Muay Thai has enough moves to make anyone’s head spin. It’s probably best known for its variety of kicks, but that’s only half the battle. You also have to think about elbow strikes, knee blows, shin blocks, and even the occasional punch. With that in mind, a complete guide on Muay Thai stances is necessary to get you started.
After all, in a sport where speed and pinpoint precision are key, you need to know to position your body. Shuffling between stances can be intimidating as a concept, but you’ll be able to get it down in due time.
Without further ado, let’s dive into our guide on the main Muay Thai stances!
What is Muay Thai?
Muay Thai is known as The Art of Eight Limbs, due to its use of knees and elbows. This makes it an extremely dynamic sport, where nearly anything goes as far as contact moves are concerned.
By and large, you’ll be doing a lot of heavy attacks with your legs during workouts and matches. Thus, a proficient Nak Muay is comfortable with targeting specific body parts using significant force. This involves a lot of split-second reacting, and often even jumping for momentum or a better vantage point.
Further, the emphasis on elbow strikes over punches means positioning is key. While elbows have the potential to inflict fractures and cuts, a lot of it comes down to getting the angle right. The same goes for knee attacks, which can be very powerful but suffer from limited range.
Clinches are another thing you’ll need to master as a Nak Muay, and it might take some time. Besides just giving you a chance to rest, Muay Thai clinches are an important combo piece for offensive moves. After all, they allow you to utilise the aforementioned knee and elbow attacks with increased power and precision.
What are the main Muay Thai stances?
Orthodox stance
As the name suggests, the orthodox stance is by far the most common in all of Muay Thai. It involves positioning the left foot and hand forward, while the right side of the body is in the back.
Using your less dominant side of the body to block leaves the other free to counter, especially with kicks. With your left foot building inertia, the force behind your dominant leg’s kick will be that much greater. What’s more, you can fall back on your dominant hand for an upper-body attack.
In this position, it’s a good idea to tilt your head slightly downward. While not extremely likely, a single kick to the jaw can be next to impossible to come back from.
Further, you’ll want to avoid standing with your feet flat on the ground. Nak Muays prefer back-and-forth motions over strafing, so you want to be ready to make sudden adjustments whenever necessary.
Finally, facing your opponent sideways makes you a significantly smaller target. This can go a long way in helping you defend and evade in a sport with relatively little sideways movement.
Southpaw stance
This is the left-hander version of the orthodox stance, meaning your right side is in front. Aside from that, the two are functionally identical, with one key distinction.
The psychological advantage you gain as a southpaw fighter is something not every opponent will be prepared for. This is common across most sports, but it makes double the difference in a high-pressure setting like a martial arts bout. Conversely, lefties are used to dealing with right-handers on a regular basis. This alone can win a southpaw a fight against an equally skilled right-handed fighter.
If you’re just starting out, you could technically condition yourself to use this as a default stance. The learning curve can be pretty rough, but you can reap lots of benefits if you can stick it out!
Muay Lopburi
The stances mentioned above favour kicks, and while these are invaluable, the sport has a lot more in its arsenal. The Muay Lopburi stance adopts a higher hand position, letting you make better use of your fists, elbows, and clinches.
More importantly, it shifts the focus slightly away from defence in favour of better technique behind your strikes. With a square stance like Muay Lopburi, blows can be a lot easier to land, and oftentimes much more powerful.
Muay Pranakorn
Most commonly used by Bangkok fighters, this is one of the more advanced Muay Thai stances. The legs are spaced significantly apart, while the feet are at a ninety-degree angle. Once again, the less dominant side of the body is in front, although the arms are at the torso level.
This has a number of important benefits if you know how to utilise it. For starters, it offers superior protection against mid-body strikes and puts it slightly out of reach. Further, it incentivizes strafing movements which not every Nak Muay is comfortable with.
The downside to this is that it’ll do a number on your speed, especially if you’re inexperienced. You can start thinking about this stance when you have the fundamentals down, and when you have a number of matches under your belt.
Muay Chaisawat
You can almost think of this as the boxer’s idea of a Muay Thai stance. The hands are positioned slightly lower than in orthodox, and they’re tucked closer to the chin.
On top of defending your head, this opens up a new world of possibilities in terms of punches. Landing a proper head kick in Muay Thai takes a lot of practise, and punches are a lot less prevalent. Learning to land a powerful fist will catch a lot of people off-guard, while you can rely on your legs more for repositioning.
FAQs on Muay Thai Stances
What’s the best Muay Thai stance for beginners?
If you’re just getting started with Muay Thai, it’ll take a while to develop proper pain tolerance. Before you’ve hardened your shins and elbows for blocking, you’ll have gone through a lot of Namman Muay Thai oil!
That’s why beginners ought to stick to orthodox, as it makes them a smaller target and gives them lots of room for blocking. It’s also a great stance for learning how to catch incoming kicks and countering accordingly.
Which Muay Thai stance is best for self-defence?
By and large, Muay Thai is an amazing self-defence sport, so any stance will do you good. People aren’t very good at dealing with kicks in general, and being good at landing them is enough to get you out of most situations. In that sense, the orthodox and southpaw stances are often the best way to go.
At the same time, the potency of Muay Chaisawat is nothing to scoff at. When you know for a fact most attackers go for punches, having good head defence can come in quite handy. It also makes using clinches a lot easier, and you’ll likely need them in a real-world situation. Then there’s the emphasis on footwork, arguably one of the most important aspects of a street brawl
Whatever the case, remember that diffusing is almost always better than engaging. Whichever stance you opt for, focus on the fundamentals of defence and blocking blows.
How often should you train Muay Thai?
Regardless of your favourite stance, Muay Thai is a sport that requires a lot of dedication and commitment. It engages every part of your body, meaning rest days are extremely important. At the same time, proper full-body workouts aren’t as effective if you train once or twice a week.
Ideally, you’ll want to practise every other day, whether it’s technique, stamina, or general strength building. Even if you never go competitive (which is surprisingly common in Muay Thai), building good training habits can have a tremendous impact on your mental well-being.
The one thing to keep in mind is that, whatever you do, you need a fair bit of equipment. Besides Muay Thai shorts, quality wraps, rash guards, and shin guards are essential. Twins has an impressive catalogue for fighters of all skill levels, so it’s a great place to start.
Conclusion
That concludes our complete guide on Muay Thai stances. In short, there are significant benefits to both side and square stances, depending on the circumstances. Further, approaching the sport as a southpaw can offer important tactical and psychological advantages.
For the most part, it’s best to trust the guidance of your Muay Thai instructor when picking up new stances. The best way to start is to try orthodox and go from there, but don’t be afraid to experiment, either!
If you found this helpful, you’ll find even more in the Muay Thai blog section—technique tips, coaching notes, and practical drills.