Are Kick Boxing and Muay Thai the same?
No, no and no again. Muay Thai is a traditional art that has been developed and honed for the last 2-3 thousand years and still has many spiritual and ceremonial aspects, especially in Thailand. Kickboxing on the other hand is an artificial fusion of karate/full contact with Western boxing, developed in both Japan and the USA over the last few decades. In terms of technique, originally kickboxers tended to snap kick with the foot/instep making contact, much like in karate. Recently though kickboxers have adopted the Thai roundhouse, striking with the shin with much greater impact. Muay Thai boxers are invariably better in the clinch and with elbows/knees, using their kicks to greater effect whereas kickboxers seem to prefer more punching and high/spinning kicks. That said, there are some good kick boxing gyms out there and a lot of them train in a very similar manner to Muay Thai, but promote their classes as kick boxing in a bid to attract more students. On the other hand, many kick b
