Who Invented Boxing Article
If You See Two Muay Thai Fighters In A Ring Before The Action Starts You Might Mistake Them For Boxers - In The Gym Though It's A Different Story...
The muay thai uniform has pants similar to western boxing but a little bit shorter for easier kicking. Western boxing and even most American style kickboxing doesn't have a grading system so they don't wear any distinguishing shirts. If your an amateur boxer you're required to wear either a red or blue shirt in the ring but that's it.
Muay thai has a grading system and therefore needs to distinguish students at different rank. Instead of wearing belts Thai boxers wear shirts or tank tops.
The different colours of the muay thai shirt designate the different levels of attainment in muay thai proficiency. The colour scheme is similar to other asian martial arts but there are some differences.
Almost every muay thai school has a different colour scheme which makes things hard but most of them start at white. The white shirt has the same rank as a white belt in karate or judo.
The colours usually go from white to yellow to green to blue to black. But this is one time that black rank doesn't mean the top of class. Black shirt is sort of equivalent to brown belt and the next shirt up, red shirt, is like black belt rank.
To be an instructor or 'Kru' you have to be at least red shirt.
The design, logo, wording , or pictures on a muay thai shirt are entirely up to the club owners discretion. There are as many different types as there are clubs.
The muay thai shorts, as mentioned earlier, are similar to boxing trunks but the legs are shorter so high kicking is easier. They are made up of a quick dry nylon type material for toughness. They come in many different styles and colours and it's usually up to the individual what they look like.
You will often see different members of a club wearing the same shirts but different shorts. This may be because the shorts are usually much more expensive than the shirts so people are allowed to wear what ever they can get. Some put their name or club on their shorts when they're fighting.
The uniform for muay thai is pretty flexible and not that expensive if you were thinking about starting. It only consists of a singlet or tank top style shirt and a pair of muay thai shorts which ensures easy movement and no over heating.
