MARTIAL ARTS DISCIPLINES: THE ART OF MUAY THAI

The art of muay thai is often considered to be the most devastating of the striking arts by many. Its easy to see why after one watches a full thai rules match. The combination of kicks, knees, elbows and punches can create a formidable weapon that generates power like no other martial art. A leg kick by a trained thai fighter is the equivalent of hitting someone in the leg with a baseball bat. The art of muay thai can be deadly indeed, but that is not what it is about to the people of Thailand. It is a very spiritually martial that is heavily ingrained into the culture of Thailand.

History

The early history of muay thai is hard to trace as the archives and records at Ayuddhaya where destroyed with much at the thai capital by the Burmese. It is known that a form of muay thai was used as training for the Thai army and used in hand to hand combat during battle. The art went from battle field training to more of a spectator event, that was often a big part in festivals and celebrations. Fighters would eventually use hemp rope around there hands, a precursor to boxing gloves.
During the reign of Rama V, Thailand was at peace with its neighbours and the whole country prospered. Rama V, took a keen interest to the art and its popularity was greatly increased. Training camps began to pop up, where masters of the art would train students who in turn received food and shelter. Students would often adopt the camps name as there own surname as everyone one at the camp was seen as family. It was not until the reign of RamaVII that rules where written down and adopted. The first boxing rings were built and referees where placed in the ring with the fighters. Rounds where timed and more modern muay thai gloves were used as well as cotton ankle protectors.
The modern age of muay thai, has seen a growth of the art through the sport of mma, but purest of the art would say that mma has diluted the true form of muay thai.

Famous Muay Thai Practitioners

• Buakaw Por. Pramuk - Two Time K1 Max Grand Prix Champion
• Yodsanklai Fairtex - Three Time Lumpinee Stadium champion
• Ramon Dekkers - First foreigner in Thailand to be chosen as the "Muay Thai Fighter of the Year"
• John Wayne Parr - 10 time World Champion
• Anderson Silva - 10 title defenses for UFC middleweight tiltle.

Posted in Martial Arts Disciplines

NEW PRODUCT: COMBAT BRAND MMA T-SHIRT

When Kimurawear was first created, the company was purely a producer of mma clothing and apparel. Although our primary business is now in the mma gear and equipment, we still take great pleasure offering some unique mma clothing.

Our newest concept for mma apparel line is combat brand. This is our second product for this line. Our first combat brand item was our black mma hoodie, that we we released this past winter. It was such a success that we knew we needed to build upon this.

What is combat brand? Combat brand is a lifestyle, and a attitude. It means that you don't go to the gym to lift weights and look buff. You go the gym and train in one or more martial arts. You sweat and bleed on the mats, and leave everything behind in the gym. You leave the gym with your head held high knowing that you give it all you had. Thats what combat brand means.

Our latest addition to this line is a two color mma t-shirt. Since we have released these tees they have been flying out of our warehouse and right into our loyal customers hands. Look for more combat brand lifestyle mma clothing to coming out later this summer.

Posted in NEW PRODUCTS & MMA CLOTHING

MMA GEAR: THE RUNDOWN

You've finally done it. You got your but a local mma gym and signed up. You are ready to take a few different classes, but you don't know what kind of mma gear you need. No need to worry, we are here to give you the run down, on what you may need or not need for begging training in mixed martial arts.

MMA/Boxing Gloves:

The most important piece of mma training equipment that you will purchase are your training gloves. Most striking classes are not mma specific and more than likely just involve stand up techniques. Boxing training gloves are great for all types of stand up training. The bigger the glove, the more protection is provided to the user. A 16 oz glove is used for sparring while a 12 oz glove is great for everyday pad, or bag work. MMA gloves are used for light sparring and grappling and not the first piece of mma gear that you should buy, but something that you might want to look at down the road.

Hand Wraps:

Are hand wraps a must for mma training. If you are just learning how to punch then absolutely. Hand wraps are designed to give you proper wrist support, which is very important for beginners who may throw punches incorrectly and take a lot of punishment on there wrist. Wither you are a pro or a rookie, hand wraps are an absolutely essentially for protecting your hands and wrists.

Mouth Guard:

How important are mouth guards in contact sports in general? Just ask your buddy who is missing his two front teeth. Mouth guards are a must for all mma practitioners doing live sparring sessions. Although sparring sessions should be controlled you never know what can happen and its better to safe than sorry. Many grapplers and jiu jitsu practitioners use a mouth guard when rolling, to prevent any damage. You may not need a mouth guard on your first day, but eventually your going to have to grab one.

Head Gear:

Your most important asset is your brain, so its best to be proactive about it. When you get more advanced and begin sparring, you should always wear head gear. It may be uncomfortable at first, but you need to get used to it and keep it on. If you are doing light sparring and are an advanced student of mma, then you can away with out wearing your head gear.

Shin Guards:

Shin guards are a used for light to heavy sparring sessions, in either stand up fighting or full mma training. They are must if you would like to take your training to another level and get some real live sparring sessions . You need to be able to react to kicking techniques in a safe environment,as well throwing your own kicking techniques. If you are starting out, then you may not need to purchase shin guards, but in the long run, they are must for anyone looking to compete or reach there potential as a martial artist.

This was posted in MMA Gear