You have to know what your strengths are in Muay Thai to know what you are good at. There are some guys that are really good with the legs, others are really good with punching and others are really good with elbows. Let’s face it, you are not going to be good at everything. However, you can become great at whatever it is that you are best at.
Of course there is an exception to this rule. There are a handful of guys that will be naturally talented at multiple techniques and will be your most well rounded Muay Thai fighters. However, this is not the case for the mass majority of people training. If you broke down your skills on a bar graph you would see that each technique had varying degrees of proficiency. For the well rounded fighters the bars would line up more evenly on the graph.
So, what’s your point?
You need to think about what technique you are good at and laser focus on that. Go watch videos of fighters that are similar to your Muay Thai style. This will give you insight as to what your Muay Thai style looks like at a high level of proficiency.
For example, I was really good at counter fighting and going forward while fighting so I mimicked Andy Souwer and Ramon Dekkers a lot when I was competing. I was able to watch these fighters, pick up on little things that they did right in their fights, and allowed me to try and execute these techniques the next time I was in the gym.
Ask yourself what you are good at. Clinching, power punches, knees, teeps…
If you are good at clinching you would want to watch Petchboonchu Benz
If you are great with knees then Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn is the one to watch. He is known as the vampire of knees.
Elbows? Lamsongkram Chuwattana
How do you know what you are best at?
Think about what comes naturally for you when you are either sparring, or maybe working a technique during a live drill if you will. Ask yourself what comes more naturally for me and what is harder? This should give you some insight as to where you excel.
I was never good in the clinch early on in my fight career and had lost some important fights due to my lack of skill and ability in these situations. I just wasn’t good at clinching, I was much better at punching and kicking with counters; those were my strengths.
So, figure out your strengths, focus on them and watch as much of the high level Muay Thai fighters execute it as you can. Then go practice!!!!!!!!!
As always, train hard, be a beast!