Online Muay Thai Training - Learn Muay Thai Kickboxing At Home

Koh Larn

Do you want to learn Muay Thai kickboxing online? There are lot's of different ways to train yourself in the art of Thai Kickboxing. This could be from all over body conditioning, flexibility and technique based move training. Even if you can't afford to join an MMA gym there are still plenty of ways to practice in your own home.

What Exactly Is Muay Thai Kickboxing?

Unlike traditional kickboxing, which is a hybrid of Karate and Western Boxing, Muay Thai makes more use of shin strikes, elbow strikes and clinch work. It is also the national sport of Thailand. The sport is currently a very popular edition to MMA and can be seen in the UFC being used by fighters such as; Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio Rua.

How To Start Muay Thai Training

Thai kickboxing requires a great deal of fitness. If you want to start training then I would recommend building up your overall fitness levels by doing cardiovascular activities such as running, swimming and skipping. It's common practice for Thai fighters to do a 10km run every morning for the months leading up to a fight.

I would recommend that you learn these three basic strikes to begin with. It's important to master each move individually. We all want to learn the flashy kicks that we see in the movies, but without the basics you will never be able to get there.

Roundhouse Kick - Probably the most famous kick of all time, and certainly one of the most effective. Most of the power from a roundhouse kick comes from the waist with the point of impact being the shin.

Straight Kick - The straight kick is a very useful defensive move that is used to push back your opponent and give you more space. It can also be a very powerful attack if performed correctly. The point of impact is either the ball of your foot or the heel.

Jab and Cross - The first punches you should ever learn. The jab is simply a straight punch with whatever arm you have in front of you, whilst the cross is a straight punch with whatever arm you have at the back. The point of impact should be your two front knuckles and you should only tense your fist just before you strike.

Leaning these basic moves is a good way to begin your training. I would definitely recommend that you don't move onto anything else until you have mastered these basic steps.

Where Can I Learn Muay Thai Kickboxing

There are loads of great resources online if you want to learn any martial arts. If it is MMA forms or Thai Kickboxing then I would recommend that you find a program that has been designed by professional fighters. There are a program online called Damage Control. This program will take you through the entire process of learning mixed martial arts.

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Dog Clicker Training vs Compulsion Based Dog Training, Which is Better?

Koh Larn

Compulsion based dog training revolves mainly around using corrections to get a dog to comply. It is very common to hear compulsion based trainers telling their students that their dogs must learn that obedience is not an option i.e. their dogs must learn to obey at all times. To achieve this, dogs are consistently corrected for each wrong behaviour till they eventually comply. The use of choke chains, pinch collars etc are common with such methods of dog training. Others may even resort to using the electronic collar. Food or treats on the other hand are less often used because some compulsion based trainers believe that dogs trained with food or treats tend to be unreliable i.e. they obey only if you have food or treats on hand. Take away the food or treat and everything they learn starts to fall apart.

Do Food or Treats Have a Place in Dog Training?

In our opinion, absolutely yes! But they must be administered in the right way. If you show a dog a treat, ask it to come to you and then reward it with the treat, you have just effectively made the treat a bribe. Without the treat, there is every chance your dog will ignore you and go about doing whatever it wishes especially if there are distractions around.

Rewards based trainers are therefore very careful in using food and treats as rewards for right behaviours rather than as bribes. As a rule (other then when luring), food is never presented as a means to get the dog's attention before requesting a behaviour. Instead food is often out of sight initially and presented only after the requested behaviour is performed, as a reward. This way, the dog is not reliant on the bribe to perform. Instead over time, it learns that even if food is out of sight, it just might be rewarded, if it performs as asked consistently.

Can Rewards Based Training Produce Reliable Results?

Definitely. In fact, many of today's top obedience dogs around the world are clicker trained. And clicker training in its purest form uses 100% rewards based methods. The use of force or corrections has no place in clicker training. That these top obedience dogs can perform reliably in obedience rings all around the world is proof that clicker training works and that the use of force in dog training is totally not necessary.

Is Clicker Training Superior to Compulsion based Training?

It is our opinion that in the hands of the right trainer, both methods are effective and can produce excellent obedience dogs. However when it comes to administering corrections, some trainers can go overboard, using increasingly higher levels of corrections to train their dogs. For example, they may progress from a buckle collar to a choke chain, pinch collar and eventually even an electronic collar. Some may even resort to using throw chains to speed up their dog's performance. While such methods do work, they tend to produce dogs that perform not because they love to but rather because it is compulsory. Reliable as they are, such dogs tend to look rather mechanical in the ring. Problems can also arise if compulsion trained dogs are entered into competitions too early. In the ring, handlers are not permitted to correct their dogs. If these dogs are not yet ready for the ring, they will invariably make mistakes in the ring and realise that in the ring, their mistake are not corrected. The end result - a ringwise dog i.e. a dog that performs wonderfully well outside the ring but once in the ring, everything falls apart.

Given the above, our preferred choice is clicker training. Our dog, Rufus CDX, the 2009 Singapore Kennel Club Reserve Obedience Dog of the Year is clicker trained. Clicker training in our opinion produces dogs that perform because they choose to and not because they have to. As a result, they are very enthusiastic and it will show in their performance in the ring. Clicker training is also more humane and most importantly, your dog will love it.

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