# Muay Thai vs Sanda?



## Pat1101 (Oct 15, 2018)

Im starting either Muay Thai or Sanda. Can anyone tell me if one is better or not? What are the strengths of each one? Which is more useful in self defence/street fight? Any info is much appreciated


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## ShortBridge (Oct 15, 2018)

I don't know much about Sanda. I did study and practice Muay Thai for about 6 years. 

Your post implies that you have access to instruction in both. Without getting into comparing styles, assuming that they contain similar elements, it usually comes down to which instruction is better and which is better for how you best learn. Have you visited both places?


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## Xue Sheng (Oct 15, 2018)

Sanda has throws and take downs


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## MetalBoar (Oct 15, 2018)

ShortBridge said:


> I don't know much about Sanda. I did study and practice Muay Thai for about 6 years.
> 
> Your post implies that you have access to instruction in both. Without getting into comparing styles, assuming that they contain similar elements, it usually comes down to which instruction is better and which is better for how you best learn. Have you visited both places?


I don't want to hijack this thread but I'd love to hear (in this thread or elsewhere) your thoughts on transitioning from Muay Thai to Wing Chun and what the pros and cons are to each and maybe why you've (I assume) settled on Wing Chun as your primary art. I've had some small intro class level exposure to each and like them both but Wing Chun really speaks to me. I'm not studying anything right now, primarily because my long term living situation is a bit unclear, but if I stay in Seattle I'll likely have access to great Muay Thai instruction and I also know of 2 or 3 places teaching Wing Chun that look promising .


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## marques (Oct 16, 2018)

Xue Sheng said:


> Sanda has throws and take downs


Muay Thai has as well, but different ones; and it may be the main technical difference. Clinch position is another difference (more Thai).

Then one is Thai and other Chinese. They may value things a bit differently, in training, competition, life...


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## Hanzou (Oct 16, 2018)

I think you’re fine either way, but you’ll probably have slightly more options with Muay Thai.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 16, 2018)

I think MT allows elbow but Sanda doesn't. Some Sanda allows knee, some Sanda doesn't. Most of the Sanda throw came from SC (Chinese wrestling). There is 3 seconds clinching rule in Sanda. No ground game on both. Sanda uses stage. If you can push your opponent off the stage twice, you win the fight.

Sanda throw has:

1 point - after throw, you land on top.
2 points - after throw, you remain balance.
3  points - a perfect over the head/back throw with balance afterward.

As a Sanda coach, the only Sanda rule that I don't like is 1 point for roundhouse kick to your opponent's leg.

You will learn more throwing skill in Sanda than in MT. I know nothing about MT throwing skill.


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## marques (Oct 16, 2018)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> Sanda throw has:
> 
> 1 point - after throw, you land on top.
> 2 points - after throw, you remain balance.
> ...



No points for MT throws (but it does break the spirit). Please correct me if I am wrong or if there are exceptions.

MT is more leg throwing (and sweeps) than hip throwing. Not sure if hip throwing is even allowed...

What is wrong about 1 point for leg kick?


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## ShortBridge (Oct 16, 2018)

MetalBoar said:


> I don't want to hijack this thread but I'd love to hear (in this thread or elsewhere) your thoughts on transitioning from Muay Thai to Wing Chun and what the pros and cons are to each and maybe why you've (I assume) settled on Wing Chun as your primary art. I've had some small intro class level exposure to each and like them both but Wing Chun really speaks to me. I'm not studying anything right now, primarily because my long term living situation is a bit unclear, but if I stay in Seattle I'll likely have access to great Muay Thai instruction and I also know of 2 or 3 places teaching Wing Chun that look promising .



I don't want to hijack the OPs thread or start an argument about which style is best, so I'll just say here that I really like Muay Thai and enjoyed training that way. I still work out on my bag a bit now and again. Anyone who is interested in it and has an opportunity to study it should do so.

I'm happy to PM chat with you about how I ended up where I am, if you're interested.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 16, 2018)

marques said:


> What is wrong about 1 point for leg kick?


When your opponent uses roundhouse kick to kick on your low leg, if you turn your shin bone into it, the kick may hurt his leg more than to hurt your leg.

The low roundhouse kick is similar to foot sweep that doesn't sweep down your opponent. IMO, it doesn't make sense to offer 1 point for your failure foot sweep.

Since it's very difficult to distinguish a low roundhouse kick from a foot sweep, to offer

- 2 point for a successful foot sweep, and
- 1 point for a failure foot sweep

may cause more argument.


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## FriedRice (Oct 16, 2018)

The problem with Sanda is that it's not very well known nor popular, so you are less likely to have a lot of people to train with when you're first starting out....and this will suck being the lonely Noob vs. mostly experienced people. And if you want to compete, there aren't that many venues in comparison to Muay Thai. 

Certain throws/take-downs in Sanda  are not allowed in Muay Thai, which in general, makes you work harder to throw/sweep. So if you can throw using limited techniques, it should be easier to transition to more techs, especially the easier ones like reaping the leg.  But being able to use many throws & take-downs  is the main concern, then just train MMA, which opens up even more venues to train and compete in.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 17, 2018)

FriedRice said:


> The problem with Sanda is that it's not very well known nor popular, so you are less likely to have a lot of people to train with when you're first starting out....


There are always Sanda tournament in Dallas, Houston, Baltimore every year in US. I have not heard any MT tournament in US yet.

Without tournament, where can you test your MT skill?


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## Tony Dismukes (Oct 17, 2018)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> There are always Sanda tournament in Dallas, Houston, Baltimore every year in US. I have not heard any MT tournament in US yet.
> 
> Without tournament, where can you test your MT skill?


There are plenty of Muay Thai tournaments in the U.S., though it’s obviously not nearly as common as in Thailand.
Calendar - Muaythai USA


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## Tony Dismukes (Oct 17, 2018)

With regards to throws, Muay Thai has an underrated takedown game, but it is more limited than Sanda in that respect.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 17, 2018)

Here are some Sanda training clips. My senior SC brother Roger Su taught this Sanda class in Taiwan (Both Roger Su and I are certified Sanda coach in China and Taiwan).

I recorded these clips myself. You can see the Sanda training is different from the TMA training.


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## Pat1101 (Oct 19, 2018)

Thx all for your replies.


At the moment im leaning towards muay thai, because in my area (Dublin, Ireland) there is a reputable muay thai gym that competes regularly and has quite a few champions. While there are one or two sanda classes, i dont think they are as serious as the muay thai gym.


Im on the edge with this mainly because in sanda they practise alot of catching kicks and then take downs. This seems really dangerous in a street fight.

 Correct me if im wrong but it seems that modern sanda (the one that incorporates elbow, knee, clinch, shin from muay thai) seems to offer the practitioner more tools than muay thai. Doesnt that make it more dangerous? Does pure muay thai still retain an advantage over styles that have integrated it? i.e sanda or dutch kickboxing


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## Tony Dismukes (Oct 19, 2018)

Pat1101 said:


> At the moment im leaning towards muay thai, because in my area (Dublin, Ireland) there is a reputable muay thai gym that competes regularly and has quite a few champions. While there are one or two sanda classes, i dont think they are as serious as the muay thai gym.


Probably a good call. Given that both arts are worthwhile, the quality of the individual school should usually be the deciding factor. I'd still visit both the MT gym and the Sanda schools to see how the atmosphere and the instructors click with you. If you enjoy one school significantly more than the others then you are more likely to show up and train consistently.



Pat1101 said:


> Im on the edge with this mainly because in sanda they practise alot of catching kicks and then take downs. This seems really dangerous in a street fight.


Muay Thai does plenty with catching kicks and has an underrated takedown game. It doesn't have as complete a takedown curriculum as Sanda, but it's not bad.



Pat1101 said:


> Correct me if im wrong but it seems that modern sanda (the one that incorporates elbow, knee, clinch, shin from muay thai) seems to offer the practitioner more tools than muay thai. Doesnt that make it more dangerous? Does pure muay thai still retain an advantage over styles that have integrated it? i.e sanda or dutch kickboxing



More tools doesn't necessarily mean better. What's more important is the depth of mastery in the tools you do have. In general you're better off having 5 tools that are at level 100 than 50 tools that are at level 10.


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## FriedRice (Oct 21, 2018)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> There are always Sanda tournament in Dallas, Houston, Baltimore every year in US. I have not heard any MT tournament in US yet.
> 
> Without tournament, where can you test your MT skill?


 
You only named 2 tourneys in 1 state, and a 3rd in another. And how many times are those Sanda tournaments per year? Once, right?  Muay Thai, we have 3 tourneys in the DC area that I know about and they hold 2-3 tourneys a year. You can get a fight almost every other month (TCB, WKA, Sabai).  And DC isn't really known for MT neither, we used to have to go to Philly or NYC to fight.


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## FriedRice (Oct 21, 2018)

Pat1101 said:


> Thx all for your replies.
> 
> 
> At the moment im leaning towards muay thai, because in my area (Dublin, Ireland) there is a reputable muay thai gym that competes regularly and has quite a few champions. While there are one or two sanda classes, i dont think they are as serious as the muay thai gym.
> ...




Muay Thai doesn't allow easy throwing techs such as tripping, reaping, hip throws, etc. b/c the sport is meant to keep it standing more. So you are forced to use more difficult methods of throwing someone, which should make you better at it.  It doesn't take a lot of training to learn how to reap and trip, these are easy.  

The Muay Thai clinch is a separate science in itself. Clinching is rarely my game when I fight other Muay Thais (Nak Muays). My clinch game is about average to a little below average (compared to other NM's my lefel). But when I go up vs. Kung-Fu cats that fights/train Sanda, Karate, TKD, etc. I'd usually clinch and beat them, b/c in general, they're not good at it. They can try to take down using Sanda techs (that are illegal in MT), but I usually can defend....however, I will say that I wouldn't know exactly how I'd fare if I were pure MT.....b/c I train MMA and TD defense is a big part of MMA.


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