes, how much more? Or do you think it's possible a few/quite a lot of Muay Thai's techniques would be discarded or a few/many new techniques would be added that it would become a different martial art (or basically be very similar to K'rav Maga just without the ground/knife fighting & stereotypical emphasis of striking the groin K'rav Maga has)?

Thank you for reading.

wing chun because muay thai doesnt teach groin shots like this

 
I knew a guy who did wing chun and muay thai. Used to fight in thailand in the 90s.
 
I knew a guy who did wing chun and muay thai. Used to fight in thailand in the 90s.

all joking aside, there is a benefit from every martial art, some maybe more than others but IMO. Someone who is high level in wing chun, would probably transition into muay thai clinch/hand trapping very well, and probably be pretty good at it. I wouldnt mind learning and practicing some of the techniques, but I have never met anyone that does WC
 


in theory it works, in reality it doesnt. you might as well spinning back elbow his punches, in theory that would work, in reality it wouldnt. elbowing someones punch isnt impossible, i knew a bouncer that trained muay thai and did it, but it wasnt on purpose, he tried to elbow the guy and caught the punch. in reality trying to elbow someones punch isnt going to work, your better off using a boxing type counter, this is all my opinion of course. I know you train some type of TMA, im open to TMA's as well, but to me, this is hocus pocus.
 
i teach both Muay Thai and Wing Chun, so i feel i can shed a little light on the subject.

What i love about Muay Thai - conditioning, conditioning, conditioning! this inherently is what makes it so effective. it pushes you through physical pressure and mental pressure which shapes the individual into becoming physically fit and mentally tough.

What i hate about Muay Thai - conditioning, conditioning, conditioning! it's heavily based on athleticism which means it's good when you are young but as you get older (i am 46, i started Muay Thai at 20) it becomes harder and harder to maintain the very essence of what makes Muay Thai great...the athleticism. i compare it to a Lambroghini. it's super fast and a high performance vehicle. but to keep it high performance requires constant maintenance. you cannot let a Lambroghini sit stagnant too long or else it performs like crap. you cannot use regular oil. it requires special fuel.

What i love about Wing Chun - to create force, it is based on the mass and not so much the acceleration or speed. Wing Chun is also based on leverage, which is the crucial ingredient to do little but gain alot. In other words, it shares the same concepts as the Grappling Arts. Because of this, it allows the person to train at a high level even at a much older age. i compare it to a Steam Roller. it's mass is heavy but moves slowly.

What i hate about Wing Chun - the wing chun community. ugh, i can't stand their pettiness. they are so divided and can't even get along. they agree on nothing and fight over the most idiotic things. the truth is that most couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag! The vast majority of Wing Chun practiced today is devoid of real physical and mental pressure with a non compliant individual. without that heavy, consistent pressure testing, it ends up becoming a crappy version of short arm kickboxing.

so, the bottom line is, if you are younger in age, or able and willing to perform the constant maintenance, then i would choose Muay Thai. if you are older and want a martial art with longevity, then i would say Wing Chun, but only if you practice it with a Grappler's attitude and training methodology.

Here is a video interview i did a few years ago. Just a FYI, i had nothing to do with the filming or editing of this video. As a side note, i live, teach and train here in the los angeles area and love to train and workout with fellow martial artists. i'm often at open mats all around town.



I personally feel that some of the things from wing chun could be applied in the muay thai clinch/trapping. Since you know both muay thai and wing chun, I would like to make a request if i could, to see you make a video with boxing gloves on, demonstrating effective wing chun techniques in the muay thai clinch/trapping range.
 
Wing Chun, Muay Thai is just a ring sport and is rubbish in the real world

I've never seen Wing Chun applied in MMA and if I were to guess, I would doubt it would be applicable. I think if applied correctly, it could be effective in a street fight.
 
Go for the no nonsense approach and go with Muay Thai. IMO.

Not disputing that things in Wing Chun work - especially against untrained people, but if you want consistency and practice under pressure - do Muay Thai.

MT will train conditioning, strength, technique but most importantly, you will get you used to someone hitting you in sparring and you will get used to it, and be able to react. It evolves round it's effectiveness in a full contact setting. You can't practice the same way in Wing Chun. Sparring is FUNDAMENTAL to getting used to defending yourself.

Wing Chun is actually pretty open to one of the biggest weapons someone in the street will bring. A potential spam of looping power. If you're guard is chest height and in front of you - you're way more likely to get clocked by that big shot. I haven't seen Wing Chun utilize much bobbing or head movement either. I know the whole philosophy is center line and interception etc but no one is perfect and if you're going to get hit, you'd rather it be on your hands or arms and not your chin.

MT protects the chin and will keep your guard up. Even one hard low kick could be enough for someone to realize it was a bad move.

I think a mma training where you work on weaknesses, a bit of wrestling, BJJ, and standup. Its just so damn expensive these days.
 
Only Muay Thai and have only sparred with Muay Thai/kickboxing and a few MMA guys.

Never sparrd with a wing chun guy before, never even met one before

I don't think they spar. I think some of the techniques are cool but, I fail to see how standing parallel is intelligent? The fighter above showed how things would go in those situations.
 


The list goes on. I think TS be better off with Thai. That or a unique school that spars with this stuff.
 
the only way to answer this is via a fight. Here is one:



Close fight, but Wing Chun looked stronger. Sorry to all the muay thai people.
 
the only way to answer this is via a fight. Here is one:



Close fight, but Wing Chun looked stronger. Sorry to all the muay thai people.


Any art can beat any art when the people are not equally matched by skill level. that guys "muay thai" was very low. most the videos you can find online of muay thai vs whatever and muay thai loosing are generally mismatched opponents. these vids by lawrence kenshin are about as good as it gets as far as muay thai vs a tma. in the end the muay thai fighters won, but the tma fighters put up a good fight, thus showing/proving it can be effective.


 
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