As with the majority of combat sports, Muay Thai places great emphasis on fitness and conditioning.

Training exercises include those familiar to a boxers regime, but there are naturally some notable exceptions. One such exception is the conditioning of the shin bone to harden it, as Thai Boxers rely a lot on kicks using the shin bone.

To toughen up this area of their legs, Thai Boxers will repeatedly strike a densely filled heavy bag, which is highly advisable over the dangerous practice of striking tree trunks or other solid objects which can obviously damage your shins. By conditioning the shin correctly, fighters harden the bone via a process called cortical remodeling.

As far as training equipment goes, the Thai Pad is an essential piece of equipment that allows fighters to practice their kicking, punches, knees and elbow strikes with considerable force due to the densely padded nature of this kind of pad. It is also common for the trainer to wear a Body Protector to allow the fighter to practice their straight kicks and knees to the body.

As with boxing, Focus Mitt pad work sessions are effective ways for a Muay Thai fighter to develop their striking speed and accuracy, as well introducing some Heavy Bag work for developing power. There are gloves available that are more suitable and specific for more Muay Thai also. Such gloves tend to have padded palms and are more flexible than boxing gloves, allowing fighters to hold and clinch their opponents more easily.

Due to the relatively busy schedule of professional Thai Boxers, their sparring sessions are often light in terms of contact to avoid the risk of injury between fights. During sparring sessions, more emphasis is placed on perfecting timing, techniques, range and honing pre fight strategies.

So there you have it, a very brief breakdown in to the training regime and the kind of equipment used for a discipline that is amongst the most physically demanding of any of the martial arts.

After much eager anticipation, the series has landed here at Hayabusa Europe!

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Everyone loves a good quote, including us! Check out six our favourite combat sport quotes from notable names from MMA, Boxing, Jiu Jitsu and other disciplines.

If you’ve ever seen the “Last Emperor” fight then you’ll probably recognise that he was pretty damn good at putting this philosophy in to practice. This quote is straight to the point and reveals something of the motivation behind one of the greatest Mixed Martial Artists of our time.

Mike Tyson

ai???Most fighters are the most humble people in the world because they’ve gotten their ass kicked before.ai???

In his prime, it’s hard to believe that Mike Tyson would have had much experience of getting his ”ass kicked”, but there’s definitely some truth in what he says, taking a beating in the ring by a better opponent certainly keeps you grounded!

Ai??

Carlos Gracie Jr.

“There is no losing in Jiu-Jitsu. You either win or you learn.”

Taking the positives even in defeat is something that we can all learn from and apply to any sport, this short quote epitomises this philosophy.

Wladimir Klitschko

“Mental strength is really important because you either win or lose in your mind. And I’m not solely talking about sporting matches, boxing events – anything you do, you do it first with your mental strength. And you can actually train and develop it, and I am responsible for what I’m saying because I have experience with that.”

“Dr. Steelhammer” shares his wisdom about the power and importance of mental strength and how this can be improved through training.

Bruce Lee

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Bruce Lee reveals his fear of those who dedicate their training and specialise in a particular technique. We wonder if he would have felt the same facing the might LHK of Mirko Cro Cop in his prime?!

Lao Tzu

“The best fighter is never angry”

Short and sweet from the ancient Chinese philosopher. As with many of these kinds of quotes they are open to interpretation and require you to look in to them a little deeper to grasp their meaning. We like this one because it sums up the need to contain your aggression, remain focused and keep a cool head during a fight.

We’ve covered a few different disciplines with our favourite quotes above, but don’t forget that we also cover a range of disciplines when it comes to supplying you with top quality apparel and equipment to help you get kitted out and apply some of your new found wisdom that you’ve acquired from reading this post 😉

Depicting scenes from combat sports in various forms has been a popular subject for many artists throughout the ages. We’ve picked out a few that caught our eye, from established artists, enthusiasts and unknown creators alike!

Starting off with the image below, depicts a scene from Ancient Greece where we have two boxers battling it out, being over looked by two apprehensive looking referees or umpires.Ai??Beneath that, there is a fresco style wall painting depicts two youths engaged in a kind of playful boxing match, wearing what appears to be some sort of early form of glove or wrap! Despite it’s good condition, this painting is said to date back to around 628 B.C. from the Minoan civilisation from the Aegean Bronze Age!

As you will see a lot of the images feature boxing scenes, the next from our selection Ai??shows two Edo warriors practicing their Judo techniques, with one being masterfully thrown by the other.

On to boxing now and as one of the foremost practitioners of lithographic printing, TheA?dore Gericault, applied his skill for depicting sporting scenes and athletic figures, as highlighted by the artwork below simply called, “Boxers”Ai??(1818).

Whilst this next painting by Antonio del Pollaoilo “Hercules & Anteaus” (1890) doesn’t depict a specific style of fighting, we thought we’d add to the mix purely because it shows Hercules in a kind of wrestling match, using his unmatched strength to bear hug a giant to death!

The next painting by American artist, George BellowsAi??“Both Members of This Club” (1909), features Joe Gans an eight year Lightweight Champion title holder. At the time of this painting, public boxing had been made illegal due to corruption, although some clubs like, Tom Sharkey’s Athletic Club (where the match depicted took place) had managed to find ways around this. Interestingly though, the fighters were only granted membership to the club during their bouts, not prior to or after the fight had begun and ended. Boxers were viewed with a low opinion and were thought of as socially unacceptable.

Following on with another boxing painting, featuring Joe Louis’s victory over Max Schmeling, “The Brown Bomber” was painted by Robert Riggs in 1938. Full of detail, this scene captures the moment when Schmeling’s cornerman threw in the towel after the German fighter took a barrage of blows to the head result in him hitting the canvas three times in quick succession.

Moving on to more modern day works and looking more at Mixed Martial Arts, with a sketch by artist Christoper Rini. We think this could a preparation sketch for a painting showing part of a fight between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Dan Henderson judging by the writing to the top left of the drawing.

We liked this pastel drawing of Urijah Faber by Daniel Peci because of the way the rough marks made by the artist give a sense of movement and dynamism to the fighter as moves his body forward to throw the right hand punch. He cleverly uses limited colours to pick out highlights and shadows to give the figure a 3-D form too.

We’re unsure of the artist responsible for producing this highly detailed print of Georges St Pierre, but we were impressed with the level of detail shown here. You can really get a sense of the force being applied by GSP as he applies his grip, surely this was followed by a tap out shortly after!?

We picked out this last image, purely for the novelty aspect! We love the pixelated versions of some of the stars of the UFC, they’re a pretty good likeness too, although we’re not sure who the pet monkey belongs too!

Here at Hayabusa™ Europe we have fully re-stocked the Kanpeki Elite 2.0, Tokushu and Ikusa Series equipment lines.

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