Muay Thai is a form of martial arts that originated in Thailand. It is normally know as “Eight Limb Fighting” as reference to the fact that a nak muay (Muay Thai practitioner) typically uses his or her hands, feet, elbows and knees in a fight, that is, eight points of contact. The use of efficient fight wear is a necessity in such a martial art, for the safety of both fighters.
It is a wonderfully dangerous and exhilarating form of martial arts, as it is one of the few forms that, exclusively advocates full contact fighting. The disadvantage to this though, is obviously the fact that one can get seriously injured in a fight. The knee-thrust to the sternum is shown to be equivalent to getting hit by a small car. It is one of the deadliest martial arts kicks. Hence, it is essential to have proper gear for a fight. Failure to do so could also result in disqualification, depending on the seriousness of the matter.
The main fight gear universal to all countries is regular hand wraps and boxing gloves, a mouth guard, groin protector for males and chest protector for females. Shin guards are optional but recommended.
Hand wraps are long pieces of cloth wrapped around the hand, mainly to prevent injury to the hand such as a sprain or twisted wrist. Boxing gloves are meant to dull or soften the impact of the blow, so as to cause less damage. In this way there is a good possibility that the fight will last longer, and give the losing opponent an extended opportunity to get back up.
Direct attacks to private areas are not allowed anyways, but the groin and chest protector are nevertheless necessary, as accidents will always happen. Sometimes a kick could get misplaced, or deflected in the wrong manner, causing the fighter to injure themselves.
Shin guards are to prevent the fore leg from getting severely injured, to the point of not being able to kick. A common practice in martial arts is to block a kick by kicking it. Such a kick could also break the bone.
