Supplementing Muay Thai with Shotokan

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Jolz

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Hi Guys

Was just wondering if anyone studies both arts? I've been doing Muay Thai for a few months and loving it but one of my mates is going to give Shotokan karate a bash and I might go with him to try it out.

Can anyone tell me if it's useful or will benefit my Muay Thai at all or should I just stick with Thai boxing?

Cheers
Jolz
 
after a few months of MT you are still very much a noob :) I'd give it a year at least to get comfortable. I don't know how Shotokan could help your MT though...
 
Before you think about supplementing anything with anything you need to have an idea about what principles you can adopt and how they'll benefit your overall fighting style.

I dont think Shotokan is a good idea if you just want to add a couple extra kicks to your arsenal.
 
I can't help but maintain that the Traditional Martial Arts, although good for self defense purposes, and with a few obvious exceptions, don't really transition well into MMA. For the most part, including Shotokan, the type and degree of sparring one is taught is geared more toward ending an encounter with a single attack, and avoiding extended periods of conflict or unnecessary contact. Not very realistic for MMA training.

If you are looking to improve your skills for fighting I would stick with the Muay Thai and forgo the Shotokan training. Honestly, I think you'd find it quite boring by comparison.
 
Fair enough boys. Thanks for your opinions.

Cheers
Jolz
 
Well, Shotokan really focus on timing, what is never a bad thing. And has punches to the face.
 
If you have the time and energy. Why not..
 
Do yourself a favor and don't. Shotokan would be one of the most useless complement to a full-contact combat sport.

As a matter of fact, you don't need complement now, just focus on MT and you'll have your hands full for at least a couple of years.
 
I took just your everyday run of the mill karate when I was pretty young and have found that it isn't helpful in Muay Thai. The stance is different, the mechanics are different, I found myself having to 'unlearn' things.

Boxing on the other hand has been great and very helpful with my punching and movement.
 
Last edited:
Nostromo said:
I can't help but maintain that the Traditional Martial Arts, although good for self defense purposes, and with a few obvious exceptions, don't really transition well into MMA. For the most part, including Shotokan, the type and degree of sparring one is taught is geared more toward ending an encounter with a single attack, and avoiding extended periods of conflict or unnecessary contact. Not very realistic for MMA training.

If you are looking to improve your skills for fighting I would stick with the Muay Thai and forgo the Shotokan training. Honestly, I think you'd find it quite boring by comparison.
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(1) The one strike fight ender is more of hopeful end--where in reality it is less common. So then what's better? Train to fight for the higher probability that you're going to engage in a prolonged fight or train for the lesser probability to fight for one strike?

(2) Wouldn't you think that an MMA guy would also want to end a fight quickly? Where in MMA training is it said that they want fights to go the distance? I"d gladly take my 10k paycheck after 5 minutes rather than 15 minutes.
 
I think you should use that time to practice combinations, lift weights, or work on cardio rather than practice Shotokan Karate.
 
Jolz said:
Hi Guys

Was just wondering if anyone studies both arts? I've been doing Muay Thai for a few months and loving it but one of my mates is going to give Shotokan karate a bash and I might go with him to try it out.

Can anyone tell me if it's useful or will benefit my Muay Thai at all or should I just stick with Thai boxing?

Cheers
Jolz
Click to expand...

Focus on one and become proficient in it before trying to branch. If you don't have a solid base in one the other will simply confuse you.
 
If you are going to go to karate to complement your MT, I suggest Kyokushin or one of its offshots (ashihara, shidokan, enshin, world oyama).
The reason is twofold.
1. Shotokan focus a ridiculous lot of their training on formal techniques and kata. While you get that in kyokushin and its descendants too, the fighting are much more in focus there.
2. Shotokan focus on point fighting that is stopped after every hit, as a result it has developed several bad habits for sports where you go on hitting until one goes down (as in MT or the kyokushin family of karate).

Im not saying shotokan is bad, just that its training in the vast majority of cases is unsuited for the full contact environment you are used to from MT. It would just take too much effort and time to console the two.
On the other hand kyokushin (and offshots) are easy to combine with MT.
 
You can't just "supplement" your muay thai training with Shotokan. Shotokan is a very traditional form of Karate, where you practice Kata (forms) and other things long before you ever even come close to sparring. I think Lyoto was saying that he didn't spar until he was a black belt.

Honestly, as someone else said, probably just focus on MT. if anything, do boxing as well because the hands are what set everything else up, and what holds everything together, and it'll help you with your footwork. Muay thai + boxing = very good standup.
 
I already do boxing as well mate. It was more out of curiosity really that I thought about adding a bit of Shotokan to see if it would be useful.

I think I'll just stick to my boxing and Thai boxing
 
Seeing as you are still quite a beginner I would say stick to MT. I train shotokan and compete in KB(full contact and K-1 rules), our classes are typically 2 hours long, 15 minute warm up, 30 minute conditioning, 45 minute sparring and 30 minute kata (kata also acts as technique instruction). Granted this isn't your run of the mill karate dojo.
 
that would really be a bad idea. In karate you'll learn to kick with the leg snap and in muay thai you'll learn to open up your hip and swing with a straight leg. Doing both will just mess up your technique. In muay thai you also fight with your feet not too far apart and your hips square, while in karate you fight with your legs wider apart and your hips turned more to the side. So all in all stick with one.
 
chaospfa said:
Seeing as you are still quite a beginner I would say stick to MT. I train shotokan and compete in KB(full contact and K-1 rules), our classes are typically 2 hours long, 15 minute warm up, 30 minute conditioning, 45 minute sparring and 30 minute kata (kata also acts as technique instruction). Granted this isn't your run of the mill karate dojo.
Click to expand...

that is great man. please what kind of exercises you do in the warm up and conditioning?

Im really curious.
 
Personally I wouldn't advocate boxing with Muay Thai until you'd been doing it a at the very least a year. Everyone seems to be in such a rush to mix these marshal arts. You should learn the fundamentals of of one first before you incorporate another.
 
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