Muay Thai vs. Taekwondo, part 2 plus Judo!

So today was my second day of Muay Thai and my first day of Judo.

If I were to sum up both in one sentence, you'd get...

1) Muay Thai hurts. Period.

2) Judo is fun. Ridiculously so, even.

Muay Thai is the single most painful martial art I have ever tried, and I spent two hours getting thrown on the ground today (Judo). I'm sure any MTer out there who stumbles across this blog will feel very validated in the fact that it is painful and difficult.

From the warm-up were we had to do push-up hops across the mat, to 100 kicks with my SHIN on the heavy bag, to clashing SHINS during drills, I am beaten and bruised.

I loved it! Muay Thai is great. It doesn't fit the usual mold of the martial arts I've tried, it really is like boxing. We spent the whole time conditioning and honing skills. I'm slowly adjusting to the major differences from taekwondo to Muay Thai, and picking up a few new tricks along the way. The major differences so far revolve around the kick. In Muay Thai, you kick with the shin vs. taekwondo where you kick with your foot. This also causes a different in the blocking style. The theory behind the shin kick is that as one of the strongest bones in your body and being kicked with it is akin to being kicked by a baseball bat. I definitely want to avoid taking a real hit for a while. Of course, its never fun to take a taekwondo kick either.

I guess its mostly a power vs. speed issue between the two. Taekwondo kicks are fast. Lightning fast. Studies have shown that taekwondo athletes have the fastest reflexes, and that's because they need to. Everything about the technique is designed to be fast. Muay Thai is vicious. It's powerful. Very powerful. But slower. Not slow. Slower. It is The technique feels a little crude, but that might just be because I'm used to elegance. Taekwondo has some of the most beautiful kicking in the world. Muay Thai some of the most painful.

The only problem I have with MT kicks are I feel they're telegraphed. I can see them coming a mile away. It'll be an interesting problem to fix. Also, they hurt. I wasn't kidding. Kicking with your shin just flat out hurts until you deaden your nerves in your shin. That's a level of hardcore I'm not used to. Sure, I'm used to punishing my body by pushing it to move at painful levels of flexibility, and I have over-calcification in my hands from punching since I was a tyke, but deadening nerves? Hmm. However, as I've heard multiple times, it may hurt your shins a little to kick, but imagine how much it hurts the person getting kicked.

Now, judo.

I spent the majority of class getting thrown on the ground. Apparently I'm really good at falling on my butt. This is a good thing in Judo! No, seriously, I picked up the falls in a New York minute, thanks to a few Hapkido lessons I took back in the day. I was doing jumping roll falls in a matter of minutes, and they are so fun! I really enjoyed having a reason to throw myself around on the ground.

I also learned a few new throwing tricks. Judo was actually closer to taekwondo in feel than Muay Thai. MT class is like a really hard sparring class. Judo had uniforms and structure and bowing. The technique and style is completely different from taekwondo, so there will be no comparisons, but it felt like home.

I'm excited to get good at this sport. The fighting looks exciting. There's a real elegance to the throws too, but after watching a few Olympic level bouts, it looks like any pretty throws are very very very hard won.

Overall, I'm a happy camper. I've decided to focus on competing purely at the collegiate level in taekwondo for now, and compete in beginner Judo as well. I'm just enjoying martial arts again, which is great. Taekwondo is my one true love, but it comes with a lot of baggage. I'm just not as good as I used to be, and it makes practicing frustrating. But practicing new martial arts has a total freedom to it. There's no expectations for me, and I'm free to fail (even though I'm pretty good!). Then, with greater clarity, I can return to taekwondo on my off days and feel good about it, even if I can't get that 540 spin kick down.