Kung Fu vs Kickboxing (Part 2)

As it turns out I ended my blog entry Kung Fu vs Kickboxing somewhat presciently with the words:

I'm still going to give Muay Thai a go. It can't hurt. (Obviously I mean this in a metaphorical sense. In practical terms it can hurt a lot.) 

So it is very appropriate that, having started kickboxing (Muay Thai) lessons a couple of months ago, I have missed a couple of classes because I got extremely painfully injured.

I was trying to get a massive guy in a headlock using no skill or technique whatsoever and ended up being lifted up to shoulder height and then slipping off him and landing on what turned out to be a fairly important hamstring muscle. I finished the class and then found that I wasn't able to walk home. It took me an hour to limp a 10 minute walk.

Three weeks on I've recovered to the point where I can start practising roundhouse kicks on our freezer again (gently for now). In fact, I've just come back from a class which was fairly kick-intensive and I can still walk - which is a nice feeling.

These are my researches so far on Kung Fu (Wing Chun) versus Kickboxing (Muay Thai):

• Muay Thai guys (and gals) look like scary meatheads - Wing Chunners look like polite young university graduates. This is most easily demonstrated by comparing average hair length:

• Wing Chun classes work my brain pretty hard. At any given moment I am probably thinking:

' ... arm goes here, elbow goes here, step like this and move this to here, shoulder moves like this, elbow comes in to here, wrist rotates like this, elbow goes out to here...'

•  whereas Muay Thai  works my muscles pretty hard. At any given moment I am probably thinking:

'... arrrrrrghhhhhhh aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggggggg haarrrrrrrggggghhhhhh. Must smash. Must smash enemy. Arrrrghhhhhhhh...'

• My personal opinion (just my opinion) so far is that Muay Thai teaches you to kick ass fairly quickly but can only take you so far. Wing Chun techniques may take a while before you can use them effectively in a proper fight. But once you can, you will be awesome.

I have plotted a graph of Time against Kick Ass to show  you my projections:

My final point is that I am very surprised at how much the two martial arts have in common. Some of the techniques of becoming kick-ass must be universal no matter what culture they come from.

I think this is probably some kind of metaphor for how we should all try and be nice to each other.