https://motdang.net/muay-thai/2026-09-19T00:00:00Zhttps://motdang.net/muay-thai/weapon/eight-limbs/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The phrase that names the sport in English — the art of eight limbs — is a count: fists, elbows, knees and shins, two of each.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/weapon/elbow/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

A short bone with no padding on it, swung horizontally, diagonally, upward, downward, off a spin, or in the air.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/weapon/fist/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Punches. Historically the thinnest part of the Thai arsenal, and still the part a stadium judge values least.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/weapon/knee/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The point of the thigh bone driven into ribs, liver, sternum or face, usually with the other man's head pulled down onto it.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/weapon/shin/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The front edge of the lower leg, swung on the end of a turning body. The round kick is the sport's signature, and the shin is the part that lands.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/batha-lup-phak/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The one name in the thirty that says what the movement is.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/check/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Lifting the shin to meet an incoming round kick, so that the two bones collide and the thrower takes the worse end.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/chorakhe-fat-hang/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Number nine of the fifteen, and the only one of the thirty whose Thai name is still said out loud in gyms from Sao Paulo to Sheffield.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/clinch/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Hands locked behind the other man's head, forearms on his collarbones, both men fighting for the inside position — and knees going in the whole time.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/hak-kho-erawan/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The last of the fifteen, and the plainest thing in the sport: the clinch knee, named after killing the mount of a god.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/hanuman-thawai-waen/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The only technique named by three of the four regional schools as well as by the standard list. If anything in the curriculum is bedrock, it is this one.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/luk-mai/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The second set of fifteen, taught after the first. The Thai encyclopedia's line is that a student works the mae mai before the luk mai will take.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/mae-mai/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The first fifteen named techniques, taught as a set. *Mae* is mother, *mai* is a move; the fifteen that come after are called *luk mai*, child moves.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/sweep/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Catching a kick, stepping past a leg, or turning a man out of the clinch so that he lands. Legal here; not legal in most kickboxing rulesets.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/te-chiang/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The kick the rest of the world copied. Thrown upward at an angle, cutting under the arm and into the ribs, and named for the triangle it travels.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/teep/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The straight push with the ball or sole of the foot, into the stomach, hip or chest. The article calls it a foot jab and that is what it does: it manages distance and interrupts.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/top-maphap/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The Lanna display in which a man slaps his own arms, chest and thighs in a driving rhythm. Thai Wikipedia's article on Lanna performing arts names it beside the sabatchai drum as the strong end of the repertoire.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/move/yang-sam-khum/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Chaiya's first lesson, and the one thing on its list of seven that is not a strike at all.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/chaiya/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The southern line, from Chaiya district in what is now Surat Thani. Known for defence: elbows in, shoulders up, and a triangle of footwork underneath.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/fon-jerng/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The Lanna martial dance. *Jerng* means tactics or finesse; *fon* is to dance. It is performed with weapons and with empty hands, and the Thai-language history of muay thai names it as the origin of the craft.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/four-lines/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Four regional schools, each with its own reputation, fixed in a four-part saying that Thai sources still quote first and explain second.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/four-styles-of-fighter/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Thai commentary sorts fighters into four kinds, and it is the most useful thing anyone can hand a first-time spectator.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/korat/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The northeastern line, from Nakhon Ratchasima. The rope was wound to the elbow here, and the punch it is known for travels furthest.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/lopburi/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The central line, from the old Khmer-Thai city north of Ayutthaya. Its reputation is for angles and feints rather than force.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/muay-boran/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

"Ancient boxing": the collective name for what was fought before rounds, gloves and a ring — now performed mostly as demonstration.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/muay-femur/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The all-rounder who fights on timing and distance and is usually ahead on the cards without appearing to try.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/muay-khao/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Built entirely around getting hold of you and kneeing until the round ends.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/muay-mat/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The heavy-handed fighter, looking for the knockout because the points will not come.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/muay-tae/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Built on the round kick, thrown at the arm, the ribs and the thigh until one of them stops working.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/style/thasao/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The northern line, from Tha Sao in Uttaradit, tied to Phraya Phichai of the Broken Sword — a general of King Taksin who is said to have been a boxer first.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/gao-yod/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

A column of nine spires, placed in the centre of the upper back and running a little onto the neck. At Wat Bang Phra it is the standard first tattoo; other lineages start elsewhere.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/kho-ham/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

A yant is conditional. The bearer accepts precepts and taboos with it, and the power holds only while those are kept.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/mongkhon/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The cord headband worn into the ring and removed before the first bell. It belongs to the gym, not the man wearing it.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/prajiat/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Cloth or cord tied round the upper arms, worn through the fight.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/sak-yant/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

A tattoo that is a working object: geometry and syllables in an old script, applied by a master, carrying protection, fortune, charisma or fear — and conditional on rules the bearer keeps afterwards.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/suea-phen/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

A tiger in mid-leap, usually one on each shoulder blade, for strength, command and the turning away of an attack.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/ritual/wai-kru-ram-muay/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Two halves. *Wai khru* is paying respect to the teacher — kneeling, bowing three times toward the corner. *Ram muay* is the dance that follows, which is the fighter's own and belongs to his gym.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/music/ching/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

A pair of thick bronze cups on a cord, struck together. Closed, they say *ching*; let ring, they say *chap*, and the two syllables are the name and the notation.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/music/klong-khaek/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

Two long double-headed drums played with the hands, one pitched higher than the other. Thai names them *tua phu* and *tua mia* — the male and the female.

https://motdang.net/muay-thai/music/klong-sabatchai/2026-09-19T00:00:00Z

The Lanna war drum, beaten going out to battle for good fortune and to hold the soldiers' nerve. Three old melodies are named: *Chaiphaeri*, *Chaithiti*, *Chanamarn*.