I am going to start taking a standup fighting style within the next couple of weeks, which will give me about 3 months before I head back to college. I am unsure whether or not I will be able to continue training during school as I am extremely busy. To learn a standup in 3 months will cover the very basics I know but I figure its better than nothing, also I will be much more conditioned than before. The two I am trying to decide between are boxing and muay thai. I am leaning towards boxing because its more focused on one part of the body (hands) vs many (hands, elbows, knees, shins, feet) which I think will be better for learning in a short period of time. Any advice?
I Would find out the better gym/instructors in the area and go with that. that being said, ive been doing MT for about 5 months now, and feel very comfortable with stand up, but out of everything my hands feel the worse. So if its punching you want to be strong at i would suggest boxing, if its just striking in general id go with the better trainers so you will learn more in the shorter time you have.
3 months is just the right about of time to learn the basics in either I would say. After 3 months of Boxing anyway you'll have some solid basics and good punches. Like TJT said go with the one with the best instructor/gym in your area its the answer people who actually do train should give you 10/10 times because its the best advice!
my first love is boxing so i'll always say boxing but whats the purpose of having this base? do plan to fight mma in the future?
Take something with kicks incorporated into the satnd up(I'm partial to Karate). It's harder to defend against four limbs rather thatn two!
hmm, Boxing but better spend more time than 3 months (3 months is way too less for karate, you learn faster in boxing, but if he has more time, I would say kyokushin)
Whichever gym has the better reputation, available training hours, and likelihood of you making the time to be there with greater frequency. If you can be in the gym 12 hours a week at one, and 6 hours at the other, it's a no brainer, unless there is an incredible superiority of the harder to get time gym. With 3 months of dedicated training, you can develop skills that would allow you to have some degree of competitiveness sparring amateur fighters, although you would likely not be ready for competition.
Boxing is a very efficient martial art, practical and effective. Start there. If you switch to KB/MT later you will have to re-learn defense and footwork but your punching base will be there.
From my experience being that I came from a Boxing background prior to learning Muay Thai the footwork and good mechanics of the hands really help. One thing I notice is the timing of the hands can really help. The things you shouldn't rely on much is bobbing and weave I am in no way saying to stop practicing it and eliminate it from your training. Also try not to become accustom to the boxing clinch. But this way of thinking is because of my philosophy that one should learn more simplistic and effective arts first then advance to a more difficult art with a bigger tool box. In the end it comes downs to your goals and what you want to do. IMO its seems like "some" people have a hard time learning Boxing with a Muay Thai background.
Do what you find more fun . I preffer muay thai , since I like both striking and clinch ,boxing doesnt use it much . If I would want to train for mma , I think I would go for boxing or kickboxing now though , thaiboxing gives too much emphasis on kicks imo , while kickboxing uses them mainly to finish a combo or when theyr unexpected , which would suit mma much more . And imo it doesnt really matter as both sports are rather simple , so it doesnt really matter how long you train , the difference between the 2 will be very little if not none. But anyway muay thai gets my vote , because it just has more weapons . Its individual , matters on the gym and your goal .
Of course it depends on the quality of instruction yes, but I'd prefer boxing. Of course, I'm partial, as I have mainly been doing boxing/kickboxing/karate, but it seems to me that MT fighters in general lack a little to much when it comes to the boxing-aspect of fighting. But again, that's probably just me being biased..
Depends where you're at. If you're in a major city, like NY or something, I'd say boxing. If not, go with MT.
