It’s in the back of every fighter’s mind: ” If I were attacked by multiple opponents, would my training be enough?” I’m no different. I have on multiple occasions examined my own training and found some necessary element that needed improving. The end result is far from perfect, but it has made me a more well-rounded fighter.
And Muay Thai will help, but alone, it is not enough when you are confronted by multiple opponents. Handling more than one attacker requires many skills, only some of which are provided by Muay Thai training such as toughness, devastating power, distancing, timing, etc. But there are many more (hard and soft) skills that are missing from Muay Thai that are required to save your life from an attacking group.
With that said, let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages that Muay Thai training would provide you if you were confronted by a group of assailants. But first, we need to set the terms.
Defining “Effective”
Because Muay Thai is primarily a sport, the only time a Thai fighter is going to face multiple opponents is in a self defense situation. Sorry, but the odds that anyone is going to look like Ip Man and tear through 10 dudes and be the only one left standing is basically zero. So we need to dispense with fairy tales and redefine “effective” to mean “dealing with violence and getting home with as little damage as possible“.
We will also need to consider the two general types of street violence: social and antisocial. As written here, there are key differences between the two and they fundamentally change to what degree any style can hope to deal with street violence.
Social Violence
Ever watch those nature documentaries where two male animals fight over a female? That’s one form of social violence. It’s the two guys in a bar, it’s a bully picking on his target, it’s a fight started with the purpose of impressing one’s clique. Basically, if there is an element of social status on the line, then you’re looking at social violence.
These encounters are often, to a varying extent, consensual and can sometimes follow a sort of “code of honor” wherein the two fighters don’t get interfered with by any of the spectators, though this is probably the exception rather than the rule.
Victory for your attacker in a social violence situation is to make you run off “with your tail between your legs” so he can claim his “prize” (territory, resources, social status, etc), even if that prize is only in his own mind.
Antisocial Violence
Antisocial violence is much darker. There is no “glory” being sought, no audience, no chest thumping for social status. You are nothing more than a walking “ATM Machine”, or the object of a twisted sexual desire. Your assailant isn’t going to shove you and wait for you to shove back. He’s going to emerge with a weapon from a point of concealment. He’s going to have his partner distract you while he executes a pincer by approaching you from behind.
Victory for your assailant is taking something from you (money, property, sex, your life, etc) and escaping unharmed. He’s not interested in a fight, he’s interested in a victim.
With our terms and our scenarios defined, let’s look at how a skilled Muay Thai fighter deals with multiple opponents.
Muay Thai Advantages
Social violence: In this situation Muay Thai has some strong advantages. The most important among them is the toughness born from full contact sparring. There is a psychological shock that comes from having any part of your body struck at full force, especially the face. But Muay Thai prepares its fighters to deal with this through hours and hours of training, preventing them from being mentally dominated by the pain of real world violence.
As a sport style, Muay Thai also emphasizes powerful strikes which can level even some trained attackers with as little as a single blow. This can have a devastating psychological effect on a small group and may intimidate them from attacking you further.
Muay Thai also employs fists, elbows, knees, elbows, throws, and limited grappling, which would give you a number of options to deal with multiple opponents in a variety of environments. One such technique is a type of push-kick known as the “Teep“, which is useful to create distance.
Kicking is less common in a street fight, because most people are uncomfortable on one leg, but should an attacker attempt one, Thai fighters are famous for catching and countering those attacks.
Antisocial Violence: Muay Thai training provides a great deal of confidence and that kind of confidence can act like “armor”, deterring attacks from even forming. Remember, the mugger and his partner want your wallet, not a fight, so even if they’re armed with a weapon they’re more likely to pick a softer target than the person who demonstrates confident body language.
Muay Thai’s athletic emphasis also provides its fighter with a superior cardiovascular system. This will be especially valuable in running the hell away from a group of attackers. This sounds like a joke, but remember what we are considering “effective” in this context. Getting home unharmed by employing a little “Foot Fu” is a valid and correct counter-response to violence.
Muay Thai Disadvantages
Social Violence: The most important skill missing from Muay Thai is the “soft skill” called de-escalation. This is your ability to reduce the heat on a simmering situation BEFORE it boils over into violence. Getting a group of aggressors to no longer wish to fight you is the highest form of self defense, and Muay Thai leaves this subject completely ignored.
Sport styles like Muay Thai can also ingrain bad habits which make you especially vulnerable to attack by multiple opponents. Namely, because they are always trained for 1-on-1 fights, they’re not taught to use proper footwork to keep all your opponents at a distance and from getting behind you.
And while Muay Thai has powerful techniques that can be employed from a standing clinch position, it teaches no ground escape strategies. So if you are brought off your feet, you suddenly find yourself unprepared with how to respond.
Furthermore, unless the fighter does a lot of bare knuckle training, he will not adapt to the lack of boxing gloves and runs an awful risk of breaking his hand by throwing a punch. The loss of your hand in a fight against one opponent, let alone a group, spells almost certain defeat.
Antisocial Violence: Since there is no bell to announce the start to the violence, sport styles like Muay Thai are at a loss and must rely on the instincts of the fighter. Muay Thai also doesn’t take weapons into account and leaves the fighter to guess how to modify his techniques of tactics in order to deal with a gun, blade, or blunt weapon.
Final Round
Muay Thai is a powerful martial art practiced by millions around the globe. It trains its fighters to employ many devastating techniques and strategies that will help him or her should they ever be confronted by a group of aggressors. But any Thai fighter (indeed any martial artist) who honestly accounts for what someone would need when dealing with multiple opponents, would necessarily find that his training is incomplete and he must seek out additional training if he wants to be better prepared for group violence.