How long does it take to learn Muay Thai?

Muay Thai is a combat style from Thailand with a history through centuries already. It’s not so trending nowadays compared to contemporary combat sports such as MMA, boxing, BJJ, etc. But it drives a bench of practitioners due to its authenticity and hard-striking style. If you are new to Muay Thai you may wonder how long does it take to learn Muay Thai?

This is our talk for today.

In fact, we are continuing our series of articles about “How long and how hard is it to learn martial arts?”.

Here you can read about how long to learn basic BJJ.

As already mentioned, Muay Thai is less popular than other trending combat sports today.

A simple visualization as an example shows the comparison of MMA, BJJ, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai in the USA from 2004 till nowadays.

The data is taken from Google Trends.

Muay Thai vs BJJ vs Kickboxing vs MMA

The blue line indicates the Muay Thai trend change compared to BJJ, Kickboxing, and MMA.

muay thai vs bjj

But it doesn’t mean that Muay Thai doesn’t work. It’s just a trend comparison. In other words, it only shows how often people are searching and are interested in each martial art.

in reality, it’s very hard to compare, for example, BJJ and Muay Thai. Both are just completly different.

BJJMuay Thai
BJJ is a ground fighting sport.Muay Thai fighters combat in stance.
There is no striking in jiu jitsu.In Muay Thai are allowed kicks with hands, elbows, legs.
muay Thai vs BJJ

On the other hand, MMA and kickboxing fighters can take over the experience from advanced muay Thai techniques.

How long does it take to learn Muay Thai?

The question about how long does it take to learn Muay Thai is not unique. The answer is very universal. Replace it with MMA, karate, boxing, or even programming or painting – the final real inference will be the same.

No matter what you are doing, progress depends on dedication, spent time, and effort.

On average, to transit the Muay Thai beginner stage you will need 6-12 months of 3 times per week regular training. This is the phase to learn the basic muay Thai techniques.

To become decent in Muay Thai be ready to spend another 12 months of the constant training process.

During about the next 2-3 years, you will walk on the edge of becoming an advanced or a pro Muay Thai fighter with a further way to progress. Again, it all depends on the intent and hard work.

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How long to get good at muay Thai [Reddit comments]

Subreddits are as always a good way and place to find answers.

In this case, it’s too.

To present in this article information on how long to learn muay Thai basics and become decent more objectively we searched for answers in muay Thai Reddit.

If spending some time, you can find out the experiences of real muay Thai practitioners and what they think about:

  • How often to train muay Thai?
  • Is training muay Thai 3 times a week enough?
  • What about starting muay Thai at 30?
  • etc.

We have spent this time and read the threads on Reddit.

Here is a short summary of the answers to the question “How long to get good at muay Thai?”:

Anyone gets good enough in 1.5 years of taking seriously the training process. On average, it takes about 3-4 years to feel good or decent about your Muay Thai skills.

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Muay Thai fighting tips for beginners

Actually, only one tip.

Before you learn a new muay Thai technique move understand first the purpose behind it.

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Muay Thai progression

Most fighters who already got decent are staying critical of their Muay Thai training and techniques. This applies to all martial artists and athletes as well.

They always find out what to work on more: footwork, muay Thai front kick, switch kick, muay Thai pad drills, etc.

How to progress in Muay Thai?

One thing is to want something and another thing is to achieve it.

People far from martial arts may not know that the combination of intelligence and constant physical work is a powerful key to progression.

The same is about Muay Thai progression.

Yes, martial arts is not about just muscles:

  • The ability to construct your own game plan for the fight
  • To overcome the stress during the fight to have the ability to follow this plan
  • And at the same time concentrate the attention on “reading” the opponent’s fighting plan
  • In addition, you have to be ready physically to stand out fight – from start and to the end

Doesn’t sound easy. For a beginner especially.

But every martial artist comes to this point through stages of training progress – from the first steps of the Muay Thai training routine for beginners.

Progress is a gradual process.

So the basic key points about the Muay Thai progression are:

  • Start training in the muay Thai gym you will be comfortable at and keep it going in a regular manner
  • Don’t jump over. Begin with the basic muay Thai techniques, and ask your coach questions if needed
  • Adjust your Muay Thai progression to your abilities: If you still feel weak at some moments, integrate additional workouts into your current training process. Otherwise, you will “limp” on it even after years
  • Don’t overtrain

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