What exactly are the differences in striking and fighting strategy in Sanda and Muy Thai?
Some things I was wondering were if Sanda uses elbow strikes and if it has more kicks.
Also, for those who have tried both, which do you prefer?
san da prefers the sidekick ot the roundhouse, whereas it’s the opposite for mt.
I don’t think that san da has more kicks, but you may see more of them in competition, as mt tends to use only the teep, roundhouse and back kick most of the time.
The guys on this forum that train san da though can go into more detail than me about it, as I only train MT.
sev,
have you considered fighting in any san da matches?
Muay Thai and San Shou are like cousin arts, and share some common features. They are both arts that have developed clinch fighting to a high degree. However, the current formats have changed what it is that they do in that clinch.
Muay Thai and San Shou do almost the exact opposite thing in the clinch. For Muay Thai, the defender wants to stand upright, with your hips close to reduce the room for knees. The attacker wants to shift their hips back a bit to create room for those strikes.
For San Shou, the defender wants to pull their hips back and base out so they are not thrown. The attacker wants to drive forward and get close. If the defender were to stand straight up, hips close, they would get thrown.
making any sense yet? 
A Muay Thai defensive postion gets you thorwn. A San Shou defensive position open s you up for knees.
Currently, a lot of san shou fighters have sloppy shoots. They go in with the head down. With knees, this would get them KTFO. Then again, we discourage it in san shou as well! If you look at the world tapes, with the higher level fighters, you will see guys get KTFO from kicks when they bend their heads down. It is not a proper technique
My guys, because they cross train not only in knees but also in submission, know to keep their heads up (not to eat the knee, not to get guillotined).
Of course, there is also the fact that when you try to knee, you are only on one leg. Muay Thai already has within it many ways of grabbing the knee and exploiting this weakness, but of course in San Shou you are not limited in how you can throw the guy once you’ve grabbed the knee. Particularly grape vining the leg and hooking between the leg works and both are illegal in current Muay Thai.
In a san da format, a fighter has to alternate between the knee game and the throwing game. The knee would prevent sloppy shoots, but as MMA has shown, would not eliminate them totally.
Elbows would not change the game much, they are close range strikes, meaning that using them also puts you close enough to throw.
blocking the knee strike There are several methods of blocking a straight knee strike. The first and foremost line of defense is to maintain the superior position in the clinch and launch your own attack. Neck wrestling to obtain the inside position must be practiced diligently. Of course, there are times when one loses the superior position
Originally posted by norther practitioner
sev,
have you considered fighting in any san da matches?
actually, yeah. Some boxing too. we’ve talked about san shou, but are currently looking at boxing, since there’s alot of it locally.
cool, gu luck.
BIGGEST difference… is the clock… 2 minutes of a san shou round is… well… it ain’t 2 minutes that’s fa sho…
The biggest difference is that in muay thai you could win a national title…sooner…
errr i think that was an east coast title 
“If the defender were to stand straight up, hips close, they would get thrown.” … I can attest to that.
“2 minutes of a san shou round is… well… it ain’t 2 minutes that’s fa sho…” … I can attest to that too:o
“2 minutes of a san shou round is… well… it ain’t 2 minutes that’s fa sho…”
…which depends on your conditioning
Conditioning of course. But conditioning is like money… everybody wants it and strives for it but how much can you realistically get?
I’ll be 31 in May and I’m an editor. I can’t condition like the 18 year old and I can’t spend like the stockbrocker.
So it’s more important for me to learn how to watch my budget. Get done what needs to get done by using what I have intelligently.
I’ve learned to accept this within the past 8 or 9 months and have been training wiser. At the same time, this does not mean that I don’t have certain condition.
Likewise, you’ll often hear me disagree about lifting weight, that it trains to fight against weight/resistance and can actually harm your punching power because you may train the biceb to get involved when it should be purely tricep and vice a versa … this does not mean I don’t have power. In fact, most of the guys I’ve competed against were bigger than me, yet if you see the fights they tend to be avoiding confrontation, clinching, running … this of course is smart and a sign of experience.
Train harder. I’m 31 and we regularly go 4-5 6 minute rounds in BJJ 3-4 3 minute rounds in Boxing and Muay Thai and 2-3 5 minute rounds in NHB. It hurts, but it’s doable. And I smoke.
…which depends on your conditioning
unless you are a state sponsored chinese fighter that trains 8 hours a day since you were 3 years old… 3 rounds of san da is a whole 'nother he|| compared to muay thai… and 3 rounds of in the ring with some guy that is trying to take your head off doesn’t even compare to training…
I can’t condition like the 18 year old
Yeah you can. What Water said.
Ok come on… I am 26 and overweight enough that I border on obese (I used to do more than border :P) and - depending on intensity - I can spar bare handed for 15 - 30 minutes in one go. I’m not talking 7 2-4 minute rounds, I mean steady through the session. So basically I agree with Merryprankster; a 31 year old should still be able to train hard.
"3 rounds of san da is a whole 'nother he|| compared to muay thai… "
-umm…bull$hit.
“and 3 rounds of in the ring with some guy that is trying to take your head off doesn’t even compare to training…”
-thanks, but I don’t need you to tell me. been there done that:rolleyes:
When I box I do seven to ten three-minute rounds with 30 secs break in between. And that’s usually after groundwork classes (an hour and a half also including a few five-minute rounds with 30 sec breaks and loads of stuff like 40 sprawl drills followed by twenty shoot drills and twenty shoots and sprawls… etc etc yawn snooze coma… ya get the picture!)…
But, everybody’s bodies and capacities are different… so saying ‘You should be able to do this’ is a bit ridiculous.
I mean, I can also have sex for twenty-five seconds… bet there’s not many of you that can say that!
I can spar bare handed for 15 - 30 minutes in one go.
I can roll for an hour or longer, depending. This isn’t what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about the ability to take your heart rate to about 85-90% of your projected maximum and leave it there for five or six minutes. Very different requirements on both cellular metabolism and CV system.
san da and muay thai…
they’re both pretty similar. couple of differences in the rules.
But here in the west, they are both basically kickboxing.
People like to think of them as reality fighting because all the hitting and stuff.
It’s all good if you’re into that sort of thing. I enjoy good sparring and the science of combatives. But it can just lead to a big ego stretch (regardless of all the guys who say "leave your ego behind etc etc, that is mostly bullshit, after all, it’s competitive, so take it from there.)
anyway, if ya like to take whacks at folks, and get a few taken at you, it really doesn’t make a difference what you decide to train.
But excuses like I’m fat I can’t do it, close the door on you before you get in. NObody is gonna coddle you into training like that, you either do it or do not do it. period.
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